Inspired by Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, this writing workshop explores how imagined environments shape world-building in fiction. Participants will consider how choices about the physical world influence character behavior, narrative perspective, and voice. 

Through guided prompts and group discussion, participants will write short pieces that explore how setting shapes a story and how writers convey a fictional world through point of view, description, and character experience. 

This program will take place at The Den Coffeehouse at Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. Please arrive 15 minutes early for check-in. Given the time constraints of this workshop, the discussion will focus only on work created in response to the prompts. This workshop emphasizes engagement with Blackfish City as writers. Those interested in thinking about the book as readers are encouraged to attend the companion Book Discussion. 

This event continues the Museum’s season of Big Read programs, featuring Blackfish City as the Museum’s 2025 selection. Generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Midwest, the Big Read broadens our understanding of the world, our communities, and ourselves through the shared experience of reading and discussing a single book.