From CT IWWG member Jessica Bram:
Column Writing & Blogging: Speak Your Mind!
(starts March 8th)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Have you ever read a column in the local newspaper, or maybe on the last page of your favorite magazine, or a blog that really caught your attention, and said to yourself, "I could do that!" ? When something outrageous/thought-provoking/ infuriating/ hysterically funny happens to you, do you automatically think to yourself, "Now that would be great material for a column!"? Does the reflective nature - and short length - of the column or blog format appeal to you?
Let Westport News columnist Hank Herman ("The Home Team") help you turn your inclination into action - and turn those inspirations into finished pieces. He'll show you how to brainstorm for material; how to overcome your fear of the blank page or screen; how to edit yourself - in other words, how to get from a rough idea to a polished piece. Whether your goal is publication, writing your own blog, or simply personal satisfaction, he'll show you how to achieve it.
This workshop is for writers, or would-be writers, who have columns or blogs in them and are looking for a way to bring them out.
WHEN:
8 Wednesdays, 1 to 3 p.m.:
March 12, 19, 26, Apr. 2, 23, 30, May 7, 14
WHERE:
32 Webb Road, Westport
COST:
$390 for 8-week session.
MAXIMUM CLASS SIZE: 8
How To Register:
Your check for the full registration amount will reserve your spot. Please enclose name and contact information, including email address, to receive confirmation of your registration.
Mail a check payable to the Westport Writers' Workshop for the full registration amount to 32 Webb Road, Westport, CT 06880.
About Hank Herman:
Hank Herman Hank Herman is an award-winning columnist who writes the bi-weekly Home Team column for the Westport News. He is also the author of Super Hoops (Bantam Doubleday Dell), a prize-winning series of sports novels for children. His latest book, Accept My Kid, Please! A Dad's Descent into College Application Hell (Da Capo Press, 2005) is a humorous memoir about the college admissions process. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, Men's Health, Family Fun, Parenting, Ladies' Home Journal, and McCall's. He also teaches writing courses and seminars at Trinity College's Academy of Lifelong Learning, the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House, and Westport Continuing Education. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in English.
For questions or more information, visit www.westportwritersworkshop.com or contact Jessica Bram at (203) 227-3250 or jessica@jbram.com
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Feb/March: One-Day Writing Workshops
One-day writing workshops in February and March, with award-winning author Mary Carroll Moore. For all levels of writers, to help you jump-start your creativity and your writing. At the Hudson Valley Writers' Center in Westchester County--an easy commute from CT. Please join us!
THE WHEEL OF TEN: Essential Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive
Friday, February 29, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Fee: $120 Returning Moore students deduct $5
Spend a lively day exploring the ins and outs of ten essential writing tools that professional writers never leave home without. Even one, well used, will bring new vibrancy to a not-quite-there-yet memoir, short story, or novel. Fun writing exercises, short readings, discussion will help us see new levels of these basic tools—how to use them, how they influence a writer’s voice and the success of a piece of writing, and why they must be considered for any good storytelling (true tales, faction, or fiction): action, dialogue, pacing, point of view, backstory, chronology, setting, motive, closeness/distance, and change. Bring a bag lunch and short piece of writing in progress to use during the exercises or start something new in class. For all skill levels.
What past attendees said:
"Enlightening. Totally changed the way I think."
"Amazing. Mary was very attentive and gave each student feedback applicable to what meant something to them. I'd recommend this workshop to anyone. My writing now makes sense to me in a different light."
"Best writing instruction I've ever had."
TELLING OUR STORIES: Exploring the Personal Essay
Friday, March 28, 2008, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Fee: $120 Returning Moore students deduct $5
A good essay opens a window and invites the reader into a writer’s beliefs about the world. But it also takes the reader on a journey of discovery—as the writer finds out more about these beliefs. So good essays start with strong feeling, thoughtful questions--and this desire to explore uncharted territory. Within this “risk on paper,” your essay can take multiple forms (linear, snapshot, collage, narrative) and endless subjects (from illness, loss, or trauma to nature to a neighborhood’s disappearing culture). In this one-day workshop we’ll learn the steps to explore, craft, and develop a personal or opinion essay. Using short pieces by well-known essayists, we’ll practice writing exercises to discover what our own essay really is about—what's the theme? the seed idea that will speak most clearly to the reader and deliver our point? Be prepared to explore deeply, write a lot, and go home with an essay to finish. Bring an essay-in-progress or an idea for one, as well as a bag lunch. For all levels of writers.
What past attendees said:
"Her classes always get me going. She turns problems into possibilities and opportunities."
"We need more classes like this. Very interactive. Most writers learn more this way."
"In an interactive environment, Mary breaks down the writing process--and the process of the writer. Just what I needed."
For more information or to register, please call the Hudson Valley Writers' Center at 914-332-5953, email info@writerscenter.org, or visit www.writerscenter.org. Mary Carroll Moore's web site is www.marycarrollmoore.com.
THE WHEEL OF TEN: Essential Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive
Friday, February 29, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Fee: $120 Returning Moore students deduct $5
Spend a lively day exploring the ins and outs of ten essential writing tools that professional writers never leave home without. Even one, well used, will bring new vibrancy to a not-quite-there-yet memoir, short story, or novel. Fun writing exercises, short readings, discussion will help us see new levels of these basic tools—how to use them, how they influence a writer’s voice and the success of a piece of writing, and why they must be considered for any good storytelling (true tales, faction, or fiction): action, dialogue, pacing, point of view, backstory, chronology, setting, motive, closeness/distance, and change. Bring a bag lunch and short piece of writing in progress to use during the exercises or start something new in class. For all skill levels.
What past attendees said:
"Enlightening. Totally changed the way I think."
"Amazing. Mary was very attentive and gave each student feedback applicable to what meant something to them. I'd recommend this workshop to anyone. My writing now makes sense to me in a different light."
"Best writing instruction I've ever had."
TELLING OUR STORIES: Exploring the Personal Essay
Friday, March 28, 2008, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Fee: $120 Returning Moore students deduct $5
A good essay opens a window and invites the reader into a writer’s beliefs about the world. But it also takes the reader on a journey of discovery—as the writer finds out more about these beliefs. So good essays start with strong feeling, thoughtful questions--and this desire to explore uncharted territory. Within this “risk on paper,” your essay can take multiple forms (linear, snapshot, collage, narrative) and endless subjects (from illness, loss, or trauma to nature to a neighborhood’s disappearing culture). In this one-day workshop we’ll learn the steps to explore, craft, and develop a personal or opinion essay. Using short pieces by well-known essayists, we’ll practice writing exercises to discover what our own essay really is about—what's the theme? the seed idea that will speak most clearly to the reader and deliver our point? Be prepared to explore deeply, write a lot, and go home with an essay to finish. Bring an essay-in-progress or an idea for one, as well as a bag lunch. For all levels of writers.
What past attendees said:
"Her classes always get me going. She turns problems into possibilities and opportunities."
"We need more classes like this. Very interactive. Most writers learn more this way."
"In an interactive environment, Mary breaks down the writing process--and the process of the writer. Just what I needed."
For more information or to register, please call the Hudson Valley Writers' Center at 914-332-5953, email info@writerscenter.org, or visit www.writerscenter.org. Mary Carroll Moore's web site is www.marycarrollmoore.com.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
News from Mary Carroll Moore
A new short story has just been published by IWWG member, Mary Carroll Moore. If you'd like to read it, you can visit the online version at quayjournal.org. The print version will be out shortly.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
January Psychosynthesis Workshop
From IWWG Member Cynthia Russell:
Sunday, January 27th
CT Institute for Psychosynthesis at Act 11 Counseling
(Stratford Center location)
10:30 a.m.: Circle with guided imagery , prayer basket & networking (n.c.)
Noon: Bring a sandwich and join us around the table (coffee, tea, and cookies served)
12:30-2:30 class: Receptive listening, presence.
$20 (part of our ongoing fundraiser for wounded vets)
For more information, contact Cynthia Russell, PhD, at 203 377-2421
psynnie@aol.com
Sunday, January 27th
CT Institute for Psychosynthesis at Act 11 Counseling
(Stratford Center location)
10:30 a.m.: Circle with guided imagery , prayer basket & networking (n.c.)
Noon: Bring a sandwich and join us around the table (coffee, tea, and cookies served)
12:30-2:30 class: Receptive listening, presence.
$20 (part of our ongoing fundraiser for wounded vets)
For more information, contact Cynthia Russell, PhD, at 203 377-2421
psynnie@aol.com
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Story With Heart & Art Writing Workshop
From IWWG member Susanne Davis:
Story With Heart and Art Writing Workshop
4 Evening Sessions, 6-9 pm, Feb., March, April, & May 2008
Cost: $600
Whether you are dusting off a manuscript, re-envisioning a draft, or creating a first draft, this workshop will help sharpen your skills to write your story in your voice. In both fiction and nonfiction, we consider the story arc and the elements of fiction created by plot, character, setting, dialogue and point of view. Where is the dramatic tension of the beat? The scene? The story? Where is dramatic tension lacking? How do you create it? In each three hour session, participants will be given detailed critique of work submitted prior to class. Expect constructive criticism, encouragement AND community—meant to inspire participants to improve and move projects toward completion.
Participants will be asked to email drafts to instructor five days prior to workshop for initial reading and written critique. Writers will have also have opportunity/option for commentary on others’ work. Goal: to allow each member to share material each meeting, although no one is required to do so. Indeed, if life gets too busy for writing, do not stay away. Come for writing community and refocus. I may supplement meeting time with writing exercises designed to sharpen scenes and skills, tips on publishing, etc.
Instructor Biography:
Susanne Davis, (B.A. University of Connecticut; M.F.A. University of Iowa) teaches at the University of Connecticut, where she is Resident Director of the Summer Study Abroad Program to St. Petersburg, Russia. She is on the Connecticut Commission of Culture and Tourism’s roster of teaching artists. Author of numerous short stories published in such literary journals as Feminist Studies, Notre Dame Review, American Short Fiction, descant, Zone 3, St. Petersburg Review (forthcoming), Carve, Boston Annual Fiction Review and others, Susanne’s fiction has won awards and recognition including Hemingway First Novel Award, American Short Fiction contest, second place, mention as distinguished story in the Best American Short Stories series, finalist for both Brenda Ueland Prose Prize and Reynolds Price Short Fiction contest. Her work was featured at the 2006 Boston Fiction Festival and her recently completed novel, Gravity Hill, is under consideration for publication. For 2007-08 academic year, she is Visiting Writer for the Connecticut Writing Project at the University of Connecticut.
For more information, contact:
Story With Heart and Art Writing Workshop
4 Evening Sessions, 6-9 pm, Feb., March, April, & May 2008
Cost: $600
Whether you are dusting off a manuscript, re-envisioning a draft, or creating a first draft, this workshop will help sharpen your skills to write your story in your voice. In both fiction and nonfiction, we consider the story arc and the elements of fiction created by plot, character, setting, dialogue and point of view. Where is the dramatic tension of the beat? The scene? The story? Where is dramatic tension lacking? How do you create it? In each three hour session, participants will be given detailed critique of work submitted prior to class. Expect constructive criticism, encouragement AND community—meant to inspire participants to improve and move projects toward completion.
Participants will be asked to email drafts to instructor five days prior to workshop for initial reading and written critique. Writers will have also have opportunity/option for commentary on others’ work. Goal: to allow each member to share material each meeting, although no one is required to do so. Indeed, if life gets too busy for writing, do not stay away. Come for writing community and refocus. I may supplement meeting time with writing exercises designed to sharpen scenes and skills, tips on publishing, etc.
Instructor Biography:
Susanne Davis, (B.A. University of Connecticut; M.F.A. University of Iowa) teaches at the University of Connecticut, where she is Resident Director of the Summer Study Abroad Program to St. Petersburg, Russia. She is on the Connecticut Commission of Culture and Tourism’s roster of teaching artists. Author of numerous short stories published in such literary journals as Feminist Studies, Notre Dame Review, American Short Fiction, descant, Zone 3, St. Petersburg Review (forthcoming), Carve, Boston Annual Fiction Review and others, Susanne’s fiction has won awards and recognition including Hemingway First Novel Award, American Short Fiction contest, second place, mention as distinguished story in the Best American Short Stories series, finalist for both Brenda Ueland Prose Prize and Reynolds Price Short Fiction contest. Her work was featured at the 2006 Boston Fiction Festival and her recently completed novel, Gravity Hill, is under consideration for publication. For 2007-08 academic year, she is Visiting Writer for the Connecticut Writing Project at the University of Connecticut.
For more information, contact:
Susanne Davis
Words on Fire Studio Workshop, Storrs, CT
Email: sdavisstorrs@aol.com
Website: www.susannedavis.com
Words on Fire Studio Workshop, Storrs, CT
Email: sdavisstorrs@aol.com
Website: www.susannedavis.com
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