This workshop will help writers look at alternatives to the heroic cycle or Freitag's upside down checkmark when writing fiction or creative nonfiction. Using examples from contemporary writers, we will analyze and experiment with writing in different kinds of forms to help crack open creativity and get those stories out of your head and onto the page.

Patrick Crerand is the author of the story collection The Paper Life They Lead (Arc Pair Press, 2018). He teaches writing at DeSales University in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and directs their low residency MFA Program in Creative Writing and Publishing. His writing has appeared in Ninth Letter, McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, North American Review, and other magazines. He lives in Allentown with his lovely wife and three kids.