The Wry Tone in Fiction with Bethany Ball (in person at HVWC)

If you can make a reader laugh, he is apt to get careless and go on reading. — Henry Green.

What makes a fictional voice a compulsive read? How does some writing seem to read itself effortlessly? What are tricks we can employ to make work unputdownable? If we are not joke writers or think of ourselves as inherently funny, what are some tricks and tools we can use to add humor and wryness to our work? In this class we will be exploring the wry tone, timing, and humor through fiction and non-fiction excerpts and writing exercises.

Bethany Ball is the author of the acclaimed novels What To Do About the Solomons and The Pessimists, both published by Grove Atlantic. Born and raised in Detroit, Bethany has lived in New York for over 20 years. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence and was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Jewish Book Council debut fiction prize. Her work has been featured and reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Detroit Free Press, Jewish Book Council, Electric Literature, Zyzzyva and has work forthcoming from Sewanee Press, Northwest Review, and Lilith Magazine. She is currently at work a new novel set in the Motor City.