Fables for a Modern Time
Taught by Talbot Logan
This course focuses on anthropomorphism as both a literary format and creative inspiration. Through careful analysis of both ancient and modern stories, students will learn how to deconstruct and construct fables. An appreciation of the trope will be used to generate new, student written fables as a creative writing experience.
- The overall goal of this course is to play and to experiment with language and storytelling focusing on the symbology of anthropomorphism in fables.
- We’ll learn by reading, by analyzing, and by emulating fables from Aesop and the Panchatantra (amongst others). We’ll learn what it takes to be a writer, both spontaneous and disciplined, toward something worth saying: who we are at the core / and how we each view the world through our own personal experiences and cultural orientations / what are the lessons we want to teach.
- We’ll focus on the importance of considered symbology within fiction, as both the complement to elements like plot, character, setting and theme, as well as one possible way for authors to convey complex ideas in a digestible way.
- Through guided exercises that build from one week to another, students will hone their own writing abilities, consciously looking for a moral lesson that they feel needs to be told.
- Constructive feedback, both peer led, and instructor led, will illustrate both the importance and drudgery of the revision process. At the end of the course, students will have learned to welcome the revision process, seeing it both as a polishing tool and an organic development tool that lets their characters play an active role in the story’s genesis.
BIO
Talbot Logan spent over 25 years building and growing retail and luxury brands, and was fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most iconic companies. COVID was the catalyst for him to start to reconsider his career choice, and in 2023 Logan left the corporate world to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at Wilkes University, graduating in 2026. Lighting the Way Home, his debut novel, is currently being shopped for publication.
Logan graduated from Princeton University and has remained very active in various alumni roles including Annual Giving and Co-Chair of his Class’s Reunions. In addition to his work with Princeton, he has been very involved in both St James Church in Manhattan and the Siasconset Chapel on Nantucket, serving in a variety of lay minister roles. He is also very involved in several genealogical societies in NY and Florida and keenly interested in family history.
Logan is an accomplished horseman, having competed as a showjumper before taking up polo. In addition, he enjoys tennis, skiing and boxing. During the winters, Logan volunteers with Vinceremos Equine Therapy in Wellington Florida. Logan splits his time between Nantucket, New York City and West Palm Beach along with his husband Bill Miller and their havapoo Archer. Archer definitely is the alpha in that family structure.
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