Winter/Spring 2019: Multi-Week Workshop
*All our workshops are capped at 12 participants*
**Multi-week workshops meet weekly for a set number of weeks and offer the opportunity to receive feedback on your work from the instructor and the group.**
***APPLY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP***
3 Weeks: Sundays, February 24, March 3, March 10 (1 - 3pm) in Williamsburg MA
Revising and Polishing Your Poems
with Gail Thomas
Fee: $150 • 6 in-class hours
Level: All levels
For most poets revision can be daunting, and yet it is the most important step for creating work that resonates with readers. If you aren’t receiving regular feedback from a writing group or would value a different perspective, this workshop will provide tools for discovering what your poems need. We will explore issues of craft including line breaks, tense, voice, form, and imagery. Each session will focus on giving and receiving feedback on poems that you want to improve in an atmosphere of respect. Between sessions you will revise and polish. In the last session we will focus on presenting your best work: the importance of formatting and titles, reading your work aloud, and perseverance in the face of rejection. Participants will prepare a packet of poems that have been polished from previous weeks with an eye towards either reading in public or seeking publication.
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GAIL THOMAS has published four books of poetry: Odd Mercy (2016), Waving Back (2015), No Simple Wilderness: An Elegy for Swift River Valley (2001) and Finding the Bear (1997). Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Calyx, The North American Review, Hanging Loose, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. She was awarded residencies at The McDowell Colony in New Hampshire and Ucross in Wyoming. As one of the original teaching artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Elder Arts Initiative, Thomas led workshops and collaborated with dancers, musicians and storytellers in schools, nursing homes, hospitals and libraries across the state. You may read more about her work at www.gailthomaspoet.com.
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8 Weeks: Wednesdays, March 6 - April 24 (6 - 9pm) in Williamsburg MA
Creating Picture Books
with Ruth Sanderson
Fee: $450 • 24 in-class hours
Level: All levels
Everyone can remember that special childhood picture book— a beloved story read over and over, the pictures examined and re-examined for details. This 8-week workshop by award-winning author/illustrator Ruth Sanderson outlines the fundamentals of writing picture books for children and learning to think visually as a picture book writer. You don’t need to be an illustrator to be a successful picture book author, but thinking like an artist should become second nature. (Artists who want to both write and illustrate are welcome too, of course.) Classes will include writing exercises and craft lectures as well as a close examination of published picture books and a discussion of what makes them work. Students will write a 100-600 word picture book manuscript and then create a book dummy with the text placed on the page, with the emphasis on pacing the story for appropriate page turns. Everyone will revise their story a number of times, learning, among other things, to cut text where the picture will show the action. The business of entering the children’s book market will be covered in the final class. Art supplies provided.
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Ruth Sanderson is an author and illustrator with over 85 published children’s books. She is a graduate of the Paier College of Art. Among her many picture books for children are A Castle Full of Cats, The Enchanted Wood (winner of the Bank Street College Award and the Young Hoosiers Award), The Snow Princess, and The Golden Mare, the Firebird, and the Magic Ring (winner of the Texas Bluebonnet Award). She is currently working on writing and illustrating a picture book biography of nineteenth century artist Rosa Bonheur, and a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for young adults. Ruth teaches in the summer MFA program in Writing and Illustrating for Children at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She lives with her husband in Easthampton, MA. Her website is www.ruthsanderson.com
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4 Weeks: Wednesdays, May 1 - 22 (6 - 8:30pm) in Williamsburg MA
Generative Poetry Workshop
with Carolyn Zaikowski
Fee: $200 • 10 in-class hours
Level: All levels
This workshop is designed for both new and experienced poets. Through reading samples of classic and contemporary poetry, we’ll explore several key craft elements and styles such as sonnet, haiku, free verse, prose poems, and experimental forms like picture poems and erasures. We’ll engage in a wide variety of exploratory in-class writing prompts, exercises, and revision strategies. Participants will have the opportunity to share and workshop poems with the class in a guided, supportive format. By the end of the course, participants will have a polished portfolio of at least ten pages of poems to be proud of, and we will discuss our personal goals and plans for moving forward.
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CAROLYN ZAIKOWSKI is the author of the novels In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016) and A Child Is Being Killed (Aqueous Books, 2013.) Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared widely, in such publications as The Washington Post, Denver Quarterly, The Rumpus, PANK, Dusie, Huffington Post, and Everyday Feminism. She holds an MFA from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and is currently an English professor. Find her online at www.carolynzaikowski.com.
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8 Weeks: Thursdays, April 11 - May 30 (6:30 - 9pm) in Williamsburg MA
Fiction Fundamentals
with Kate Senecal
Fee: $350 • 20 in-class hours
Level: All levels
This 8-week workshop is a great opportunity for anyone seeking a supportive, weekly writing group, feedback on your work, and the opportunity to learn and grow via in-depth craft instruction. The workshop - designed to accommodate both new and experienced writers - is a light-hearted deep-dive into the inner workings of short fiction. The group will explore foundational elements of craft through analysis of published short stories, in-class writing exercises, and structured critique of student work. Everyone will get a chance to workshop a short story with the group as well.
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KATE SENECAL received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2013. She is the Assistant Director of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, and a workshop facilitator for Writers for Recovery in Vermont. Her fiction has been published in The Laurel Review, The Foundling Review, and in Storychord.com, where she was the fiction editor for two years before it stopped publication. |
4 Weeks: Saturdays, May 4th - 25th (1 - 3pm) in Williamsburg MA
It's All in the Details:
The Building Blocks of Story
with Sara Rauch
Fee: $175 • 8 in-class hours
“Caress the detail, the divine detail.” –Vladimir Nabakov
Details are the bricks with which a writer builds a story. Without them, a piece of writing will lack immediacy, clarity, and that certain something that makes a piece POP. But you can have too much of a good thing—overload your work with unimportant details and it will topple under the weight of them, obscuring the larger picture and confusing, or worse, boring, the reader. How does one balance the necessity of detail with the overall arc and structure of a piece of writing? What, exactly, comprises a perfect detail? How do the details you choose to include, and choose not to include, influence how your story is told? In this class, we’ll look at details within specific craft elements: setting, worldbuilding, character, and structure. For each, we’ll examine a variety of examples and discuss how, where, and why details work, or don’t. We’ll discuss what’s too much and what’s not enough, how “good” and “bad” details usually depend on context, and how to decide if a detail is pertinent to a piece or not. We’ll spend some time discussing how detail influences the reader’s perception of the work as a whole, and how to make sure the details you choose inform the elements of your work in the best and most cohesive way. There will be no workshop element to this class, but we will do in-class writing exercises to create our own details, either based on a current work in progress or with the intention of building a new piece upon them
Details are the bricks with which a writer builds a story. Without them, a piece of writing will lack immediacy, clarity, and that certain something that makes a piece POP. But you can have too much of a good thing—overload your work with unimportant details and it will topple under the weight of them, obscuring the larger picture and confusing, or worse, boring, the reader. How does one balance the necessity of detail with the overall arc and structure of a piece of writing? What, exactly, comprises a perfect detail? How do the details you choose to include, and choose not to include, influence how your story is told? In this class, we’ll look at details within specific craft elements: setting, worldbuilding, character, and structure. For each, we’ll examine a variety of examples and discuss how, where, and why details work, or don’t. We’ll discuss what’s too much and what’s not enough, how “good” and “bad” details usually depend on context, and how to decide if a detail is pertinent to a piece or not. We’ll spend some time discussing how detail influences the reader’s perception of the work as a whole, and how to make sure the details you choose inform the elements of your work in the best and most cohesive way. There will be no workshop element to this class, but we will do in-class writing exercises to create our own details, either based on a current work in progress or with the intention of building a new piece upon them
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SARA RAUCH is the author of the story collection WHAT SHINES FROM IT (Alternating Current, 2019). She has worked as an editor for an independent book publisher, a literary magazine, and currently as a freelancer. She holds an MFA from Pacific University and lives with her family in Holyoke, MA. Find her online at www.sararauch.com. www.sararauch.com. |
2 Saturdays: June 1 & 8 (10am - 5pm) in Williamsburg MA
Creating Tiny Universes:
Flash Fiction Intensive
with Joy Baglio
Fee: $250 • 12 in-class hours
Level: All levels
This workshop will explore techniques for writing crisp, lean, and publishable flash fiction as well as examine all aspects of the form: What does it offer readers (and writers) that the satisfaction of longer narrative may not? What structural techniques does flash use to evoke character, conflict, place, and resolution in so few words, while often packing such a strong punch? How do we build narrative arcs from beginning to end in such small spaces? How do form and content work seamlessly towards the same goal? This workshop meets on two separate Saturdays, with a week in between classes. The first meeting will be focused on these questions, understanding the form through looking at a number of masterful flash fictions in their entirety in order to investigate the strategies they use, as well as generating a handful of pieces based on a variety of exercises. The second meeting will give writers an opportunity to workshop a piece with the group, as well as focus on revision - the merciless art of editing our flash stories down to their barest, most powerful essentials. We'll also touch on the the submissions process, publication, and next steps. Participants will leave with an in-depth understanding of what makes a flash story successful, a knowledge of publishing and contest opportunities specific to flash, a packet the size of a small phonebook, as well as a number of drafts of their own flash pieces. Open to writers of all levels and genres, including those who have taken shorter versions of this workshop.
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JOY BAGLIO is the founder and director of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop. In additional to her role at PVWW, she serves as Associate Fiction Editor at the literary magazine West Branch and teaches writing at Grub Street in Boston. Her short fiction has appeared recently in Tin House, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, New Ohio Review, PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from The New School and has received grants and scholarships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The Speculative Literature Foundation. She's at work on a collection of short stories and a novel. Find her online at www.joybaglio.com
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Past Multi-Week Workshops
Year-Long Fiction Manuscript Group
with Kate Senecal
This year-long course aims to create a supportive community of writers who are working their way through large projects, and is specifically designed for intermediate/advanced fiction writers who are working toward completing a novel or a series of short stories, or have already completed a manuscript (novel or short story collection) they are looking to revise. Monthly meetings will include robust, supportive discussion about how to maintain an active writing practice, occasional writing prompts, out-loud sharing of works in progress and occasional on the spot verbal feedback from the group and the instructor, along with analytical discussion of craft and published fiction that correlates to craft topics that are relevant to participants' work. Monthly in-person meetings will be supplemented with intermittent online discussions, short assignments, and readings. Participants will receive written feedback from the instructor on a portion of their work and will have an opportunity to receive feedback from the group at least twice (but potentially more depending on the size of the group).
6-Week Mastering Your Memoir
with Celia Jeffries
In this advanced course, experienced students working on a memoir will receive support, guidance, and feedback. We will delve deeply into craft and work through some of the hazards of memoir: how to write about others, how to recreate the past, etc. by trying new forms and techniques, exercising different voices and structures, and working on revision. Prompts and exercises will be offered in class and as homework along with readings from masters of the memoir, both past and present. Participants may contribute to the course content by suggesting topics to focus on and by discussing their work in progress. While new writing is encouraged, this workshop is primarily for those who are interested in furthering work on an existing manuscript.
A Try At The Truth: 6-Week Intro to Memoir Workshop
with Celia Jeffries
Patricia Hampl says “Memoir is not what happened (if we’re lucky, that’s the best journalism). It is what has happened over time, in the mind as it attends to these tantalizing, dismaying, broken bits of life history. Such personal writing is, as the essay is, ‘an attempt.’ It is a try at the truth. The truth of a self in the world.” In this six-week workshop we will generate new writing, examine masters of the craft, confront the challenges of writing ‘the truth of the self’ and work together in a supportive environment to write and revise a short essay or chapter of a memoir. Later in the course, we will turn to workshopping, and participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on a piece or excerpt from the group and instructor. Open to memoirists of all levels and experiences.
Words Are Power: Young Writers Workshop
with Kate Senecal & Carolyn Zaikowski
We believe that words are power! This 4-week workshop is for young people of all genders and communities, ages 14-18, who are interested in exploring creative writing through a social justice lens. It is perfect for teenagers who want to use writing as an outlet for their political and social concerns, as well as for their personal empowerment. Fiction writers, poets, and genre-benders are all welcome. Through interactive lessons, generative exercises, fun workshops, and readings, participants will learn just as much about themselves as they will about the craft of writing.
Narrative Nonfiction & History Writing - Sessions I & II
with Ken Mondschein, Ph.D.
This casual, discussion-based nonfiction class will pick up where the first session left off, although all new participants are more than welcome to join in! Among other things, we will revisit choosing an angle that will appeal to readers, finding the story therein, grabbing the reader's attention with sharp prose, dealing with controversies in interpretation, and organizing your information in a clear, engaging narrative style, although the class will mostly focus on sources and places for doing research, such as academic library access, journals, databases, archives, and books. If there's time, Ken will discuss how to identify an academic book's argument and how to take a new approach on the same topic. Whether you intend to write a small-scale piece such as a blog on family history or an article on the barns of colonial New England, or intend to spend the next few years crafting a multi-volume on World War II or the fall of the Roman Empire, Ken will teach you to think like a historian and tell your audience what you have to say in a way that will keep them reading.
Mindfulness Meditation & Writing - 4 Weeks
with Carolyn Zaikowski
In this four-week workshop, we'll use both writing and meditation as tools of discovery and exploration. We'll begin each class with an exploration of what “mindfulness” really means and discuss examples of classic and contemporary works that could be considered “meditative”. Each week, we'll practice guided sitting meditation, discuss our observations and insights, and complete in-class writing exercises that build on these explorations. Instructions for cultivating one’s mindful writing practice at home will be given. On the last day, we'll share and workshop pieces we have written over our time together. To participate, all you need is some open-hearted curiosity about how meditation might fit into writing practice, or how writing might fit into meditation practice! No prior meditation or writing experience is necessary. Open to writers of all levels and genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, hybrid, and journal writing.
Arc of the Story - 4 Weeks
with Sara Rauch
In this 4-week craft class, we’ll take a deep look at structure. The first class will focus on beginnings, the second class on middles, the third class on endings, and the fourth class on the overall arc of a story. Over the course of the four weeks, we’ll consider how beginnings, middles, and endings play out in a variety of short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction, linear and non-linear, traditional and experimental. And as we cover the main components of structure, we’ll also touch upon character development, dialogue, and details, and how these aspects influence the trajectory of a story. Each class will include discussion of craft elements, readings that illuminate the subject at hand, and writing prompts. No workshop element, though students will produce a short story of their own over the four weeks, based on prompts at the end of each class and will end the course with a completed work. Open to prose writers of all levels.
Intro to Fiction 8-Week Workshop
with Joy Baglio (2017) & Seth Harwood (2018)
Winter 2017
In this course you will produce creative work of your own and learn how to discuss and critique the work of others. The first half of the course will be spent looking closely at published work by authors such as Russell Banks, Susan Sontag, and Junot Diaz to analyze craft elements such as point of view, scene construction, narrative strategy, and dialogue. Weekly writing assignments will include exercises on these elements and short scene work. In the second half of the course, our focus turns toward the workshop: developing reading and analytic skills using student writing. Each student will submit one piece of fiction, either a novel excerpt or a short story, for feedback from Seth and the class.
Spring 2018
In this workshop designed to accommodate both new and experienced writers, we'll explore foundational elements of craft through structured critique, analysis of published short stories, and in-class writing exercises. Writers will learn new strategies or sharpen existing ones around identifying the moving parts of fictional narratives and gaining greater control of the elements in the writer's toolbox. All participants will have a chance to workshop a story with the group and receive detailed feedback from members of the class and the instructor. This workshop is a supportive, light-hearted deep-dive into the inner workings of short fiction. Open to prose writers of all levels and genres.
4-Week Fiction Workshop: The Craft of Connecting with Readers
with Seth Harwood
In this course, students will focus on writing the kind of clean and gripping prose they’ve loved to read their whole lives. You know the feeling when a sense of reading falls away and you find yourself immersed in a book’s action, tied to the narrator’s struggle, and watching each scene unfold in your mind’s eye? That’s the kind of prose we’ll be working toward creating in this class.
Our first and possibly most surprising lesson: You don’t need a fascinating, multi-layered outline or a stellar plot concept to write like this. Instead we’ll be looking at how writer and reader connect, and build the craft elements necessary to pull readers in and to keep them eagerly turning pages. Students will develop work through exercises in the use of dialogue, visual action, and creating three-dimensional characters in scenes. This class meets four times. Open to writers of all levels and genres.
with Kate Senecal
This year-long course aims to create a supportive community of writers who are working their way through large projects, and is specifically designed for intermediate/advanced fiction writers who are working toward completing a novel or a series of short stories, or have already completed a manuscript (novel or short story collection) they are looking to revise. Monthly meetings will include robust, supportive discussion about how to maintain an active writing practice, occasional writing prompts, out-loud sharing of works in progress and occasional on the spot verbal feedback from the group and the instructor, along with analytical discussion of craft and published fiction that correlates to craft topics that are relevant to participants' work. Monthly in-person meetings will be supplemented with intermittent online discussions, short assignments, and readings. Participants will receive written feedback from the instructor on a portion of their work and will have an opportunity to receive feedback from the group at least twice (but potentially more depending on the size of the group).
6-Week Mastering Your Memoir
with Celia Jeffries
In this advanced course, experienced students working on a memoir will receive support, guidance, and feedback. We will delve deeply into craft and work through some of the hazards of memoir: how to write about others, how to recreate the past, etc. by trying new forms and techniques, exercising different voices and structures, and working on revision. Prompts and exercises will be offered in class and as homework along with readings from masters of the memoir, both past and present. Participants may contribute to the course content by suggesting topics to focus on and by discussing their work in progress. While new writing is encouraged, this workshop is primarily for those who are interested in furthering work on an existing manuscript.
A Try At The Truth: 6-Week Intro to Memoir Workshop
with Celia Jeffries
Patricia Hampl says “Memoir is not what happened (if we’re lucky, that’s the best journalism). It is what has happened over time, in the mind as it attends to these tantalizing, dismaying, broken bits of life history. Such personal writing is, as the essay is, ‘an attempt.’ It is a try at the truth. The truth of a self in the world.” In this six-week workshop we will generate new writing, examine masters of the craft, confront the challenges of writing ‘the truth of the self’ and work together in a supportive environment to write and revise a short essay or chapter of a memoir. Later in the course, we will turn to workshopping, and participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on a piece or excerpt from the group and instructor. Open to memoirists of all levels and experiences.
Words Are Power: Young Writers Workshop
with Kate Senecal & Carolyn Zaikowski
We believe that words are power! This 4-week workshop is for young people of all genders and communities, ages 14-18, who are interested in exploring creative writing through a social justice lens. It is perfect for teenagers who want to use writing as an outlet for their political and social concerns, as well as for their personal empowerment. Fiction writers, poets, and genre-benders are all welcome. Through interactive lessons, generative exercises, fun workshops, and readings, participants will learn just as much about themselves as they will about the craft of writing.
Narrative Nonfiction & History Writing - Sessions I & II
with Ken Mondschein, Ph.D.
This casual, discussion-based nonfiction class will pick up where the first session left off, although all new participants are more than welcome to join in! Among other things, we will revisit choosing an angle that will appeal to readers, finding the story therein, grabbing the reader's attention with sharp prose, dealing with controversies in interpretation, and organizing your information in a clear, engaging narrative style, although the class will mostly focus on sources and places for doing research, such as academic library access, journals, databases, archives, and books. If there's time, Ken will discuss how to identify an academic book's argument and how to take a new approach on the same topic. Whether you intend to write a small-scale piece such as a blog on family history or an article on the barns of colonial New England, or intend to spend the next few years crafting a multi-volume on World War II or the fall of the Roman Empire, Ken will teach you to think like a historian and tell your audience what you have to say in a way that will keep them reading.
Mindfulness Meditation & Writing - 4 Weeks
with Carolyn Zaikowski
In this four-week workshop, we'll use both writing and meditation as tools of discovery and exploration. We'll begin each class with an exploration of what “mindfulness” really means and discuss examples of classic and contemporary works that could be considered “meditative”. Each week, we'll practice guided sitting meditation, discuss our observations and insights, and complete in-class writing exercises that build on these explorations. Instructions for cultivating one’s mindful writing practice at home will be given. On the last day, we'll share and workshop pieces we have written over our time together. To participate, all you need is some open-hearted curiosity about how meditation might fit into writing practice, or how writing might fit into meditation practice! No prior meditation or writing experience is necessary. Open to writers of all levels and genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, hybrid, and journal writing.
Arc of the Story - 4 Weeks
with Sara Rauch
In this 4-week craft class, we’ll take a deep look at structure. The first class will focus on beginnings, the second class on middles, the third class on endings, and the fourth class on the overall arc of a story. Over the course of the four weeks, we’ll consider how beginnings, middles, and endings play out in a variety of short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction, linear and non-linear, traditional and experimental. And as we cover the main components of structure, we’ll also touch upon character development, dialogue, and details, and how these aspects influence the trajectory of a story. Each class will include discussion of craft elements, readings that illuminate the subject at hand, and writing prompts. No workshop element, though students will produce a short story of their own over the four weeks, based on prompts at the end of each class and will end the course with a completed work. Open to prose writers of all levels.
Intro to Fiction 8-Week Workshop
with Joy Baglio (2017) & Seth Harwood (2018)
Winter 2017
In this course you will produce creative work of your own and learn how to discuss and critique the work of others. The first half of the course will be spent looking closely at published work by authors such as Russell Banks, Susan Sontag, and Junot Diaz to analyze craft elements such as point of view, scene construction, narrative strategy, and dialogue. Weekly writing assignments will include exercises on these elements and short scene work. In the second half of the course, our focus turns toward the workshop: developing reading and analytic skills using student writing. Each student will submit one piece of fiction, either a novel excerpt or a short story, for feedback from Seth and the class.
Spring 2018
In this workshop designed to accommodate both new and experienced writers, we'll explore foundational elements of craft through structured critique, analysis of published short stories, and in-class writing exercises. Writers will learn new strategies or sharpen existing ones around identifying the moving parts of fictional narratives and gaining greater control of the elements in the writer's toolbox. All participants will have a chance to workshop a story with the group and receive detailed feedback from members of the class and the instructor. This workshop is a supportive, light-hearted deep-dive into the inner workings of short fiction. Open to prose writers of all levels and genres.
4-Week Fiction Workshop: The Craft of Connecting with Readers
with Seth Harwood
In this course, students will focus on writing the kind of clean and gripping prose they’ve loved to read their whole lives. You know the feeling when a sense of reading falls away and you find yourself immersed in a book’s action, tied to the narrator’s struggle, and watching each scene unfold in your mind’s eye? That’s the kind of prose we’ll be working toward creating in this class.
Our first and possibly most surprising lesson: You don’t need a fascinating, multi-layered outline or a stellar plot concept to write like this. Instead we’ll be looking at how writer and reader connect, and build the craft elements necessary to pull readers in and to keep them eagerly turning pages. Students will develop work through exercises in the use of dialogue, visual action, and creating three-dimensional characters in scenes. This class meets four times. Open to writers of all levels and genres.