Best-selling American novelist Jenny Offill will give a master class for us on 17 July 2022 from 17:30 to 19:00 at Studio BloemDwars, Bloemgracht 167, 1016 KM Amsterdam (see map) with drinks and bites afterward.

Jenny is perhaps best known for her novel, Dept. of Speculation (named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review) and Weather (shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She’s also the author of a number of children’s books. If you’d like to get a feel for her work and wonderful sense of humour, read this interview with her in the Guardian about Weather, which tackles the climate crisis, and this one “How to Write Fiction When the Planet Is Falling Apart” in the New York Times.

Jenny will be talking with teacher Karen Kao about how curiosity feeds her writing, how humor and sadness work together, what novelists can learn from poetry, writing for children, and much more.

You can purchase copies of her books in ebook and paperback formats from most major retailers. If you’re based in Amsterdam, check with Athenaeum Boekhandel (Spui location).

ABOUT THESE TEACHERS

Jenny Offill is the author of three critically acclaimed novels and four children’s books. Her shorter work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Slate among other notable publications. She’s the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, including a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She’s taught at MFA programs at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Syracuse University, and others.

Karen Kao is a teacher with the International Writers’ Collective. She is the author of the novel The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, a work of historical fiction set in 1930s Shanghai. Karen’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, Tahoma Literary Review, an Asian short story anthology A Tapestry of Colours, The Common, The Shanghai Literary Review, among others.

ABOUT OUR MASTER CLASS SERIES

In this series, working writers talk tips, tricks and techniques with a focus on a single novel or collection. The classes are conducted in an interview format with plenty of room for questions. Check out our podcast archive to listen to recordings of previous Master Classes with writers such as A.M. Homes, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction; Kristen Roupenian, author of the viral short story “Cat Person”; and Jennifer Clement, PEN International president.