Is empathy the primary purpose of literature? Should a fiction writer’s highest aspiration be to walk a mile in their characters’ shoes? How can geopolitical and intimate dynamics of power influence and distort empathic intent?

Beyond Empathy: Inhabiting Fictional Selves with the Intimate “I” will meet on Thursday, September 16th from 4:00–7:00 PM ET. This craft class will examine the limits and pitfalls of the empathy model of literature, discussing the mechanisms and functions of storytelling as an art, and imagine the possibilities of an ethics of storytelling. We will read work that goes beyond the empathic model to inhabit the intimate “I” of the conscious self, and do generative exercises to explore and access these fictional “I”s in our own work, exploring an alternative to the empathic model in our own writing practice. This class will be recorded and sent out to all registered participants the following week.

This workshop is open to all writers of color. There is one scholarship spot available and the deadline to apply is Thursday, August 26th. See the class page for more information.

To see all of our summer and fall classes, visit kundiman.org/online-classes.