As the author of eight books and a noted creative writing teacher now on the faculty of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Margot Livesey knows her way around a novel.

For those who read fiction, and those aspiring to write it, she offers a master class on the genre, drawing from her book The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. Livesey recounts her own journey as a writer and delves into the inner workings of fiction, exploring the novels of Jane Austen, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, among others. How do great books get written? And what can we learn from them as readers – and as writers?

The event is made possible by the Robert and Kathryn Day Endowment for the Literary Arts.