A Generative Writing Workshop with Atina HartunianAbout this Event
What makes a story feel haunted long before a ghost appears? Why do familiar places, forgotten objects, and half-remembered stories linger in our minds long after we've left them behind?
In this three-hour generative workshop, we'll examine how contemporary writers evoke the eerie and create emotional tension through absence, memory, and longing. Drawing on the work of Carmen Maria Machado, Angela Carter, Helen Oyeyemi, and their reimaginings of familiar folktales, we'll translate literary theory into practical craft techniques through close reading, discussion, and a sequence of interconnected writing exercises.
Designed for writers of all genres and experience levels, each prompt builds upon the last, allowing participants to leave with the beginnings of a new story or a deeper understanding of an existing project while discovering new craft tools for creating atmosphere, emotional resonance, and narrative tension.
This workshop supports writers of all stages.
About the author
Atina Hartunian is a writer, independent scholar, educator, and first-generation Armenian American based in Los Angeles. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University in 2023. Her honors include a Teaching Fellowship from Anaphora Arts (2024), the Pacific University MFA Merit Scholarship (2021), and residencies with the Cambridge Writers' Workshop, Rockvale Writers' Colony (2025), and the Carolyn Moore Writing Residency (2026).
Hartunian's work explores horror, perception, memory, diasporic identity, and the unseen through fiction, flash nonfiction, and craft scholarship. Her chapbook Love at First Sip was shortlisted for the C&R Press Summer Tide Pool Chapbook Awards (2025), and her flash piece I'd Rather Lose My Tits Than My Hair received an Honorable Mention in the 2026 Plentitudes Flash Fiction Prize.
She is currently developing a five-part Horror Lecture Series that combines literary criticism, close reading, and generative writing. Her talks have been presented through ThunderDome Conference, The Writer's Center, CALYX Press, Anaphora Arts, and Portland Community College.
In addition to her creative work, Hartunian develops constraint-based prompts and workshops that encourage experimentation, curiosity, and play for writers of all experience levels. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of PACT DeskSet Substack, an independent literary arts community dedicated to craft, conversation, and creative experimentation.
Atina lives and writes in Los Angeles.
About Beyond Baroque
is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.
Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the workshop, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.
Workshop attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our workshops, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.
Event venue
Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, United States
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