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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
January 2019
Writing, Revising, Pitching: Getting Your Novel Out of the Drawer and Off to Market
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 »Memoir in a Year Part II: Drafting and Revising Your Book-Length Memoir
Instructor: Lisa Ellison $1399* Members | $1399* Nonmembers Select 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…
Find out more »Revision Essentials
Instructor: Amanda Korman $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 1/26/19 | 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM “Several delusions weaken the writer’s resolve to throw away work. If he has read his pages too often, those pages will have a necessary quality, the ring of the inevitable, like poetry known by heart; they will perfectly answer their own familiar rhythms. He will retain them. He may retain those pages if they possess some virtues, such as power in themselves, though they…
Find out more »February 2019
Once Upon A Time All Over Again: Retelling Fairytales
Instructor: Warren Rochelle $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 2/2/19 | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM All fairy tales are retellings, from the stories remembered and passed on through the oral tradition of the folk tale, to the modern versions seen on TV and in film. Each retelling is a reinterpretation and a reimagining in a different context of history, society, and culture. A retelling, then, is a conundrum for the writer: how true to the original (and which original)? In…
Find out more »Poetry as a Personal Odyssey (Only 2 spots left!)
Instructor: Bill Glose $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 2/16/19 | 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Following the dictum of doing what you love, this seminar will show poets how they can explore whatever theme, hobby, or territory intrigues them most to create poetry with real power. This seminar will show how to blend personal experience with historical and current events to create work that is universal. Examples of poems in early and later drafts will be used to show…
Find out more »March 2019
Deftly Delivering Dynamic Dialogue
Instructor: Doug Lawson $60 Members | $65 Nonmembers Saturday, 3/2/19 | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM How your characters speak (or don’t speak) is a key way your readers will get to know them. Are they eloquent? Overly articulate? Academic? Or are they subtle, scheming, a quiet keeper of dark secrets? The way they talk will help reveal them—if you’re thoughtful about it. In this seminar we will focus on key ways of thinking about dialogue patterns, some core techniques…
Find out more »Winter Class Reading and Open House
Join us for food and fun as we celebrate the writing created during the 2018 fall term. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be represented. The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. Bring friends!
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...
