The Novel in Stories: A Writing Workshop

Who ever heard of a “novel-in-stories”? Back by popular demand is Cynthia Reeves and Laura Bonazzoli to answer this and other questions! This novel-in-stories workshop is a conversation, with the audience actively participating, about the art of the novel-in-stories. The agenda includes: exploration of the genre’s background; characteristics that separate this form from traditional short story collections; the benefits and challenges for readers; approaches to writing the novel-in-stories; and a conversation about favorite examples of the genre. Registration required. 

Cynthia Reeves is the author of three books of fiction: the novel in stories Falling Through the New World, winner of Gold Wake Press’s Fiction Award; the novel The Last Whaler; and the novella Badlands, winner of Miami University Press’s Novella Prize. A Hawthornden Fellow, Cynthia has been awarded residencies to The Arctic Circle’s 2017 Summer Solstice Expedition, Galleri Svalbard, and Vermont Studio Center. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr and Rosemont Colleges. She lives with her husband in Camden, Maine.

Laura Bonazzoli’s fiction has appeared in Exposition Review, Evening Street Review, The Sandy River Review, and other literary magazines. Her novel in stories, Consecration Pond, was described by Publisher’s Weekly as “poetic and introspective . . . a solid, meditative collection of interconnected short stories that . . . leave a haunting impression.” It was published by the Maine-based small press Toad Hall Editions in August of 2022. Laura has also written a more traditionally structured novel that’s currently out for submission, and is working on a third. Laura’s poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines and several anthologies and has been selected for Maine Public Radio’s Poems from Here. She has also published creative nonfiction. She has worked as a freelance editor and ghostwriter for more than thirty years, has taught English at The Watershed School, and currently teaches creative writing at local venues and virtually with Maine Media Workshops.

For more information, visit the Thomas Memorial Library website.