Ice & Nova War Machines
A Deleuzian Science Fiction Writing Workshop
In this workshop, we will apply Deleuze & Guattari's notion of the War Machine to our speculative fiction texts. As we consume Samuel Delany's "Nova" and Anna Kavan's "Ice," students will consider how speculative fiction can delimit the incursions of apocalyptic absolute exteriority. As we examine these speculative landscapes, we will consider the implications and potentialities of rendering our own speculative fiction terrains in word(s) by completing weekly writing prompts and workshopping together. The course readings will familiarize students with science fiction and science fiction poetry devices and possibilities to generate new speculative works. Our science fiction readings will be supplemented with selected critical and literary readings, focusing on the relevant chapters from A Thousand Plateaus. This is an open genre course.
Workshop Goals
This workshop will be divided into an hour of critical and generative discussion amongst the class about the readings and an hour and a half of group workshopping, however, this is subject to recalibration dependent upon the needs of the particular group. By the end of the course, students will have produced and workshopped four discrete speculative pieces in any and/or multiple and/or not yet invented genres. In the final session, we will discuss methods for organizing the works into a chapbook or tentative full-length book project.
Nova, Samuel Delany Ice, Anna Kavan
Start Date
Here's an interview I did about the Delany Workshop I ran in November of 2023 and here's a review of the Dhalgren course from Krystal Languell in Periodicities.
Classes will begin tentatively the first weekend of August.
Our workshops will take place in weekly 2 hours sessions conducted as video conferences over Zoom. I will provide a syllabus, creative writing prompts, PDFs, and a suggested and required reading list to all enrolled students.
The Course will be €325 or roughly $350 per student. This course can also be taken as a three week workshop, focusing on either Ice or Nova. The cost for only half the course is €170.
*Contact me about need-based aid and paying via installment.
Students may cancel up to a week before the start date for a full refund minus a $30 fee. Otherwise, if a student drops out of the course they will be charged a prorated fee based on the course week, starting with week 1. There will be no refunds issued after week 2.