Our critique workshops are currently filled, but please e-mail us to put your name on a waiting list in case of cancellations.

Tickets are available for the rest of the festival – Jumpstart! classes, lectures, panels, and the faculty reading.

Workshops

Our workshops create an intensive, creative, and deeply encouraging environment in which writers explore, hands-on, what does and doesn’t work in writing.

If you participate in a workshop, you will submit a manuscript, written by yourself, to be studied during the workshop. Led by your teacher, you and your fellow writers will study all manuscripts, giving workshop participants specific, in-depth, and supportive feedback. Each workshop must be taken as a three-day unit. You cannot attend one day of a workshop. If you purchase a workshop ticket, you have admission to the lectures and panels, as well. The Jumpstart! classes can be taken instead of a workshop, but not in addition to the workshop. Each workshop is limited to nine participants.

In 2010, we offer two workshops. Our fiction workshop is taught by David Jauss, and our nonfiction workshop is taught by Sue Silverman. David Jauss and Sue Silverman are award-winning and critically acclaimed authors who are also experienced and encouraging teachers of writing.

Fiction Workshop (David Jauss)

The Fiction Workshop is currently sold out.

The primary goal of any workshop is to improve one’s writing. In the Fiction Workshop, taught by David Jauss, we will focus on the first step of that goal: we will read like writers. Each workshop participant will submit a short story or novel excerpt, and, as a group, we will study these manuscripts as writers. We will analyze and evaluate the submitted text, assessing style, characterization, point of view, and structure, among other aspects of craft. We will discuss submitted works minutely and broadly, offering constructive suggestions for improving sentences, paragraphs, and scenes, as well as the work as a whole. We will give particular attention to strategies for writing successful beginnings. At every step, our collaboration will be supportive and constructive. Workshop participants will leave with new strategies for effective writing and specific feedback on their own projects, as well as with the support and encouragement of a group of fellow writers. Workshop participation is limited to nine participants.

Nonfiction Workshop (Sue Silverman)

The Nonfiction Workshop is currently sold out.

In the Nonfiction Workshop, taught by Sue Silverman, participants will submit essays and excerpts from memoirs for discussion. The main goal of the workshop will be for participants to discuss these submissions. Through these discussions, we will address essential elements of creative nonfiction, such as sensory imagery, metaphor, voice, dramatic arc, and focused theme. As time allows, we will also complete in-class exercises that address pertinent craft issues. Additionally, there will be an opportunity to consider “non-craft” issues associated with the creative nonfiction genre such as “truth” and “memory,” as well as how best to approach the fear some authors feel when revealing intimate information. This workshop will establish a safe environment in which all voices are welcome, and all voices will be heard. All conversation and comments will be supportive and constructive. Workshop participants will leave with new strategies for effective writing and specific feedback on their own projects, as well as with the support and encouragement of a group of fellow writers. Workshop participation is limited to nine participants.