Creating Nonhuman Characters
Nonhuman characters bring depth to your story that is not achievable with human characters. By exploring four elements—point of view, intelligence, behavior, and "The Wilding" (the moment when the animal character becomes its most primitive self )—you can follow in the footsteps of Sofia Samatar, Caroline M. Yoachim, Brooke Bolander, and Garth Stein to create unforgettable nonhuman characters that readers identify with and love. This workshop explores not only animals, but also landscapes, mythical creatures, and inanimate objects, such as toys and appliances.
Registration dates:
August 7: Scholarship Donation Day
August 8: Member registration opens at 10:30 am
August 15: General registration opens at 10:30 am
August 21: Last day of Early Bird pricing.
Elizabeth Beechwood
Elizabeth Beechwood is your typical scarf-knitting, bird-feeding tree hugger who lives on the western fringes of Portland, Oregon. When she writes, she starts with regular people with regular lives…but then something strange happens. Whether it’s fiction, fantasy, magical realism, or genre-bending, you can count on something just a little peculiar from her stories. Her Pushcart-nominated fiction has been published in Nightscape Press’s award-winning anthology Nox Pareidolia, Third Flatiron’s Hidden Histories, Not a Pipe Publishing’s The Year of Publishing Women’s Short Stories series, Crossed Genres, and Every Day Fiction. Elizabeth earned an MFA in Popular Fiction at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and a Copyediting Certificate from UC San Diego Extension’s Copyediting Certificate Program. She’s a member of SWFA and ACES. You can keep up with her shenanigans at www.elizabethbeechwood.com
Katherine Quevedo
Katherine Quevedo was born and raised near Portland, Oregon, where she works as an analyst and lives with her husband and two sons. Her fiction appears or is forthcoming in Fireside Magazine, Nightmare, Best Indie Speculative Fiction Vol. III and IV, Factor Four, Flame Tree Publishing’s Christmas Gothic, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award and received an honorable mention in the Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. Her mini-chapbook The Inca Weaver’s Tales is forthcoming from Sword & Kettle Press, and her poems have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Coffin Bell, NonBinary Review, Eye to the Telescope, and elsewhere. Her articles have appeared on the official websites of Writer’s Digest and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). She holds an MBA from Portland State University and degrees in Economics and English from Santa Clara University. Find her at www.katherinequevedo.com.
