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Dana's Tin House Summer Workshop

What it is:
The Tin House Summer Workshop  is a weeklong intensive program of workshops, seminars, panels, and readings led by the editors of Tin House Magazine and Tin House Books and their guests. Tin House recieves well over 1,000 applications for the workshop, with an acceptance rate right around 30%. Some of the most acclaimed names in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry will be in attendance from Steve Almond and Antonya Nelson to Kiese Laymon and Jerricho Brown. Classes take place in July at Reed College  in Portland, Oregon. 

Who I’ll work with:
Alexander Chee is the author of the novels Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night.  He is winner of a 2003 Whiting Award, a 2004 NEA Fellowship in prose and a 2010 MCCA Fellowship. His essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Slate, Guernica, NPR and Out, among others. 

About me and what it means to attend Tin House:
Born in Miami, I've spent much of my life traveling and living in places such as Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Argentina, Chile, and Spain. Currently I'm an MFA student in fiction at the University of Miami . I also teach poetry to third graders with O, Miami , freelance for outlets such as The Miami Herald  and the Miami New Times and work with VONA/Voices

When I think about my plans as an author and the sort of books I want to put into the world, I see writing as a way to work through bigger social issues, to bring attention to people of color and women, and to highlight the necessity for multiculturalism in art and life. Attending the Tin House Summer Workshop would give me the opportunity to have a voice in a space that encourages me to express myself. It would also allow me to connect with and learn from established writers and instructors in the Tin House community.

By the end of the workshop, I plan to leave with a more structured and polished form of my novel in order to publish it by graduation in 2018. Having access to quality feedback, mentors and peers in my field of study would be an invaluable experience and help me achieve my goals of publication, putting out high-quality fiction, and maturation as a writer.

About my novel, The Odyssey Hotel:
The Odyssey Hotel  is about a group of women from small towns in Nicaragua who leave home to better their lives in Managua, the capital city. Once there, they become employees at the most prestigious and expensive hotel in the country: The Odyssey Hotel. The head receptionist, Beatriz De la Cruz, takes the women under her wing and becomes a leader and mother figure, all while keeping the social hierarchy intact. 

Everything continues in a controlled way and for a while the women think they have everything they need to be happy. The illusion is shattered when a newcomer, Tina Fitzgerald, arrives to the hotel looking for work. While Tina is also Nicaraguan, she is from the Corn Islands, forty miles off the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Not only does Tina come from a place that is vastly different culturally (Corn Island was run by the British and not the Spanish; locals speak Spanish, English and Creole) she isn’t interested in joining the group of women. Ultimately, Tina disrupts the social schema in both minor and tragic ways...

Organizer

Dana De Greff
Organizer
Miami, FL

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