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Humor Writing II at the Writing Salon
March 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| May 26, 2009 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:30 pm |
From Pamela Bass: Finally it’s on! I’m offering a much requested continuing humor writing class for those of you who need the structure, the support and the inspiration as well as the craft tools to finish those essays you started and to create new material! Don’t miss your chance to take this class being offered for the first time! PS If there is space I will allow MFA students, or intermediate/advanced writers to enroll alongside return humor writing students. Sign up early to save your slot!
6 Tuesdays, May 26-June 30, 7-9:30 pm (the sixth “class” will be a public student reading), $225 members/$255 others (plus a $5 materials fee, payable at the first class) San Francisco
NOTE: This class is open only to students who have already taken Pamela’s introductory humor writing class, “Transforming Life’s Disasters” (or the equivalent). The introductory class is not being offered this session but will be offered again next Fall.
“For the artistically unemployed and for writers who need a kick in the you-know-what to continue their humor writing, this workshop will offer not just concrete deadlines but the ability to delve into new forms,” says instructor Pamela Bass. “We’ll take a lot of risks, break out of old habits and find ways to strengthen the wit that each student already brings to the table. Essay writers may discover that they are secretly playwrights, and introverts may discover that they are extroverts!”
Pamela will give you exercises that challenge you to try your hand at satire, monologue writing, and boundary-breaking nonfiction, in addition to humorous personal essays. You will also learn from the performance work of Whoopi Goldberg, the satire of Sherman Alexie, and the fiction of Loorie Moore, among others. And you’ll be asked to complete brief in-class and take-home writing exercises for sharing and discussion (in a supportive, constructive environment). The goal? To leave class with one finished work, many exercises to draw from, and a notebook full good examples of humorous writing.
The class will conclude with a public reading at a local cafe, where you will read your own witty tales to a supportive audience of invited friends.
Pamela Alma Bass, who earned her MFA in creative writing at USF, has maintained her sanity by transforming her life’s disasters into comedy. Her humorous essay, hailed by the SF Chronicle as “hilariously clear-eyed,” can be found in the anthology I Should Have Gone Home. Excerpts from her novel-in-progress can be found in the anthologies Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009 and Hot Flashes: sexy little stories & poems I & II. She has won two Gold Solas awards from Traveler’s Tales and her work has also appeared in Twins Magazine, the Marin Independent Journal and elsewhere. When she is not writing she can be found chasing her twin boys around, which is often as disastrous as it is amusing. Find out more at www.pamelaalmabass.com.