Class Descriptions: 1-Day | 2-Day | 3 & 4-Day | On-going Classes

2-Day Writing Classes

Writing Out Loud: The Art of Getting Started
In this workshop we will open up our self-expression and give ourselves permission to write. Through conversation, in-class exercises, laughter and silence, we will experiment with a range of forms to get started in finding, or finding our way back, to our lives as writers. How long have you wanted to write? Maybe you wrote short stories in high school or took a great poetry class in college. Maybe you keep a journal. Maybe you write down your dreams, or write fabulous letters or e-mails. Or, maybe you are a life-long lover of books with a pile of unread novels on your bedside table.

Together we will generate ideas and strategies for how to sustain our work as artists. Through in-class writings we will explore the genres of poetry, fiction, journaling, dreams, letters, short stories, rants, memoirs and memories, as well as investigating techniques for immersing ourselves in language, conjuring inspiration and bringing our individual rhythms to the page. The goal is to begin a writing practice that is deeply connected to the lives we already lead. This class is open to anyone with a genuine love of writing and a curiosity about what role it might play in your life. Requirements for the class are honesty, a willingness to try anything and a big whopping sense of humor.

The Art of Poetry
In this workshop we will explore the art and craft of the poem. We will investigate new, classical, experimental, open and modern poetic forms, as well as attempting longer poems and poems that begin well beyond the boundaries of where we usually stop. We will do lots of writing experiments and hone our editing skills by re-learning how to see the poem on the page. We will discuss the drafting process, the possibilities of publishing, how to construct a chapbook and some of the many ways in which poetry can be presented and experienced. This class is open to anyone interested in poetry, regardless of your level of experience.

Poetry in Motion
This class is a continuation of the Art of Poetry classes offered in previous semesters. Together we will continue our exploration of what makes a poem. We will investigate experimental, open and modern poetic forms and conduct many writing experiments designed to begin new poems and revive old ones. We will discuss the business of publishing poems, from magazines to journals, anthologies, chapbooks and electronic publishing. This class is open to anyone interested in poetry, regardless of your level of experience.

The Art of Fiction
In this workshop we will investigate the core skills of the fiction writer. What role does observation and imagination play in writing fiction? What makes a compelling short story? How does one begin a novel? What is a hybrid or experimental text? We will investigate all of these questions, as well as discussing plot, narrative, character development, tone, setting, point of view and dialogue, as we uncover the natural art of telling stories. We will write together, examine our on-going work and discuss various aspects of the craft, including development of the text, the process of editing and revision and options for publishing. This group is for writers of all types and forms of fiction.

The Art of Short Fiction
Our lives are woven of stories. The art of creating short fiction is the art of telling a great story. In this class we will uncover the elements of what makes a compelling work of short fiction, as well as experiment with our own stories inspired by memory, observation and imagination. We will talk about plot, narrative, character development, setting, point of view and dialogue as they pertain to the specific art of creating short stories. In class, we will write together and read our work to one another. This group is for writers who are interested in learning to craft short fiction, including those who have no previous experience.

The Art of the Memoir
Each of us has lived a unique and amazing life. Many of us find ourselves wondering what it might be like to work with our own stories and bring them forward through writing. During this workshop we will draw on autobiographical material to create experiments with text and language that honor the lives we have led and those we are now living. By building a small, supportive group, we will work with the process of beginning, remembering, expanding, and embodying memory and meaning. No formal experience in writing is required all you need to bring is your memory, imagination, sense of humor and willingness to surprise yourself.

Anyone with a desire to bring their own life experience into the light is welcome—writers, poets, students, elders and self professed “non-artists” alike. Together we will begin to investigate the intense and joyous business of writing our stories. What have you survived? What have you lost? What have you learned? What do you carry with you? Through writing exercises drawing on memory, active imagination, deep listening, permission, devoted play, skillful feedback and the art of bearing witness, we will bring our personal histories to life.

Dangerous Writing
As the old saying goes, “to be an artist means to never avert ones eyes” and this class asks us to be willing to examine and bear witness to the things most people would rather not examine at all. What do you censor out of your own work as you write? What are the powerful places, people, ideas, memories or possibilities that you avoid or resist writing about? Since the advent of the written word, writers have played a key and vital role in human societies, not simply as creators of lyric and narrators of beauty, but also as truth-tellers and social activists, individuals committed to reaching across linguistic, political, social, religious and geographical boundaries to reach those on the other side. Writing has always been a form of resistance, requiring absolute honesty and the willingness to say what must be said. In this session we will examine texts by some of the unsung writers who have used their art to hold their ground and stand up for the dignity of their own unique human experience. We will adapt some of their ideas and techniques and try them out ourselves, digging deeply to uncover the experiences, ideas and themes that hold the most power and promise for us as artists. This class is open to any interested writer.

Secrets and Lies
The playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d better teach it to dance.” This dance is often where great writing begins. Using humor, bravery, curiosity and playfulness we will unpack the idea of “secrets and lies,” using them as devices by which to create texts. For example: What secrets have you kept for others? How do you write a dialogue where one character is lying to another? What is a lie you wish you had told someone but didn’t? In class we will reference some books inspired by real and imagined secrets and lies, including PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren, a book and website of anonymous secrets revealed by everyday folks. This class is open to writers in every genre and everyone is welcome.

Writing Projects Lab
For writers who have on-going literary projects, manuscripts, drafts, etc. that are already in progress, this is a small-group working session to evaluate where you are in the process of creating the whole text, what you need to do to move the text forward and how to go about the business of getting it done. Whether you are working on a memoir, novel, short story collection, website text, series or collection of poems or any other writing project, this session is designed to move you from the desire to complete the project to the actual vision, organization, working habits and blueprint of how to manifest it. We will experiment with timelines, outlines, goals, patterns, character files, plot structures and other concrete tools that help to bring projects to life. We will talk about the mechanics of making, editing and publishing books, finding agents and editors and various opportunities to move your work out into the world. We will discuss sources of funding the writing life, as well as expanding our experience as writers by discussing anthologies, magazines, journals, festivals, residencies, fellowships, conferences and seminars. Open to any interested writer who has a project underway, even if you only have three pages and a great idea.

Writing Through Darkness
All human beings experience suffering, although we all experience it differently. For survivors of suffering, there is an inherent dignity in telling our own stories in our own words. This class was designed during the first week of September 2005 when we watched, along with the rest of the world, as the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama suffered the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. This was one of the most profound tragedies to ever impact our country. Only three weeks later, Hurricane Rita caused even more havoc and destruction in many of those same communities, forcing Katrina evacuees and two million more of our countrymen to flee their homes. What can one say in the face of such suffering? What can one do? Whether you are a survivor of a natural disaster, a bout with cancer, the loss of a loved one or any other devastating circumstance, writing can be a powerful way to begin or continue the process of healing.

In class we will use the material from our own lives to begin to create texts that invite the reader into our experience. We will use the tools of memory, imagination, honesty, research, dreams, courage and humor to craft the writing that will bring us perspective and insight. This class is open to writers in any genre, no experience required.

Body Stories
This class is taught by guest faculty member Claudia Wyrick, MD
What is it our bodies do for us besides carrying around a brain that is always in overdrive? What are we within our skin? How does the external “self” relate to the internal “self”? Watching the migration of people on the streets is like watching moveable art galleries of little human worlds. There are infinite stories we carry within and on ourselves, just waiting for the telling. Maybe it’s the gaudy poodle earrings Aunt Ginny gave you that you must wear at the family reunion, the scarf you wore at your husband's funeral or the burn from the Fourth of July barbeque when you fell into the coals after one too many margaritas tell us.

Funny, sad, outrageous and scary tales are just waiting to be set to paper. In these two sessions we will explore some of the possibilities and ways to nudge out these stories. We will use experiential, sensory awareness and body movement as ways to explore the language of our bodies. How do we interpret that language? As poetry? Linear story? Broken text? Mixed media? We will write and share with our fellow writers in the group, trying different approaches and looking at the ways we might write out our individual stories.

Walking and Talking: Character and Dialogue in Prose
In any great novel, memoir or story, the text is populated with vibrant, unique characters. As writers, we create our characters based on people we know, people we imagine, and combinations between the two. Exciting characters have their own lives, histories, speech patterns, desires and fears, and they interact with one another in a way that is compelling and believable. Together we will examine what makes great heroes, villains and minor characters, and invent some of our own. We will practice writing the physical descriptions, gestures, monologue and dialogue that brings each of our characters to life.

On Location: Landscape and Setting in Prose
What would any powerful story be without it’s landscape? What if Lawrence of Arabia had been set in Iceland? What if Hogwarts school was in an abandoned barn instead of a castle? What if the DiVinci Code had played out in Nebraska instead of Italy? The perfect setting is integral to every great story. We will investigate the locations where our stories, novels and memoirs are set. We will discuss how setting can be used to frame a story and we will practice the art of creating unique, detailed descriptions that bring those places alive in both narrative and scene.

Making a Scene: How to Create Scenes in Prose
When we read prose, whether the book is a memoir or a mystery novel, a thriller or a romance, historical novel or Sci Fi trilogy, they all have one thing in common: the author is willing to create SCENES in which the read sees and hears and feels what is happening. In this workshop we will look together at what makes a great scene, including dialogue, movement, gesture, sound, weather, setting and conflict. We will examine examples from well-known novels and look at what makes them work, and how the author moves from narrative into scene and back out again. And of course, we will write scenes of our own!

Life After Harry
Well, it's over. And for you Potterheads, who are finished with Book 7 but still can't bring yourselves to put it up on the bookshelf, you are probably feeling a bit bereft. What comes next? As writers, we don't have to wait for someone ELSE to make that next great story or book or character, we can make it ourselves. In this workshop we will talk a bit about what makes a great all-ages work of imagination. We will examine the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Phillip Pullman's Trilogy His Dark Materials. What do these great works of imagination have in common? Do they fall into the genre of "Fantasy"? Together we will imagine epic stories of our own, get them mapped out and begin writing.