Memoir and fiction writers draw on the same sources for inspiration: experience, observation, and point of view. They use their skills to express private visions in a universal art form. Through a series of writing exercises, participants will re-create their experiences, re-examine their points of view, and use fiction techniques to expand their discoveries into finished work. Everyone will...
Upcoming Writing Workshops
This list is of upcoming seminars only. Since most seminars meet more than once in a term, if a class has already met at least once, it will no longer show up on this list.
Starting:
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Transforming Autobiography into Fiction
Tuesdays, June 4 – 11
Led by Enid Powell
Starting:
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
The Write Place: A Facilitated Children's Book Writers Group
Wednesdays, June 5 – July 17 (class will not meet July 3)
Led by Esther Hershenhorn
Writers will have the opportunity to share their stories in a supportive, focused, and enlightening environment. Facilitated discussions of participants’ manuscripts will highlight the writing process, story components, elements of narrative, craft, revision, and marketability within today’s children’s book publishing world. Writers of all levels, all formats, and all genres will...
Starting:
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Breaking Rules, Breaking Through
Thursdays, June 6 – July 18 (class will not meet July 4)
Led by Brooke Bergan
Blocked? Bored? Want outside the box? Learn how contemporary writers in genres from poetry and theater to mystery novels and memoirs draw inspiration from experimentation. A continuation of the Elements of Creative Writing seminars, this workshop is open to all writers at all levels, whether or not they have taken the previous classes. Inventive assignments and lively discussions of...
Starting:
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Me Write Funny One Day: Infusing Literary Fiction with Humor
Tuesdays, June 11 – July 16
Led by Julie Benesh
Must short stories be tragic and humorless to be moving? You, too, can learn to write funny and your readers will thank you for it. This seminar includes assigned readings, in and out of class writing exercises, and discussion.
Julie Benesh holds a Ph.D. and an M.F.A. and has had a short story anthologized in Bestial Noise: A Tin House Reader.
Materials List...
Starting:
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The Mind at Work: Writing the Personal Essay
Wednesdays, June 12 – July 24 (class will not meet July 10)
Led by Carol LaChapelle
The personal essay thrives today because of its versatility of both subject and form. It can be funny, serious, scolding, or meditative. It can take the shape of a memoir or character sketch; book review or commentary; blog post or travel essay. In this workshop, we will practice writing the personal essay, then present drafts of our work for helpful feedback. We will also research and discuss...
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Writing Family Stories
Led by Carol LaChapelle
This workshop is offered for those interested in writing family stories—the real-life accounts of the important people, places, and events in their and their family’s lives. These stories may be recorded as letters, diary entries, short remembrances, character sketches, or even eulogies. In the workshop, we will discuss the merits of each of these forms and practice writing in them....
Starting:
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Techniques for Keeping a Writer’s Journal
Tuesdays, July 16 – 23
Led by Enid Powell
Learn how specific types of journal entries and observations can inspire essays, memoirs, and works of fiction. Writing exercises will give participants an opportunity to practice techniques for extending and deepening their initial ideas and entries, thereby maximizing their potential for finished narrative forms. Please bring a personal photograph to the workshop. It may depict a scene, a...