What pointers can contemporary writers take from one of the world’s master story tellers?

Shakespeare professor and bestselling novelist, AJ Hartley, explores the overlap in genre interests between the sixteenth/seventeenth century and our own period, using examples from Shakespeare’s work to find inspiration and instruction for the contemporary writer. We will consider various narrative elements including plotting, pacing, character creation, and the writing of dialogue. Most importantly, we will discuss the categories of genre writing and literary fiction to see where the distinction between the two can be productively deconstructed.

About the speaker:
Andrew James Hartley is Emeritus professor in UNC Charlotte’s Department of Theatre in which he served as the Russell Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare studies, specializing in performance theory and practice. In addition to teaching Shakespeare related classes, he also taught creative writing courses for the English department. Also writing as AJ Hartley, he is the award winning and bestselling writer of 27 mystery/thriller, fantasy, historical fiction, and young adult novels. Though primarily a solo novelist, he has collaborated with his family (HIDEKI SMITH), David Hewson (adaptations of HAMLET and MACBETH) and Blink-182 frontman Tom Delonge (SEKRET MACHINES, TRINITY etc.).