Upcoming Classes

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• Generative Fiction IV

  • Start
    January 15, 2025
  •  
  • End
    March 05, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    8 sessions
  • Location
    Online via Zoom
  • Spaces left
    1

  This class session is open to previous participants of Generative Fiction I, II, and III. Previous participants will receive a registration code to complete registration and payment.

  Generative Fiction IV will take place online via Zoom. You will receive your link and other information directly from the instructor.

  Class will start 1/15/25 and run through 3/5/25, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.

  A minimum of 6 people is required.

  
  

  
  

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• Guide to Being an Indie Author (Warren Rochelle)

  • When
    February 08, 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    4

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  Description:

  So, you are thinking of going indie? Wondering what that means? What you could be getting into? The goal is to explore the pluses and minuses of publishing with an indie press, and how these affect such aspects of writing and publishing as editing, marketing, choosing a press and why, among other things. Students will discuss their expectations and ambitions and share experiences. I will share my own experiences, or how I finally gave up my dream of a national book tour and what kind of tour took its place. Students will have the opportunity to discuss their projects and get feedback on whether the indie route could be a more viable path for them to take versus a more traditional approach. 

  About the Instructor:

  Warren Rochelle lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has just retired from teaching English at the University of Mary Washington. His short fiction and poetry have been published in such journals and anthologies as Icarus, North Carolina Literary Review, Forbidden Lines, Aboriginal Science Fiction, Collective Fallout, Queer Fish 2, Empty Oaks, Quantum Fairy Tales, Migration, The Silver Gryphon, Jaelle Her Book, Colonnades, and Graffiti, as well as the Asheville Poetry Review, GW Magazine, Crucible, The Charlotte Poetry Review, and Romance and Beyond. He had also published a critical work on Ursula K. LeGuin and academic criticism of speculative fiction in various journals.

  His short story, “The Golden Boy,” was a finalist for the 2004 Spectrum Award for Short Fiction. His short story “Mirrors,” was published in Under A Green Rose, a queering romance anthology, from Cuil Press. “The Latest Thing,” a flash fiction story, was published in the Queer Sci Fi anthology, Innovation in 2020.

  Rochelle is also the author of four novels: The Wild Boy (2001), Harvest of Changelings (2007), and The Called (2010), all published by Golden Gryphon Press, and The Werewolf and His Boy, published by Samhain Publishing in September 2016. The Werewolf and His Boy was re-released from JMS Books in August 2020. The Wicked Stepbrother and Other Stories was published by JMS Books in late September 2020.

  He is presently working on a novella continuing one of the stories in his collection. He wanted to know what happened next.

  
  

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• Short and Sweet: Structure in Short Nonfiction (Tod Olson)

  • When
    February 22, 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom — link will be shared by instructor
  • Spaces left
    9

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  Description:

  Everyone has a great personal story to tell, but how do you tell it well? What’s the heart of the story? What makes a good lead? A good ending? What’s the through-line? We’ll discuss some general principles, then take apart a couple of short narrative essays (yes, a little bit of pre-reading) to see how they work. Bring your own work in progress—a short essay, a chapter of a memoir, or just the germ of an idea. During the second half of class we’ll apply what we’ve talked about to your work.

   Instructor Bio:

  Tod Olson is author of award-winning narrative nonfiction for middle-grade and young adult readers, including Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain, the narrative nonfiction series LOST, and the historical fiction series How to Get Rich. He has traveled the country to report on the school shooting at Columbine, the murder of Matthew Shepard, drunk driving accidents, homeless kids, and other only slightly more uplifting topics. He has 30 years of experience as an editor and book developer for the education and school/library markets, and as a writer for Scholastic’s classroom magazines. He holds an MFA from Vermont College of the Fine Arts.

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• The Art of Losing: Poems on Love and Loss (Margaret Mackinnon)

  • When
    March 01, 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    1

  Register

  Description:

  In her famous villanelle, “One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop describes a series of losses, from “door keys” and “the hour badly spent” to houses, cities, and even a significant loved one who is now gone. Her piece is an eloquent example of how poetry can be a means of exploring the intertwined experiences of love and loss. Poetry is one way we can speak about the ongoing presence of what is now absent. In this one-day seminar, we will look at how poems can reflect love and loss, whether that is the loss of a person, a place, or another part of our lives. We will be discussing contemporary examples of this theme, including Donald Justice’s “Men at Forty,” which looks back at a man’s lost younger years, and W.S. Merwin’s “For A Coming Extinction,” a poem that laments the potential future loss of an entire species. We will spend some of our time together reading and discussing the work of other writers, and we will also look at poems shared by members of the class.

  About the Instructor:

  Margaret Mackinnon is the author of two collections of poetry, The Invented Child (Silverfish Review Press 2013), winner of the 2014 Literary Award in Poetry from the Library of Virginia, and Afternoon in Cartago (Ashland Poetry Press 2022), winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize. Her work has appeared in The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Image, Poetry, Blackbird, and other journals. She attended Vassar College and the University of North Carolina, and she received her MFA in poetry from the University of Florida. She lives with her family in Richmond.

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