FICTION with MATT BURGESS

Beyond Critique: A Collaborative Workshop

In this fiction writing workshop, participants will submit work ahead of time–preferably a complete short story or the first chapter of a novel–and then we will meet as a group to discuss it. Which can be scary! But please note that our discussion will be descriptive rather than prescriptive. In other words, you will not have a group of people telling you how to rewrite your story. Instead, we will describe how your story is working—focusing on elements like plot structures, characterization, and point-of-view—so that you can make your own best decisions on how to revise. We will also conduct short, in-class writing exercises designed to stretch your creative muscles; analyze and discuss published work to make you a stronger reader; and meet one-on-one to discuss how you might further develop your writing.

YOUTH WORKSHOP with EVA FREEMAN

Sailing From This to That: A Youth Writing Workshop

In this workshop, high school-aged conference attendees will explore the craft of the personal essay, short story, and poem. Participants will develop the intimate tone that is the hallmark of good nonfiction and its interplay of summary, musing, and scene. We will also explore the building blocks of a solid short story: plot, characterization, setting, and dialogue. There will be several writing prompts and exercises to practice developing these elements. While we will also generate new material, participants are encouraged to bring poems, essays, or short stories to be workshopped.

POETRY with HEATHER GREEN

Crystal Vision

In this intensive poetry workshop, we’ll consider notions of “vision” as related to perception, image and description, and the imagined shape of a text. We’ll collaboratively read and discuss participants’ poems, as well as model poems related to participants’ poems, in search of a deeper understanding of poetic possibility, both within the poems at hand, and in a broader sense. Students will also respond to generative prompts to write several new poems, which we’ll share near the end of the week.

CREATIVE NONFICTION with MELISSA SCHOLES YOUNG

Beyond the Story: Honing Your Craft

In this workshop, participants’ writing will be supported, nurtured, and challenged. We’ll talk more about craft than content. We’ll practice building layered scenes with dialogue, gesture, sensory descriptions, formal elements, and telling details. By closely reading creative nonfiction, we’ll figure out how authors do what they do so we can do it too.