Workshop - It's Your World: Character and World Building with Jennine "Doc" Krueger

Description: No matter what you write, there will always be a central character situated somewhere; sometimes you are the character, or the character could be a tree. No matter the angle, a well-developed character can answer all the questions you have, or at least respond to situations in your plot based on who they are and their past experiences, just like us. Authentic characters and worlds mimic reality, meaning if you want people to become invested in your story, you have to give them someone/somewhere to root for or someone/somewhere to hate.

This workshop will explore characters and worlds from various texts and then brainstorm and co-create a character and world for collaborative development. Basically, we will create together so you know what questions to ask about your protagonist/antagonist, as well as your setting. Be prepared to contribute to the creative process, and then you can create independently with the tools and confidence to continue writing. Bring your imagination! Let’s Go!

Click Here to Register by September 8th. 

Workshop Length: 2 Hours 

Max Participants: 20

Cost: This workshop is provided for free with support from our donors. Donations are appreciated.

*Note: Registration does not guarantee attendance. 

*10 attendees will be selected by drawing and notified by September 9, 2024.

* Torch workshops are open to Black women and BIPOC womxn writers.

Jennine “DOC” Krueger is a mother, writer, artivist, public speaker, and educator in Austin, Texas. She has competed in world, national, and local slam poetry competitions. She holds four national titles and has now coached several national teams for Austin Poetry Slam and Austin Neo Soul. Her poetry and dramatic works have been published in Santa Fe Literary Review, and the Sierra Nevada Review as a winner in the Brian Turner Literary Arts Prize, and her dramatic work has won best of fest five times in Austin’s Frontera Festival. She has earned an M.Ed. from Concordia University and an MFA in poetry from Spalding University, and she is also an Emerging Teaching Artist Fellow through Mindpop and the City of Austin. She has over 20 years of teaching experience at both secondary and undergraduate levels as well as 20-plus years of public and motivational speaking around identity, positive thinking and mental health.

Her scholarship has led her to discuss culture and comics at the National Pop Culture Conference, Wizard World’s Comic Con, virtually in the 2020 SXSWEdu conference on Teaching for Social Justice with Comics, and The Cosplay Poetry Slam at SanJapan 2021 in San Antonio Texas. Her writing has a vast range across politics, race and identity as well as across genres with children’s literature and a hip-hop musical retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (currently in development through Theatre Now New York’s National Musical Lab). Her research interests are in spoken word performance, medieval literature translations into hip-hop, social and restorative justice, and marginalized heroes in comic books and graphic novels. She is represented by Tobias Literary Management and is currently shopping an anime screenplay pilot Ars Poetica that will focus on poetry and mental health. She is also developing a new musical about Doris Miller, a Black WWII hero, and beginning a third musical; retelling the Salem witch trials with an emphasis on the narrative from Tituba.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.