Join us ONLINE Saturday, August 1, 12 – 1 PM, when award-winning author and researcher Vanitha Sankaran presents Revolutionizing the Hero’s Journey: How to Use Non-Western Folklore to Make Old Tales New.
Wondering if non-Western cultures tell stories differently? Yes, they do, and so can you!
The Hero’s Journey has been a storytelling mainstay for decades. While there is value in understanding this linear journey, especially as it pertains to Western readers, it is imperative to understand other cultures have different journeys to illustrate conflict, battle, and outcome, with paths and resolutions that are markedly different. Vanitha will explore plotting structures derived from non-Western cultures to tell stories in a fresh way using examples from past and present literature.
Vanitha holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and an MFA in Creative Writing and is both a researcher and storyteller at heart. From her childhood days on, she has been lucky to travel the world, gaining diverse perspectives that continue to fuel her imagination. In addition to her 20-year career in medical communications, she has written Watermark: A Novel of Historical Fiction and numerous short stories and essays that have appeared online, in print, and on NPR. She is a co-founding editor of the literary journal flashquake and has served as Conference Chair for the Historical Novel Society of North America for three terms. She is currently serving as the conference’s Program Chair and writes monthly feature articles for Pacifica Magazine and On the Coast Magazine.
The meeting will take place on Zoom. Please register here.