Dialogue Workshop with Bruce Pratt

Eastport Arts Center will present a workshop with award-winning author and educator Bruce Pratt, Creating Dialogue to Advance Narrative Lines and Develop Character, on Saturday, June 7, 1-4 pm.

The workshop will discuss strategies for creating compelling and believable dialogue that both moves the story forward and reveals character. Nothing shows a reader more clearly who a character is than what that character says and how he or she responds to what is said to them. Unlike a play, where actors deliver the playwright’s lines and use postures, gestures and expression to convey their meaning, the fiction writer must make what the character says do all of the above. To that end, the workshop will include short readings, prompt writing, and discussions. Students will share their work in a friendly and collegial manner that will enhance everyone’s experience.

The workshop is designed for older teens and adults. Space is limited, and advance registration is requested—see below, or email workshops@eastportartscenter.org—though walk-ins will be accepted, space permitting. Class fee is $20/person; a sliding fee scale (pay what you can) is available by request. Students may use laptops or write prompt responses longhand, and are asked to bring their own preferred writing supplies.

Bruce Pratt is an award-winning author—novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright. He is the author of the novel The Serpents of Blissfull from Mountain State Press, the poetry collection Boreal from Antrim House Books, The Trash Detail: Stories from New Rivers Press, and the poetry chapbook Forms and Shades from Clare Songbirds Publishing. His fiction, poetry, drama, and essays have appeared in more than fifty magazines, reviews, and journals across the United States, and in Canada, Ireland, and Wales. He is the editor of American Fiction.

Eastport Arts Center is at 36 Washington Street, Eastport, and is handicapped-accessible.