July Third Thursday: “Writing Unlikeable Characters”
July 15, 2021 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM CDT
Free
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“Perhaps, then, unlikeable characters, the ones who are the most human, are also the ones who are the most alive.” – Roxane Gay
In July, our Third Thursday panel discussion will explore “Writing Unlikeable Characters.”
For this conversation, we’ll be flipping that concept of an “unlikeable character” on its head. This will be a celebration of characters who are complex and messy and challenging and sometimes just plain awful. Characters we love to hate, characters we hate to love, and characters we’d much prefer to spend an afternoon with, truth be told, if given the choice.
Buy our panelists books and support indie bookstores! You can find our July Third Thursday book list here.
Featured Presenter(s)
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Owen Egerton is an award-winning writer, director, and novelist. He's the author of several books including The Book of Harold The Illegitimate Son of God, How Best to Avoid Dying, and Hollow, which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and won the PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction. He and his wife Jodi Egerton co-author the creative writing guide This Word Now. His films include Blood Fest, Free Birds and Blumhouse's Mercy Black. Most recently, Egerton adapted his own short story to write the film Whistle, directed by Corin Hardy. Owen is also one of the talents behind the Alamo Drafthouse’s long running comedy show Master Pancake Theater. In 2023, Owen joined Emerson College as an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting. -
E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. She writes dark speculative fiction for adults and teens, include Royal Palm Literary Awards’ Book of the Year, Mud, the first novel in her Chronicles of the Third Realm War series. When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the FANTASY+GIRL Podcast. You can find her on Twitter @ejwenstrom.
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