One evening session, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 8

Fee: $25
Class limit 15 people

Whodunnit? Your instinctual answer might be stuffy British aristocrats and their shady butlers, but a good detective knows to look beyond the usual suspects. This mystery-writing workshop considers crime fiction in a new light. We will explore the structures that make mystery both approachable and thematically flexible and talk about how the genre can work as both a form of social realism and a vehicle for navigating difference. Join us in our investigation of crime–crime as an impetus to consider culture, subculture, and the politics of identity, that is.

The workshop will be taught by novelist Steph Cha, the creator of LA-based PI Juniper Song, an Asian American revision of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: the detective just as hard-boiled but Asian American, feminist, and a denizen of LA’s Koreatown. Steph previously wrote Follow Her Home (St. Martin’s Minotaur 2013), which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and Beware Beware (Minotaur 2014), of which the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Nathanael West and Raymond Chandler would be proud.” Juniper Song returns in a third outing in Dead Soon Enough, released just this August. “This is prime L.A. noir with a feminist slant” (Booklist).

Students of all levels of experience are welcome. No need to prepare anything; we won’t be workshopping individual pieces. Just bring a notebook and pen.

To register, please fill out this form and submit payment through Paypal.

Questions? Please contact desk@aaww.org