The HerStories Project

Updated February 17, 2010

Dawn Comer joins HerStories! Her workshop “On Becoming a Fish: Birthing Characters and Finding Voice Through Fiction” is scheduled March 13 at 2:30pm.

Dawn received her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Notre Dame. She currently teaches part-time at Defiance College and is writing two books: Raised in a Corn Palace: Stories from the National Association of Tourist Attraction Survivors, and Fella With an Umbrella: Discovering Joy on the Autism Spectrum. The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature has awarded her with The Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose for the story “Raised in a Corn Palace” (2008) and the memoir “Fella with an Umbrella: Finding Joy on the Autism Spectrum” (2009). Learn more about her in an interview from last September.

Here’s what the session offers:

Birthing characters requires that a writer surrender conscious control and instead create a welcoming space for characters to grow and be born into. In so doing, characters may not only provide the voice of a story, they may also help writers discover their own.

This workshop will explore ways to welcome and get to know characters, to explore their yearnings, perhaps even to push through taboos. Participants are encouraged to come to the workshop with a character in mind that they would like to develop.

Registration for writing workshops is recommended due to limited space. The form, available here, may be submitted by email herstories.project @ gmail.com or at Everybody Reads bookstore (M-SA 11am to 7pm, SU 9am to 4pm).