Fiction: Magic Realism
Somewhere between realism and fantasy lies the strange, wonderful world of magical realism. This contemporary, global genre, with deep roots in fairy tales, folk tales, the supernatural and the surreal, opens up moments of dreamlike, fantastical possibility In narratives of everyday reality. In this workshop, we’ll experiment with incorporating non-realist elements to give our stories a unique twist. Short in-class readings may include work by Gabriel García Márquez, Franz Kafka, Amy Hempel, Etgar Keret, and Leonora Carrington, among others.
Jared Green is a Pushcart Prize-nominated author, literary critic, and professor of English literature at Stonehill College. His fiction, poetry, and critical writing have appeared in numerous journals, including Colorado Review, Greensboro Review, Gulf Coast, Chicago Review, Phoebe, Subnivean, and The Missouri Review Aud-Cast. He is a recipient of a Gurney Norman Fiction Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Fiddlehead Fiction Prize, the Columbia Journal Fiction Prize, and the Cagibi Macaron Prize. His work has been recognized by the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing with an MVICW Fellowship and by the state of Rhode Island with a Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship. He is the founding director of the Walden Woods Young Writers Workshop.
Please contact Jared at Jared_Green@concordacademy.org with any questions about the Walden Woods Young Writers Workshop.
Podcasting has become more accessible than ever! Learn all the skills necessary to write, record, edit and release your own original podcast with this specialty camp. We’ll be listening to podcasts, hunting for topics, and – of course – discovering your best “radio voice”!
Nivedhan Singh is a former member of the Performing Arts faculty at Concord Academy where he taught Digital Music Production. He has hosted several performing arts and comedic podcasts. He studied music and Sound Recording Technologies at Ithaca College and is now a professional audio engineer and arts educator in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continues to inspire and nurture young creatives. His unique blend of professional expertise and educational experience makes him an exceptional guide for aspiring musicians and podcast producers. This summer marks Nivedhan’s second year with Walden Woods.
If you project humanity forward 200 years, what do you see? Aliens? Interplanetary travel? Wastelands? What about 2000 years? What are the strangest, darkest, and most wondrous possibilities? This week is all about walking the imagined roads of the future. On the first day, we’ll explore the dual genres of dystopia and utopia, and complete a series of generative exercises that delve into our deepest fears and most radical hopes. On the second day, we’ll explore climate fiction and environmental writing, using sensory prompts to build a compelling vision of our planet’s ecological future. On the final day, we’ll do a collaborative world-building sequence in small groups, because a new world is something we must create together.
Sara Daniele Rivera is a Cuban Peruvian American artist, writer, translator, and educator. Her writing has appeared in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Solstice, Waxwing, The Bat City Review, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2018 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry and a 2022 Tin House resident in Speculative Fiction. Her debut book of poetry, The Blue Mimes (Graywolf Press, 2024), was the recipient of the 2023 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When we trek the depths of our introspection, what might rise to the surface? As we attempt to illuminate insight about our experiences we otherwise might hide, we will explore the personal essay as genre, weaving as organizational structure, and the breaking of form. In doing so, we will rely on both the personal essay and some of its generic possibilities to empower us to craft authentic expressions of ourselves on the page.
Abbigail Baldys was raised in South Williamsport, PA. They studied English writing and captained the women’s soccer team at the University of Pittsburgh. They earned their MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College of California and were named the Judith Lee Stronach Scholar for 2014. Their poetry has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, The Laurel Review, RHINO, BlazeVOX, and elsewhere. They teach Media Studies and English at Stonehill College, where they currently serve as the Associate Director of Tutoring Services. They live, collect paperclips, and produce electronic music in Jamaica Plain, MA.
We will explore the poem as a portal, a passage to anywhere–any door left ajar will be ours to enter as figuratively as we please, with a view to something new and capacious. In practical terms, this will translate to reading and writing poems with in-depth class discussion designed to hone the critical skills and strategies necessary to the poetic craft. This will be a studio class, encouraging and examining student work within a workshop format, but we will also cover a wide range of poetry, contemporary and otherwise, from poets aligned with our explorations and poets who may be opposed.
Topi Dasgupta holds a PhD from Harvard University and an MFA from Boston University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Agni, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Journal of Asian Studies, Rhino, Prism, Off the Coast, Nixes Mate Review, and Main Street Rag. Current projects include a new collection of poems and a translation of an eighteenth-century Sanskrit epic by the Indian pre-modern poet Bharatchandra. She currently teaches at Concord Academy.
This quick introduction to screenwriting will cover the basics of formatting, writing visually, as well as the tools necessary for creating engaging dramatic conflict. Students will write short scenes in a variety of genres to experiment with the form. Participants should bring a laptop and have access to any online free version of a screenwriting platform (such as Writers Duet or Celtx). Alternatively, Mac users can download the Highland demo (available on the Mac App store) and PC users can download the freeware Trebly.
Justin Bull is a film educator and screenwriter. He has taught the film program at Concord Academy for seventeen years, residing on campus with his family. His produced work has screened worldwide, including premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Sci-Fi Film Festival, and Fantastic Fest. He earned an MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute. When not teaching or writing, Justin likes to make short, odd films with his family in far off places.
166 Main Street
Concord, MA 01742
camp@concordacademy.org
Phone: (978) 402-2222 Fax: (978) 402-2210