My Calendar

How do landscape and geography influence plot and character? How can they shape the structure and feeling of a story? Whether the landscape of your story is the interior of a car, a mountain range, a kitchen, a big city, or an emotional terrain, it should be portrayed clearly.

This three-hour class with author Deanne Stillman will explore the role of place in narrative in the work of writers like Jon Krakauer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Rick Bass, and how you can apply similar techniques to your own work. Deanne's own work is place-based (generally the Mojave Desert), and will be discussed as well. The second half will focus on how individuals can apply the range of examples to their own works-in-progress, or p...erhaps lead to new pieces of writing.

This workshop will be held on Saturday March 25 from 4 - 7 pm at the Ameal Moore Nature Center, located at the stunning Sycamore Canyon Park (https://mysycamorecanyon.com/). Workshop in amid the local landscape and catch the sunset over the park.

Enrollment is limited to fifteen and students will submit up to five pages (double-spaced) in advance of the workshop.

To register, please submit your $80 registration fee then email your submission to inlandia@InlandiaInstitute.org with the subject heading "The Power of Place."

To pay via PayPal, visit www.paypal.com then choose the "send money" option to send your $80 registration fee to donations@inlandiainstitute.org, or mail a check to:

Inlandia Institute
4178 Chestnut Street
Riverside CA 92501

Deanne Stillman is a widely published, critically acclaimed writer. Her latest book, Blood Brothers, is coming this fall from Simon and Schuster. She also wrote Desert Reckoning, based on a Rolling Stone piece that was a finalist for a PEN Center USA journalism award. It won the 2013 Spur Award and LA Press Club Award for best nonfiction, and received great reviews in Kirkus, PW, the LA Review of Books, Denver Post, and elsewhere. Her previous book was Mustang, an LA Times "Best Book 2008" and winner of the California Book Award silver medal for nonfiction. It's currently under option for a film starring Wendie Malick and the all-star audio edition with Anjelica Huston, John Densmore, Frances Fisher and others was recently released. In addition, she wrote Twentynine Palms, an LA Times "best book of the year" which Hunter Thompson called "A strange and brilliant story by an important American writer". It is now taught in college nonfiction classes around the country. Deanne writes the Letter from the West column for the LA Review of Books and her work is widely anthologized. She's a member of the core faculty at the UC Riverside-Palm Desert Low Residency MFA Creative Writing Program, and she has written for film, television, and stage. For more info, visit www.deannestillman.com.