We're excited to offer new classes and seminars, including a contemporary poets reading class, a young adult fiction workshop, and an editing class for prose writers. Check out the full schedule of 8-week classes and weekend seminars.
Scholarships: We have a limited amount of funding to help those who want to take a class or seminar but can't afford it. In order to apply, please download and fill out our Scholarship/Subsidy Form and send it to us with your class registration and partial payment. We ask that anyone who receives subsidies please remember us with a donation when you are able.
Early Registration Discount: For Fall 2014 classes, if you register by 9PM on Tuesday, August 19, 2014, and pay by cash or check, you can take an additional 5% early registration discount. The discount is not available when you pay via credit card or PayPal.
Instructor: Nathaniel Perry
Cost: $90 Members | $100 Non-Members
Saturday, July 26, 2014 | 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
Limited to 12 students.
In this seminar, we will think deeply about what makes poems tick. We will look closely at the meter(s) and rhythms that underlie all English-language poetry. Any poem, bet it a strict sonnet or the wildest free-verse, has the history of meter at its heart, and we’re going to explore that as best we can. There will be writing exercises, discussions of specific forms, and ample time for discussion of poems whose meter makes them sing.
Read more: Seminar: Meter and Melody: Thinking About Poetry Forms
Please join us Sunday, July 27, at 2:00 pm for a Literary Salon with writer Josh Weil.
Author Josh Weil talks to UVA Slavic studies professor Andrew D. Kaufman about the ways in which taking a leap into a drastically different character can open up your writing, and how setting a story in a place unsettlingly at odds with what you're used to can force an even greater specificity of vision into your work. He'll also talk about the challenges, both internal and external, of breaking far away from yourself in your fiction, and the ways in which doing so can bring you closer to your core project at the same time. Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Sharon and James Harrigan.
Read more: Far from Your Own Shores: The Risks and Rewards of Writing What You Don’t Know
Friday Opening Reception,
August 1, 2014,
5:30-7:30pm
A FREE evening of art and wine
WriterHouse is proud to present the work of local artist Scott Supraner for the month of August.
These ceramic wall reliefs expand upon traditional ideas of tilework and mosaic to create a new form that is both painterly and sculptural. In these pieces, rhythmic bas-relief patterns are interwoven with planes of color to produce a complex visual field. Lively abstract images evoke the natural world, both earthly and celestial.
The Friday opening reception is FREE and open to the public. Refreshments courtesy of DuCard Vineyards. The exhibit will remain on display through August 31st.
Instructor: Jane McGuire
Cost: $100 Students
Saturday, August 2, 2014 | 1:00 PM-4:00 PM
and Sunday, August 3, 2014 | 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
Limited to 12 students.
Join us for an intensive two-afternoon writing workshop for students eager to move forward with their college essays. A seasoned teacher and admissions expert will provide an overview of successful essays and how to avoid common pitfalls, lively discussion and brainstorming, and varied writing exercises to generate engaging personal essays that capture authentic voice and vision. Getting started is the hardest part, but with expert advice and feedback, you’ll be well on your way! LIMITED TO RISING HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS. SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE.
Please join us Friday, August 15, at 7:00 pm for a Literary Salon with writer Sheri Reynolds.
We've all learned that in order for characters to be sympathetic, they must be capable of change. Author Sheri Reynolds maintains that what's true for the character is also true for the writer. Join us on August 15th, when novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore will interview Reynolds about character evolution, the importance of putting characters into positions that force their growth, and the importance of taking risks as writers in order to grow in our craft. Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Jody Hobbs Hesler and Jeffrey Hesler.
Read more: Growing Up on the Page: How Characters and Their Writers Evolve
Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 7:00 PM
Writers who participated in the summer class session will read brief selections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Enjoy refreshments and socializing with other writers during intermission and after the event. Open houses are also a great way to meet other writers and find out about WriterHouse.
Instructor: Samar Farah Fitzgerald
Cost: $60 Members | $65 Non-Members
Saturday, August 30, 2014 | 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
Limited to 12 students.
Ever feel indecisive about what point of view is best for the story you want to tell? This seminar will explore the artistic advantages of third-person storytelling. We’ll break down the mechanics of the third-person point of view, question established myths about the third person, and take a close look at famous examples of third-person narratives. We’ll also use short writing prompts to become more comfortable with the point of view.
Instructor: Alison Penning
Cost: $60 Members | $65 Non-Members
Sunday, September 7, 2014 | 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Limited to 12 students.
When you submit a story or essay to a journal, what happens to it? How many pages will editors read before making a decision, and how can you get them to keep reading? Learn where to send your work, how to write strong cover letters, how to interpret rejection letters, and more. Bring one story or essay you want to submit to journals.
Read more: Seminar: On Submission: Understanding Your First Readers
Please join us Friday, September 12, at 7:00 pm for a Literary Salon with writer Lisa Gornick.
Writer Lisa Gornick will share the importance of travel to her writing, including her experience visiting the Amazonian city of Iquitos Peru after having imagined it as the home of one of the characters in her latest novel, Tinderbox. She will also discuss how travel can be an exercise in imagination, deepening our capacities to imagine other worlds and times. Free and open to the public.
Lisa Gornick is the author of the novel A Private Sorcery. Her stories and essays have appeared in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, The Sun, and various psychoanalytic journals, and have received many awards. She holds a BA from Princeton, a PhD in clinical psychology from Yale, and is a graduate of the writing program at NYU and the psychoanalytic training program at Columbia. Her collection of linked stories, Louisa Meets Bear, is forthcoming from Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of FSG.
Thank You to our Sponsors for
Words and Wine 2013
The following businesses and individuals contributed prizes, food, or other in-kind or cash donations to help make the event a success:
If you're not a member of WriterHouse's fabulous community of writers, here's what you might be missing:
- Discounts on writing classes and workshops
- Advance notification of new writing classes
- Eligibility to apply for workspace and conference room rental
- Admission to public areas of house during open hours
- Admission to members-only events
- Link to your writing site from our website
- Your own blog hosted on the WriterHouse server
Members-only events include our Anniversary Members Party and an upcoming panel of literary journal editors. You can join the fun by joining WriterHouse today.
