SOLITUDE, SETTING & STORY

Instructed by Greg Hahn  

July 11 - 13, 2014

Isolation can be a storyteller’s best friend — at the writing desk and on the page. Since Christ’s 40 days and nights in the desert, solitude and a sense of place have played a role in some of our great narratives. Faulkner once said, “it begins with a character,” but sometimes, that character emerges nearly fully formed from the landscape around it.

Over three days in Atlanta, Idaho, we’ll explore the power of place and seclusion in storytelling. We’ll immerse ourselves in Idaho stories. We’ll wander barren snowscapes with an Icelandic hunter in Sjon’s “Blue Fox,” and we’ll stand at the refrigerator with a brazen dog and contemplate what’s next with the poet Stephen Dobyns. And we’ll let the rugged beauty and history of our surroundings dictate our own writing.

Come prepared to put pen to paper -- this is no place for computers -- and share what this place is saying to you. We’ll disappear into the trees and reconvene with new ideas, new characters, new insights. We’ll be isolated together.

ABOUT GREG HAHN


Greg Hahn has written journalism for newspapers and magazines, produced public television documentaries, published short fiction, toured with a band, and found various other ways to tell stories over the years. He lives in Boise with his wife, a copywriter, and now leads the communication and marketing team at Boise State University.