Erin Cecilia Thomas (Jan ’23, Fiction) will be instructing the seminar, ‘Music Into Written Word.’

How can writers translate the intangible experience of listening to or performing music into written words? This seminar will look at the work of writers who use music in their narratives and the craft elements they employ, such as syntax, sentence structure, metaphor, rhythm, and tone. We will look at examples of how writing styles vary according to the musical genre being described, and how other elements such as character and setting affect how the reader interprets a scene that revolves around music. Samples of music will be played followed by text that describes the music to show how these techniques are applied. We will listen to a piece of music and free-write, and volunteers can present their writing for discussion.