Online Events

DISQUIET is excited to present Disquieting Dialogues, an ongoing series of dynamic online craft talks and close readings. All events in the series will include a Q&A period and incorporate writing prompts and/or exercises.

Online events will take place on Zoom unless otherwise specified. If you have any questions, please contact disquietinternational@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events

A Close Reading of Isaac Babel’s “My First Goose” with George Saunders

Saturday, April 17 4-5:30 PM EDT

New York Times Bestselling author George Saunders’ new book, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, takes readers on a sweeping craft journey through seven classic Russian short stories. In this talk Saunders, in conversation with Jeff Parker, walks participants through another iconic Russian short story, “My First Goose” by Isaac Babel. Participants will have the opportunity for Q&A after the talk, and the session will include writing prompts and/or exercises to propel participants’ work forward and immediately apply what’s been learned.

Register for $50 | DISQUIET Alumni $40

Why Not Just Cream and Sugar? The Power of Detail with Chang-rae Lee

Saturday, May 1 – 4-5:30 EDT

How is a character who drinks a cup of chamomile tea different from a character who drinks a mimosa from one who sips coffee with pet milk? Starting with Stuart Dybek’s classic short story “Pet Milk,” Chang-rae Lee will walk us through the power of the right detail and engage with some of those questions that haunt us all. How many details does a reader need? How do I know when I’ve provided too many? And when do I know when I’ve struck upon the right one? Chang-rae will also discuss his short piece “My Father’s Face,” published in The New Yorker in 2018, to explore further the relationship between detail and character. In the end, we’ll come to a greater understanding of how to make choices and, even better, what to add or leave in the editing process. This will be an interactive, conversational session, so please come with your questions and writing materials ready!

Register for $90 | DISQUIET Alumni $65

Past Events

The Craft of Revision with Maaza Mengiste

Saturday, Feb 20 4-6PM EST

Goodbye story, hello revision

“That’s the problem with you Americans, you care too much about story.”

–Dasa Drndic to Maaza Mengiste

What else is there to care about, if not story? Doesn’t story make a…story? In this session, I want to talk to you about my own sometimes overwhelming, sometimes paralyzing, always agonizing steps towards a real re-visioning of my latest novel. I learned to produce writing in my MFA but it wasn’t until I completed my first novel and was faced with the task of revising that I realized that no one had spoken to me concretely about the steps towards revising. How do you move from feedback to new work? How do you approach the task of revising a manuscript when you can’t figure out what exactly isn’t working, but you know it’s not? What questions do you ask yourself to help you get started? What do you look at first? We’ll talk through all of this and I ask that you come with a scene you’d like to work on.

$150 | Closed

The Power of Perhaps: Speculative “Nonfiction” and Memoir with T Kira Madden

Saturday, March 20 4-6 PM EST

Terms like surrealism and magical realism are most often used to describe works of fiction, but what about the inherent magic and time travel of our true, lived experiences? In this generative session, we will discuss alternate realities, hypothetical what if’s and ways of perhapsing into the surreality of our everyday lives. We will focus on isolation and compression, and on finding the narrative heat and emotional potency in our memories, our selves, and all the selves we’ve been. We’ll talk magical objects, the electricity of sensory experiences, and forge new pathways and connections between seemingly disparate thoughts. The scaffolding behind short published work (sent in advance) will serve as blueprints for our discussion and in class writing exercises.