Workshops & Events
Fiction II: Section A
10 Mondays from 11:00-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 2nd.
Whether your model is Carver or Coover, Kafka or Krantz, your voice and narratives are unique. That doesn't mean you don't have to revise. Fiction II is designed to give intermediate/more experienced writers, and those with workshop experience, the intensive review and analysis they need to make their stories deeper and sharper. Classes are primarily focused on discussion of student work, but may also include writing exercises and instruction on craft issues that arise in participants' writing. In addition to the class's comments, you will get in-depth written feedback from the instructor. The goal is to write and revise two short stories or self-contained novel chapters, up to 25 pages each. While this course focuses on short stories only, and novelists may find the creation of self-contained narratives useful, workshopping novel chapters is discouraged.
- Instructor: Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng graduated from Harvard University and earned her MFA from the University of Michigan. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in One Story, TriQuarterly, Subtropics, The Kenyon Review Online, the Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of the Hopwood Prize and a Pushcart Prize. She has taught creative writing at the University of Michigan and Grub Street, is a blogger for the Huffington Post, and is Blog Editor for the writing website Fiction Writers Review. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
There are 10 seats remaining in this class.
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Novel in Progress II: Section A
10 Mondays, 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 2nd.
First drafts of novels can be messy, amorphous and daunting. Some writers feel extensive critical feedback can be counterproductive before the first draft is finished, yet find themselves losing their focus without support and guidance. In class, we will do exercises, discuss craft issues -- characterization, plot and outlining, point of view, voice, dialogue, setting -- and read short scenes from each other's work, providing guidance and feedback in an environment that recognizes the specific challenges of the novel in progress. Before the last class, all writers will be invited to submit pages of their novels to receive a written critique from the instructor or have a one-on-one meeting to discuss their work, with suggested strategies for finishing the manuscript. Please bring the first page (double-spaced) of your novel to the first class; or, a one-page summary of the novel you are writing. For students who have previously taken Novel in Progress I.
- Instructor: Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters is the author of the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and its forthcoming sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything, as well as two parody novels: Android Karenina and the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He has written numerous titles in the bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series, and a bunch of journalism, for places like The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, and In These Times. Ben's work for the theater includes three plays for young audiences: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, A (Tooth) Fairy Tale, and Uncle Pirate, all published by Samuel French, Inc. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works at the Writers Room of Boston.
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Crafting Your Voice
10 Mondays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 2nd.
An intensive course for fiction and non-fiction writers eager to take creative risks in order to explore and develop their personal style. Oftentimes, fiction writers don't focus on developing an eye for translating facts into compelling material—the key to great non-fiction work—and non-fiction writers neglect to focus on drawing the reader in the way novelists do. Students will explore both genres, committing to weekly readings from a variety of non-traditional sources and to workshopping pieces written between sessions. Each class will include a craft discussion, an on-the-spot writing exercise, and workshopping of selected students' writing. We will explore the various techniques used in such disparate works as Mary Karr's lit and Lionel Shriver's The Post Birthday World, among many others. Visiting authors will share insights on how they ""found their voices."" Students will test out various approaches in order to discover what best suits their personal writing goals, thereby coming away with a deeper understanding of the many creative tools at their disposal. Rather than working on developing existing projects, students will generate new, experimental work to help them hone their voices and their goals. Please bring along one sample of your writing to the first class: approximately one page, double-spaced, or ~300 words. Be prepared to discuss a book that has influenced your writing and why. For each session, you will need a laptop or notebook to complete in-class writing exercises. This class can function as the equivalent of either a Fiction I or Creative Non-Fiction I course.
- Instructor: Katrin Schumann
Katrin Schumann is the co-author of The Secret Power of Middle Children and Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too. She has been featured on the TODAY show, Talk of the Nation and in The Times, as well as other newspapers, magazines and radio, nationally and internationally. Schumann’s latest projects include a historical novel set in the Baltic, various non-fiction books in development, and on-going editorial work for editors, agents and writers. For the past ten years she has been teaching fiction and non-fiction, most recently at a local women’s prison, and running parenting focus groups and surveys. Before going freelance, she helped produce talk shows at NPR, where she won the Kogan Media Award. Schumann has been granted writing residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Norman Mailer Writer's Colony. Awarded scholarships to Oxford and Stanford Universities, she studied literature, language and journalism. Schumann was born in Freiburg, Germany, grew up in New York City and London, and now lives in Massachusetts.
There are 10 seats remaining in this class.
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Intro to the Non-Fiction Book Proposal
6 Tuesdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 3rd.
If you have a great idea for a nonfiction book, the best way to explore that idea, to strengthen it and to test its marketability is to go through the process of creating a book proposal. In this class, we'll look at successful examples of proposals and their component parts. During this class you will be developing your own book idea, doing specific exercises to generate proposal pages. We will workshop pages from your proposal in class, including a sample chapter.
- Instructor: Michelle Seaton
Michelle Seaton has been an instructor with Grub Street since 2000, teaching such classes as 6 Weeks-6 Essays, Tour of the Essay, and Master Narrative Nonfiction. She is also the lead instructor and created the curriculum for Grub Street's Memoir Project, a program that offers free memoir classes to senior citizens in Boston neighborhoods. The project has visited ten Boston neighborhoods and produced three anthologies. Twenty-two participants on Nantucket have also completed a Memoir Project class, and that anthology is forthcoming. Seaton’s nonfiction work has been published in Bostonia, Yankee, Robb Report and The Pinch. Her essay, “How to Work a Locker Room” appeared in the 2009 edition of Best American Nonrequired Reading. It is based on her experience covering the National Hockey League for National Public Radio's Only a Game, a program for which she has been a frequent contributor for 14 years. For the show, she has reported on topics ranging from asthma camp to professional wrestling to bird watching. Her fiction has appeared in the Sycamore Review and Quiddity International Journal. She is the coauthor of The Way of Boys (William Morrow, 2009). Her other book projects include The Cardiac Recovery Handbook, coauthored with Dr. Paul Kligfield, Medical Director of Cardiology at the Weill-Cornell Medical Center of the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
There are 12 seats remaining in this class.
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Novel in Progress II: Section B
10 Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 2nd.
First drafts of novels can be messy, amorphous and daunting. Some writers feel extensive critical feedback can be counterproductive before the first draft is finished, yet find themselves losing their focus without support and guidance. In class, we will do exercises, discuss craft issues -- characterization, plot and outlining, point of view, voice, dialogue, setting -- and read short scenes from each other's work, providing guidance and feedback in an environment that recognizes the specific challenges of the novel in progress. Before the last class, all writers will be invited to submit pages of their novels to receive a written critique from the instructor or have a one-on-one meeting to discuss their work, with suggested strategies for finishing the manuscript. Please bring the first page (double-spaced) of your novel to the first class; or, a one-page summary of the novel you are writing. For students who have previously taken Novel in Progress I.
- Instructor: Ben H. Winters
- Ben H. Winters is the author of the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and its forthcoming sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything, as well as two parody novels: Android Karenina and the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He has written numerous titles in the bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series, and a bunch of journalism, for places like The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, and In These Times. Ben's work for the theater includes three plays for young audiences: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, A (Tooth) Fairy Tale, and Uncle Pirate, all published by Samuel French, Inc. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works at the Writers Room of Boston.
There are 11 seats remaining in this class.
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Finding Your Book
6 Tuesdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 3rd.
Back by popular demand! Go on a six-week journey with literary agent Joanne Wyckoff of the Carol Mann Agency and find your (nonfiction) book. Too many people waste time crafting nonfiction book proposals before they’ve done the right kind of rigorous thinking about the fundamentals of their book. In this class, students will learn how to think through the elements of a good book proposal. Through class discussion, students will explore their book idea to make sure they have a workable concept and/or storyline (memoir or narrative nonfiction). The importance of doing market research to determine the uniqueness of a book idea, and developing an author profile or platform will also be discussed. Students come to this class at very different places in the development of their books but all are welcome. By the end of class, it is my hope that all students will have a workable synopsis/overview of their book, as well as the beginnings of a chapter by chapter outline. This is a course that focuses on narrative nonfiction and memoir. The course is part lecture and part workshop. Students will read each other’s developing work and we’ll discuss in class. Led by an instructor who has worked extensively as both a literary agent and an editor.
- Instructor: Joanne Wyckoff
Joanne Wyckoff is an agent with the Carol Mann Agency. Prior to joining CMA, she was an agent with Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. Before becoming an agent, Joanne worked as Senior Editor at Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, and as Executive Editor at Beacon Press. As an agent, Joanne represents nonfiction and selected fiction. She has a particular love of the memoir and is always looking for exciting new voices in this genre. Her nonfiction list includes books in narrative nonfiction, psychology, women’s issues, education, health and wellness, self-help, parenting, natural history and anything about animals, religion and spirituality, and African-American issues. In fiction, her interests run to literary women’s fiction and novels that evoke a strong sense of place. Some notable recent publications include The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life by NPR commentator Lauretta Hannon (Gotham), Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life by highly regarded life planning expert Fred Mandell, Ph.D., and organizational psychologist, Kathleen Jordan, Ph.D.(Avery), and My Green Manifesto: Down the Charles River in Pursuit of a New Environmentalism by well known nature writer David Gessner (Milkweed).
There are 11 seats remaining in this class.
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Jumpstart Your Novel
10 Tuesdays, 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 3rd.
Writing a novel can be an incredible journey of self-discovery. It can also be quite a struggle as you trek through the middle chapters, re-write your outlines, and wonder if you will ever finish the thing. Not only is finding time to write difficult, but overcoming literary pitfalls takes patience and practice. In this workshop, Becky will lead writing exercises designed for writers at any level who wish to gain the skills and confidence necessary for completing a novel. Topics explored will include character development, set-ups and payoffs, conflict, story arcs, as well as when it's appropriate to send out excerpts for publication. The sessions will be a mix of in-class writing, in which students can work on their own novels or respond to a writing prompt, sharing of student work, and discussion of published novel excerpts.
- Instructor: Becky Tuch
Becky Tuch has received awards from The Somerville Arts Council, Briar Cliff Review, Byline Magazine, The Tennessee Writers Alliance and has been short-listed for The Pushcart Prize. Her stories and poetry have appeared in Blueline, Bosphorus Art Project Quarterly, Connecticut River Review, Eclipse, Folio, Night Train, and The Outsider Writers’ Collective. She is one of the founding members of the literary blog Beyond the Margins, and has also reviewed art and literature for numerous commercial and literary magazines. In 2008, she founded The Review Review, a website that reviews literary magazines, interviews journal editors, and offers publishing tips to writers.
There are 7 seats remaining in this class.
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Novel in a Season
10 Wednesdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 4th.
Are you a writer who lacks the discipline or time to sit down and write 2 pages a day? Consider this workshop to be boot camp for novelists.
The first and possibly hardest step to writing a novel is completing that first draft. Contests like the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) have helped over 40,000 writers produce that first, though messy, draft.
In this workshop, over a period of 10 weeks, a rigorous group of writers, aided by instructor guidance, will commit to completing a full 50,000 word draft. There will be daily and weekly word targets to help us along (2 pages a day or 10 pages per week will get us to a 50,000 words draft or 100 page draft). Also there will be in-class readings and critique to keep us on our toes. While this workshop might not produce the final draft of a novel, the 50,000-word draft produced here will have each writer poised to begin the remaining, and hard work of revising, editing and focusing on all the nuances that can make a great book.
- Instructor: Javed Jahangir
Born in Bangladesh, Javed Jahangir grew up in Abu Dhabi, Malta, Riyadh, London, New York, Pittsburgh, and Somerville MA, where he now lives. His work has appeared in various publications including LOST Magazine, LUMINA and Hacks- 10 Years On Grub Street. He has been a frequent contributor to The Daily Star, a leading English daily in Bangladesh. Jahangir has a undergraduate degree from Bard College and a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Though he derives his primary literary motivations from the wealth of Boston’s writing scene, he considers Grub Street Writers amongst its richest. When not writing, Jahangir enjoys illustrating children’s books, is a Taekwando enthusiast and plays competitive squash. He is working on his first novel Ghost Alley, which is set in the post-postcolonial world of Bangladesh.
There are 12 seats remaining in this class.
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Take My Course, Please!: A Humor-Writing Workshop
6 Wednesdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 4th.
This humor-writing workshop will cover everything from Yiddish to British, from Laurence Sterne to Howard Stern. You'll learn to write humorously without sacrificing depth as you discover your own voice, your inner funny. Plus, you'll probably laugh a lot. Whether you want to write short stories, punch-up a script, work on a novel or perfect a five-minute standup set—it's up to you.
- Instructor: Steve Brykman
Steve Brykman left medical school in '93 to write fart jokes as Managing Editor of National Lampoon. Since then, his work has appeared in Playboy, Cracked, Nerve, and The New Yorker, where he was featured in Talk of the Town. He has written for and/or appeared on Prairie Home Companion, Huffington Post, Comedy Central, G4TV, and the Food Network and has performed standup and improv comedy in clubs all across the country. His writing has recently been featured in Awake: a Reader for the Sleepless. As a writing fellow at UMass, Amherst, his fiction was awarded the Harvey Swados prize. He has been thrown out of both the 2000 Democratic National Convention and the Smithsonian Museum and has on more than one occasion performed standup comedy naked.
There are 10 seats remaining in this class.
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Jumpstart Your Writing
6 Wednesdays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 4th.
This course has a very clear mission: devote three hours of your week to writing. Through a series of fun directed writing exercises, we will explore the terrain of fiction and non-fiction: mining for material, constructing characters and settings, shaping vivid dialogue, understanding point of view, and finding your voice. We will discuss the process of writing and the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class. We may read and discuss some short published texts in regards to craft, then write exercises inspired by the texts. A supportive and generative experience for both new and practicing writers. Note that this is not a course in the fundamentals of fiction and non-fiction, but an opportunity for beginners and advanced students to generate new stories and scenes.
- Instructor: Chip Cheek
Chip Cheek's stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Harvard Review, Washington Square, Night Train, Quick Fiction, and Minnetonka Review, among other publications. His stories also appear in the current edition of the textbook What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter (Longman, 2009), and Brevity and Echo: An Anthology of Short Short Stories (Rose Metal Press, 2006). He is the recipient of a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award for 2011, as well as a work-study scholarship to the 2011 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
There are 9 seats remaining in this class.
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Meditation and Writing
10 Wednesdays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 4th.
This class will give students space to cultivate mindfulness and offer inspiration to transform the distillations of contemplation into potent writing. We will spend time in class doing guided meditation and guided writing exercises. The aim is not to write about spirituality, but to allow the act of becoming centered bring about spirited, mindful writing on any topic in any genre. It will be a generative class, rather than a traditional workshop, with some time spent sharing work aloud and offering spontaneous feedback. Students are also welcome to bring in drafts in progress to work on during the in-class writing time. Students will be asked to find time during the week to meditate, and to revise one of the exercises they've start in class the previous week to share in the next class. The take away from this class is cultivating a meditation practice, cultivating a dedicated writing time in each week, generating new work, and generating a re-writing practice as well. Kathleen is a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner with over 22 years experience, and a Buddhist Chaplain Intern at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center regularly guiding patients and staff in meditation. She is the author of The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed: a Memoir of Loss and Hope, and has been anthologized in Best Buddhist Writing 2009.
- Instructor: Kathleen Willis Morton
Kathleen Willis Morton holds an MFA in Creative Writing. Her first book, The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed, was published by Wisdom Publications. She has been published in Shambhala Sun Magazine, Hip Mama Magazine, and the anthology, Best Buddhist Writing 2009 published by Shambhala/Random House Publications. She can be reached at www.thebluepoppyandthemustardseed.com.
There are 12 seats remaining in this class.
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Jumpstart Your Memoir
6 Wednesdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 4th.
This daytime version of one of our most popular courses has a very clear mission: to get you started on your memoir. Through a series of fun directed writing exercises, we will explore the terrain of memoir writing: mining for material, constructing characters and settings, shaping vivid dialogue, understanding point of view, and finding your voice. We will discuss the process of writing and the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class. We may read and discuss some short published texts in regards to craft, then write exercises inspired by the texts. A supportive and generative experience for both new and practicing writers.
- Instructor: Clara Silverstein
Clara Silverstein is the author of the memoir White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation (University of Georgia Press), and three cookbooks, most recently A White House Garden Cookbook, a chronicle with recipes of the first year of Michelle Obama's vegetable garden. A former food writer and editor at the Boston Herald, Silverstein's articles have also been published in Health magazine, Prevention, Runner's World, the Boston Globe, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She directs the summer Chautauqua Writers' Center, and has led writing workshops at Grub Street, Boston University, and Emerson College. She recently completed an M.A. in History.
There are 7 seats remaining in this class.
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Novel in Progress: Section A
10 Thursdays, 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 5th.
First drafts of novels can be messy, amorphous and daunting. Some writers feel extensive critical feedback can be counterproductive before the first draft is finished, yet find themselves losing their focus without support and guidance. In class, we will do exercises, discuss craft issues -- characterization, plot and outlining, point of view, voice, dialogue, setting -- and read short scenes from each other's work, providing guidance and feedback in an environment that recognizes the specific challenges of the novel in progress. Before the last class, all writers will be invited to submit pages of their novels to receive a written critique from the instructor or have a one-on-one meeting to discuss the writer's work, providing guidance and feedback in an environment that recognizes the specific challenges of the novel in progress. Please bring the first page (double-spaced) of your novel to the first class; or, a one-page summary of the novel you are writing.
- Instructor: Becky Tuch
- Becky Tuch has received awards from The Somerville Arts Council, Briar Cliff Review, Byline Magazine, The Tennessee Writers Alliance and has been short-listed for The Pushcart Prize. Her stories and poetry have appeared in Blueline, Bosphorus Art Project Quarterly, Connecticut River Review, Eclipse, Folio, Night Train, and The Outsider Writers’ Collective. She is one of the founding members of the literary blog Beyond the Margins, and has also reviewed art and literature for numerous commercial and literary magazines. In 2008, she founded The Review Review, a website that reviews literary magazines, interviews journal editors, and offers publishing tips to writers.
There are 4 seats remaining in this class.
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Poetry: Stealing the Words
3 Thursdays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 12th.
Why face the accusing stare of the blank white page when you can use the words of your favorite poets to jumpstart your own writing? In this three-part workshop, we will look at poems by some of our favorite poets to find ideas for subject, word choice, syntax, form and rhyme scheme that we can incorporate into our own poems. Workshopping these poems in class is especially revealing for what it shows about the different choices we make in finding inspiration for our own work.
- Instructor: Wendy Mnookin
Wendy Mnookin's latest book of poetry is The Moon Makes Its Own Plea (BOA Editions, 2008.) The recipient of a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Wendy teaches poetry at Emerson College and at Grub Street. You can find out more about her writing at wendymnookin.com.
There are 11 seats remaining in this class.
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New Approaches to the Personal Essay
6 Thursdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 12th.
The essay form is uniquely elastic. In some ways, it provides writers with more freedom than fiction, where plot expectations can be so rigid and all-consuming. In many ways, the essay form is more akin to poetry, in that it can deliver meaning, movement and insight without necessarily employing a traditional narrative structure. Other shaping techniques are necessary, of course, and using the anthology "The Next American Essay," as a text to provide ideas and inspiration, this class will focus on writing creative non-fiction in especially inventive ways. These ways will not only add depth and power to your essays, but help them to stand out from the crowd if you choose to submit them. Over the course of the workshop, we will experiment with techniques such as the following: lists; the use of white space; very short, very long or otherwise unusually designed paragraphs; thematic "triangulation;" and lateral vs. linear narrative. These will help give us permission to write with more freedom and integrity than we may have imagined possible. Come with an essay topic at any stage - including an essay you've already written.
- Instructor: Kim Adrian
Kim Adrian's short stories, essays, and memoir excerpts have appeared in Tin House, Gettysburg Review, Agni, Raritan, Crazyhorse, New England Review, /nor, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a P.E.N. New England Discovery Award, an Artist's Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Editor's Prize in Nonfiction from the New Ohio Review, as well as residencies at the Edward Albee Barn, Ragdale, and the VCCA. She teaches creative writing at Grub Street, reads nonfiction for Agni magazine, and serves on the admissions board for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her essay, "Questionnaire for My Grandfather" will appear in the upcoming anthology YOU: Essays in the Second Person (Welcome Table Press, 2012). Currently, she is at work on a book-length memoir. More at kimadrian.com.
There are 10 seats remaining in this class.
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Writing for Kids: Level II
6 Thursdays from 11:00am-2:00pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 12th.
Spend a fun and challenging six weeks turning that great idea for a young adult or middle-grade novel into the actual beginnings of an actual book. We will cover everything that makes compelling kid lit: from the zing-pow opening to the unique and relatable lead character to obstacles, conflicts ‘n’ stakes. Each day will be a busy mix of mini-lectures, reading and discussing excerpts, and in-class writing. Prepare to work hard, and to emerge with a full outline, a solid set of characters, and a marvelous opening sequence for your soon-to-be classic. For students who have taken at least one level I course in the same genre.
- Instructor: Ben H. Winters
- Ben H. Winters is the author of the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and its forthcoming sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything, as well as two parody novels: Android Karenina and the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He has written numerous titles in the bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series, and a bunch of journalism, for places like The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, and In These Times. Ben's work for the theater includes three plays for young audiences: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, A (Tooth) Fairy Tale, and Uncle Pirate, all published by Samuel French, Inc. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works at the Writers Room of Boston.
There are 7 seats remaining in this class.
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Prose Studio
6 Thursdays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins April 12th.
The idea of this class is that students sometimes need a guarded, reserved, supportive place and time to works on their projects. Here, we make you write. This class provides a time and space every week to work on a novel, short story, memoir, or essay -- anything prose. Each class will begin with a warm up exercise or exercises, and students can share any questions or problems/blocks. If a craft lesson seems necessary (e.g. on characterization, scene, flashbacks, tone, structure) then the instructor will offer a short lesson or lecture. Otherwise, students will simply *write* for the bulk of the class hours (the instructor included). There is an option for sharing what you've written towards the break, or end of the session, but this will be kept to a minimum. Come to the first class with a your goals for our 6 weeks together.
- Instructor: Kathleen Willis Morton
- Kathleen Willis Morton holds an MFA in Creative Writing. Her first book, The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed, was published by Wisdom Publications. She has been published in Shambhala Sun Magazine, Hip Mama Magazine, and the anthology, Best Buddhist Writing 2009 published by Shambhala/Random House Publications. She can be reached at www.thebluepoppyandthemustardseed.com.
There are 12 seats remaining in this class.
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Poetry: Revising the Words
3 Thursdays from 2:30-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters. Begins May 3rd.
Now you have the words down on paper. Where do you go from there? We like to think that our first words are our best words, but although sometimes the gods do rain down their gifts, most often there's a lot of hard work between first words and best words. How can we revise without losing the original energy of the poem? What techniques can help us re-vision the poem and move it toward the best poem it can be? In this three-part workshop, we will explore various revision techniques and workshop each other's revised poems. Please bring to the first class several poems you'd like to revise--at least three, more is fine! We will use these for our first exercise.
- Instructor: Wendy Mnookin
- Wendy Mnookin's latest book of poetry is The Moon Makes Its Own Plea (BOA Editions, 2008.) The recipient of a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Wendy teaches poetry at Emerson College and at Grub Street. You can find out more about her writing at wendymnookin.com.
There are 11 seats remaining in this class.
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