Are you poetry-curious? A secret poet? A poetry lover who always wanted to try your hand? Want a refresher on what makes a great poem? This one-day workshop is for you! We’ll read some contemporary poems that work as good introductions to the art form. We’ll go over the building blocks of poetry: image, sound, syntax (sentence structure and grammar), the poem’s shape, diction and tone. And we’ll try our hands at writing. All in a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment. You’ll finish the day with a couple of first drafts – and a renewed curiosity and confidence!  

Of all the five senses, taste has a particularly powerful ability to both conjure memory and unite our lived experiences.  The fragrance of frying garlic, the yeasty warmth of fresh bread, the bite of chili sauce or the juicy pulp of a Christmas orange – not only can taste memory bring us back, but it can be a door to that which is left unexplored. Writer Natalie Eve Garrett, editor of Eat Joy, writes “Food can be such a lovely way into the heart of a story.”  In this half-day workshop, we’ll read and discuss short personal essays with food at their center, as well as dive into writing exercises that use food memories as a conduit for the love, disappointment, grief or joy that lie deeper. 

Where would Harry Potter be without Voldemort and Hermione?  Or Scout without Dill and Boo Radley? The role of secondary characters is not just to populate your story, but to drive it forward. The people close to your protagonist can be antagonists—characters who create conflict for your main character—or they can be allies, who assist the main character’s journey. If your antagonists and allies aren’t fully realized, your story will undoubtedly feel flat. A finely drawn secondary character is one who is neither wholly evil or completely good—one whose desires and foibles intersect meaningfully with your protagonist’s. Spend the morning with best-selling author, Jacqueline Sheehan, sharpening the conflict in your story through that crucial, mysterious energy between characters. 

In this half-day workshop, multi-published author Susanne Dunlap will bring her background in advertising and marketing to the table to help writers navigate the murky waters of self-promotion. We will cover the basics of using your free social-media accounts to connect with readers, as well as how to set up Facebook ads and dip your toes into Amazon advertising—without losing your shirt. We’ll discuss strategies for traditionally published authors with limited control of factors such as pricing and keywords, and explore options for self-published authors who can do it all—but who face different challenges. Recommended for anyone who has plans to get a book-length work in any discipline published.

Do you long for a breakthrough in your writing, feel locked-in to patterns, or abandoned by your muse? Does your writing style need an infusion of freshness or depth? This afternoon workshop goes beyond genre to explore the lyric in your prose (and narrative in your poetry)—and in everything you read. You’ll learn exercises and strategies to generate image-driven work that emphasizes rhythm and sound, invites compression and fragmentation, taps into emotion and enriches narrative voice. This workshop includes a presentation with handouts, inspiring prompts and exploratory writing periods, followed by participant readings and supportive, inspiring discussion of your work. Open to all levels and genres!

This 6-week workshop is tailored for writers who want to explore settings outside the ordinary, known world. Each week, we’ll highlight a craft topic related to world-building, including: the role of research, mapping your world, when/how to use unfamiliar languages, establishing or researching the rules of your world, and keeping your characters believable within the parameters you or history has set for your story. You’ll have ample time to write and practice the craft we’ve discussed at the start of each session. Ideal for writers at all stages and levels. The only requirement is a sense of adventure and a wildly active imagination!

World building is most often associated with fantasy and science fiction, but it’s an equally crucial part of writing historical fiction. The difference with historical fiction is that the world you create doesn’t spring solely from your imagination. It must be grounded in real history, involving careful research and attention to detail. So how do you manage it without losing yourself down an endless research rabbit hole and never getting to the page? In this half-day workshop, you’ll be introduced to some principles and strategies that will help you create an authentic world integral to the story you’re telling, a world that can feel real and immersive to your reader without overwhelming your process. In addition, I’ll share some tools and resources I have found helpful in writing my 14 historical novels, and provide exercises that will enable you to focus your research and world building on the needs of your particular story.  Online.

All great stories begin with strong characters, and a little psychology goes a long way towards developing those characters into people that readers will feel invested in.  Spend the morning with psychologist and bestselling author, Jacqueline Sheehan, uncovering your characters’ strongest desires, giving them believable obstacles, motivating wounds and fascinating flaws that will make them more human. We will generate new material through creative prompts that illuminate our characters’ psyches!  Bring writing implements and a desire to go deep!

Sometimes the best way to tell a story is with humor. Especially a hard one. Those who don’t understand it, think that humor is the easy way out. But it’s not. To do it well is difficult and rare. In this half-day workshop, author Megan Tady will help you to put the funny into your prose. We’ll discuss passages by some of the most successful humor writers writing today—writers who manage to deliver the laughs and a propulsive plot. We’ll also master the specific techniques needed to nail comedic timing, shape comical descriptions of your characters without veering toward cruelness, avoid cliches by deeply connecting to your characters, and trust your readers so you don’t “over-funny” your book. Plan for plenty of in-class writing and time to share your work with the group! 

Back by popular demand! Effective dialogue is the linchpin of successful scene-writing.  Dialogue can propel a story forward, reveal character, increase narrative tension: in short, dialogue done well engages readers like no other craft element. Yet, for almost all writers, writing compelling and authentic dialogue is one of the biggest hurdles. In this illuminating half-day Livestream intensive, writers will look closely at the elements of dialogue that make for effective scene work. Through exercises and examples, writers will learn how to craft dialogue that is purposeful, builds character, and develops the subtext that gives their scenes life. Participants should feel free to bring work that is already in progress, but writers of all levels and genres are welcome!  After you register, we will send you a link to the online course.  

Everybody dreams and everybody has a story to tell. In this online weekly workshop, we will access the deep wisdom of unconscious to supercharge our writing for personal growth or publication—or both.  Participants will generate new work, explore the intersections between dreaming and writing, and learn  to optimize creativity by understanding the brain chemistry of the dreaming mind. Open to writers of all genres, whether they remember their dreams or not. 

Scenes are the essential building blocks of a compelling narrative. Some would even say that the secret to captivating readers is knowing when (and how) to create a dramatized scene and when to include narrative summary. While in-scene writing is often the most enjoyable to read, scenes can be incredibly challenging to write. In this 3-hour class, we will focus on what exactly defines in-scene writing, why it is so crucial, and how to create scenes that are dynamic, interesting, and well-paced. We’ll discuss how to decide what scenes need to be fully in-scene, how to transition into and out of the scene, as well as how to employ pacing, setting, direct dialogue, and choreography of your characters’ bodies in space to create the most vivid scenes possible. All levels and genres are welcome!

Weird: of strange or extraordinary character; different from anything natural. The things that make you bizarre are also the things that can infuse your writing with a singular flair. This class is a permission slip to excavate the oddities within you to create magic on the page. Starting with guided, out-of-the-box writing exercises, we will explore inside and outside ourselves through the devices of Environment and Character. We’ll include discussions of published writings that embrace the strange, as well as ample space to share. This class will be taught from a character-driven, playwriting lens but is well-suited to any writer who wants to push past the confines of the ordinary. You should expect to walk away with story seeds, a monologue, a scene, and new confidence in weaving your quirky point of view into all of your writing.

The braided essay takes any number of differing narratives and with those “strands,” weaves them together to form a braid.  The key word in that last sentence was differing – these narratives are often so disparate that at first they seem downright unrelated.  Take Joann Beard’s essay “The Fourth State of Matter” for example, when the story of her sick dog, a squirrel infestation and her faltering marriage, and a school shooting at Iowa University come together to speak to Beard’s inability to control the events in her life. The process of pulling together two or more divergent ideas can allow for new neural pathways to open, for perspectives to propagate.  In this half-day workshop we’ll explore some braided essay examples, brainstorm and trouble shoot ideas for your own, and have some guided writing time to help get a draft down on paper. 

Autofiction, most broadly defined as the autobiographical novel, continuously divides critics, publishers, and writers alike. Some fear that autofiction is “growing like a tumor in the body of prose writing,” while still others claim that at its core, it “bears witness to something real and deeply felt.” Despite the debate, the number of novels associated with autofiction is on the rise. But why do writers choose to eschew memoir and nonfiction and use their true material under the thin, sometimes transparent, guise of fiction? Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy, has claimed that ultimately she found fiction “fake and embarrassing.” And where is the line between fiction, nonfiction, and autofiction, really? Elizabeth McCracken of her novel, The Hero of This Book, writes, ““I wouldn’t argue that objectivity is essential for a memoir, but it’s really not essential for a novel… I wanted to be able to leave out the stuff that probably would have to go into [a memoir].” In this half-day class, we’ll dig into the rich and varied examples of autofiction out there and talk about its authors’ motivations. We’ll also have plenty of time for generative prompt writing, with sharing of that writing and comments from the class. If you’d like to experiment with placing your memoir or fiction material into the autofiction realm, this class is for you!

Every story has a beginning and an end, but how does a writer best navigate the space of time in-between? Which parts of the story should be condensed or summarized, and which should be shown as detailed, ‘real time’ scenes? How does a writer know when to slow down for backstory or setting detail, and when the action should pick up pace to engage the reader? This task of manipulating narrative time is one of the hardest jobs a writer has to face. In this workshop, part of our “Fiction Essentials” series, we will examine the elements of pacing and learn exercises and tools for expanding and compressing, slowing down or speeding up narrative time. Through examples and specific exercises, we’ll explore the mechanics of pacing and gain a stronger understanding of how to manipulate the time in our own stories.

Setting details are often either overlooked or overused.  Some writers try to pack in a lot of setting details as a way to ‘set the stage.’  Others fear the reader will be bored and the action bogged down by any attention to place.  But well-chosen and well-placed setting details are incredibly important to the impact of any narrative.  Just ask Alice Munro, Flannery O’Connor or James Joyce—all writers who make a great deal of where their stories happen.  In this morning workshop, bestselling author Jacqueline Sheehan will take you through examples and exercises that will help illuminate how to use place effectively–not just to establish ‘mood’ or engage readers’ senses, but to amplify the tension, illuminate character psychology, and echo the central conflict in your stories. A well-drawn setting creates a kind of alchemy that can both reveal character and move the story toward its conclusion.   

Finding the right agent for your book is one of the most important and thrilling steps on the way to publication.  But the world of literary agencies can be overwhelming, even intimidating.  Which agencies might be right for your project, and how do you find a perfect match?  In this evening workshop, literary agent Jessica Papin will take you through the steps of navigating this important partnership, from research to query letters, from book concept to overall career expectations/goals. Through discussion, examples, tools and tips, you’ll learn what agents do, what they’re seeking, how to keep them reading, and will discover the do’s and don’ts of queries and submissions. The best part is that you’ll be working directly with an experienced agent who will provide feedback specific to your work. Limited to 8 or 9 participants, each of whom will be invited to send a query letter draft for feedback a week before the workshop date.  Take the next step toward finding your place in the literary market!

Most of us write to make sense of our hardest experiences in life. But how do we write into memories and relationships that feel too heavy, too dark, too painful to hold on our own? This is where hidden allies can come in. Imagine a story about grief told through octopuses, or a complex relationship conveyed through the metaphor of invasive plants, or a childhood captured through fragmented memories of a family pet. Bringing in an “ally” can offer levity, humor, and unexpected insights that shine light on the fullness and depth of our story. But we don’t have to hunt or invent metaphors out of thin air. The magical part is that the strongest allies are already embedded in our lives. We simply have to learn how to locate them, crack open their full metaphoric potential, and discover narrative possibilities that we never could have found alone.

An ending can make or break a story. Think of a gymnast on the vault: she can defy gravity, flip in the air seventeen times, but if she can’t stick her landing, the audience will remember little else. In narrative, an ending has a similar impact on the audience’s experience: it can break it by not providing an authentic sense of closure, or it can make it by surprising the reader in a way that keeps them thinking about the story for years to come. But how do we make sure to stick our endings? In this half-day workshop, writers will discover the five things that strong endings do well, study examples of successful endings in literature, and explore strategies for finding the right ending to our stories. Perfect for writers of all genres!

Writing a book-length work—of fiction, nonfiction, or memoir—is a truly daunting feat of intellect and imagination. Even if you’ve done it before, every book you write is a new challenge. So where do you start? How can you face the blank page without overwhelm and confusion?  Even if you think of yourself as a ‘discovery writer,’ it helps to have a few building blocks—a foundational idea of where you are going and how you’ll get there. This workshop is designed to help you discover and develop the foundation of your story–whatever your genre.  We will go through a series of exercises that focus on creating a believable world and rounded characters (or bringing real people to life on the page), developing enough propulsion to sustain a narrative, and much more!  You’ll leave the workshop with a framework for your story, flexible enough to allow for the inevitable discovery of drafting.

Finding the right agent for your book is one of the most important and thrilling steps on the way to publication. But the world of literary agencies can be overwhelming, even intimidating. Which agencies might be right for your project, and how do you find a perfect match for your genre? In this workshop, writers will work through the steps of navigating this important partnership, from research to query letters, from book concept to submitting your book to editors. Through discussion, examples, tools and tips, you’ll learn what agents are seeking, how to keep them reading, and the do’s and don’ts of queries. The best part is that you’ll learn from a writer who has survived the process of querying and lived to tell the tale!

Compelling flash essays capture small, dramatic moments in our lives–those instances which leave a lasting impression, like a shooting star or a meteor strike. But powerful flash essays (500-1,000 words) are not merely short; they are also concise and contain profound revelations. In this generative/craft workshop, we will review the essential craft elements of flash essays, drawing inspiration from published short essays to launch into our own. We will gain a deeper appreciation for the flash form, looking at narrative and hermit crab essays. Class will include guided writing prompts, craft tips and time for feedback and questions. This session is ideal for those new to flash essays, or experienced nonfiction writers looking to refine their technique.

This powerful tool, developed by Jennie Nash (book coach to multiple bestselling authors), will transform how you think about your project. It goes beyond the question of structure and plot to help you map out what really moves your story along: what it all means to your protagonist, scene by scene. In this workshop (taught over two consecutive Saturdays), you’ll be able to start tying the external, plot-based events of your story to the internal, emotion-based truths that inform it. You’ll be able to share your work and get feedback so you can go forward and complete the entire picture of your book. This workshop is great for both writers who like to outline and writers who don’t. It’s ideal if you’re just starting a manuscript, are partway through your draft, or are about to launch into a revision.

Want to try something new with your writing in the New Year?  Are you curious about reading or writing graphic novels but don’t know where to start? In this workshop, writers will receive a crash course in the graphic novel manuscript format.  We’ll break down page-based pacing, learn the mathematical formulas that balance graphics with wordage, and turn the medium’s monotonous conventions into something with a little more approachability and style… We’ll look at some examples of the genre, talk about story lines and craft elements.  Then, writers will be given a chance to try their hand at the form, beginning with imaginative prompts to jump-start the process, and will receive supportive feedback on their ideas. Whether you have a graphic novel in process or have never before explored the form, everything you need to know will be provided during the workshop. All genres and levels are welcome!

Nonfiction books—self-help, how-to, informational—are sold on proposal, including only a few sample chapters. But memoirs, as well, benefit from having book proposals to support the pitching process, even though they do require a completed manuscript. This workshop covers the essential elements of a book proposal, with guidelines for writing them, how to format a proposal, and the basics of researching agents and publishers for your book. 

In times of extremity and peril, when so many communities are under daily attack and the future of our very home, this planet, is imperiled, how do we express our outrage?  How do we dream another world in poetry or prose that moves beyond the rhetoric of speeches or the reasoned arguments of power-point presentations? How do we reach people in their hearts, where change begins? In this morning workshop, we’ll explore the enormous variety of approaches contemporary writers and poets are taking to this question, both thematically and stylistically. Then, with the help of some inspiring prompts, we’ll try our hand at some writing that inspires change. All genres and levels welcome!  

This workshop is dedicated to keeping the creative channel open through practice, curiosity, and community. They say that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so we’ll commit to 21 days of daily writing, to unlearn habits of  inhibition and create new grooves that allow your imagination and artistry to flow. Daily writing, in response to a “portal” – dynamic launching points for your writing – will be posted in Google Classrooms and will receive informal feedback from instructor and peers. Weekly in-person sessions will anchor our class, offering a chance to come together for communal writing, process-based reflections, and ample in-person feedback from your peers and instructor.

Real estate agents understand a fundamental principle that many aspiring writers overlook: where we reside powerfully impacts every single aspect of our lives. So why is setting the most underutilized tool in our writers’ toolboxes?  Master storytellers know that a well-conceived and developed setting does so much more than set the stage for our characters and plot. A great setting engages readers sensually, orients them in time and space, intensifies theme, pacing and conflict, and creates atmosphere and subtext. Without a meaningful and well-developed setting, our characters exist in a liminal space that leaves the characters (and our readers) disconnected from the story.  Yet so many writers overlook the importance of place, or over-describe a setting without understanding its true meaning and potential. In this morning workshop, we will learn how to supercharge our stories settings, exploring the key ingredients for settings that work, and reviewing the most common setting mistakes writers make. 

Point of view, or perspective, is a crucial element of storytelling, impacting how readers experience and interpret every story.  A narrative without a solid grasp of perspective can feel slippery, causing the reader to distrust the writer’s authority, while a writer confident in perspective holds the reader in the palm of their hand. But mastering point of view is one of the most challenging–and most crucial–tasks that a writer will face, in both fiction and nonfiction. When we are writing with a focus on perspective, we’re incorporating all our knowledge about our characters, as well as considering pacing, distance, access, when and how to withhold and reveal information… In this 3-hour class, we will discuss the key ingredients to mastering point of view, looking at examples from authors who use this craft element particularly well. Then we’ll play with some writing exercises inspired by our discussion, to help stretch and strengthen participants’ use of perspective in their own work. All levels welcome!

We’ve all experienced it. We’re cruising along writing our novel or memoir. We know what will happen and have some idea how we’ll get there. The beginning is really promising. Then at a point roughly a third of the way in, momentum slows or grinds to a halt, and we can’t quite identify what’s wrong or figure out how to fix it. Why? Because the seeds for sustained narrative drive are sown from the very beginning—even before you put words on the page. Without some basic structural concepts in place (don’t panic, pantsers! No outlining here), the chances you’ll find yourself stuck in the middle are greatly increased. In this half-day workshop, we’ll examine the underpinnings of pacing and narrative drive and talk about some examples that successfully keep readers turning the pages to the very end. Then we’ll do some exercises together to put your story to the test, and see if you can identify something that helps you fix or prevent that saggy middle.  Online. 

Desire is a force that can spark creative inspiration, propel our writing forward, and rivet our readers. So how can we find new ways to articulate desire in our work?  For centuries, poets have turned to nature as a rich source of writing about desire. In this half-day workshop, we’ll mine the natural world for images and language that embody desire in all its forms– not just hunger for a beloved, but longing— for connection, for transformation, for youth, for self-love, for a just world… We’ll start the day by exploring poems by writers who draw on nature to add texture, intensity, and emotional depth to their work; then we’ll use their lines as prompts to spark our own writing. In a supportive atmosphere, we’ll share our work and receive affirming feedback from the group. You’ll leave with a cache of new ideas to sustain your momentum. In-person & online!

As a fiction or narrative non-fiction writer, you can and must manipulate time by compressing and expanding it to fit the needs of your story.  Writers do not show every moment of a plot, every instance in a character’s life, but instead summarize or skip over big sections of time that are less relevant, while drawing out and emphasizing the moments which matter to the story.   In this morning craft intensive, we’ll cover some essential techniques for mastering narrative time, including how to create deeply experiential ‘real-time’ scenes, integrate lively backstory while maintaining narrative flow, flash backward and forward in time without losing the thread, and build effective transitions for holding it all together.   We’ll examine successful examples from published works, do some exercises and in-class writing, and share constructive feedback on participant work. Appropriate for all levels and genres of narrative – either fiction or nonfiction!

Time is what every writer seems to crave and lack the most. No matter how many promises or writing dates we make with ourselves, so many things get in the way: families to care for, appointments to keep, houses to clean, streaming platforms to distract. Sometimes, you have to just get away. It also helps to have accountability, and a beautiful, quiet place to work. In this all-day retreat, writers will come together at our peaceful and inspiring Florence, MA studio for a full day of writing. No interruptions! Feed your creativity, boost your productivity, find inspiration, and build community. During the retreat, writers will set multiple achievable goals for the day, find inspiration in a rotating series of prompts, and have the opportunity to check in if they’re feeling stuck. The day will include an hour break for lunch, but writers are welcome to bring their own bag lunch and work through the break. 

You’ve finished your manuscript (or almost, anyway). Congratulations! Now it’s time to think about how you’ll get it into readers’ hands. This workshop will cover the myriad avenues now available to writers who want to publish their work!  Spend a morning with a prolific author who has experience in almost every publishing avenue–from traditional publishing to hybrid publishing to self-publishing.  We’ll discuss the benefits, pitfalls and practical steps for each of these options.  During the morning, you will start to chart your path forward, and by the end of the workshop, you’ll have a plethora of tools and resources to help you take the next steps toward getting your book into print!

So often as writers, we are hindered by abstraction, a step or two removed from the experiences and feelings we are trying to convey.  In this 6-week workshop, we’ll explore the art and process of embodied writing, both on the page and as a way to put together a larger story. Through generative in-class practice, weekly craft readings, and regular assignments, we’ll learn how to inhabit vivid, sensory scenes, how to write trauma and dissociation, and how to bring the reader more fully and sensually into our work.  We’ll look at masters like Toni Morrison, Carmen Maria Machado, Elissa Washuta, and Porochista Khakpour, studying how they weave their attention to the body into full-length works. Participants will receive written instructor feedback on one short piece, and have the opportunity to read work aloud in each class and receive supportive reflections from the group. This generative class is especially recommended for anyone working on fiction or memoir that deals with trauma, illness, addiction, grief, desire, sexuality, or any project where you’re looking to strengthen the reader’s visceral connection to your characters and their embodied experiences. This workshop will take place online and/or in-person at our Florence studio. 

Any project can be daunting at the start. Some projects are still daunting in the middle, especially when they have a lot of moving parts — or shifting scenes! So how do you make sure that your writing stays on track towards your goal? Figuring out a project management plan can set you up for success and can make even the biggest projects seem less unwieldy and intimidating. This workshop will walk you through the process of setting “SMART” goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), “chunking out” your project into manageable pieces, setting a realistic timeline, and sustaining all of this work with the development of good habits. We’ll also look at some fantastic project management tools, both analog and digital, that you may choose to use in support of your project. Workshop attendees should be prepared to talk about a project they’re finding difficult to begin or one already in process that they need help organizing and managing. 

Got poems? Want to publish in literary journals but don’t know where to start? Or need an inspirational shot in the arm to send out more poems? This workshop is for you! Workshop leader Sarah Browning has published hundreds of poems in print and online lit journals, including Poetry, The Beloit Poetry Review, Shanandoah, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, and more. She’ll take the mystery out of the process, tell a few hilarious and inspiring stories, walk you through some sample journals’ submission guidelines and the submissions platform Submittable, and leave you with tools and resources to help you get your work out in the world, where it belongs.

When it comes to writing nonfiction, one of the hardest jobs we face as writers is making ourselves into characters. Like the other people that populate our work, we need to exist on the page as fully-formed human beings. We need to be seen by our reader and understood. We need strengths. We need weaknesses. We need flaws. We need foibles. And, above all, we need insight into ourselves that we didn’t have at the time… or maybe we still don’t have as we’re writing. In this half-day workshop, we’ll explore all of the ways we as writers can put ourselves fully on the page of our nonfiction so that the person our readers need to understand the most—our narrators—are open, honest, believable, vulnerable, and real. 

Editors and agents often say that if there are no stakes, there is no story.  But what are ‘stakes,’ and how do you create them in your writing? In this workshop, writers will learn to up the ante in their narratives by increasing the internal and external conflicts acting upon a character. In-class writing exercises will help us explore what’s at risk in our stories and why, and give us tools to amplify the tension.  Spend the morning with best-selling author Jacqueline Sheehan, discovering how to keep readers on the edge of their seats!

Research and Backstory are essential ingredients in narrative—they bring authority, authenticity, and depth to a story. But making those fascinating facts work for you and not against you is tricky. Research can lead down a rabbit hole of evermore-tantalizing tidbits of information, bogging down process and product. Backstory is research’s evil twin, occasionally turning into an information dump that can overshadow plot. In this morning workshop, we discuss the best sources and practices for research, and how to distill enough backstory into our pieces to lend authenticity, without making them dull.

Take a seed and let it grow. Come prepared to this two-week nonfiction intensive workshop with 3 – 5 ideas for longform pieces of writing. Using both your ideas and published examples, we will go over best practices for what to look for as a writer and a writer-reader, understanding how to view a piece of work through the eyes of various editors and publications. We’ll learn how to cast your ideas to the widest audience, then shape and devise a pitching/submission strategy to get your work in print!  With up to two revisions per student and a unique approach to magazine/journal submissions, students will get individualized, hands-on advice and intensive professional editing from a widely published professional journalist.  

There are so many reasons to learn to write a great romance novel! For one thing, romance writing remains the most popular and lucrative genre in publishing. And whatever genre you’re writing in, you can learn powerful storytelling lessons from the great romance writers. More than any other genre, romance is defined by likable, engaging protagonists and strong, embodied emotion on the page. Romances also have clearly defined, propulsive structures; so familiarizing yourself with the beats of romance writing can help you see the architecture of your own story. In this workshop, we’ll analyze a few classic romances and do some fun exercises that will help you develop and strengthen your own work, whether you want to write a romance or something else. You will come away with powerful insights on how to make your readers fall in love with your story—even if there’s not a kiss in sight.

Scrivener, by Literature and Latte, is a word processor designed for writers. It excels at working with a manuscript’s structure and content, as well as helping to organize research materials. It is currently in Version 3 for the Mac and Windows. It is, however, not especially intuitive and you can get lost in some of its more advanced features. In this class, we will demystify Scrivener’s main features—what Scrivener calls its binder, outliner and text editor—as well as the other features such as the scrapbook and corkboard. In addition, the class will cover tips and techniques for getting the most out of this amazing but sometimes intimidating tool! For Windows and Mac users of all levels.

The short story is a form unto itself, but what exactly is it? In this half-day workshop, writers will discover the beauty of this mysterious form. We’ll talk about the difference between an anecdote and a story,what every short story needs in order to be successful, how to develop characters and create tension in so little space, and what ideas are best suited for short stories. Perfect for writers interested in trying the form for the first time and writers who want to revisit the fundamentals to make their stories-in-progress even stronger!

Emotions are the key to crafting compelling characters. But what if your character can’t express his or her feelings? Skilled writers must learn how to capture, on the page, emotional nuances that the characters themselves aren’t even aware of. The good news is that there are multiple ways to reveal emotions that your characters don’t know they’re feeling. In this workshop, writers will experiment with nonverbal indications of emotion. Through exercises and examples, we’ll learn to move beyond the smile or frown to more subtle, specific and telling character details. We’ll also explore using physical aspects of a scene—setting detail, gesture, movement—to amplify our characters’ feelings, as though they are actors on a stage. 

Do you have a family story to tell?  Maybe your great uncle confessed something shocking last time you visited, or perhaps there’s a local legend connected to the history of your region?  Maybe you’ve discovered a tantalizing tidbit on Ancestry.com, or want to capture a family tale you’ve heard for years at gatherings…  Any of these can be great inspiration for a historical novel. But where to start? What if all you have is rumors and hearsay to go on? How do you figure out if there’s really a story to tell? In this full-day-long workshop, we’ll tackle all these questions, and more. Using the Mini Blueprint, we’ll start by sketching out the basics of what makes a compelling story arc. Then we’ll discuss research techniques, and how to be true to a period when you have few facts to go on—or how to sort through an abundance of facts to get to the actual story.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and the first pages of your story, essay, or book are just that: an opportunity to hook readers (or editors) and show them why they have to keep turning those pages. A great opening asks the important questions that the remaining pages will answer. In this half-day workshop led by literary magazine editor Emily Everett, writers will learn how to craft beginnings that intrigue and entice readers, but also check all the boxes essential for good storytelling: setting the scene, introducing the cast, and establishing the plot and the conflict/stakes. Then we’ll look at a few example beginnings from an editor’s perspective, identifying what hooks our interest and what slows us down. This workshop will be generative, but participants are encouraged to bring the first two pages of a piece in progress for real-time feedback!  This is an in-person / hybrid workshop, so you can either join virtually or come to our beautiful studio to take the class in person.  

Every writer dreams of the day her work is in print, but the road from dreaming to publishing is treacherous, filled with pitfalls, politics, and more places to submit than a writer knows what to do with. In this half-day workshop, writers will discover the fundamentals of submitting their work to literary journals, websites, and magazines. We’ll discuss how to find the right venue for your work, how to organize your submissions, what to include in a cover letter, and how to deal with and respond to inevitable rejections (or acceptances!). Writers will leave this workshop with a clear sense of how to start submitting their work, a list of where to submit, and a personalized plan for their submission process. Whether you’re a writer just starting out or a writer ready to send your work out into the world, this professional workshop is a must!

The tarot may be hot these days for predicting the future, but did you know it can also be used as a tool for writing and creativity? Join acclaimed tarotist and author Kris Waldherr for a three-hour workshop designed to introduce you to the mysteries of the tarot. No previous tarot experience required. Handouts included. Participants should come equipped with tools for writing, and a tarot deck (preferably a Rider-Waite or Goddess Tarot deck).

Whether our stories are invented or true, the key to good writing is the same: we want to tell an interesting, heartfelt tale that shines a light on some larger truth. At its heart, the personal essay is one of the most powerful vehicles for illuminating a universal theme through the writer’s intimate, lived experience. But the essay can take a myriad of different forms, and can be daunting to master. In this workshop, writers will closely read a number of effective essays, examining the elements that make them powerful and, ultimately, impossible not to publish. Each month, we’ll read and analyze three essays of a single form—lyric essays, graphic essays, hermit crab essays, and personal reportage—discuss what makes the pieces work, and try our hand at each. By the end of the workshop, writers will come away with a deep understanding of what is possible in a personal essay, and the techniques necessary to write compelling and consequential essays of their own. Online. 

In this workshop, writers will closely read a number of short stories to examine what’s at the heart of this form: character desire and change, the expansion and contraction of narrative time, and the power of epiphanies. We’ll talk about the difference between an anecdote and a story,what every short story needs in order to be successful, how to develop characters and create tension in so little space, and what ideas are best suited for short stories. By the end, writers will come away with a deep understanding of what is possible in a short story, and the techniques necessary to write compelling and consequential stories of their own. 

With the New Year, let’s take a fresh look at your writing. Are there places that feel stale or flat-footed? Is there something you need to discover about a character? Do you long to try something new? Whether you are writing a novel or memoir, short stories or essays, great story-telling requires both a working knowledge of craft and permission to experiment and play… In this 8-week workshop, writers have the chance to generate fresh work while honing individual craft skills. Each week, we will pinpoint a new craft area to enhance your work–voice, pacing, character motivation, world-building, and more. We’ll experiment with these skills in one long writing, or two shorter writings, followed by sharing and supportive feedback. This workshop is ideal for both writers who need to generate new work and those who wish to break through a rut or strengthen a current project through a deeper knowledge of craft.

No matter what we write—essays, novels, memoirs—story is at the heart of everything. It’s what all strong narrative is built around: what happened to whom and where, how and why.  But writing a compelling story requires skill, and is easier said than done… In this workshop, writers will learn the individual craft elements essential to great story-telling. Each week, we will start with a brief warmup, a craft tip, and a series of prompts designed to add specific craft elements to each writer’s toolbox—setting, dialogue, subtext, conflict, backstory… By understanding and practicing these elements, we strengthen our ability to write compelling stories. This workshop is perfect for writers wishing to hone their skills, or those longing to break through a rut. Appropriate for all levels and all writers of narrative—both fiction and nonfiction!

Backstory is crucial when it comes to creating characters whose actions and emotions engage the reader. In order to write three-dimensional characters, you must understand what has happened to them in the past and how it impacts the current story. But the reader doesn’t need to know every detail of a character’s history, and sometimes backstory can turn into an information dump rather than driving the narrative forward. In this workshop, writers will look at techniques for uncovering their character’s unique backstory, determine which pieces are essential to the story, and practice ways to incorporate those pieces without dragging down the plot. 

Writers of all genres are welcome in this generative online poetry workshop. Together, we’ll explore the power and strangeness of poetry, its heightened language and compression, how it can inhabit the body and get close to the unsayable. We’ll start by reading poems with emotional resonance and sensory detail, explore their utilization of craft and then use them to spark our own productive writing sessions. Sharing aloud, you’ll receive compassionate feedback and the encouragement to keep going. Whether you are a seasoned poet or new to poem-making, this is a safe, supportive space to create fresh work.

Our lives might be busy, our minds distracted. But once a week, for eight Wednesday mornings, we will hone our powers of attention, learning to distill poetry from the magic of our senses.  As poet Stanley Kunitz writes, “Our most sublime thoughts have their feet planted in the clay; our best songs are body-songs.”  Participants are writers of all levels who want to deepen their understanding of the elements of poetry–image, line-break, music, form–and practice the beauty and challenge of placing the poem on the page. In a supportive atmosphere, we’ll generate new work together, responding to exercises the workshop leader brings, and receive encouraging feedback from the group.  We’ll also look at poems by our contemporaries that bring us to our senses – literally! – and write in response. 

Do you have a book, story, poem, or writing project that has been gathering dust? Do you have pages of material you’re not quite sure how to cohere into a larger project? Are you continually asking yourself: “Now what?” In this 3-hour workshop, we’ll breathe new life into your work using transformative revision practices. We’ll explore how to unearth the deeper story beneath the surface, guiding your writing towards its fullest, most potent expression. Participants will bring in up to 5 pages of writing and will receive supportive and insightful reflections from the group as we go along. You can expect to emerge with new ideas and fresh perspectives on your story, a restored sense of excitement, and a multitude of revision practices to become your own best editor. This class is open to all genres.  

Emotionally nuanced, conflicted and believable characters are perhaps the number one ingredient in successful stories. Since readers engage with narratives primarily through the people who inhabit them, it’s crucial that as writers, we understand exactly what makes our characters tick. Spend the morning with psychologist and bestselling author Jacqueline Sheehan, uncovering your characters’ deepest desires and fears, giving them believable obstacles and fascinating flaws that will make them more complex and compelling. Writers will be led step-by-step through character development tools, from brainstorming to list-making to creative prompts that utilize human psychology to build characters that emotionally engage readers.

How do you know when a poem is done? How do you take a good poetry draft and make it great? In this workshop, we’ll create a community of support to help your poems find their most powerful, joyous, and effective lives. We’ll revisit the building blocks of poetry and ask each poem a series of questions about theme, form, image, music, and syntax and diction. Designed with the working poet in mind, this non-traditional “workshop” will help you revise your poems toward publication.

Personal essays are both hugely popular and hugely misunderstood. How can a writer convince an editor that their own deeply intimate story will be of interest to a broader audience? What are the best places to pitch a personal essay? And how does one write a pitch in the first place? In this workshop, writers will learn the basics of pitching personal essays, including finding the right editor and venue for your work. Then, we’ll look at how to craft personal essay pitches that highlight the universality of our stories, find a “hook” to make our stories timely, and demonstrate to an editor that our stories will resonate with readers. We’ll break down successful personal essay pitches and have plenty of time to practice writing our own. At the end, we’ll go over a list of places to pitch your work! Perfect for nonfiction writers of all levels.

“I know grief and you may know it too,” writes poet Maxine Scates, inviting us to join her in remembering what she’s lost. In this generative workshop, we’ll gather together to acknowledge the grief we hold and explore various ways to transmute it into powerful writing. We’ll read work by writers like Marie Howe, Tracy K. Smith, Victoria Chang, and Bianca Stone, using their poems to illuminate craft choices and to jumpstart our own drafts. In a safe, compassionate space, we’ll share our new work and receive supportive feedback. You’ll leave with a storehouse of inspiring prompts and the courage to keep going. 

The best memoirs tap into something universal in the human experience, teaching us something important about a larger theme (loss, courage, freedom, coming of age, etc.). But how, as writers, do we unearth the themes or big ideas at the heart of our own stories? And how do we structure and craft our memoirs so that these larger meanings shine? In this four-week workshop, we will learn essential craft elements and techniques to help illuminate the big ideas within our own true stories. Through specific craft exercises, examining published excerpts, generating new work and receiving supportive feedback, writers will develop a strong sense of their memoir’s big themes, as well as learning powerful tools to uncover their stories’ deeper meanings. 

Plenty of great books are told successfully from a single point of view. But sometimes your story feels so expansive, you might want to tell it from more than one character’s POV. Multiple points of view and their related subplots can hugely enhance your story, adding depth, texture and complexity, increasing narrative tension, or revealing an unreliable narrator…  Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible is one of the many brilliant stories told with multiple protagonists. But multiple narrators can feel unwieldy: It’s hard enough to keep track of a single narrator! And multiple POV’s, if done poorly, can cause confusion, frustration or emotional distance for your reader. In this half-day online workshop with master storyteller and NY Times bestselling author Jacqueline Sheehan, we’ll cover the basics for mastering multiple perspectives, moving from the foundations up.  We’ll start by exploring how to know if your story requires the complexity that multiple POVs will bring to the table. We’ll review the main aspects of successful subplots, experiment with developing distinctive character voices, and review tips and pitfalls of writing from more than one character’s head.

Nonfiction manuscripts often begin as proposals before growing into full-length book projects. More and more publishers are asking for proposals from memoirists as well. But how do you begin?  What is the purpose of a book proposal, and what does it need to accomplish? This 3-hour workshop with literary agent Jessica Papin will outline the steps of writing a successful proposal, including researching comps, identifying your audience, understanding your platform and presenting your book project in a way that will make it shine. Moving from structure to examples to best-practice techniques, we will demystify the intimidating beast that is the book proposal.

Every writer—no matter how accomplished they may be—feels the pressure of finding the right words to invigorate their manuscripts, to tell stories that resonate with readers and that linger for a long time. In this half-day workshop, writers will explore how the origins of words we use and the sounds of them can enhance their writing across any and all genres. Incorporating these poetic sensibilities into your work can help to create meaning you didn’t know was there and to get your work to stand out when it crosses an editor’s desk. This workshop will include a brief history lesson on the peculiarities of the English language, an opportunity to discuss some tried-and-true strategies for using words as springboards for inspiration, and plenty of time to write. 

Lorrie Moore once said that, “for the writer, the facts of life are like ingredients in a kitchen cupboard.” The cake we make is the story we end up telling. “That,” she says, “is how life and art are related.” No matter what we write, our experiences, observations, and inclinations are the greatest inspiration and fodder for our work. In this weekly generative workshop, writers will receive a series of prompts to help them tap into their deepest material and move them into a sustained period of writing. Afterward, we’ll have the opportunity to share our work and receive thoughtful feedback from the group. 

Whether you want to enhance your craft or win more writerly time and support, chances are that someday you’ll face a competitive application process. At such times, a well-written artist statement can go a long way to make you stand out from the pack. In this session, we’ll discuss the key components that every artist statement should include, as well as other ways to make your application as strong as can be. A necessary and practical workshop for writers looking to apply to fellowships, residencies, MFA programs, and grants!

Romance Novels account for a huge percentage of book sales—possibly because they are as optimistic and emotionally satisfying as romance itself. In romance writing, a sacred trust exists between writer and reader: whatever heartbreaks and challenges arise, the main characters will find their happily-ever-afters, and the dog will never die. In a world full of darkness, sometimes this is precisely the kind of story we need to read—and write.  Spend the morning with a published romance novelist, learning to marry the basics of fiction craft with the specific requirements of this compelling genre. Whether you seek to write historical or contemporary, realistic or paranormal, queer or straight, vampire or time-traveler romances, you’ll come away with tools for writing stories that readers will fall in love with.

There are so many reasons to write sex.  Done right, a well-placed sex scene adds depth, nuance and heat to your narratives.  And there’s no better way to reveal character!  But writing about sex is intimidating, and it’s one of the trickiest things to pull off…   Spend a fun, illuminating morning with best-selling author/world renowned sex educator, Emily Nagoski, learning to write sex in a way that is subtle, believable and well, sexy.  Participants move through a series of exercises based on  findings from the science of sex, then transform this knowledge into riveting scenes.

Writing Spirituality is a workshop devoted to writing that is inspired by our connection to the soul. We will make use of reflective writing exercises on topics such as nature, ritual, and folklore, create space to generate and share new work, and look at readings with analysis on form and content. We’ll read various essays and texts that invite audiences to reach beyond the binary of secular and religion, and consider the sacred within and around us. Whether you have experiences with faith, a complex or nuanced relationship with religion, or are in the midst of de/reconstructing what spirituality means to you, this workshop is a reflective space to explore. Readings will consist of authors such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sasha Sagan, Sue Monk Kidd, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and Peter Wohlleben.

Writing about the hard stuff is, well, hard. And sometimes it takes courage to share your stories.  It helps to have some tried and true techniques for accessing deep material, as well as ideas for how (and whether) to share it. Use this half-day workshop as a laboratory for uncovering or discovering what you most want (but fear) to give voice to.  Writing prompts and exercises will jumpstart the dive. Then, in a supportive group of like-minded explorers you’ll share and receive feedback on where your writing resonates with power and strength. We’ll discuss ways the inner critic can hamper or derail us when we try to dive deep, techniques for overcoming resistance and finding support, and ways to honor your stories while simultaneously honoring the characters that populate them.  Though we will discuss the creative process, this is not a therapy group: we will keep our focus on the writing and the tools and techniques for accessing it.  

All writers, no matter how accomplished, feel the pressure of finding the right words to invigorate their prose, enliven their poetry or bring their stories to life. The right word choice and arrangement can surprise and astonish readers or entice editors and agents to keep reading… Think of the power that wordplay, (rhyme, alliteration, lyricism, connotation) holds for you as a reader when you are transported by an author! Join poet (and self-described etymological obsessive) Michael Mercurio for this three-hour workshop, and you’ll come away with lots of tools to punch up your writing, astound your readers, and make your work truly stand out. The workshop includes a brief history lesson on the peculiarities of the English language, an opportunity to discuss some tried-and-true strategies for using words as springboards for inspiration, and plenty of time to explore the power of language.

Have you wondered if it’s possible to take a leap in your writing to impact change on a broader scale? How to pivot from writing “for the sake of art” to writing work that persuades, influences and inspires others to action? This generative workshop begins with a framework that will help you understand your role in the social change ecosystem as a storyteller. Then, we’ll move on to a series of generative writing prompts sure to set your artist soul on fire. We’ll explore Magical Realism, Surrealism, and a Dialogue fueled escalation flash piece as paths to break down barriers to our imagination. You’ll leave this course with a plan to take your work to the next level with the very real task of impacting change beyond the page.

 When writing personal essays, home—whether searching for it, considering it, or extricating yourself from it—is often a central or contributing theme. Home can, for better or worse, define us. But what is home, exactly?  Is it someplace, somebody, or some feeling? And what happens when we leave that home behind? How does relocation affect our understanding of home, and therefore our sense of self? In this half-day course, we’ll read writers exploring these concepts, and respond to writing prompts that will help us bring our own understanding into a fuller relief.