YWP Summer Camp with Loft Literary Center

Alternate Histories for Ages 12 to 14 with Marianne Manzler
In this workshop, the students will collaborate on a group novella that takes place in an alternate history. We will discuss examples of alternate histories in excerpts of novels and TV shows, like Nisi Shawl’s Everfair, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and the show For All Mankind. Students will work together to choose a "point of divergence," when the course of history could have changed, and create a new timeline for their alternate history. Then they will write their own 3 - 5 page stories that take place in the shared timeline. On the final day of class, we will read and workshop each other’s stories for craft and continuity, and the teacher will send out the final anthology at the end of the course. The course offers a chance to experiment with worldbuilding techniques in a historical context. It also provides a creative outlet for students to use historical research and consider sequences of cause and effect in plot.