Happy Labor Day weekend, readers! Hope you’re all getting some wonderful rest and relaxation. Next weekend, our team over at Narratively Academy is kicking off a brand-new class: Decolonial Storytelling: A Narrative Toolbox for Writing Across Cultures, Languages and Forms, taught by Namrata Poddar.
The class starts with an interesting question: So much of the writing advice we absorb—about voice, structure, character, even what makes a “good” story—comes from a particular set of Western literary traditions. What happens when those conventions don’t quite fit the story you’re trying to tell? Namrata’s class explores some of the other possibilities available to writers, from code-switching and vernacular to oral storytelling, fragmented narratives and nonlinear structures.
It also got us thinking about some of the stories Narratively has published over the years that approach culture, migration, identity and inherited history in particularly compelling ways.
Deep Dives
The Greatest Game Ever Played Behind Barbed Wire
Imprisoned in a WWII internment camp, these Japanese-American teens held tight to their love for America’s pastime—building a diamond in the desert, and fielding a championship team for the ages.
Memoir
Searching for the Woman Who Saved My Immigrant Family from Homelessness
We all have family legends and lore, and one of our favorite types of stories at Narratively is when a writer sets out to uncover the truth behind them. This poignant Narratively Classic from Shaheen Pasha feels even more relevant today than when it first ran.
Deep Dives
Praying for Keeps
As Manhattan’s Greek Jewish population dwindles, a sliver of a synagogue on the Lower East Side remains a spiritual home for a diverse Diaspora.
Fall is always the busiest season over at Narratively Academy, as summer winds down and we all recommit to those big writing goals for the year. This year is no exception, and we have a packed lineup of classes coming up, including:
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Finding Your Writing Rhythm, for anyone trying to get back into a sustainable writing groove.
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Deeply Personal, Caroline Rothstein’s popular workshop on writing first-person essays about raw and difficult subjects.
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The Insider’s Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies, an intimate 8-person workshop with Abeer Hoque.
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Vanderbilt historian Paul A. Kramer’s new seminar, Crossing Over: How Academics and Experts Can Make Complex Ideas Compelling.
Decolonial Storytelling meets live on Saturday, September 12 and Saturday, September 19. Namrata will dig into what we can learn from writers including Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Salman Rushdie, Sandra Cisneros, and more—and turn those readings into practical tools writers can use to experiment with language, voice, structure and form in their own work.
If the stories above get you thinking about the stories you’ve inherited, this could be an interesting way to start the fall.
