Workshops
Description:
The Art of Criticism: A study of effectively communicating disagreement.
With tools like lit mags, Reddit, and comment sections, there are no barriers on the internet to stop any writer from becoming a critic, but how do we evaluate pieces of pop culture and literature to serve our communities? In the Qafiyah Review’s first workshop, featuring Porochista Khakpour, attendees will explore what it means to become a third party reader, how to become an educated critic, and what to do with literary rejection letters.
Logistics:
When? August 25th, 12:00 PM
Where? Virtual via Google Meet, everyone who signs up will be emailed a meeting code/link the day before the workshop
Cost? None
Who? Anyone inside or outside of the MENA/SWANA community, aka EVERYONE
Occupancy? 100 people max
Instructor:
photo credit: Bing Guan
Porochista Khakpour (http://porochista.substack.com/) was born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles's San Gabriel Valley. Her most recent book, Tehrangeles: A Novel (https://bookshop.org/a/3111/9781524747909), came out in June 2024 (Pantheon), and was an Indie Next Pick, an NPR Book of the Day, one of TIME's 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2024, as well as one of the "Best Books of 2024 (So Far)" by Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, W, and more. She is the author of two previous novels, Sons and Other Flammable Objects (https://bookshop.org/a/3111/9780802143860) (Grove, 2007), The Last Illusion (https://amzn.to/4cIfZMq) (Bloomsbury, 2014). Her widely acclaimed third book Sick: A Memoir (https://bookshop.org/a/3111/9780062428738) (Harper Perennial, 2018) was a Best Book of 2018 according to TIME, Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, and more. In 2020 she wrote an essay collection Brown Album: Essays on Exile & Identity (https://bookshop.org/a/3111/9780525564713) (Vintage, May 2020) that was widely praised. Her other writing has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bookforum, Elle, Slate, and many others. She is a contributing editor at Evergreen Review and lives in NYC.