Q&A with class instructor Joe Okonkwo

We are excited to close out our 2016-2017 writing classes season with our very own prose editor, Joe Okonkwo, who is fresh off his win of Publishing Triangle's Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, for his novel Jazz Moon. In this class, Joe will be showing you how to make your settings come alive—and he should know, Jazz Moon's settings in Jazz-era Harlem and Paris buzz with energy, music, and feeling. Join us on Saturday, May 6 at the Elmhurst branch of Queens Library (86-07 Broadway). The class is completely free!

Below, Joe answers a few questions about himself and the class.

What’s your connection to Queens?

I've lived in Queens for the entire seventeen years I've been in New York. I'm very, very happy I live in Astoria. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

What can students in your class expect?

They can expect a lively two hours filled with discussion, reading excerpts from stellar writers, and, best of all, an opportunity to write. They'll learn how to paint a setting with such rich detail, that readers will feel transported.

What current projects are you working on? or What is your latest publication?

I'm working on a story collection, which I hope to complete by year's end. I have a short story called “Picnic Street” that will be published in The New Engagement sometime later this year. I'm also the editor of Best Gay Stories 2017 published by Lethe Press. That will come out this summer or fall. And, of course, I'm prose editor for Newtown Literary.