Jumpstart! Classes

Hybrid Forms with Nance Van Winckel

The Jumpstart! writing classes teach how to focus and enliven your writing, whether poetry or prose. Each day’s class pinpoints and exercises different essential elements of writing. One class can be taken as a stand-alone class, or you can come for all three, as a three-day series. If you purchase a Jumpstart! ticket, you have admission to the lectures and panels for that day, as well. The Jumpstart! classes can be taken instead of a workshop, but not in addition to the workshop. The Jumpstart! classes are taught by Nance Van Winckel. Nance is an accomplished writer of both prose and poetry; her works include After a Spell, which was awarded the Washington State Governor’s Award for Poetry, and Quake, which received the 1998 Paterson Fiction Prize.

This year, our Jumpstart! classes will give particular attention to mixed-genre forms, a particularly lively area of writing today. In particular, we’ll discuss prose poems, flash fiction, and beyond-the-page visual/verbal genres. We will engage in writing exercises, as well, using the different forms, and sharing our work with the group.

On day one, we’ll study and draft prose poems, primarily. On day two, we’ll examine flash fiction (very, very short stories) and get started on some of our own. On the last day, we will look at examples of off-the-page visual/verbal art and experiment with mixing text and objects or other art media.