New Mystery Series
The reading/discussion/writing program, Reading the Arts has expanded! The mystery genre has always been popular. It owes a debt to modern life – the urban, crime-filled, poverty-ridden, class distinctions that arose during the mid-1800s. The rise of large cities during the period came at a time when public reading was also on the rise. The public’s relatively new exposure to crime in their urban neighborhoods both fascinated and scared them, giving rise to the vilified and romanticized criminal and detective and a new literary genre, the detective/crime story/mystery.
Since this time, the genre has grown to include detectives from around the world, comic capers, and many other types of stories. This new series, MysteryWrite, takes the best mystery short stories and breaks them down so participants can discuss them and learn what makes them so addictive. Scholars will work with participants at each session, determining what makes the stories in that session worthy and how the audience can compile their own devious characters, sinister settings, and surprise endings.
This series is offered as a 3 or 5 session series and uses the book The Best of Mystery: 63 Short Stories Chosen by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
