Writing Our Ancestors Into Fiction

WRITING 714.4E

Draw connections between our present-day lives and interests with those of our ancestors as you work to draw them into your writing with care and craft.

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What you can learn.

Explore how your ancestors can inspire and guide new writing
Complete generative exercises designed to access inspiration
Get feedback on your new writing from a supportive community of writers
Leave class with self-generated materials and new methods to get you going on a project

About this course:

In this 1-day course, we'll explore ancestors as inspiration for fictional narratives. It can be tricky to do our ancestors justice in our writing and even trickier to balance facts, invention, and compelling storytelling. This time together will be spent exploring the challenge through generative exercises and examples designed to access inspiration and draw connections between our own present-day lives and interests and our family histories. We will be writing and workshopping in class. Come with the desire to write your family-inspired stories, leave with some self-generated materials and methods (cohesive ideas, basic plot outline, character studies, etc.) to get you started.

Winter 2026 Schedule

February 28

Saturday 10:00AM - 1:00PM PT

Future Offering (Opens November 03, 2025 12:00:00 AM)

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Instructor: Malia Márquez

406114

Live Online

Location: UCLA X Open

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Notes

Enrollment limited; early enrollment advised. Visitors not permitted. Internet access required.

This course is held via video teleconference. As such, instructors use Zoom to offer a live class meeting at the designated time. Students must be present at the course meeting time to participate in the class.

Course Requirements

Internet access required to retrieve course materials.

Schedule

Type

Date

Time

Location

Discussion

Sat Feb 28, 2026

10:00AM PT - 1:00PM PT

UCLA X Open