May 2019
Daytime Fiction: Reality-Based Fiction Writing (Ongoing Spring Term Class)
Instructor: Seth Clabough $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Fridays, 3/29/19 – 5/17/19 | 9:30 am – 12:00 pm What do established writers say about the importance, practice, challenges, and limits of rooting fiction in actual experiences? In this class, we'll discuss and consider examples and applications by writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Participants will also have the opportunity to utilize this approach to reconsider their current projects and to develop and workshop their own…
Find out more »Open Writing Hours Today!
WriterHouse will be offering the volunteer operated Open Writing Hours today. Come in and enjoy a nice quiet place to write, meet with your writer friends, and have a cup of coffee on the house. Want to see more open hours? We do too! Become a volunteer for WriterHouse today to help us promote the creation and appreciation of the literary arts in your community.
Find out more »Open Writing Hours Today!
WriterHouse will be offering the volunteer operated Open Writing Hours today. Come in and enjoy a nice quiet place to write, meet with your writer friends, and have a cup of coffee on the house. Want to see more open hours? We do too! Become a volunteer for WriterHouse today to help us promote the creation and appreciation of the literary arts in your community.
Find out more »Dabblers Group
This is a closed writing group organized by member Carol Cutler that meets in the Salon.
Find out more »Open Writing Hours Today!
WriterHouse will be offering the volunteer operated Open Writing Hours today. Come in and enjoy a nice quiet place to write, meet with your writer friends, and have a cup of coffee on the house. Want to see more open hours? We do too! Become a volunteer for WriterHouse today to help us promote the creation and appreciation of the literary arts in your community.
Find out more »Cville YA Writers Group
This group is open to any member of WriterHouse. At this meeting, one member will read a short piece for us to critique. We will also discuss an article about writing antagonists. We welcome more voices in our lively discussions about writing as it pertains to the YA audience. Questions? Contact Bonnie Redding at riderwriter5@yahoo.com
Find out more »Memoir in a Year Part II: Drafting and Revising Your Book-Length Memoir (This class is full!)
Instructor: Lisa Ellison$1399* Members | $1399* NonmembersSelect Thursdays 1/24/19 – 12/5/19 | 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM*Payment plans of $335 per quarter will be available to students accepted into this program.**For a complete list of class dates, please see the Memoir in a Year Part II Syllabus. Have a powerful life story you absolutely must tell? Looking for support as you harness the power of that narrative? Memoir in a Year Part II: Drafting and Revising Your Book-Length Memoir is…
Find out more »Advanced Fiction Workshop: Focus on Craft (Ongoing Spring Term Class)
Instructor: Christina Ward-Niven $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Thursdays, 4/11/19 – 5/30/19 | 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm In this workshop, we will talk about how fiction works. Why do we love the stories we love? What tools did the author employ to affect us as readers? Each week, we'll begin by discussing a story by a published author, looking at traditional craft elements (such as setting, detail, characterization, and dialogue) as well as other less concrete, but equally important…
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June 2019
Touring Today’s Publishing Options
Instructor: Chris Register $30 Members | $32.50 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/1/19 | 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Getting published has never been easy, but once upon a time the protocol was at least straightforward: writers would search (and search, and search) for a literary agent willing to introduce their work into an otherwise impenetrable industry. Of course, times have changed. While the traditional approach continues to work well for many authors, an ever-expanding universe of publishing options has made ‘straightforward' a thing of the…
Find out more »Science Fiction & Fantasy Group Reading and Open House
Join us for food and fun as we celebrate the varied writing from our speculative fiction group. The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. Bring friends!
Find out more »Writing, Revising, Pitching: Getting Your Novel Out of the Drawer and Off to Market (This class is full!)
Instructor: Randall Klein $1299* Members | $1299* Nonmembers Select Mondays 1/14/19 – 9/23/19 | 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM *Payment plans of $412 per quarter (3 quarters) will be available to students accepted into this program. Overview: For most novelists, the ultimate goal is to get published. Before that, however, comes much revision, along with some frustration and confusion at a seemingly impenetrable system of submission, waiting, and hoping. Writing, Revising, Pitching is a class for people who have…
Find out more »Open Writing Hours Today!
WriterHouse will be offering the volunteer operated Open Writing Hours today. Come in and enjoy a nice quiet place to write, meet with your writer friends, and have a cup of coffee on the house. Want to see more open hours? We do too! Become a volunteer for WriterHouse today to help us promote the creation and appreciation of the literary arts in your community.
Find out more »Literary Fiction Critique Group
This is a closed group facilitated by Lauren Hebert for writers who seek thoughtful critical feedback on their work and are able to provide the same support for other group members. In addition to reading and commenting on individual submissions, we also engage in craft-related discussions, writing exercises, and free-write sessions.
Find out more »Evening Poetry: Keeping the Doors of our Imagination Open (Only 1 spot left!)
Instructor: Annie Kim $150 Members | $165 Nonmembers SIX Tuesdays, 6/4/19 – 7/9/19 | 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm We often make our most imaginative leaps and surprising discoveries by focusing our conscious attention outside ourselves. In this workshop we’ll invite these discoveries by engaging deeply with objects from the physical world. You'll write poems each week in dialogue with physical objects (i.e. art, everyday tools, benches in a park) and/or found texts (i.e. news, songs, historical documents, letters in…
Find out more »Summer Novel Starter
Instructor: Randall Klein $300 Members | $330 Nonmembers TEN Wednesdays, 6/5/19 – 8/14/19 | 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm It's summer! You can accomplish a lot or you can accomplish just a little. BUT, if it is on your bucket list to start a first draft of a novel guided by a seasoned veteran of the writing world, why would you say no? This class is designed to help writers start a novel in any genre in a condensed and…
Find out more »Evening Fiction: Short Stories Masters
Instructor: BettyJoyce Nash $94.50 Members | $105 Nonmembers FOUR Wednesdays, 6/5/19 – 6/26/19 | 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm In this course, we'll put selected scenes from published short stories under a microscope and generate original work inspired by these readings and our discussions. Our goals include an enhanced, expanded ability to remain open to possibility: We don’t want to rush early drafts because, if we pay attention, they teach us who the characters are and what they want. Over…
Find out more »Writing the Tough Stuff: Generating Essays (Only 4 spots left!)
Instructor: Jennifer Niesslein $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/8/19 | 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm When you experience a life-changing event, how do you even begin to write about it? And how do you make your work stand out from other work that tackles the same kind of event? In this seminar, we’ll focus on a few approaches and forms to tackle the tough stuff. Expect to read and discuss, and write and share, and leave with the germ…
Find out more »WriterHouse Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Speculative Fiction Writers Group
Do rolling green hills inspire you to think of brutal orc armies bearing down on ancient elfin civilizations? Intrepid heroes slashing their way through overgrown jungles in search of the one cure to a deadly pandemic? Forgotten tribes descended from a humanoid ancestor other than our own? Government enclaves for top secret and highly unethical experiments? Mother Nature’s healing touch after the nuclear apocalypse? If so then we would love to hear about it! The WriterHouse Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Speculative Fiction Writers Group…
Find out more »Navigating Self-Publishing Using Amazon KDP
Instructor: John Nicolay $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Wednesday, 6/12/19 | 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm This seminar takes the student through the process of using Amazon’s “Kindle Direct Print” for publishing any project as a softcover book. We will discuss each element of the process, starting with formatting the “to-be” work so that KDP remains happy. John Nicolay is a professor in The Graduate School, University of Maryland. He is an officer with the Blue Ridge Writers, and a…
Find out more »Writing for Magazines
Instructor: Bill Glose $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/15/19 | 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm In this workshop, Bill Glose shares his own roadmap to successful publication to show how to break in at magazines and keep landing assignments after you’ve kicked the door down. You will learn the basics of querying, the three stages of the interview, editorial timelines and relationships, and the art of narrative non-fiction as it applies to both essays and articles. Bill Glose is the author…
Find out more »Structuring Your Book
Instructor: Kristie Smeltzer $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/15/19 | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Have a great idea for a book but no idea where to start? Do you have a first draft and now you're ready to shape it? Or has your book stalled because you don't know where to go next? Participate in this seminar to learn about a variety of story structures and planning techniques that can help with your book. Writing a book-length work…
Find out more »Poets At Large
This is a closed group facilitated by Sharon Ackerman and Priscilla Melchior. The group's goal is a detailed study of the craft of poetry.
Find out more »Plan Your Writing Year
Instructor: Jody Hesler $94.50 Members | $105 Nonmembers FOUR Wednesdays, 6/19/19 – 7/10/19 | 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm Let’s make the most of summer’s lull to plan our writing year. This class is meant for writers who want to deepen their commitment to their work in any genre. We will share strategies for keeping up our stamina in the face of daily distractions and disappointments, for writing when the Muse seems to be sleeping, for drafting and for revising…
Find out more »Rhyme
Instructor: Neil Perry $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/22/19 | 10:00 am – 1:30 pm This seminar will investigate the strange topic of rhyme and rhyming. At once the formal element most readily associated with poetry and the thing most poets first kick out of their tool box, rhyme has a unique and almost paradoxical place in our consideration of craft. We'll look at poems that rhyme and rhyme well. We'll look at poems that rhyme terribly. We'll talk about…
Find out more »Open Writing Hours Today!
WriterHouse will be offering the volunteer operated Open Writing Hours today. Come in and enjoy a nice quiet place to write, meet with your writer friends, and have a cup of coffee on the house. Want to see more open hours? We do too! Become a volunteer for WriterHouse today to help us promote the creation and appreciation of the literary arts in your community.
Find out more »Get Work Done: Evaluating and Planning Structure for Your Book
Instructor: Kristie Smeltzer $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 6/29/19 | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Are you ready to plan or revise your book? Stuck in the writing process because your book's path is unclear? Join this seminar to roll up your sleeves and do some evaluation or planning for your book. Participants will apply several techniques to identifying or evaluating the structure of their work in progress. You'll gain experience in the techniques and leave with a more…
Find out more »July 2019
Write On! Session I: 6th – 8th Grade Writing Workshop (Only 2 spots left!)
Instructor: Erin James Cost: $210 on or before 3/25/19, $225 on or before 4/26/19, $240 after 4/26/19 Monday – Friday July 8, 2019 - July 12, 2019 | 1:00 PM-5:00 PM During this week, young writers will explore the craft and fun of creative writing through a variety of prompts, journaling, music, brainstorming, people-watching, and visits to nearby inspiring locations. Modes of expression and experimentation will include poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and more! Throughout the week, we will learn about and participate…
Find out more »Write On! Session I: 9th – 12th Grade Writing Workshop
Instructor: Abigail Baum Cost: $210 on or before 3/25/19, $225 on or before 4/26/19, $240 after 4/26/19 Monday – Friday July 8, 2019 - July 12, 2019 | 1:00 PM-5:00 PM In a world that is increasingly colored by diversions and distractions, how do we, as artists, learn to leverage inspiration? This five-day intensive study will be situated in the study of that seemingly elusive muse: inspiration. The course will seek to locate a beginning point for each member, appropriate…
Find out more »Write On! Session II: 9th – 12th Grade Writing Workshop
Instructor: Kirsten Miles Cost: $210 on or before 3/25/19, $225 on or before 4/26/19, $240 after 4/26/19 Monday – Friday July 22, 2019 - July 26, 2019 | 1:00 PM-5:00 PM Develop your writing skills and gain exposure to diverse and contemporary authors with a tailored reading list. Your week will include a handmade journal, and a hands-on tour of rare and famous books in the UVA special collection library for inspiration, putting literary treasures in your hands. We'll have…
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