V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan, a fiction writer and journalist, is the author of the novel Love Marriage, a novel set in Sri Lanka and its diaspora communities. The book was longlisted for the Orange Prize and named one of Washington Post Book World's Best of 2008. She teaches fiction and nonfiction writing in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Himal Southasian, Sepia Mutiny, and Columbia Journalism Review, among others. A recipient of fellowships from Radcliffe, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy in Berlin, she is the co-host of Literary Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, which addresses the intersection of literature and the news. Granta, Ploughshares, and Best American Nonrequired Reading published early excerpts of her second novel, Movement, which is forthcoming from Random House.
Workshop
The Fact of Your Imagination & The Imagination of Your Fact
Whether we’re writing what we know or exploring what we don’t, if we want to write fiction, we can learn from observing the world closely. How can we use information-gathering techniques for fiction writing? And how can we enter the imaginative spaces around facts and history? This is primarily a generative class; we will also take time to discuss published work and principles of craft, and to consider how to approach questions of revision boldly.
