UPCOMING CLASSES
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 »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in dialogue with physical objects (i.e. art, everyday tools, benches in a park) and/or found texts (i.e. news, songs, historical documents, letters in…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 »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 »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…
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