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• Leaving the Ordinary World and Returning with the Elixir

  • When
    August 08, 2026
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    4

  Register

  This seminar will be held at WriterHouse on August 8 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM.

  Description:

  Leaving the Ordinary World and Returning with the Elixir is a writing seminar for Novelists, Memoirists, Narrative Nonfiction writers and authors of screen plans and stage plays, based on the universal concept of the Hero’s Journey.  Consider your hero’s initial state of woundedness, incompleteness and unfulfilled potential, “kicking around on a piece of ground in (her) hometown.”  Setting your heroic and authorial sights on the opening of your story and stages of the journey Joseph Campbell pioneered, found in most every tale ever told, can inspire an opening dovetailing with your ending -- thematic and plot points to ponder over three hours on an August Saturday morning, maybe taking you and your hero where you have longed to be. 

  About the Instructor:

  Ran Henry is a writing professor at the University of Virginia and author of the definitive biography Spurrier: How the Ball Coach Taught the South to Play Football and the forthcoming spiritual true crime book The Preacher: Mother Emanuel Pastor Clementa Pinckney and the Confederate Storm. He lives atop Afton Mountain with wife Linda, co-owners of Blue Mountain Weddings in Charlottesville.

  
  

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• Writing Marathon

  • When
    August 15, 2026
  •  
    11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    0

  Registration is closed

  This one-session seminar will be held on Saturday, August 15 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. A light lunch will be included.

  Description:
  

  Sharon Harrigan will lead a "writing marathon," a generative writing session based on Natalie Goldberg's famous craft book, Writing Down the Bones. Participants write in response to a series of prompts, then students read them aloud, but no one comments. The duration for each prompt increases as time goes on--starting with five minutes and ending with twenty minutes.  It is a straightforward but dramatically different experience from writing prompts on your own or even writing to a single prompt in one sitting. The continuous flow state that writers achieve can be intense and liberating.

  "What usually happens," Goldberg says, "is you stop thinking: you write, you read; you write; you become less and less self-conscious. Everyone is in the same boat, and because no comments are made, you feel freer and freer to write anything you want. …After a while your voice begins to feel disembodied: you are not sure if you said something or someone across the room said it.  Not commenting on another person’s work builds up a healthy desire to speak. You can pour that energy into your next round of writing. Write, read, write, read. It is an excellent way to cut through the internal censor and to give yourself tremendous space to write whatever’s on your mind."

  
  About the Instructor:

  Sharon Harrigan is the author of the debut novel Half, which was published in summer 2020, and the memoir Playing with Dynamite, published in 2017. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University and has published more than 50 personal essays, short stories, and reviews in such venues as Virginia Quarterly Review, New York Times (Modern Love), and Narrative. A starred Booklist review called Half “suspenseful, lyrical, and consuming,” and Publishers’ Weekly called the novel “riveting and inventive.”

  Sharon’s current and former students have published their work in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, NPR, Gravel, The Guardian, Gettysburg Review, Bay Journal, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Living Lutheran Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Fluvanna Review, Charlottesville Family, and The Ethos Collection, among others.

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• Ink & Income: Mastering the Lifecycle of a Book, Module 3 - Launch & Promotion (Andi Cumbo)

  • Start
    September 09, 2026
  •  
  • End
    October 14, 2026
  •  
  • Schedule
    6 sessions
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    9

  Register

  This class will meet in person at WriterHouse for 6 sessions (Sept. 9, Sept. 16, Sept. 23, Sept. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 14) on Wednesdays, from 10:00 AM-12:30 PM. 

  This course is designed as a series of four distinct modules following the chronological lifecycle of a book. Students may register for the full 20-week intensive or select/combine individual modules on Foundations, Production, Launch Strategy, or Sustainability.

  Description:

  You have typed "The End," but for the professional writer, the work is just beginning. Ink & Income is a comprehensive roadmap designed to bridge the gap between literary craft and sustainable business. Guided by hybrid author and editor Andi Cumbo, this course walks students through the complete lifecycle of a book—from the initial decision between traditional and independent publishing to the complex machinery of book launches, marketing, and financial management. Whether you are a debut writer holding your first manuscript or an established author looking to professionalize your career, this course offers the practical tools to turn your art into a business. 

  Module 3: Launch & Promotion (6 Weeks)
  Focus: Getting the book into readers' hands.

  Weeks 1–2: The Launch Strategy
  

  • • Planning the launch window, organizing launch teams (street teams), ARC distribution, and working with retailers.

    • Guest Spotlight: Flannery Buchanan (Working with Bookstores) & Dave Hirschman (Live Events).

  Weeks 3–6: Ongoing Marketing
  

  • • Moving beyond the launch. Strategies for social media engagement, an introduction to advertising, and public appearances.

    • Guest Spotlight: Marijean Oldham (Marketing) & Jeffrey Lofton (Public Speaking).

  About the Instructor:

  Andi Cumbo is a former creative writing professor, a professional editor, and a publisher who is the author of over 30 books that each incorporate real-life places, people, and events in their pages.  She writes cozy mysteries, romantic comedies, YA fantasy, and creative nonfiction and holds and MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University. She has taught at Santa Clara University, Stevenson University, and George Mason University. When she’s not writing, she and her young son name his toys odd things like “Blech-agh-bah” and try to figure out Lego Fortnite together. She lives in Charlottesville.

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• Writing the Hardest Part: How Writers Bring Difficult Experience to the Page - Part II (Erin James)

  • Start
    September 14, 2026
  •  
  • End
    November 30, 2026
  •  
  • Schedule
    12 sessions
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    0

  Class will meet in person at WriterHouse for 8 sessions on Mondays from 9:30-11:45 AM, Sept. 14 through Nov. 30.

  * Prerequisite for this class: completion of Writing the Hardest Part - Parts I, II, and III

  Description:
  

  “Let’s face it. We’re undone by each other. And if we’re not, we’re missing something.” Judith Butler, Precarious Life

  Much has been written about the self-care that writers must practice if engaged in the art of transforming our most painful and difficult moments into story. This class will leave that up to our therapists, and focus instead on the justifications for doing so, and how to care for those on the receiving end of our stories. 

  Rooted in Maggie Nelson’s theory of art as “a place where all elements—even extremities—of what it feels like to be human can be heard and find place,” we will explore the techniques used by various nonfiction writers to handle difficult content, expand upon the craft archive of trauma we began to build in Part I of this course, and workshop our works-in-progress.

  In addition to exploring the creative struggles of other writers and drawing inspiration from what helped them put words to their experience, we will hold space for our own anxieties about writing difficult experience and engage in craft exercises meant to help us do so with care for and awareness of the self and the other.

  Participants will also receive feedback on their works-in-progress and provide feedback to others. In-class writing will be generative, and a variety of prompts will be offered each week. Participants will leave with a framework for bringing their difficult experiences to the page and feedback on their current work. 

  In this 12-week offering, we will continue to give and receive feedback on our work, explore personal essays and longer memoir excerpts, and take time for in-class writing and discussion.   
  

  About the Instructor:

  Erin has taught English and Creative Writing for over a decade and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 2024. 

  In addition to working with students at WriterHouse for the past ten years, she has been a judge for the Writer‘s Eye Creative Writing Contest hosted by the University of Virginia’s Fralin Museum of Art. She has also been a student and teacher-counselor at UVA’s Young Writers Workshop. She has attended two week-long workshops for Teachers as Writers at Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking in 2014 and 2016 and received an author fellowship to attend the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing in 2021. Before she began teaching, she studied Journalism and English at New York University and received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Virginia. In addition to writing, Erin loves reading, hiking, practicing and teaching yoga, cooking, being outside, traveling, and spending time with her sons Noah and Jacob, and friends.

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• Ink & Income: Mastering the Lifecycle of a Book, Module 4 - Sustainability & The Long Game (Andi Cumbo)

  • Start
    October 21, 2026
  •  
  • End
    November 11, 2026
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    WriterHouse
  • Spaces left
    9

  Register

  This class will meet in person at WriterHouse for 4 sessions (Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 11) on Wednesdays, from 10:00 AM-12:30 PM. 

  This course is designed as a series of four distinct modules following the chronological lifecycle of a book. Students may register for the full 20-week intensive or select/combine individual modules on Foundations, Production, Launch Strategy, or Sustainability.

  Description:

  You have typed "The End," but for the professional writer, the work is just beginning. Ink & Income is a comprehensive roadmap designed to bridge the gap between literary craft and sustainable business. Guided by hybrid author and editor Andi Cumbo, this course walks students through the complete lifecycle of a book—from the initial decision between traditional and independent publishing to the complex machinery of book launches, marketing, and financial management. Whether you are a debut writer holding your first manuscript or an established author looking to professionalize your career, this course offers the practical tools to turn your art into a business. 

  Module 4: Sustainability & The Long Game (4 Weeks)
  Focus: Keeping the business—and the author—healthy.

  Weeks 1–2: Financial Maintenance
  

  • • Understanding royalties, tracking expenses, profit & loss (P&L) statements, and tax basics for authors.

    • Guest Spotlight: Jen Poteet (Multiple Lines of Income).

  Weeks 3–4: Career Longevity
  

  • • Preventing creative burnout, managing time, and planning the "next book" while marketing the current one.

    • Guest Spotlight: Anne Carley (Creative Balance).

  About the Instructor:

  Andi Cumbo is a former creative writing professor, a professional editor, and a publisher who is the author of over 30 books that each incorporate real-life places, people, and events in their pages.  She writes cozy mysteries, romantic comedies, YA fantasy, and creative nonfiction and holds and MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University. She has taught at Santa Clara University, Stevenson University, and George Mason University. When she’s not writing, she and her young son name his toys odd things like “Blech-agh-bah” and try to figure out Lego Fortnite together. She lives in Charlottesville.

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