Class Description
Haunted houses, hovels, brutalist towers, impossible dream homes. In this generative writing workshop, we'll use architecture as a launchpad for new writing, drawing from memory, history, and imagination. Texts by Gaston Bachelard, Jorge Louis Borges, John Updike, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, and Kate Bernheimer will offer food for thought and additional inspiration. Students will have the option to give a mini-presentation on an architectural style or particular building they wish to research. They will also have the opportunity to share their writing for peer and instructor feedback.
Anca L. Szilágyi is the author of Daughters of the Air, which Shelf Awareness called “a striking debut” and Dreams Under Glass, which Buzzfeed Books called “a novel for our modern times.” She has taught creative writing since 2010.
What to Expect
Format: In Person
Class Capacity: 16
Class Style: Workshop; participation- and assignment-based
Materials List
Required
Digital Course Packet, including the following:
- Kate Bernheimer’s “White Work”
- William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”
- Jorge Luis Borges’s “Library of Babel”
- Excerpts from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca
- John Updike in Architectural Digest
No required reading for the first day.
A Brief Syllabus
- Houses in Memory & Imagination
- Fairy Tale Structures
- The Gothic, The Haunted
- Choose Your Own Architectural Adventure
Cost and Registration
4 Sessions, $200 ($180 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($200), Community Supported ($185), and Sponsor ($215). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
Having trouble signing up? Take a look at our step-by-step guide to registration by clicking here.
RegisterThe views and opinions expressed in this class and/or by the instructor are not necessarily representative of the Newberry. We aim to ensure that in our classes, participants can have respectful disagreement to foster critical thinking. This is a space to challenge and expand our own worldviews to work towards better understanding and appreciating humanity.
Support the Newberry
Your generosity is vital in keeping the library’s programs, exhibitions, and reading rooms free and accessible to everyone.
Make a GiftQuestions?
Call us at (312) 255-3700 or send us an email at adulteducation@newberry.org.
We are in office Tuesday through Thursday, 10 am–6 pm CT.
We are available by email Tuesday through Saturday.