January 2021
Chopped: The Writing Class (Online course)
Instructor: Jody Hobbs Hesler $115 Members | $128 Nonmembers Thursdays, 1/14/21 – 3/4/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Inspired by the TV cooking game show Chopped, this generative writing class will present students with a new "basket" of four "ingredients" each week. "Ingredients" might include objects, people, moods, genres, etc. During our writing time, each writer will not only include all four items, but must "transform" them so that they work together organically. Students may write fiction, nonfiction, or…
Find out more »Explorations in Imitation: Using Poetry to Communicate the Uncommunicable (Online course)
Instructor: James Cole $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Thursdays, 1/11/21 – 3/4/21 | 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm The goal of poetry has always been to communicate sensation and emotion through keen deployment of sound, structure, and image. However, the concrete nature of language imposes limits on our ability to share experiences. How does one use noumena (things as they are) to convey phenomenon (things as they appear) in an effective, engaging way? How can poets produce nuance…
Find out more »Staying the Course (Online class)
Instructor: Jody Hobbs Hesler $260 Members | $289 Nonmembers Every other Saturday for eleven months, 9/19/20 - 7/24/21 | 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm This course is designed for writers charting their way through longer projects, such as novels, memoirs, story collections, etc., but it could also work for writers who are simply working toward a more disciplined writing practice. In this class, we will set broad goals for the year and more specific targets for each next class meeting; discuss…
Find out more »Engaging Beginnings, Middles, and Endings When Writing for Children & Teens (Online seminar)
Instructor: Kathryn Erskine $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Session One: Sunday, 1/24/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Session Two: Sunday, 1/31/21 | 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Whether you’re writing a picture book, chapter book or novel for young readers, what are the elements you need for a great beginning? How much is enough to introduce the story and what is too much information? How do you manage the murky, meandering middle without getting sidetracked by beautifully written scenes…
Find out more »Advanced Fiction (Online course) – This class is full!
Instructor: Sharon Harrigan $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 9:30 am – 10:45 am Requirements: Students are asked to purchase Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy. In this class, we will spend Mondays studying techniques that will make your fiction more engaging, gripping, and vivid. We will discuss selections from Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy, as well as short stories and novel excerpts from Bret Anthony Johnston, Rebecca Makkai, and others. On…
Find out more »Dabblers Group (Online meetings)
This is a writing group organized by member Carol Cutler that meets in the Salon. The group members review each other's writing in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with submissions once a month. The group is currently looking for 2 or 3 more members. If you are interested in joining, please contact Carol Cutler at carolcutler@embarqmail.com.
Find out more »Multi-genre course: The Language of Environment (Online course) – This class is full!
Instructor: Erika Howsare $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm “Nature writing” might make you think of Thoreau or John Muir, but it’s obvious that the world has moved beyond the state of idyllic wilderness. We need writing that tries to reckon with our current conditions—finding words for the grief, rage, and yet joy and connection that we feel in the midst of the Anthropocene. This will be a multi-genre…
Find out more »Evening Creative Nonfiction (Online course) – This class is full!
Instructor: Brendan Wolfe $189 Members | $210 Nonmembers Mondays and Wednesdays, 1/11/21 – 3/3/21 | 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm In this workshop, we'll critique student writing in addition to considering samples of a few published selections. We’ll consider essays and memoir as a distinctive genre, with the goal of moving from the chin-strokingly philosophical—"What is a true story?" "Is it memoir or mem-wah?"—to the more practical: "How should this story be told?" "How do I convince my readers to…
Find out more »Cville YA Writers Group (Online meetings)
This group is open to any member of WriterHouse. 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 »The Storytellers (Virtual meetings)
This is a closed writing group led by members Ingrid Alewine and Marijean Oldham. The group members are alumni of Jay Kauffmann's Creative Nonfiction courses.
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February 2021
Putting the Pen to the Page: Drafting Your Novel in One Year (Online class) – This class is full
Instructor: Kristen-Paige Madonia $1,399* Members | $1,399* Nonmembers Select Tuesdays, 1/5/21 - 8/31/21** | 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM *Payment plans will be available to students accepted into this program. Overview: Putting the Pen to the Page is an opportunity for writers to study the craft of creative writing, share and workshop portions of their novel manuscript, provide and receive constructive criticism, and work with a published author at an MFA-level of instruction as they write their way through the…
Find out more »WriterHouse Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Speculative Fiction Writers Group (Virtual Meetings)
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 »Poets At Large 2020 (Meeting online)
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 »Snowed Under a Blizzard of Unfinished Stories? (Online seminar)
Instructor: BettyJoyce Nash $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Weekend One: Saturday & Sunday, 2/20/21 & 2/21/21 | 10:00 am – 11:15 am Weekend Two: Saturday & Sunday, 2/27/21 & 2/28/21 | 10:00 am – 11:15 am How many days does a blizzard last? That's an unanswerable question, but this short story "blizzard" will span four days. Bring your blanket, bring your hot chocolate and bring a short story you want to polish for publication. We’ll examine point of view, character development, and story arc, but we’ll…
Find out more »March 2021
Writing The Pandemic Through SciFi: Plague Tales (Online seminar)
Instructor: Warren Rochelle $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Session One: Saturday, March 6, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Session Two: Sunday, March 7, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Imaginative responses to the pandemic are beginning to appear. But plague literature, plague fiction, has been around for a long time. Boccacio writes about the Black Death in The Decameron in 1349-1353. In 1722, Daniel Defoe published A Journal of the Plague Year, "the account of one man's experience of the year 1665, when the bubonic…
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