Creative Writing Workshop

Join Brown alumna M. Colón-Margolies (Brown '07), award-winning author and Pushcart Prize-nominee, for "Narrative Craft: Writing with Chekhov, Chiang & Cortázar" – a 2-hour creative writing workshop for all levels. Free for all. Refreshments and small reception included. Organized by the Brown Club of France.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel, short story, memoir or poem but didn’t know where to start? Are you an experienced writer who’d like to connect with other Anglophone writers in Paris and get a fresh perspective on your work?

In this two-hour creative writing class, writers of all levels will have the chance to discuss their work and participate in a craft lesson on how narrative works. 

We’ll read an essay excerpt and exemplary short story to study the ways great writers like Anton Chekhov, Ted Chiang and Julio Cortázar shape their stories. At the end of the class, participants will do some creative writing of their own in response to a prompt.

This class is free.

What: Narrative craft workshop – all levels welcome. Free for all.

When: February 10, 2026 | From 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Where: American University of Paris - Monttessuy Center for the Arts 9 bis rue de Monttessuy - 75007 Paris (1 min walk from the Eiffel Tower and Champs-de-Mars).

Sharpen your writing, connect with fellow Brunonians and other invitees, and enjoy refreshments with a small reception at the end.

Workshop facilitator

M. Colón-Margolies holds an MFA in Fiction from The New Writer’s Project at the University of Texas, Austin, where she received a Michener Fellowship and won the Michael Adams Thesis Prize for her short stories. She has taught creative writing and literature courses to undergraduates at the University of Texas, Austin and to adults in Paris at Atelier Rose. Her fiction has been published in New England Review; ZYZZYVA, The Florida Review, Meridian and Witness, where a story of hers was nominated in 2025 for a Pushcart Prize. Her nonfiction has been published in The Nation, Columbia Journalism Review and on Rhode Island Public Radio. In 2025, her poem, “Terms of Sale”, won Glossy Planet’s House Divided Contest. A former nonfiction book editor at Nation Books and editorial assistant at The O. Henry Prize Stories, her joint translation of Diego Maradona: The Last Interview was published by Melville House in 2022. An interview about her fiction writing is available on the New England Review website.