Inprint

This workshop is for K-12 educators In the words of writer and artist Renee Gladman: “Writing is a kind of architecture.” How, then, does one turn a mental blueprint into a finished piece? In this course, we will explore a variety of methods for constructing short stories from the building blocks of character, plot, point of view, voice, setting, and style. We will discuss the strategies of established authors with the intention of implementing those strategies into our own work…

Good stories have the power to transform the mundane into the magical, the distant into the intimate, and the incomprehensible into the reasonable. They transcend their characters, plots, and situations to connect with readers in deep and meaningful ways. Good stories stick to the bones. In this course we will examine fiction writing strategies and explore basic elements of craft including voice, tense, character, point of view, plot, and style. The course will include the reading and discussion of published…

Creative nonfiction can encompass a variety of personal essay and memoir styles and sub-genres. In this workshop we will experiment with and learn about a variety of creative nonfiction forms including: the braided essay, the lyric essay, personal narrative and memoir, and the hermit crab essay. We will use writing prompts and discuss craft elements from the books: Tell It Slant co-edited by Brenda Miller and Susanne Antonetta and The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction edited by Dinty Moore*. Participants will…

In this course, we will discuss practical strategies and approaches to the basic elements of fiction (such as plot, structure, characterization, style, points of view, dialogue, and revision) using contemporary short stories and novels as models. Classes include short lectures and discussion on various craft elements, short writing exercises, and, most importantly, workshopping of story drafts. The goal of this class is creative generation on your projects. Each student will complete two full stories (10-20 pages each) and have momentum and drive to continue writing…

In visual art good composition entails knowing what to show, how to show it, and how to arrange the chosen elements in order to present the most compelling image. Creative Nonfiction works in much the same way, drawing upon life, focusing the attention of the reader, and intentionally arranging information in order to frame a situation or idea to make the mundane profound and the extraordinary accessible. In this course we will practice writing strategies such as description, scene-building, and…

How do we write stories that not only hook a reader in the first couple of paragraphs, but captures attention on the first sentence? How do we create characters that do more than just feel real, but have real breath in their lungs? How do we move beyond a mere point of view, and inhabit the story itself? How can we take prose, and let the story come alive with its own unique voice? In this course we will be…

Robert Frost wrote that a poem “begins in delight and ends in wisdom,” and that this figure is the same for love. This generative workshop will assume a love of language, its rhymes and rhythms, its narratives and puns. We will cultivate an understanding of the poetic process as an erotic pursuit of knowledge, both of the self and of the other. We will share our work within a generative-workshop model that focuses on encouraging, peer-driven feedback; beginners and experienced writers alike will…

TIME, SPACE & THE LANDSCAPER OF SELF In this creative writing workshop, writers will delve into what has made the personal essay a unique and captivating literary form for centuries, both for readers to read and writers to write. To add a new element to this personal essay course, we will specifically be looking at how landscapes — geographical, historical, political, aesthetic and bodily — impact the way we tell our stories. From Fran Leibowitz to Ta-Nehisi Coates, Philip Lopate…