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Meet THe Team
The American South is deeply storied and always evolving. It is forever full of conflict, natural beauty, struggle, and hope. In this mixed-genre, four-week class, I invite writers who are centering some aspect of the South—however you define it—to gather together in a collective look at contemporary work that reflects the region today, including our own works in progress. We’ll read fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to inspire our discussions and guide our generative exercises, and we’ll workshop two drafts of participant work (up to 15 pages, double-spaced, or three poems) per class session. Our readings may include excerpts from Sarah K. Broom, Jesmyn Ward, Mary Miller, Silas House, Margaret Renkl, Kiese Laymon, Wendell Berry, and others. Questions that might arise around the works we read: What IS the South today, and does region even matter as it once did? What must we interrogate about the South, what can we reveal, and what can we celebrate? Is there any such thing as a Southern voice?
This class is limited to 6 participants.
• In-Class Writing Lift: Medium
• Homework: Required
• Workshopping Drafts: Intensive
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Susannah Felts, co-founder of The Porch, is a fiction writer, freelance writer, teacher, editor, and native Nashvillian. In 2009, after many years away from her hometown, she returned to put down roots with her family in East Nashville. Previously, Susannah taught creative writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, and in several other youth and community settings. Her first novel, This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, was published in 2008 by Featherproof Books.
Susannah was the recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction for 2013. She has been awarded the Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, as well as residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Oxford American, Literary Hub, Longreads, StorySouth, The Sun, Quarterly West, Hobart, Five Chapters, Wigleaf, Quick Fiction, and others. She earned her BA with Highest Honors in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Susannah is also a contributing writer for Chapter 16, Humanities Tennessee’s site devoted to literary culture.
"Susannah is fantastic! Encouraging, authentic, and insightful. I came away with so many useful ideas for improving and deepening my writing practice. I'm already putting them to use! Her prompts for re-visioning previous drafts were especially helpful."
"Susannah was great at loosening up the group and encouraging us to volunteer our work and our feedback for others' work. She set the tone for the class's constructive spirit and guilt-free approach to engaging new techniques for creativity and trying out new writing and revision methods. It was great!"
"Susannah really personified empathy. From the first class, I felt challenged and accepted."
