Later, we’ll sort out the specifics. For now, let’s say the novella is an extended work of fiction: long enough for the reader to get lost in but short enough to be consumed in a single sitting.  It doesn’t take up much space. Stow it in your purse or slip it in your back pocket. Read it as you wait in line for coffee.

Novellas used to be considered awkward—too long to fit comfortably in the pages of most literary magazines and too short to be published alone. But, in our current culture, the novella is, as Debra Sparks has said, “Goldilocks form, not too much this and not too much that but just right.”

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“The great questions – Who are we? Why are we here? What is our task? – are best answered by telling a story.” Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sachs, British theologian & philosopher

It’s true we live our lives in narrative. Everywhere we go, we share a story or hear stories from others. But life stories are more than mere entertainment. Constructing our stories helps us to make sense of the world, so that in time, one story after the next, we get closer to answering some of the great questions! Archiving our most compelling stories leaves a lasting legacy.

In a narrative, you describe a significant life experience. Then you share your reactions, feelings and lessons learned. Narratives include other pillars as well. We’ll discuss powerful examples of eight pillars – each a key element of personal narrative, after which I’ll lead you through strategic writing exercises, stepping stones to your working draft.

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We know them when we read them. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” “I am an invisible man.”** Killer Openings. But how do we write them ourselves?

In this weekend workshop, we’ll discuss the importance of not just a killer opening line, but also a strong opening paragraph, a compelling first few pages, and a powerful first chapter that moves our novels or memoirs forward. If we create “killer openings,” then agents will return our emails, editors will buy our manuscripts, readers will keep turning our pages, and pretty soon, we’ll be checking out real estate listings in the south of France. Right? But there’s another good reason for writing a compelling opening. When our first chapter includes all of the elements that will set up our novels or memoirs for success, then our books become that much easier to write, because our first chapter has become a road map.

This weekend workshop is for writers of all levels, from beginners who have never written a novel or memoir before, to intermediate authors who are in the process of revision, to advanced authors who are on their third book.

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The fast-paced, social media-dominated society in which we live today, combined with people’s enduring hunger to connect with true stories of others, has made flash prose a popular form of writing for both readers and writers. Generally under 1000 words and more often under 500, flash prose pieces can provide a welcome break from longer book projects while keeping our writing muscles active. Producing complete flash essays in a comparatively short time can also foster a sense of tangible accomplishment. But writing a successful flash essay is not as easy as it looks! In this weekend workshop for writers at all levels, you’ll learn how to craft creative nonfiction flash essays through the use of helpful prompts, exchange light critiques to help you polish your flash essays for potential publication, and read examples of effective flash essays for class discussion about the craft elements that make each of them successful. Expect to produce one or more rough drafts for flash essays in this class that you can further polish at home, and to have a lot of fun!

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments and provide feedback on writing you produce in your weekend. 

When the circus shoves a clown onto the high wire it will appear to be a mistake, until we realize it has sent out its best aerialist. Likewise, many great authors (such as Beckett, Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, and more recently George Saunders) favor writing that is clumsy, off-kilter, or ridiculous—“tales told by idiots.” From a training point of view, there may be nothing more helpful to a writer’s development than trafficking in bullshit for a while. Bullshit (loosely defined as obliviousness to truth) can improve our freedom and originality on the page, take us beyond our conscious agendas, and crack the ice of our earnestness (earnestness being the number one writing crime). “The fool would be wise,” someone said, “if he persisted in his folly.”

This will be a two-day generative course in the uses of bullshit, and bad writing generally, to forward our skill and imagination. There will be models, craft talks, and lots of practice. It promises to be fun, yet we’re not just clowning around.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.

In this generative workshop, open to writers at any level of experience, we’ll explore writing that breaks from conventional narrative forms. We’ll read pieces framed as letters, logs, multiple-choice tests, eBay listings, and syllabi, by writers such as Evie Shockley, Doug Dorst, Daniel Orozco, and Kathy Fish. Inspired by these readings, you’ll complete writing exercises that provide you with a prescribed form and then ask you to discover what characters, images, and tensions emerge to fill that shape. Throughout the weekend, you’ll let form come first, to open up unexpected paths for your writing and make room for spontaneity and surprise.

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We’re constantly seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching things in the world…and we inevitably compare what we sense with other things. These acts of comparison—seeing one thing as or like another—are at the heart of poetic making. On Day 1 we’ll enjoy reading model poems and try fun exercises that highlight how metaphor helps working minds naturally (and evocatively) move from sensory perception into realms of thinking and feeling. On Day 2 we'll explore how metaphor sustains different poetic forms—in particular, the sonnet, the pastoral, and the elegy—and consider figurative strategies that 1) liberate formal parameters, 2) sustain and challenge our ideas of place, and 3) generate, out of absence or the threat of loss, vivid and satisfying poems. An excellent course for poets of all levels and for fiction writers who want to explore the power of metaphor.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.

This is a “doers” workshop, designed to address the problems that present themselves to the writer faced with a public performance or presentation of their own work. We will investigate tactics and techniques essential for making those presentations stronger. How do I take the stage? How do I use my voice well? How do I relax in front of people? What do I wear? Do I use a prop? Do I memorize? How do I hold the text? Can I have fun?

We will look at these questions, working through the presentations of every student in the class. We will begin with a monologue, essay, group of poems, or short story that you have chosen from your own writing. Suggested length is ten to twenty minutes when read aloud.

Please plan to send your work to Beau two weeks before we meet in Iowa City, if possible (if you register later, no worries! We will adapt).

In this workshop, we will provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend; critique writing you bring from home.

One of the most effective ways of developing a story or poem or essay is to work in layers of different narrative or thematic material. When the layers come from different realms of experience or thought (personal experience, science, history, folk lore, work, religion, politics, food, art, etc.), or when they carry different emotional charges (comic, tragic, mysterious, mundane), they complicate each other in distinctive ways. Things get interesting that were maybe flat and predictable before, and the writing achieves depth, originality, and rich intensity. This workshop is focused on using techniques of layering to bring that kind of power and richness to your own writing.

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Strong feeling is often what drives us to write. We want our reader to experience the sadness or outrage, the delight or sense of betrayal we feel when thinking about a fictional (or nonfictional) situation. But how do we do that, exactly? How do we tell a story that’s not cold, but that’s not melodramatic either?

This class will offer exercises and prompts to explore a variety of ways to get emotion on the page. We will experiment with description, dialogue, action, and gesture, and also how we use language itself. For each technique, we will look at examples from the pros, discussing how a range of writers have tackled these challenges. At the end of the weekend, you’ll have several new tools in your tool belt, and you will have written some pages that can serve as a springboard for more complete works. Together we will strive to make our classmates cry, laugh, gasp, and maybe even tremble with fear. Useful for both beginning and more experienced writers in any prose genre.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments, and provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend together.