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This two-hour workshop will as k students to enter into a more personal conversation with the novel TO LI VE by Yu Hua. During the first hour we&rsquo\;ll discuss the reading from both a writer&rsquo\;s as well as a reader&rsquo\;s perspective\, looking at the ways the author brings his story to life. Students will be encourag ed to suspend judgement\, to get curious about anything that might seem di fferent or surprising including the depictions of family\, work\, and poli tics. We&rsquo\;ll also consider different parts of the writing craft\, to ask how Yu Hua employs such elements as voice\, suspense\, and character development to more effectively convey his story. During the second hour\, students will be given some writing exercises designed to free creativity and produce quick\, uninhibited work. Freewriting allows writers.to think and speak in new ways about their own lives and to better form connection s to those of others. Writers will be asked to consider ways they might id entify with Yu Hua&rsquo\;s struggles &ndash\;to write about times they mi ght have encountered injustice or what they&rsquo\;ve learned through over coming obstacles. We&rsquo\;ll attempt to move toward deeper insights and to challenge old assumptions\, to take the reading of TO LIVE to a more pe rsonally meaningful level. \;
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\nNEA Big Read is a program of the National End owment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. \; \;
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