How does creating a three-dimensional character in nonfiction differ from creating a fully fleshed-out fictional character? Many of the same principles apply--gesture, detail, psychological insight--but what are the sources and methods an investigative journalist uses to make sure that their subjects come alive on the page and enthrall the reader from the start? Evan Hughes will lead participants in a workshop that illuminates this fascinating process using writing exercises and discussion. 

About the Instructor: 

Evan Hughes is the author of Pain Hustlers, originally published as The Hard Sell (Doubleday, 2022), a narrative nonfiction account of the dramatic rise and fall of an opioid maker. The book is the basis of the 2023 Netflix film Pain Hustlers, starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans. Evan was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Reporting in 2015 for The Atavist’s "The Trials of White Boy Rick," which was optioned for film by Universal. He has written feature-length articles for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, GQ, New York, The New Republic, Wired, the London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books. He has also been published in the New York Times Book Review, n+1, Slate, The Awl, and Salon, among other publications. He is also the author of Literary Brooklyn from Macmillan, a work of literary biography and urban history.