Spring 2013 Writing Class Schedule
For Summer 2013 classes, if you register by 9 pm on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 and pay by cash or check, you can take an additional 5% early registration discount. The discount is not available when you pay via PayPal.
We have a limited amount of funding to help those who want to take a class or seminar but can't afford it. In order to apply, please download and fill out our Scholarship/Subsidy Form and send it to us with your class registration and partial payment. We ask that anyone who receives subsidies please remember us with a donation when you are able.
Instructor: Don Fry
Cost: $10 Members Only
Thursday, June 6 or Monday, June 10, 2013 | 7:00-8:00pm
BOTH SESSIONS ARE NOW FULL
Have an intense session with writing coach Don Fry. We will explore your writing process to help solve what you regard as your biggest problem. Don does not work with text; writers' problems occur not in the text but in the process that produced that text. The format is three writers and the coach. Each participant gets 20 minutes, with the other two listening. Don donates his time for these sessions. One recent participant wrote this about the experience:
"I'm not exaggerating: my 1-on-3 session with Don Fry was the single most impressive hour I've ever spent in an educational setting. It's remarkable how much he can accomplish with 20 minutes per person.
Instructor: Jay Kauffmann
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
5 Fridays, June 28-August 2, 2013, skipping July 5, 2013
9:00am-noon
For aspiring poets, fiction and creative nonfiction writers, this introductory survey will consider the nuts-and-bolts of creative writing. Through workshop discussion, readings, exercises and weekly assignments, we will explore the process and develop the craft and fundamental tools for writing strong poetry and narrative prose.
Instructor: Kathy May
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
6 Wednesdays, June 26-July 31, 2013 | 6:30 PM-9:00 PM
Writing children’s picture books involves balancing text and image. It also requires appealing to both children and adults. In this class, we will explore essential elements of this popular genre using published books and participant writings. Meetings will offer exercises designed to generate ideas and create story possibilities in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and prose. Writers may complete selected assignments or work on a single story and may well finish the class with drafts of several manuscripts.
Instructor: Hilary Steinitz
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
6 Mondays, June 24-July 29, 2013 | 6:30 PM-9:00 PM
Writing fiction requires both imaginative access to the stories we wish (or need) to tell and an understanding of literary craft. This course aims to help participants access their imaginative material and to shape and refine that material. We will focus on reading one another’s fiction with precision and delivering feedback constructively. Student work as well as readings of short published works will provide a springboard for discussions of the elements of literary craft. Topics of discussion may include: overcoming obstacles to our writing, revising creatively, and preparing our work for publication.
Instructor: John Most
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
6 Tuesdays, June 25-July 30, 2013 | 6:30 PM-9:00 PM
We will read, write, and discuss poems in order to refine what makes our poems poetic. We will look at poems and poets that have influenced our own writing and invent writing experiments built upon rewriting, memories, and diction. This class is designed to be flexible, so what’s best for the class comes first. Each student will have the opportunity to meet with the instructor individually as well as receive a written response to their poems.
Instructor: Avery Chenoweth
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
6 Wednesdays, June 26-July 31, 2013 | 6:30 PM-9:00 PM
In this nonfiction workshop, we will examine and discuss pieces that range from reportage to essay and memoir, with discussions of how to focus a piece, how to conduct interviews, and how to weave disparate elements into a unified whole.
Instructor: Jay Varner
Cost: $135 Members | $150 Non-Members
5 Thursdays, June 27-August 1, 2013, skipping July 4, 2013
9:00am-noon
Through writing, reading, and discussion, we will explore narrative nonfiction: storytelling about real people, real places, and real events. Creative nonfiction allows a writer to employ the diligence of a reporter, the shifting voices and viewpoints of a novelist, the refined wordplay of a poet, and the analytical modes of an essayist.
In addition to our regular 6 and 8-week classes, we have half-day, one-day, and two-day seminars. See the current list below.
Instructor: Jay Kauffmann
Cost: $55 Members | $60 Non-Members
Saturday, June 15, 2013 | 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Write a micro-memoir under 1000 words—the nonfiction equivalent of flash fiction—which might hold the seed of a full-length work. There will be in-class readings and exercises that address pertinent craft issues, and we will explore the essential elements of memoir writing, such as sensory imagery, metaphoric language, distinctive voice, dramatic arc, and focused theme.
Instructor: Jay Varner
Cost: $270 Members | $300 Non-Members
8 Tuesdays, June 11-July 30, 2013 | 9:00-11:30am
This is a continuation of the spring One Essay Class--all spaces are now filled.
Arrive with a strong draft, workshop and revise it, and leave with one publishable essay. Students should already have a firm grasp of the tenets of creative nonfiction. An intensive examination of each writer's work will encompass larger concerns such as structure and developments as well as more focused issues like sentence structure and word choice. Space is limited to eight students, who will be selected from the pool of applicants by the instructor.
Instructor: Monica Bauer
Cost: $55 Members | $60 Non-Members
Saturday, June 29, 2013 | 9:00am-1:00pm
Monica Bauer shares secrets of character development from her workshop experiences with Edward Albee, Marsha Norman, Craig Lucas, the late Romulus Linney, and others. Useful for any writer who would like to create deeper and more vibrant characters.
Read more: Seminar: Character Development: Lessons from the Theater
Instructor: Monica Bauer
Cost: $55 Members | $60 Non-Members
Sunday, June 30, 2013 | 1:00-5:00pm
For actors who would like to become writers, or for writers who would like to enter the growing field of writing for the solo performer. Two parts: Writing your own Autobiographical Show and Writing the Play for Solo Actor. As getting plays produced becomes more and more difficult, actors and playwrights have been turning to solo shows as a way for their work to be seen in festivals and small theaters. This workshop will help you avoid cliches, confessional therapy sessions, and navel-gazing, by helping you see solo theater as a layered exploration rich in themes, with a potential for cultural critique.
Instructor: Rachel Unkefer
Cost: $90 Members | $100 Non-Members
Sunday, July 14, 2013 | 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Scrivener is a powerful and low-cost computer program designed specifically for writers. Unlike regular word processors, it has tools for organizing your ideas, storing your research alongside your manuscript, and easily rearranging chapters or sections. Learn how to get the most from Scrivener in this hands-on seminar, whether you write novels, short stories, essays, nonfiction books, or poetry. We'll cover how to import files from Microsoft Word and how to format for submission. Bring your laptop if you have one, and your work-in-progress files.
Read more: Seminar: Using Scrivener to Organize Your Writing
Instructor: Mariflo Stephens
Cost: $55 Members | $60 Non-Members
Saturday, July 27, 2013 | 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Stretch your skills. Learn the villanelle, a French verse form which, in its 19 lines, gives the impression of simplicity through its complexity. Eight of the 19 lines are refrains. The most well-known example is: "Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light." This will be a fun exercise in poetical form.
Instructor: Kristen-Paige Madonia
Cost: $90 Members | $100 Non-Members
Saturday, August 10, 2013 | 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
This course will introduce students to the YA genre and will include a mini-workshop component where participants will be invited to share the first five pages of their YA project. As one of the newest, largest, and most diverse genres in the industry, it is often difficult to define YA Lit; through the examination of YA samples and the discussion of YA craft techniques, this class will explore successful tools used to create the unique tone and momentum found in YA Lit.
Read more: Seminar: YA Lit - Not Just for Kids: An Introduction and First-pages Workshop
Instructor: BettyJoyce Nash
Cost: $90 Members | $100 Non-Members
Saturday, August 24, 2013 | 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
If you're an American writer, sooner or later one of your characters will get a gun. Why? How does the gun change the character? Was Chekhov (who failed to follow his own advice) correct when he said that a gun introduced in the first act must go off in the third? In this seminar, we'll see how writers from Anton Chekhov to Sherman Alexie use firearms in fiction. Please bring an excerpt from one of your own "gun stories."
