WJ201 First Page Fresh Start

Class Description:

First impressions matter. We know this, and yet, why is it so hard to find the right way to begin a project? How to grab and sustain a reader's attention within the first page? Using this question as our guiding light, we will explore issues of pacing, character, voice and tension. Drawing on elements from George Saunders' A Swim in the Pond in the Rain and Anna's experience as a fiction reader for The Iowa Review, the session will contain craft tips, hands-on writing exercises and examples of successful beginnings. Open to non-fiction and fiction writers alike.

Participants are encouraged to bring in the first page of a working draft to share. 

Instructor:

Anna Polonyi is an American-French-Hungarian writer and journalist based in Nantes. She teaches at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and is co-founder of the Nantes Writers’ Workshop. She has an M.F.A. in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard University. Wayword, a chapbook of poems, was published by Finishing Line Press (US) in 2017 and her reporting has appeared in the International New York Times, Radio France Internationale, Agence France Presse, The Irish Times, and Foreign Policy among others. Her writing has been supported by Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and a Fulbright for Young American Journalists. She won the Sylvia Beach Short Fiction Prize, awarded by Paris Lit Up magazine.