Angle of Vision: Reflection and Retrospection, Time and Tense

REGISTER NOW    $15 early bird | $25.00

Writers of nonfiction prose rarely consider tense, but it is essential to orienting a reader. Writing about our own experiences, crafting through verb tense, allows retrospection—consideration of the past from the vantage point of the present. 

Retrospection is a powerful form of meaning-making: it allows us to consider what happened through the lens of subsequent experience, adding a layer of significance to memory and allowing writers to recognize and reflect on what’s changed and why it matters. To powerfully use this voice, writers must make thoughtful choices when choosing tense.

We’ll examine and discover how tense functions; consider the oft-repeated advice that present tense is more vivid and immediate; and analyze how mastering tense allows seasoned writers engage in retrospection and reflection.

In this webinar, you will:

• EXAMINE the ways one can use tense to enable retrospection and reflection
• ANALYZE past and present tense, to understand how each functions discretely and how they can work together
• LEARN to use tense in your own writing, to create an angle of vision that draws meaning from memory and experience

This webinar is ideal for writers of memoir and personal essay who want to better understand how to write from their own memories and experiences.

Closed captioning is available ✔
All registrants receive the recording ✔

YOUR PRESENTER

MICHAEL COPPERMAN’S  prose has appeared in The Oxford-American, Guernica, The Sun, Creative Nonfiction, Boston Review, Salon, Gulf Coast, Triquarterly, Kenyon Review and Copper Nickel, among many others, and has won awards and garnered fellowships from the Munster Literature Center, Breadloaf Writers Conference, Oregon Literary Arts, and the Oregon Arts Commission. His memoir TEACHER: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta (University Press of Mississippi 2017), about the rural black public schools of the Mississippi Delta, was a finalist for the 2018 Oregon Book Award in CNF. His work is represented by David Dunton of Harvey Klinger.

Questions? Please email info@craft-talks.com