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“Two years ago, I attempted my first NaNoWriMo. With no previous writing experience, I pounded out a 60k word rough (very rough!) draft. A few months later I signed up for a class at WriterHouse. I learned so much, so quickly. Over the following months I took more classes and and refined my manuscript. A year later I submitted it to PitchWars, a highly competitive, international competition. Out of nearly 3000 applicants, 160 were chosen (including me!) to work one-on-one with a published author followed by a showcase with literary agents. I know the only reason I was able to go from a newbie writer to having interest from top literary agents in 18 months was because of the lessons I learned at WriterHouse. So thank you, WriterHouse! “–Emily Thiede, WriterHouse student and member
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FEATURED EVENTS
September 2018
Plot. Stakes. Tension
Instructor: Crystal Hana Kim $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 9/22/18 | 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM These three terms are often used interchangeably when we talk about the craft of writing. How are these three terms different and how do they work together to keep the reader interested? In this seminar, we will discuss how to effectively create and maintain dramatic tension in fiction by closely reading a short story together. We will then examine our own characters to…
Find out more »Advanced Poetry: Packing a Punch in Your Poetic Endgame
Instructor: Mirabella Mitchell $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Wednesdays, 9/19/18 - 11/7/18 | 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM Prerequisite: Students must have taken at least two poetry classes. Renowned poet Gregory Orr argues that there are six very different kinds of endings for poems. In this class, we’ll read, explore, and discuss an array of poems ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries, and we’ll use these six diverse “species” of endings as our path into them. However, our topics…
Find out more »October 2018
2018 Words and Wine Celebration
Art Gallery at Indoor Biotechnologies, 700 Harris Street (across from WriterHouse) Tickets: $50 per person Sponsorship*: Best Seller ($250), Pulitzer ($500), and Nobel ($1,000) It's time for Words and Wine, the signature annual fundraiser for WriterHouse, an organization whose mission is to promote the creation and appreciation of literature and to encourage the development of writers at all levels by providing affordable, secure workspace and meeting space, high quality writing instruction, and literary events for the public. Join us for…
Find out more »The Songs of Fall: A Poetry Retreat
Instructor: Sara Robinson $99 Members | $110 Nonmembers Saturday, 10/20/18 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Fall and its change of colors offers writers an opportunity to explore their writing in a natural setting. We can look at our art and see how changing colors, direction of light, plants, trees, streams, offer us opportunities to evaluate our own sense of change in what we compose. We can find inspiration like Robert Duncan’s “Often I Am Permitted to Return to a…
Find out more »Reading & Signing by Doug Lawson
Visit New Dominion Bookshop for a reading with short story writers Chaya Bhuvaneswar (White Dancing Elephants) and Doug Lawson (Bigfoots in Paradise). A signing will follow. This event is co-sponsored by WriterHouse and is free and open to the public. Doug will also be teaching a half-day seminar on Crafting Irresistible Characters at WriterHouse on Saturday, October 27.
Find out more »Capricious, Courageous, Captivating: Crafting Irresistible Characters
Instructor: Doug Lawson $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 10/27/18 | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM What is it that makes a character truly, madly, deeply memorable—so uniquely gripping that they can’t be forgotten, so quirky that you can’t help but love them, hate them, want to take them home with you and cook them dinner? In this seminar, we’ll look at some examples of great characters from stories in different mediums (stories, novels, movies, TV) and see if we…
Find out more »WRITERHOUSE NEWS
When Publishers Fail to Market Your Book
This post appeared in the August 1, 2018 edition of the WriterHouse Newsletter. Jane is teaching Getting Your Book Published: A Year-Long Master Class during the fall 2018 term. As may have heard, not all books are adequately marketed by publishers, who may rely...
The Power of Digression
Lately, I’ve been editing my own work, trying to put together a collection of short stories I’ve worked on for three years. Revision, for me, involves a lot of cutting. I value clarity to a fault in my early drafts; later I aim to lose the excessive unnecessary...
Read the Winning Entries from the 2018 JMRL and WriterHouse Poetry Contest
We received an overwhelming response to this year's JMRL and WriterHouse Poetry Contest judged by former Virginia Poet Laureate Ron Smith. We'd like to congratulate winner Erin Wells for her poem "Nevertheless, Isabella Gibbons Reads" and co-runners-up Cynthia...
