In this workshop, we'll spend time naming, examining and further understanding our own personal values, then we'll focus on how to use those manifold values to infuse our work with deeper meanings. Values can span from philocalism to asceticism, religious or spiritual beliefs, humanist, naturalist or ecological concerns and more. Our beliefs, ideals and spiritual or material interests need not steer our fiction writing toward pedantry or dogmatism, but can instead guide our storytelling to greater depths and help keep us engaged with our projects through completion. 

Misha Lazzara is the author of Manmade Constellations and currently teaches fiction writing at UNC Charlotte. She holds an MA in English from UNC Charlotte and an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University. Misha is also one of the hosts of the popular podcast Band Wives with Chondra Sanchez, where they discuss the joys and challenges of life married to touring musicians. She and her husband, Adam Lazzara of the band Taking Back Sunday, will be celebrating their fifteenth-wedding anniversary this year. They have three children, a big extended family, and a house full (on the verge of too full) of books and musical instruments.