WRITING CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
All classes & events are live & virtual, via Zoom!
"The ability to craft a compelling story is one of the most powerful tools we possess as humans."
- Joy Baglio, Founder/Director of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop
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At PVWW, we offer the following types of classes:
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These classes run two or three hours and focus on particular writing-related craft, process, or practical topics. They often emphasize the development and honing of specific skills, through craft instruction, analysis of published work, discussion, and in-class writing exercises. One-day classes are an opportunity to dip a toe into writing instruction (if you're new to writing), get a burst of inspiration about a particular topic, and be part of a supportive writing group for an afternoon! Unless stated, they DO NOT entail outside reading or the opportunity to receive feedback on your work. Limited to 12 writers (in most cases).
View All One-Day Classes |
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These longer workshops meet weekly for the stated number of weeks and in most cases offer the opportunity to receive feedback on your work from the instructor and group (unless the course description emphasizes generative writing, revision, studying a particular book, or something else). Multi-week workshops usually include weekly deadlines, reading and/or writing assignments, and most do require at least a few hours of work per week, outside of class. They are always supportive and encouraging in nature and a great way to build a regular writing practice and cultivate your own writing community. Limited to 10 writers.
View All Multi-Week Workshops |
View All Year-Long Workshops / Learn More About the Year-Long Program |
PVWW 10-Month Manuscript Program offers small, intensive, virtual workshops in all genres (novel, memoir, poetry/hybrid, & nonfiction) for writers working on a book-length projects. Workshop groups meet monthly over the course of ten months (March - December) and offer other ways of support and connection in between meetings, including a virtual classroom space and monthly Accountability Buddies. The program offers rigorous, MFA-level craft instruction, and seeks to create a tight-knit community of support for writers as they work to complete their manuscripts. Annual program open house in November. Applications are open each year October - December.
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2022 FALL SCHEDULE
All Classes/Workshops Are Live & Virtual via Zoom!
Our 2023 (all-virtual) workshop schedule will be here by the end of the year!
IMPORTANT NOTE: The workshop descriptions below are abbreviated to fit on this page. Before registering, please make sure to read the full workshop descriptions, including weekly breakdowns (for multi-week workshops), by clicking the "Full Description" links. Instructor bios and general registration policies are also listed there.
Receiving the Zoom link for each workshop: A welcome email and Zoom link will be emailed to all who register closer to the date of the workshop (1 - 3 days before one-day classes and 3 - 5 days before multi-week workshops). If you do not see a an email from joy@pioneervalleywriters.org a couple days before your workshop, make sure to check all email folders (promotions, spam, trash, etc.) before getting in touch as sometimes our emails end up there. Please note: Our system does *not* send a confirmation email after registering, so please mark your calendar beforehand!
ONLINE - FULL
Story Sketching: Outlining Your Book in Three Acts
3 Hours: Saturday, December 3 (1 - 4pm EST) • $60
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Outlines, or "story sketches" as we'll call them in this class, allow you to juggle the multiple threads of your story in a way that will later make the process much easier. They are also where MUCH of the creativity and imaginative fun of crafting a longer narrative happens. They are not rigid skeletons, but can grow and evolve as the book itself does, allowing you to think through the ideas and scenes that make up the spine of your story. Through a series of guided in-class story sketching exercises, with a focus on figuring out your story's "spine" (and increasing complexity from there), participants will be given time to work on developing their own narratives. Writers will leave the workshop with a first draft of a three-act outline. All levels. Limited to 15 writers.
JOY BAGLIO founded Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop in 2016. Her short fiction has appeared widely, in such journals as Tin House, American Short Fiction, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. She's received fellowships, scholarships, and grants from Yaddo, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, and Vermont Studio Center, among others. She's at work on a novel. |
ONLINE
Writing Genre-Bending Fiction
2 Hours: Saturday, December 10 (1 - 3pm EST) • $45
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Fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, romance, noir. How much–if at all–should we consider genre when crafting our stories? Can we reject the stuffy philosophy that genre writing is not literary (yes!)? We’ll talk about how to mix genres and bend their “rules” to write memorable fiction. Sci-fi romance! Fantasy-noir! Mystery-magical realist-western! We’ll break down our favorite genres and why we love them, and apply those elements to our own craft. And, we’ll read masterful examples, do generative writing exercises, and share our work (not required). For writers of all levels & genres. Limited to 12 writers.
LARA EHRLICH is the author of Animal Wife, which won Red Hen Press’s Fiction Award, judged by Ann Hood, and was published by the press in Sept 2020. She is also the host of Writer Mother Monster, a conversation series devoted to dismantling the myth of “having it all” and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice. Lara is the director of marketing for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas based in Connecticut, where she lives with her husband and 6-year-old daughter. |
ONLINE
Paying Attention: The Art of Crafting Description
3 Hours: Saturday, December 17 (1 - 4pm EST) • 60
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How many times do we see or hear something, or have some insight we want to remember, only to tell ourselves we’ll record it later? How often do we lose it or forget we ever noticed it in the first place? Whether crafting fiction, memoir, nonfiction, or poetry, the most memorable description occurs when language seems to match experience, when as readers we feel language "clicking into place," as the poet Mark Doty put it. Such descriptions are instantly recognizable. They don't sound made up but rather come from a writer's commitment to accuracy, to slowing down and observing the world, including ourselves, with care. In this generative workshop, we'll work on crafting unforgettable, on-the-nose description. Appropriate for all genres and levels. Limited to 12 writers.
MARIA BLACK's stories have been published in numerous literary journals. She was awarded a 2022 Pushcart Prize for “Mark on the Cross,” a story published by The Sun Magazine and a Bentley Prize by The Seattle Review. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where she taught writing. She currently lives in Northampton, MA with her husband. |
Our 2023 (all-virtual) workshop schedule will be here by the end of the year!
10-MONTH MANUSCRIPT PROGRAM
APPLICATIONS OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 21, 2022
ONLINE - Applications Open
10-Month Novel Workshop: First Draft
10 Months: March - Dec. 2023 • Meets Mondays (6:30 - 9:30pm EST) • Cost: $1900
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This workshop is for fiction writers who are working on their first draft of a full length novel manuscript. Writers who are just beginning with an idea as well as writers who are mid-draft would both benefit, but the explicit goal of this course is to have a finished first draft, ready for the first stage of revision. This course meets over zoom once a month for three hours, in small accountability buddy groups of 2-3 people at least once between meetings, and is in regular contact via a virtual classroom space. Each month, writers will be offered a slew of prompts, writing exercises, craft lectures, discussion questions, and readings designed to maintain momentum, solidify a regular writing practice, and provide support around all of the highs and lows of the novel writing process. Limited to 10 writers.
KATE SENECAL is the Assistant Director of PVWW. She received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2013. She is the former fiction editor of Storychord, and a UMass professor. She's received an honorable mention in Glimmer Train’s 2019 Short Fiction Contest, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016. Kate’s fiction has been published in The Laurel Review, The Foundling Review, and in Storychord.com.
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ONLINE - Applications Open
10-Month Novel Workshop: Revision
10 Months: March - Dec. 2023 • Meets first Wednesdays (6:30 - 9:30pm EST) • Cost: $2500
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This workshop is for fiction writers who have finished a complete draft of a full-length manuscript and are looking for support and structure in the revision process. The explicit goal of this course is to complete one full revision of a completed draft of a manuscript. All participants and the instructor will read up to 100k words of each others’ full manuscripts over the course of the year. Each writer will have at least two opportunities to discuss their manuscript with the entire group, where they will receive written and verbal feedback. This course meets over zoom once a month for three hours, in small accountability buddy groups of 2-3 people at least once between meetings (but often more often), and is in regular contact via a virtual classroom space. Limited to 9 writers.
KATE SENECAL is the Assistant Director of PVWW and the Director of PVWW's Year-Long Manuscript Group Program. She received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2013. She is the former fiction editor of Storychord, and a UMass professor. She's received an honorable mention in Glimmer Train’s 2019 Short Fiction Contest, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016. Kate’s fiction has been published in The Laurel Review, The Foundling Review, and in Storychord.com.
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ONLINE - Applications Open
10-Month Poetry & Hybrid Manuscript Workshop
10 Months: March - Dec. 2023 • Meets first Wednesdays (6:30 - 9:30pm EST) • Cost: $1900
* Creative nonfiction writers working in more traditional or general prose-style should apply to the nonfiction workshop (course description below, on this page).
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This workshop is designed for poets and hybrid writers who have a manuscript in progress, plus those who have a vision but are just beginning. Poetry projects may be in a wide range of poetic forms. Hybrid projects may be those that mix or experiment with forms. This may include mixed prose/poetry texts, experimental or poetry-based memoir or essay, mixed visual/language texts, and poetic or lyric essays which stretch the boundaries of traditional or popular prose-based creative nonfiction.* In studying poetry and hybrid together, we'll see the vast and surprising overlaps between these terms, both in historical context and in practice. In addition to work on our own manuscripts, we'll read about and discuss traditions in lyricism, prose poetry, fixed and free verse, hybrid and cross-art, modernism, and more. Students can expect to read numerous monthly excerpts and 4 short books. By the end of the year, participants will have a solid first draft of either chapbook-length (approx. 30 pages) or full-length (approx. 60-70 pages for poetry, or a wide range of pages for uncategorizable or hybrid work.) Limited to 10 writers.
CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI is is the author of two hybrid novels. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Denver Quarterly, The Rumpus, PANK, West Branch, DIAGRAM, Everyday Feminism, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is currently an English professor and volunteer death doula.
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ONLINE - Applications open
10-Month Nonfiction Manuscript Workshop
10 Months: March - Dec. • Meets first Thursdays (6:30 - 9:30pm EST) • Cost: $1900
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This workshop is designed for creative nonfiction prose writers in non-memoir genres (nature and science writing, philosophy and spiritual writing, travel or food writing, biography, history, politics, social commentary, literary journalism, etc.) who have a manuscript in progress as well as for those who have a vision but are just beginning. By the end of the year, participants will have a solid draft of a complete manuscript. To this end, we will give each other feedback, discuss different craft topics each month, and do in-class and at-home generative prompts and exercises. Additionally, we will study numerous monthly excerpts and 3-4 books from the masters. Limited to 10 writers
CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI is is the author of the hybrid novels. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Denver Quarterly, The Rumpus, PANK, West Branch, DIAGRAM, Everyday Feminism, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is currently an English professor and volunteer death doula.
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ONLINE - Applications open
10-Month Memoir Workshop
10 Months: March - Dec. 2023 • Meets first Tuesdays (6:30 - 9:30pm EST) • Cost: $1900
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This workshop is designed for memoirists who have a manuscript in progress as well as for those who have a ‘body of work’ they can identify as a ‘possible manuscript.’ In this year-long program, we’ll discuss the history of the memoir genre and study memoir-writing techniques by reading and analyzing a mix of craft essays and stellar works of personal narrative, including 3-4 book-length memoirs that represent different stylistic and organizational approaches to the form. Alongside our active reading and discussion, we’ll find structure and purpose in our own work by defining clear individualized writing goals, doing regular generative exercises and providing consistent and thoughtful feedback on each other’s pages. By the end of the year participants will have drafted a substantive manuscript, portions of which may be ready for submission for publication. Limited to 10 writers.
DORIAN FOX’s essays, articles and stories have appeared in a wide range of literary publications, including Brevity, The Rumpus, Gay Magazine, Atticus Review, Under the Gum Tree, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, december, Creative Nonfiction’s Sunday Short Reads and others. His work has also been honored in various competitions and received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. A longtime Massachusetts resident, he now lives in Brighton, MA.
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