Imagination: ability to form pictures and sensations in the mind usually not perceived through sight or sound or other senses; creative ability useful in problem solving; supports the process of integrating experience and learning.
Robert Jackson Bennett imagines. In fact, his imagination has resulted in five novels with the sixth releasing in 2016. Bennett’s are not ordinary based-in-reality novels but tales of buried histories, secrets, and murder. He writes somewhere between sci-fi/fantasy, horror and historical fiction; a mix of Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, and Mark Helprin but unique and creative in his own right.
It is his imaginative and speculative writing that brings Robert Jackson Bennett to Fayetteville Public Library. His writing workshop, planned for Wednesday, July 15 (10 a.m. – noon), is not only for sci-fi/fantasy fans, but for any writer interested in sharpening the storytelling craft and finding the right words to create other worlds. Participants will explore how to generate and express ideas and turn them into written form. He will ask writers to think about words that are vital and those that should be cut. The remaining words become art transforming a blank page into places bound only by the reader’s imagination. Registration for this writing workshop is available on Fayetteville Public Library’s website, www.faylib.org.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s first four novels, based in America’s past, place them in historical fiction; however, each one has an unearthly even mystical component. Mr. Shivers, his debut that won the Shirley Jackson Award and the Sydney J. Bounds Newcomer Award, is a murder mystery set in the Great Depression that pits good against ancient evil. The Company Man, nominated for the Edgar Award, explores 1920’s industry through the mysterious deaths of union laborers seemingly related to the uncanny success of a manufacturing conglomerate. The Troupe and American Elsewhere also return to the paranormal theme but are morality tales incorporating the supernatural to force readers to look within their own psyche to find answers. Bennett’s latest novel, City of Stairs can be classified as sci-fi/fantasy and is set in an imaginary world where the past continues to haunt the present and begs the question whether faith drives culture and actions or if the adherents dictate the beliefs. His sequel, City of Blades, is expected in 2016.
Born in Baton Rouge, La., Robert Jackson Bennett attended University of Texas Austin and remained a resident after falling in love with the area. Ultimately, Bennett finds the biggest reward comes from readers sharing his imaginative stories with others.
Bennett will also be speaking Wednesday evening, July 15, at 7 p.m. in Fayetteville Public Library’s Walker Community Room. He will share why he thinks the written word is one of the strangest, counter-intuitive but profoundly powerful mediums of art in human history. He will share insights about what it’s like to work in a field that sometimes feels disparate and disjointed yet provides the closest, strongest sense of connection that art can offer. Wednesday evening’s presentation is free and open to the public.
The Word as Art: Writing Workshop with Robert Jackson Bennett
Courtesy Photo
Imagination: ability to form pictures and sensations in the mind usually not perceived through sight or sound or other senses; creative ability useful in problem solving; supports the process of integrating experience and learning.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition
Robert Jackson Bennett imagines. In fact, his imagination has resulted in five novels with the sixth releasing in 2016. Bennett’s are not ordinary based-in-reality novels but tales of buried histories, secrets, and murder. He writes somewhere between sci-fi/fantasy, horror and historical fiction; a mix of Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, and Mark Helprin but unique and creative in his own right.
It is his imaginative and speculative writing that brings Robert Jackson Bennett to Fayetteville Public Library. His writing workshop, planned for Wednesday, July 15 (10 a.m. – noon), is not only for sci-fi/fantasy fans, but for any writer interested in sharpening the storytelling craft and finding the right words to create other worlds. Participants will explore how to generate and express ideas and turn them into written form. He will ask writers to think about words that are vital and those that should be cut. The remaining words become art transforming a blank page into places bound only by the reader’s imagination. Registration for this writing workshop is available on Fayetteville Public Library’s website, www.faylib.org.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s first four novels, based in America’s past, place them in historical fiction; however, each one has an unearthly even mystical component. Mr. Shivers, his debut that won the Shirley Jackson Award and the Sydney J. Bounds Newcomer Award, is a murder mystery set in the Great Depression that pits good against ancient evil. The Company Man, nominated for the Edgar Award, explores 1920’s industry through the mysterious deaths of union laborers seemingly related to the uncanny success of a manufacturing conglomerate. The Troupe and American Elsewhere also return to the paranormal theme but are morality tales incorporating the supernatural to force readers to look within their own psyche to find answers. Bennett’s latest novel, City of Stairs can be classified as sci-fi/fantasy and is set in an imaginary world where the past continues to haunt the present and begs the question whether faith drives culture and actions or if the adherents dictate the beliefs. His sequel, City of Blades, is expected in 2016.
Born in Baton Rouge, La., Robert Jackson Bennett attended University of Texas Austin and remained a resident after falling in love with the area. Ultimately, Bennett finds the biggest reward comes from readers sharing his imaginative stories with others.
Bennett will also be speaking Wednesday evening, July 15, at 7 p.m. in Fayetteville Public Library’s Walker Community Room. He will share why he thinks the written word is one of the strangest, counter-intuitive but profoundly powerful mediums of art in human history. He will share insights about what it’s like to work in a field that sometimes feels disparate and disjointed yet provides the closest, strongest sense of connection that art can offer. Wednesday evening’s presentation is free and open to the public.