Upcoming Events
The Meaning of Life: Discovering Philosophical Truth in Fiction
Description
All fiction is speculative. Our grasp on the real world is limited, and it is a writer's job to push the boundaries. Why are we here? Why do we suffer? God. Space. Time. Life. Death. To enter a character is an act of empathy. To master a compelling plot is a structural feat. And to harness the music...
Writing the Popular Novel (In Any Genre)
Description
No matter what type of novel you’re interested in—literary, science fiction, paranormal, young adult, rom-com, mystery, etc.—you’d probably think it ideal if it had many readers. If it attracted buzz. If it were, in other words, popular. In this weeklong workshop, we’ll discuss the elements that...
The Choreography of Plot: Motivating Characters in Surprising Ways
Description
Why do our characters do what they do? Every story brings headlines from the human heart, and those headlines turn on motivations as petty as a pet peeve and as grand as a ruling passion. Character-driven fiction encourages us to abandon the conventional and to explore new ways of being with others...
Overwhelming Subjects: A Workshop for All Genres
Description
Every writer has overwhelming subjects—the places, events, people, themes, or parts of ourselves that pursue us or elude us or keep us up at night. Maybe we’ve tried to write something umpteen times, and keep hitting a wall. Or maybe we never try, unsure of how to enter, or what we might find there...
Getting It Right in Longform Fiction & Nonfiction: An Advanced Workshop
Description
This advanced prose workshop is intended for students who’ve completed a draft, or a substantial portion of a draft, of a novel or longform work of nonfiction, be it memoir or narrative. It’s designed to answer the question: I’ve come this far, so now what? To begin, we will consider up to 15 pages...
Fiction Strategies for the Memoirist
Description
My writing life began with fiction. It was a delight to study the tools of that particular craft, as for years I wrote, taught, and edited works of fiction. When what would eventually become my memoir began to call to me, it was a significant surprise to realize how much I could rely on those hard...
Revision Tactics in Nonfiction
Description
Fiction writers are the ones who get all the sympathy for their struggles with creative angst. But writers of nonfiction—memoirs, reportage, profiles, commentaries, and the like—also know the trials of creating, and completing, a coherent and compelling article or book. This is the place to bring...
The Art of Losing: A Poetry Workshop
Description
In this weeklong generative poetry writing class, we’ll explore many ways to write elegiac poetry. The elegy is an ancient poetic form containing the elements of lament, praise, and solace. Traditionally written in a metrical form, elegies are now typically written in free verse. Elegy often...
Ditties and Frolics and Aches: Poetry and Song
Description
This workshop focuses on forms of song in poetry. How can we create a sense of melody from nothing but words on a page? How can a poem cause us to clap and sway and tap our toes in time? We’ll experiment with techniques inspired by recent and ancient examples, from many traditions, as we work to...
Writing in Fragments: Building Your Book Piece by Piece
Description
Whether fiction or memoir or something in between, many powerful works of literature are structured in a fractured, fragmented, nonlinear style. In this course, we will experiment with forms, styles, approaches to time and place, structure, POV, character, and more, all in an attempt to tell (and...