Description
No matter what genre you’re writing, one of the hardest things to do is to come up with ideas that editors haven’t seen a thousand times before, written with language galvanized by verve, novelty, and identity. Join award-winning authors Carlos Hernandez and C. S. E. Cooney as they explore writing in different genres through exercises that will show you the transferable skills you already have while giving you delightful new tools to add to your repertoire.
C.S.E. and Carlos will cover forms you may never have tried, such as game writing and comic book writing. Even if you never intend to work within these forms, experimenting with different genres will give you fresh perspectives on your writing and creative new ways to re-envision it.
In this class, you’ll get an overview of different genres and conventions, and learn about the underlying skills that connect them all. You’ll engage in exercises that:
- invigorate your language on the sentence level
- center solid worldbuilding
- experiment with different genre structures
Claire and Carlos have over 50 years combined experience in fiction, poetry, comics, game writing, and drama. They have won awards for their writing and have published with major publishing houses. They’re also very different writers from each other. This unique dual perspective provides a wide panoply of ideas applicable to your own writing practices.
You’ll leave this workshop inspired, brimming with ideas, and with the spirt of play that is bound to feed your creative self.
DATE: August 14, 2025 – Thursday
TIME: 1PM ET | 12PM CT | 11AM MT | 10AM PT | 17:00 UTC
About Your Instructors
C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. Forthcoming in 2025 is Saint Death’s Herald, second in the Saint Death Series. As a voice actor, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, and short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. (Find her music at Bandcamp under Brimstone Rhine.) Forthcoming from Outland Entertainment is the GM-less TTRPG Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), co-designed with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez. Find her website and Substack newsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.
New York Times Bestselling author Carlos Hernandez is the author of The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (which won the Pura Belpré award in 2019), and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, along with many short stories, poems, and works of drama. By day, Carlos is a CUNY Professor of English and a game designer and enthusiast. He is co-creating a TTRPG game, Negocios Infernales, with C. S. E. Cooney. Find him on socials @writeteachplay
