Workshops & Events
An Afternoon of Memoirs: Stories from the South End
Monday, June 3rd, 1:00-3:00 pm at THE HARVARD CLUB.
Join us for a public reading celebrating the work of the South End writers of The Memoir Project. A joint venture between Mayor Menino's Elderly Commission and Grub Street, The Memoir Project aims to teach Boston Residents 60 and older the rudiments of memoir writing. By capturing stories of older adults we intend to document the history of Boston and, by doing so, provide a greater understanding of the city's past and present for all its residents. Light refreshments will be served.
- Instructor: TBA
We'll announce this person's name soon!
There are 25 seats remaining in this class.
register as a member $0 register as a non-member $0Not a member? Become a Grubbie today!
Grubbie Write-in -- June
Wednesday, June 5th at 6:00pm -8:00pm at Pavement Coffee House.
Need a break from your writing desk? Want to share enthusiasm, feedback, and cappuccinos? Join our next Grubby Write-in at the trendy Pavement Coffee House (1096 Boylston Street). Meet new people and get inspired by writing alongside fellow Grubbies in a cozy cafe setting. If you're interested in attending, please RSVP using this link and we'll send you a reminder ahead of time.
- Instructor: TBA
- We'll announce this person's name soon!
Advanced Techniques in Fiction: ONLINE CLASS
10 weeks in Grub Street's online space with live meetings on Mondays from 8:00-10:00pm EST, beginning June 24th.
To be a great writer, you need to be a ruthless in revision; more importantly, you need to understand the implications of the revision decisions you make. In this advanced fiction workshop, author Amanda Eyre Ward will help students more deeply examine fictional techniques such as voice, point of view, structure, character development, and more. Each week students will have an intense two-hour on-line workshop. In addition, students will be a part of an on-line "Technique of the Week" forum where Amanda will post essays, videos, and published work and encourage students to begin blowing their work to pieces and thoughtfully reassembling it. Students will workshop two stories or novel excerpts and be expected to comment on colleague's work and be active participants in the "Technique of the Week" forums.
This class is for accepted students only. Apply via the form below or at this link by 12:00pm on Tuesday, June 11th. The class is $430 for members and $455 for non-members.
- Instructor: Amanda Eyre Ward
Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of the novels Sleep Toward Heaven and How to Be Lost. She has been published in Tin House, Zoetrope, StoryQuarterly, and on Salon.com. She lives in Austin, TX with her family. Please visit her at www.amandaward.com.
Novel in Progress: Section C
8 Tuesdays from 6:30-9:30pm at the Welch Building 146 Front Street, Scituate, MA 02066. Begins June 25th.
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 twenty-five 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 with suggested strategies for finishing the manuscript. Please bring the first page (double-spaced) of your novel to the first class.
- Instructor: Lynne Griffin
Lynne Griffin is the author of the novels Sea Escape (Simon & Schuster) and Life Without Summer (St. Martin’s Press), and the nonfiction parenting guide, Negotiation Generation (Penguin). In addition to teaching at Grub Street, Lynne teaches in the graduate program of family studies at Wheelock College. She is the family life contributor for Boston’s Fox Morning News and writes for The Writer magazine, Parenting magazine, and Psychology Today. For more about Lynne’s work, visit her website, www.LynneGriffin.com or her blog, Field Guide to Families.
There are 8 seats remaining in this class.
register as a member $345.00 register as a non-member $365.00Not a member? Become a Grubbie today!
Jumpstart Your Fiction: Online Edition
10 weeks in Grub Street's online space with live meetings on Tuesdays from 5:00-7:00pm EST, beginning June 25th.
This introductory course is packed with cool, interactive exercises designed to generate new work while also covering the basic elements of fiction: mining for material, constructing believable and vivid settings and characters, writing convincing dialogue, experimenting with different approaches to narration and voice, and much more. In identifying your strengths and pushing each other to flex our creative muscles, we'll work together to create a positive and constructive environment where new ideas for (and approaches to) stories can blossom.
- Instructor: Jennine Capó Crucet
Jennine Capó Crucet is the author of How to Leave Hialeah, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the John Gardner Book Prize, the Devil’s Kitchen Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by The Miami Herald, the New Times, and the Latinidad List. She’s published stories in the O. Henry Prize Anthology, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica, The Rumpus, and other magazines. A former sketch comedienne and NPR scriptwriter, she’s the fiction editor of the most recent edition of PEN Center USA’s Handbook for Writers and a faculty member of Florida State University’s Creative Writing Program. On Twitter, she is @crucet.
There are 11 seats remaining in this class.
register as a member $430.00 register as a non-member $455.00Not a member? Become a Grubbie today!
The Perfect Crime (Novel): Writing Mystery and Suspense: ONLINE CLASS
10 weeks in Grub Street's online space with live meetings on Tuesdays from 11:00am-1:00pm EST, beginning June 25th.
Join two-time Edgar Award nominee Ben H. Winters for a ten-week online course on the mechanics of crafting the smart mystery, thriller, or novel of suspense. During the ten weeks of this intense class we will move through different aspects of craft, from take-their-breath-away beginnings to unique heroes to the elusive question of tone. Your instructor will offer a series of lectures—“live,” via the magic of the internet—on these and other subjects, and additionally assign supplemental readings via links and uploads, to broaden our understanding of how the great ones, from Conan Doyle to Highsmith to Connelly, make it look easy. There will also be a significant writing component, with the expectation that each student will “turn in” (via upload) approximately three pages of material each week, in response to prompts and exercises, to be returned with comments from the instructor. The ideal student will begin the course with a rough draft of a mystery or thriller, or at least an idea and a couple of chapters—the lessons and exercises will all be designed for immediate application to a work in progress.
This class is for accepted students only. Apply via the form below or at this link by 12:00pm on Tuesday, June 11th. The class is $430 for members and $455 for non-members.
- Instructor: Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters is the author, most recently, of The Last Policeman, which was selected as an Amazon “Best Book” of July 2012 and for the Indy NEXT List of the American Bookseller’s Association. His other works of fiction include the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, an Edgar Award nominee and a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of 2011. Winters’ other books include the science-fiction Tolstoy parody Android Karenina, the Finkleman sequel The Mystery of the Missing Everything, and the supernatural thriller Bedbugs, which has been optioned for the screen by Warner Brothers.