Folktales, fairy tales, urban legends, ghost stories, and other tales of the oral tradition are often the first stories we hear as children. Whether a story passed down from a family member or seen in a Disney movie, they often shape our worldviews in unexpected ways. Sometimes folktales are used to tell an alternate version of history, to heal from trauma, or to reveal the absurdities of systemic oppression—-often while using humor and a little bit of magic.

In these four sessions, we will look at the stories we may have learned as children. Why do these stories stick with us? How can we use the elements of folklore to create our own pieces? In addition to traditional folktales, we will look at contemporary authors who have used this material to reclaim their own stories and histories while introducing us to strange new worlds. We will read short stories and novel excerpts from authors like Toni Morrison, Carmen Maria Machado, and Maisy Card. Each class we will have writing prompts as both in class and at home assignments on using folktales as a jumping off point to tell our own stories. There will also be time for discussion and opportunities to share our work in class.

About the Instructor

SORAYA PALMER is the author of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, which recently won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for debut fiction and has been shortlisted for the Pen/Open Book Award. She has been awarded grants, residences, and fellowships for her writing from the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, the New York Foundation of the Arts, Blue Mountain Residency, and the Nawat Fes Residency in Fes, Morocco. She was born and raised in Flatbush and is a licensed clinical social worker who has organized and advocated for criminalized survivors of gender-based violence, tenants facing eviction, and victims of police brutality. She has taught fiction at City College, the Center for Fiction, and at American Language Centers throughout Morocco. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Nicholas.

Student Testimonials

“I was part of Soraya's 10-week intensive writing workshop at the Center for Fiction in 2024. The workshop was a generative, alive space for me, a beginning writer, to explore ideas and experiment with my voice. Soraya gave us structure through analysis of published stories, writing exercises, and lots of personalized feedback, but also created a very open ethic where participants were able to bring any kind of work, ask for the feedback they wanted, and receive real opinions and exchanges around substance and craft. There was a real community: I not only left the workshop with 2 fully drafted stories, but with a writing group that has continued to meet regularly a full year after the workshop ended.” –Jason S. (Former Center for Fiction student)

"Professor Soraya Palmer taught the best workshop I've attended in all of my undergrad and graduate experience in creative writing programs. It was based on the portrait of the artist model and had a lot of the elements of books I've read about the anti-racist writing workshop model where the writer has the opportunity to communicate a vision for their project, as well as ask questions about what they wish to work on. These elements were embraced by our class and Professor Palmer's facilitation led to some of the most thoughtful and holistic feedback I've ever received in a workshop setting. In addition to these helpful workshop structures, she also provided the class with readings and writing prompts to help us step outside of our comfort zone and try something new with our writing. I walked away from this class with a feeling of having created community with my classmates and with new work that adds texture to my existing portfolio of stories. Professor Palmer took great care to design each class session, kept the workshop on track through helpful questions and thoughtful comments, and I've certainly taken what I've learned in her class into other graduate writing workshops. As an educator, Professor Palmer is knowledgeable and kind and I always left class feeling encouraged to write more. I took her workshop during an election year, which meant that many of us in the class were dealing with big life things in addition to class, and yet the course was well attended each week because it became a space for us where growth and progress continued to feel possible." -- Dana H. (Former M.F.A. student at City College)

Using Folklore to Tell Our Stories: 4 sessions with Soraya Palmer