Places as Hauntings: A Genre Bending Approach to Setting

This craft talk is  a part of Abode's inaugural Retreat but all are welcome to attend! 

About the Workshop: In an interview on political writing and horror, Mariana Enriquez discusses the setting in her work and states, “…the river is a metaphor but also a geographical border. And when I take that into literature, that border appears in the frontier between realism and the fantastic, that not so comfortable place where you recognize the setting and the words but reality dissolves into something sinister.” In this generative craft talk, we will invite the speculative into our real-life settings by looking at places we feel connected to, that exist in reality, and turn them into a haunting. Through generative prompts, we’ll consider what places haunt(ed) us and how hauntings can be used to raise awareness about the horrors of our present-day world, everyday lives, and why making this radical choice in our works can be pivotal in evoking empathy and care from our readers. While this is a fiction workshop, all genres are welcome to attend. Closed captions will be provided.

About the Presenter: Diamond Braxton (she/they) is a queer, mixed-race Black-Xicanx writer, editor, and educator based in Texas. They have work published or forthcoming in Best Microfiction 2023, Sundress Publication’s Best of the Net anthology, The Forge, Foglifter, Stanchion, Hellebore Press, ANMLY, and others. She is a 2023 Lambda Literary Retreat Fellow, a Tin House 2021 Workshop Alum, and will be attending Tin House in-person in 2024. She has a microchap with Belle Point Press (Series #9) and is the Founder and Director of Abode Press, the Prose Editor for Defunkt Magazine, and a Copy Editor for the Porter House Review. She is currently working on her first collection of short stories.