Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is told from two points of view—one, a traditional third-person narrative, and the other, a first-person epistolary narrative featuring Marcellus, a Giant Pacific Octopus. This workshop will discuss how Van Pelt’s narrative style affects tone, voice, and characterization, and how we can improve these skills in our own writing. In addition, we will delve into how the novel addresses loss, grief, loneliness and aging, and how we might successfully incorporate such difficult themes into our own writing.

Wendy Weitzel recently moved to Lincoln after living in Saudi Arabia for over five years, where she taught creative writing classes and became passionate about expanding literacy for women and children. When not teaching, she volunteers for Lincoln Literacy and Larksong Writers Place. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Young People from Lesley University and writes middle grade novels, picture books, and travel essays about her experience as a woman in the Middle East. She loves running Lincoln trails, and (along with her four kids) enjoys borrowing stacks of books from the Lincoln Public libraries.