Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester

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Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester
Sunday, May 24
12 PM – 3 PM PT/ 3 PM – 6 PM ET
Online

When you write a semi-autobiographical character, how do you create distance while also nurturing a deeply-rooted connection? In this generative workshop we’ll explore how to write characters inspired by the self in ways that leave room for them to grow into their own truths. There’s a common misconception that writing from personal experience involves little differentiation between the writer and the character, but through writing prompts and exercises, we’ll lean fully into the tools and craft of fiction—its expansiveness and its limitations—to develop characters that feel alive on the page. Equally importantly, we’ll discuss ways to do this with care: for ourselves, for the characters, and for the communities and experiences we are writing from.

Scholarship
Scholarship for this intensive has already been awarded.

BIO: Natalia Sylvester is the Pura Belpré- and Schneider Family-honor winning author of the young adult novel BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN, the young adult novel RUNNING and the novels for adults, EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME and CHASING THE SUN. Her first picture book, A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES, illustrated by Juana Medina, is out now from Penguin Random House. A middle grade novel, NO WAY NEVER SISTERS, co-written with Chantel Acevedo, is forthcoming in 2026 from Simon & Schuster.

Natalia’s non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, and McSweeney’s Publishing. Her essays have been anthologized in collections such as A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY and A MEASURE OF BELONGING: WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH.

Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia came to the US at age four and grew up in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. She received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, was a 2021 Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was formerly a faculty member at the Mile-High MFA program at Regis University. She now lives in South Florida.