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Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Myth Workshop Open for Spring 2019 Registration

Workshop registration is open for the Spring 2019 sections of Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Myth. Space is limited.

crane_red5SECTION I: the second week of February (11-17) through the third week of March (18-24)

Week 1 (2/11-2/17): Introductions, Into the Dark Wood (prompts), Modules 1-3 Discussion.
Week 2 (2/18-2/24): “The Snow Queen” & Melting Polar Caps
Week 3 (2/25-3/3): “Iron Henry, or the Frog Prince” & Invasive Species
Week 4 (3/4-3/10): “Little Mermaid” & Pollution (Earth’s Oceans and Orbit)
Week 5 (3/11-3/17: Revision and Submission Strategies & Marketing Tools for Authors
Week 6 (3/18-3/24): Portfolio Presentations

SECTION II: first week of April (1-7) through mid-May)

Week 1 (4/1-4/7): Introductions, Into the Dark Wood (prompts), Modules 1-3 Discussion.
Week 2 (4/8-4/14): “Bluebeard” & DNA Databanks
Week 3 (4/15-4/21): “Thumbelina” & Microbes and Mites
Week 4 (4/22-4/28): “Little Red Riding Hood” & The Natural History of the Color Red
Week 5 (4/29-5/5): Revision and Submission Strategies & Marketing Tools for Authors
NO CLASS: StokerCon (5/6-5/12)
Week 6 (5/13-5/19): Portfolio Presentations

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The Myth of the Siren

Siren 2The siren is a mythical creature who has taken many forms throughout history, but how has that image changed?  How did we go from the sirens of old to the mermaid-like creatures we see portrayed today? And — most importantly — where did they come from?

Originally, and according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the sirens were the human companions of the chthonic goddess Persephone — or, at this point, just the daughter of Demeter.  However, when Hades comes to take her away, the sirens are blamed for her kidnapping, and Demeter punishes them by turning them into winged women.  In some versions of the myth, the sirens pray for wings in order to search for their lost charge and the gods grant their prayers. However, one thing is for certain: they were winged creatures, NOT mermaids.

Sirens were originally an amalgamation of birds and women, starting — in early Greek art — as simply birds with the heads of women.  Later, they became more like the centaurs with their human torsos (of a woman), though with the legs of a bird and giant wings. Sirens were known to have singing voices that were so beautiful, so alluring, that sailors were known to jump overboard their vessels and drown — which is how we get the story of Odysseus in the Odyssey, telling his crew to stopper their ears with wax while he himself was tied to the mast of the ship to listen to their voices.  Not only were these winged women gifted singers, but they were also said to be adept with the lyre, even going so far as to challenge the Muses to a competition.  Which, of course, the sirens lost.

So how did we go from winged women to the mermaids we see today?  As the siren myth travelled through Europe, and their name was translated through multiple languages, they began to be viewed exclusively as water creatures — though still remaining quite hostile, capable of wreaking havoc wherever they turned up.  However, the truth might lie in, what Emily Wilson — a classicist from the University of Pennsylvania who became known for her new English translation of Homer’s Odyssey — concludes is, faulty translations.  She believes that many translators have allowed themselves to be influenced by modern culture, which has led them to depict the siren as being a water-dwelling creature rather than the winged women they were.

As well as being possibly mistranslated, the word “Sirenia” in Latin today is a term used to describe the order of fully aquatic and herbivorous mammals such as the manatee, which has been mistaken in the past as being a mermaid itself.

Whether the siren be winged creatures or mermaids, there seems to be the common thread that they are considered fierce, destructive creatures who are musically gifted.  And though their image has shifted, their place in myth will forever be solidified.

 

The siren in popular culture: We of course have seen sirens in movies and television shows, from the show Siren all the way to the movie Sinbad (though we mostly just see their mermaid counterpart).  However, in literature, we have seen a wide variety of sirens from Amanda Hocking’s Wake series in which the sirens can shift from mermaids to winged women to humans, to Jes Dory’s take on sirens in Isle in which they are connected to the Lamia, all the way to The Siren in which Kiera Cass has combined both myths of sirens and mermaids together in this Little Mermaid retelling.

Siren 1

For more information about Sirens and their mythology (sources):

https://www.audubon.org/news/sirens-greek-myth-were-bird-women-not-mermaids

http://www.realmermaids.net/mermaid-history/siren-history/

https://www.ancient.eu/Siren/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Siren-Greek-mythology

Monstrous Woman Scholarship

dites le avec des mots by catherine chauloux
“Dites le Avec des Mots” by Catherine Chauloux

Hello everyone. I didn’t get as much support for the fundraiser as I’d hoped, but I still want to offer a seat in the Monstrous Women workshop to a promising writer who wouldn’t be able to attend otherwise. The class begins on Thursday, August 30 and runs from 6-8:30 pm (MST). This is a reoccurring live workshop that meets weekly (with the exception of 10/25 and 11/22) through December 13.

To be considered for this scholarship placement, send a letter of intent, a financial need statement, and a short excerpt (up to 1,000 words) of your work to my email address (cmariebissett@gmail.com). The application period is short–just 4 days–so get your applications in by midnight MST on August 28. The award will be announced on Wednesday, August 29. Feel free to share! I look forward to reading your stories.

p.s. It’s not too late to support the scholarship fund. If you want to help a writer attend, the GoFundMe campaign is still live.

About the Workshop

Monstrous Women II: A Feminist Approach to Myth and Magic

This immersive workshop is designed to accommodate flexible scheduling options with no more than five participants assigned to each workshop. While craft development is included in the workshop process, the primary focus of this course is on the exploration of monstrous women in classic literature and myth as a way of providing seed material for original stories. There are five modules included in Monstrous Women II: A Feminist Approach to Myth and Magic –The Shifting Shapes of Animal Brides, The Seductive Allure of the Femme Fatale, Weeping Women and Tearful Prophecies, The Female Descent into Hysteria and Madness, and Mayhem in Numbers and the Sacred Three. Weekly meetings alternate between discussions and workshops. Module materials include introductory information, select excerpts, resource links, popular re-tellings, quotes & trivia, writing prompts, and discussion questions.

Monstrous Women NEWS!

avignon
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso

Last Fall, I offered the first modules of Monstrous Women. I’d always envisioned it as a generative workshop with two distinct sets of classes, but the funny thing is that monstrous women and women monsters refuse to be sorted and placed in tidy categories. I noticed some overlap, and so I decided to just run with it.

At the end of August, I will be running the second collection of Monstrous Women with all new material. This semester the selections will focus on The Shifting Shapes of Animal Brides, The Seductive Allure of the Femme Fatale, Weeping Women and Tearful Prophecies, The Female Descent into Hysteria and Madness, and Mayhem in Numbers and the Sacred Three. At the moment, there are only TWO seats left in the Thursday evening course. (Note: This is Friday morning AEDT for the Australian writers.) Come join us. It’s going to be a monstrously wonderful time.

On a side note, if you’re interested in the course, but don’t know what to expect, check out the pieces below, which were published by alums of the first session of Monstrous Women. Enjoy!

“The Velvet Castles of the Night” by Claire Eliza Bartlett (Daily Science Fiction)

They wait for you, in the velvet castles of the night.

It’s not like they have anything better to do. Everyone knows the story stops for the hero, and who would the hero be but you? That is why every mirror in every inn in this town is enchanted, showing chiseled jaws, sculpted arms. Nine out of ten heroes have a verified need for encouragement along the way.

Author’s Notes: “The Velvet Castles of the Night” was inspired by the Monstrous Women class on vampires, and my own dislike of vampires, particularly female ones, and the way they are depicted in media.

Author Bio: Claire Eliza Bartlett is a US citizen who grew up in Colorado. She studied history and archaeology and spent time in Switzerland and Wales before settling in Denmark for good. When not at her computer telling mostly false stories, she works as a tour guide in Copenhagen, telling stories that are (mostly) true.

“Hidden in the Shadow of a God” by Cassandra Schoeber (Beneath Yggdrasil’s Shadow)

Odin wasn’t returning. I’d been a fool. Thinking I was special to be granted beauty, to share his bed. Believing that because Odin chose me, that meant that I was still one of the gods. But every time he left, his magic seeped out of my veins. And I waited and waited, dependent on his good will and his return.

Like god, like man.

The bastard had used me. He’d enticed me, fucked me, and left me behind.

Without Odin, I had no more magic. And without his magic, I was only one thing.

The Hidden One.

37375855_823846428004387_3958543791899541504_oAuthor’s Notes: Intrigued by the tales of the Norse gods, I was listening to Neil Gaiman read aloud from his book on Norse Mythology. In his forward, he mentions that only a few Norse goddesses are remembered in story today. Many goddesses have names, but their lives and their deeds have long been forgotten. Curious, I researched the “forgotten ones”, intent on giving one of those goddesses a voice. I decided upon Hulda, who is only mentioned briefly as a witch and Odin’s mistress. I figured it must take a great woman to attract both the Allfather’s attention and ultimately his rejection, and so the seed for this story was planted.

In addition, during Monstrous Women, I discovered that the word “hulder” – the term for a female seductress with a cow’s tail – may have originated from Hulda’s name. I merged the two concepts, blending together the voice of a tale-less goddess with the plight of a woman cursed with the tail of a cow. And so, after hundreds of years forgotten, Hulda’s story is finally being told.

Author Bio: Cassandra Schoeber is a dark fantasy and horror writer. Unfortunately, there are times when her stories escape the page, wreak havoc, and eat innocent bystanders. She has published one novella, Ravenous with Fantasia Divinity Magazine, as well as several short stories, including: “Let It Snow” (Silver Apples Magazine); “When the Last Petal Falls” (Fantasia Divinity Magazine); “Hidden in the Shadow of a God” (Fantasia Divinity Magazine); and “He Knows” (Short and Twisted Christmas Tales).

Amended Fall 2018 Schedule & Open Seats

51WIH3kMERL._SY346_Hello everyone. It’s mid-August and we are counting down the last two weeks before workshops begin. There has been a scheduling change for Monstrous Women and a second section opened for Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Myth. All workshops begin the last week of August and run through the first week of December. There are no scheduled workshops during the week of November 19-25.

Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Myth

Required Reading includes module materials, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire, and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.

(FULL/Registration Closed)
TUESDAY Morning/Afternoon–August 28; September 4, 11, 18, 25; October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; November 6, 13, 27, December 4 (10 am-12:30 pm PST/11 am-1:30 pm MST/12-2:30 pm CST/ 1-3:30 pm EST) Note: 7-9:30 pm CET

(OPEN/2 seats left)
TUESDAYS Afternoon/Evening–August 28; September 4, 11, 18, 25; October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; November 6, 13, 27, December 4 (1-3:30 pm PST/2 am-4:30 pm MST/3-5:30 pm CST/ 4-6:30 pm EST/7-9:30 pm CET)

MONSTROUS WOMEN

Required Reading includes module materials and The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley.

(OPEN/2 seats left)
THURSDAY Evening–August 30; September 6, 13, 20, 27; October 4, 11, 18, 25; November 1, 8, 15, 29, December 6 (1-3:30 pm PST/2 am-4:30 pm MST/3-5:30 pm CST/ 4-6:30 pm EST/7-9:30 pm CET) Note: Friday, 10 am-12:30 pm AEDT

REGISTRATION: To save a seat for either Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales, and Myth or Monstrous Women: A Feminist Approach to Myth and Myth, send an email request for an invoice to Carina Bissett at cmariebissett@gmail.com. The fee to attend the workshop is $450, payable to cmariebissett@gmail.com via PayPal. There is a $100 non-refundable deposit required to hold your spot with payment in FULL prior to the first class. (Payment plans available upon request.) Returning students receive a 10% discount. Registration packet includes detailed information on each module, expectations and etiquette, and educational materials. Space is limited.

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Monstrous Women Schedule

undine2Summer is coming to a close, and we’re getting geared up for a new section of Monstrous Women with Introductions starting the last week of August. There are currently only three seats left for the Tuesday Thursday night section of this workshop. Classes run through the first week of December and will be held from 6-8:30 pm MST (5-7:30 pm PST/ 7-9:30 pm CST/ 8-10:30 EST/ 10 am-12:30 pm Wednesday AEST).

Over the course of 14 weeks, participants will write five short stories based on the following themes: The Shifting Shapes of Animal Brides, The Seductive Allure of the Femme Fatale, Weeping Women and Tearful Prophecies, The Female Descent into Hysteria and Madness, Mayhem in Numbers and the Sacred Three. Participants will also have the opportunity to workshop a selection of revised stories during portfolio sessions, which are held the last two weeks of class.

the mere wifeIn addition to the workshop materials and critique sessions, participants are required to read The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley–a modern retelling of Beowulf from the perspective of Grendel’s mother. According to Headley, Beowulf has been translated incorrectly, and her retelling hinges on one word in particular: aglæca/æglæca. This word is used to describe not only Beowulf, but also his three antagonists Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon as well.  Read more about Headley’s research and applications towards a modern retelling in the NPR Author Interview: “Beowulf In The Suburbs? ‘The Mere Wife’ Is An Epic Retelling“.

New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers―a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran―fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.

REGISTRATION: To save a seat for Monstrous Women: A Feminist Approach to Myth and Myth, send an email request for an invoice to Carina Bissett at cmariebissett@gmail.com. The fee to attend the workshop is $450, payable to cmariebissett@gmail.com via PayPal. There is a $100 non-refundable deposit required to hold your spot with payment in FULL prior to the first class. (Payment plans available upon request.) Returning students receive a 10% discount. Registration packet includes detailed information on each module, expectations and etiquette, and educational materials. Space is limited.

Workshop Scholarship Fund

The WriterAs a former student, I have struggled to find the necessary funds to further my education. Although there are options (loans, grants, scholarships) when it comes to formal education, online workshops are a different story. To meet this challenge, I’ve decided to run a GoFundMe campaign so that I can offer a potential option to students who could not financially be able to attend a workshop at The Storied Imaginarium otherwise. I plan to offer two full scholarships: one for Intersections: Science Fiction, Fairy Tales and Myth, and one for Monstrous Women. I will be posting scholarship application information on August 1, 2018. Thank you for you support. Stay tuned!

STUDENT ENDORSEMENTS

“I love working with Carina and the Storied Imaginarium. The courses are carefully crafted, a blend of creativity and academia that makes a perfect storm for writing thoughtful, smart speculative fiction. The class format supports constructive criticism that helps me analyze my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, while pushing me to expand my horizons and write outside my comfort zone. More than that, Carina has in-depth knowledge of the various markets for speculative short fiction which she uses to help us revise our work. I am positive that without the Storied Imaginarium, I would not have the publication credits I have today. I look forward to our next class together!” — Claire Eliza Bartlett, author of “The Velvet Castles of the Night,” Daily Science Fiction.

“Carina is a great teacher—insightful, resourceful and empathetic. It was Carina who encouraged me to get my stories out, even when they’d rather skulk in the corners of my brain, then revise and send my work out to publishers. She helped me think critically about my characters, plot, setting, and everything [else] that makes a story. I can’t wait to work with her more in the future.” – Daniela Tomova, author of “Behind Her, Trailing like Butterfly Wings,” Apex Magazine.

“Carina Bissett is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic workshop leaders I’ve ever seen. Her generous reading, sharp eye for detail, and prolific knowledge of both fairy tales and publishing make her an ideal teacher for novice and practiced writers alike. I heartily recommend any writing program with her at the helm.” – Julia K. Patt, author of “Whatever Tower, However High,” Escape Pod and “My Dear, Like the Sky and Stars and Sun,” Clarkesworld.

“Carina’s classes are intensive and illuminating. I’m impressed with her extensive knowledge of myth and fairy tales, as well as her insightful and kind critique. Plus, there’s lots of writing involved.  Highly recommend!” – KT Wagner, author of “3-D Monarch” in Happily Ever After, “Slipped Stitch” in Dead of Winter, and “Grandma Heloise” at Daily Science Fiction.