NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) wants you to write... and write fast. Each November, thousands of names and nobodies churn out 50,000 words over 30 days. Notable results include Sara Gruen’s Water For Elephants and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. Started in 1999, NaNoWriMo has become a worldwide phenomenon and a fable of the internet age—creative empowerment without gatekeepers. Writer and NaNoWriMo executive director Grant Faulkner will lead a hands-on exploration of the method behind the madness of fast—and uninhibited—writing.
Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and a co-founder of the Flash Fiction Collective. His stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, and dozens of others. His collection of one hundred 100-word stories, Fissures, was released last May, and he has a collection of essays on creativity coming out with Chronicle Books in the fall of 2017.
Ian Belknap is a Chicago writer/performer and founder/curator/host of WRITE CLUB, the nation’s premiere competitive philanthropic readings series. Ian has performed at virtually every live lit show in Chicago, and has been a presenter and panelist at TEDx Greenville, Arts & Business Council of Chicago, League of Chicago Theatres, Printers’ Row Book Fair, and Chicago Writers’ Conference.