Let’s say you have a book idea, a book in progress, or a bunch of fragments that you hope will someday come together as a book. Let’s say that you’re unable to see exactly how everything should fit together or what the glue of the narrative is. Perhaps you’ve kicked around an idea for years but haven’t really committed to it, or possibly you’ve written the book already or are halfway through and have stopped. If this sounds like you, then you might consider writing a book proposal, whether you intend to submit this proposal to a publisher or not. Book proposals don’t have to be submitted to a publisher, but they can be an opportunity for you to understand your book more clearly and help you finish it. In this weeklong workshop, we will go through the process of writing proposals to potential publishers (or to yourself). While submitting a book proposal makes the most sense for writers of nonfiction or memoir, as it’s rare for a book of fiction to sell on one, anyone who wants to get a better handle on a longer project, regardless of genre, will benefit from this workshop. Even finished books need proposals sometimes to whet the appetites of agents and editors. We’ll learn about sample chapters, comparing your book to others, identifying your audience, and the chapter-by-chapter outline. Come to the class with one idea or several, or an outline (no more than 500 words) of your book in progress, or simply your frustration that the book you started years ago still isn’t done. While we can’t promise a cure-all, the book proposal might be a helpful tool for you. The class will largely be generative and will include daily exercises. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week; workshop writing you bring from home.

In this generative poetry-writing workshop, students will learn to recognize and manage that most slippery of pronouns in life and in poetry, “you.” Who “is” you in this poem? Can “you” be a cat? A bus? A planet? Me? Are you so vain you think this poem is about you? How dare “you”? Has this poem even met me? What is it this poem wants from me, the reader? Alternatively, what do I (the poet) want from you (the reader)? In five days with five respective units, we will cover: Unit 1: Cover letter (the private is public) Unit 2: The direct address (who are you this time?) Unit 3: The indirect address (expert eavesdropping) Unit 4: Mistaken identity (I thought you were someone else) Unit 5: I (who am I to address you thusly?) Students will have the opportunity to share work with one another, to read the works of life-changing poets, to receive feedback on previously written poems regarding how to radically re-envision their relationship to the reader (or you), and to meet one-on-one with me towards the end of the course. All levels welcome. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week; workshop writing you bring from home.

Do you dream of making a book but feel like you’ll never write enough? You may already have more than you think. Whether you have scattered drafts, notes scribbled in the margins, or a collection of short pieces, this workshop will help you shape them into something whole—a zine, a chapbook, or even a full-length manuscript. In this workshop, we will: Gather the writing you already have, no matter how unfinished or fragmented. Organize these pieces like a collector arranging their most cherished keepsakes—finding connections, themes, and surprising through lines. Curate and showcase them with an editor’s eye, revealing the larger work that’s been waiting to emerge. Along the way, you’ll generate new writing in class, explore strategies for revision and re-writing, and develop a deeper understanding of your book’s potential structure. We’ll examine works by writers such as Cara Blue Adams, Carmen Maria Machado, Claudia Rankine, and Megan Stielstra—authors who have skillfully assembled their own books from a mosaic of prose. This workshop is ideal for writers with works in progress—whether in fiction or nonfiction—but is open to anyone eager to explore how smaller pieces can form a bigger picture. With feedback from both peers and the instructor, you’ll leave with a stronger sense of your book’s blueprint, a clearer vision for your project, and a renewed creative momentum. Come with what you have. Leave with a book in the making. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week; workshop writing you bring from home.

Where to begin? That’s the question memoirists are faced with at the beginning of a project. Whether your story spans years, months, or days, the opening pages of the book must capture the reader. In this workshop, we’ll look at a range of “beginnings”—considering the various styles, strategies, and approaches writers use to bring the reader into the world of their book. The week will involve a range of reading and writing exercises, as well as time dedicated to workshopping. Overall, you can expect to be writing a lot and reading a lot. The class will be useful for those just starting out, those with a project in mind, and those already in process. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.

If you’ve always wanted to write a novel, this class is for you. Come with an idea, some notes, an outline, a rough draft, or anything in between. Wherever you are in this process, your classmates and I will help you move forward. You’ll generate new work (both in and outside of class) and share it with your classmates and me for immediate feedback. We’ll read and analyze novel excerpts and examine techniques the authors use. I’ll give you writing prompts to help you create a compelling voice, a vivid setting, rounded characters, and a suspenseful structure. You’ll return home with a fuller understanding of the novel writing process, more of your novel written, and renewed confidence that you’ll be able to see it through. Together we’ll work hard, have fun, and inspire each other. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.

We’re adept at narrativizing our own lives. Even the dullest and most dreadful experiences become fodder for a good barstool story. Yet when faced with the blank page, too often our skill and our joy abandon us. In this generative workshop, we’ll transform our rich experience as veteran storytellers into the key to unlock our voices and our narratives. The goal of this course is to translate our stories to the page, to mine our memories for sensual details, and to find new meanings in the stories we keep telling. This course is for poets and prose writers who long to write about their lives but don’t know where to begin. We’ll draw inspiration from published work across genres, building an arsenal of stylistic and structural approaches to writing. Through a guided discussion, generative writing exercises, and peer feedback participants will tap into their wellspring of self-narratives and explore those moments where the page invites greater depth and nuance. This class is for beginning and experienced writers alike. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

How useful the emoji! Beyond their charm, these little images clarify tone, save us time and sometimes trouble, and offer pops of flair to our otherwise mundane communication (fireworks! dancing lady in red!). How, we wonder, did we ever communicate without them? And now that they’re here, how can written language hope to keep up? Well, consider this two-day bootcamp a celebration of that most incredible of human technologies—the sentence. We all have our patterns for sentence-making, our go-tos of syntax and diction. Which means that we’re all at risk of settling into ruts. This class aims to diversify our toolkits, starting with a clean distinction between two primary types of sentences. From there, we’ll move among in-class, generative writing exercises, brief craft lessons, and close-reading discussions about exemplary sentences drawn from novels, stories, essays, and poems. Because the best way to become a better sentence writer is to become a better sentence appreciator. We will emulate, appropriate, and absorb from literature’s best teachers. This course will benefit new and experienced writers alike–any sharing of work will be voluntary and the critical atmosphere will be one of discovery, exploration, and mutual support. All students will leave this weekend with a richer understanding of diction, syntax, and the interplay between speaker and voice. And, perhaps, a better understanding of what we mean by that elusive, slippery thing we call “style.” In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Who are the characters you really want to read about? Not the well-behaved ones, but the scoundrels: the characters you love to hate and really want to follow. In this workshop for fiction writers at any level, we will discuss some stories and novel excerpts that feature characters who are flawed—the transgressors, the obsessives, and more—see how they work on the page, and develop some memorable characters of our own. We will do generative exercises in which you can explore different types of compelling characters. Students will receive a one- to two-page homework assignment on Saturday, and can share characters they create with the class on Sunday; we will do generative work both days. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.

Have you ever wanted to create a character totally different from your own experience but got cold feet? Possibly because you’ve heard or read the adage that writers should “write what you know.” Toni Morrison, however, famously instructed her students to “write something you don’t know. And don’t be scared, ever.” Myriad writers across the ages have challenged themselves to write about characters quite unlike themselves with regard to race, gender, age, ethnicity, etc.—some more successfully than others. We all possess the right to write about whomever we please. But we must write the truth about these folks despite not having “walked in their shoes.” So, how do we avoid creating characters who are inauthentic—or worse, stereotypes? Author Dani Shapiro says that as writers “we need to know what makes a character unique, nuanced, indelible.” In this brief course we will examine works from writers who have successfully created authentic characters with whom they have little in common. We will explore what type of research is required for this undertaking. We will also look at unsuccessful and inauthentic attempts, deciphering where the writers went wrong. Participants will generate work both in class and out via writing prompts and mini-assignments and will receive workshop-style feedback with instructions on giving feedback with compassion. They will leave the class with clear strategies for developing realistic characters who are markedly different from themselves. New as well as established writers may enroll in this class. They may bring work they want to improve but may also create new work. Everyone will leave bursting with ideas about story and characterization, including a music playlist for one main character. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend; workshop writing you bring from home.

Let’s say you’re looking forward to a visit from your dear old Aunt Ida, but when she arrives, you’re disappointed by how tiresome and dull she is. Actually you’re disappointed in yourself: Aunt Ida has always been dull—why should this time be any different? Likewise, as writers, if we expect to succeed by working in the same way every time, no matter the subject, falling back on habitual patterns, we’re just inviting old Aunt Ida (bless her heart) for another visit. Even worse—we’re becoming her! As a teacher, I introduce writers to a multiplicity of practices for making discoveries on the page. But if I could only teach one, it would be “working against your drift.” Working against your drift is a dynamic practice that trains us to never be complacent, never settle for even a smart idea or clever move, never “get high off your own supply.” When we work against our drift, we adjust ourselves into greater precision and possibility, inviting the world’s subtlety and surprise onto the page. This workshop will include models, discussion and practices to help any writer, no matter the subject or genre. In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our weekend.