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Workshop Info:
Writing Through the Obscure: Guy Billout’s Surrealist Dream State
In this workshop, we’re going to evaluate how French artist and illustrator, Guy Billout, captures a sense of dreamlike escapism in his spare and precise artwork. Discussing how minimal design can inspire lofty ideas, we will walk out of the session having fleshed out our own scenes inspired by Billout’s style. How can precise language inspire a tapestry of intricate imagery?
Bio: Nikoletta Gjoni is a writer living outside of Washington, D.C. Much of her work delves into myth and folklore, historical fiction, and family lore and dynamics. Her work has been published in Atticus Review, Emerson Review, Alan Squire Publishing,The Ex-Puritan, and Cleaver Magazine, among others. Her story, “The Obscure Historical Sorrows of Canines,” was shortlisted for both The Masters Review’s 2025 Best Emerging Writers anthology and Uncharted Magazine’s Cinematic Short Story contest. Her work has appeared in the 2023 Rising Stars London Independent Story Prize anthology and has been previously nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau short story prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. She was a 2024 scholarship recipient for the Salty Quill Writers Retreat in Maine and will be a 2026 Chateau d’Orquevaux writer-in-residence in France. When not working as a project manager for a marketing agency, she is an editor of manuscripts for Writer’s Digest. View all of Gjoni's publications at www.ngjoni.com.
Workshop Info:
Writing Through the Obscure: Guy Billout’s Surrealist Dream State
In this workshop, we’re going to evaluate how French artist and illustrator, Guy Billout, captures a sense of dreamlike escapism in his spare and precise artwork. Discussing how minimal design can inspire lofty ideas, we will walk out of the session having fleshed out our own scenes inspired by Billout’s style. How can precise language inspire a tapestry of intricate imagery?
Bio: Nikoletta Gjoni is a writer living outside of Washington, D.C. Much of her work delves into myth and folklore, historical fiction, and family lore and dynamics. Her work has been published in Atticus Review, Emerson Review, Alan Squire Publishing,The Ex-Puritan, and Cleaver Magazine, among others. Her story, “The Obscure Historical Sorrows of Canines,” was shortlisted for both The Masters Review’s 2025 Best Emerging Writers anthology and Uncharted Magazine’s Cinematic Short Story contest. Her work has appeared in the 2023 Rising Stars London Independent Story Prize anthology and has been previously nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau short story prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. She was a 2024 scholarship recipient for the Salty Quill Writers Retreat in Maine and will be a 2026 Chateau d’Orquevaux writer-in-residence in France. When not working as a project manager for a marketing agency, she is an editor of manuscripts for Writer’s Digest. View all of Gjoni's publications at www.ngjoni.com.