The Writer's Guide Winter/Spring 2017

THE WRITER’S GUIDE EVENTS

PG

16

WORKSHOPS

PG

20

BOOK TALK

PG

41

AWP Booth #234

Meet POET LORE editor Jody Bolz and learn about all The Writer’s Center has to offer!

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The Writer’s Center The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

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DEPARTMENTS

Editor

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S NOTE 5

Vanessa Mallory Kotz

INSTRUCTOR BIOS 34

EVENTS 16

vanessa.mallorykotz@writer.org

BOOK TALK 41

WORKSHOPS:

Contributors

Pamela Alston Naveed Ashraf Jacquelyn Bengfort Dan Brady Nate Brown Andrea Carter Brown Erin Clark Sunil Freeman Sara Gama Natalie E. Illum Peter James Sarah Katz Anastasia Keck Richard Lorr Vanessa Mallory Kotz Meenakshi Mohan Rachael Petersen Mairin Rivett Mike Scalise Helen Zubaly

ON THE SCENE 46

Schedule 21 Descriptions 25

REGISTRATION 51

FEATURES 8 In Memoriam: Nan Fry Sunil Freeman pays tribute to the beloved poet and workshop leader who passed away last fall.

9, 38 From the Workshops In this issue, workshop particpants explore love in the arctic, a woman’s inner tomboy, the common magic of birth, and the power of Lou Reed.

10 A Guide to AWP in D.C.

Graphic Design

Veterans of the conference help you navigate all aspects of the sometimes overwhelming conference and bookfair.

Virtually Detailed, Inc. Copyeditor

Laura Spencer

50 The Last Word

Interns

Poet and songstress Natalie E. Illum’s powerful, lyrical essay on the struggle to move beyond “write what you know.”

Catherine Gregoire Emily Kranking Poet Lore Editor Jody Bolz gears up for the mass of crowds that swarm the AWP Bookfair.

Cover Image

Illustration by Oliver Bendorf https://oliverbendorf.org

The Writer’s Center

cultivates the creation, publication, presentation and dissemination of literary work. We are an independent literary organization with a global reach, rooted in a dynamic community of writers. As one of the premier centers of its kind in the country, we believe the craft of writing is open to people of all backgrounds and ages.

Writing is interdisciplinary and unique among the arts for its ability to touch on all aspects of the human experience. It enriches our lives and opens doors to knowledge and understanding. The Writer’s Center is a 501 (C) (3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible. A copy of our current financial statement is available upon request. Contact The Writer’s Center at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815. Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of copying and postage.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

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ABOUT US

The Writer’s Center

Other Locations Annapolis Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts 801 Chase Street Annapolis, MD 21404 marylandhall.org

Capitol Hill The Hill Center 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 hillcenterdc.org

Assistant Director

Marketing & Communications Manager

Sunil Freeman

Vanessa Mallory Kotz

Program Manager

Managing Editor of Poet Lore

Laura Spencer

Ellie Tipton

Development & Membership Manager

Office Manager

Kristen Zory King

Judson Battaglia Community Relations Assistants

Glen Echo

James Ebersole & Tyler West

Glen Echo Park 7300 MacArthur Blvd.

Glen Echo, MD 20812 glenechopark.org

Board of Directors

Leesburg Leesburg Town Hall 25 West Market Street Leesburg, VA 20176 leesburgva.com

Chair: Sally Mott Freeman

Vice Chair: Mier Wolf

Treasurer: Margaret Meleney

Secretary: Patricia Harris

Chair Emeritus: James T. Mathews Ken Ackerman • Margot Backas • Linna Barnes • Naomi F. Collins Mark Cymrot • Les Hatley • John M. Hill Jeff Kosseff • Howard Lavine • Jim McAndrew Ann McLaughlin • Joram Piatigorsky Bill Reynolds • Wilson W. Wyatt, Jr. • Morowa Yejidé

Poet Lore is the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the United States. We publish semi-annually, and submissions are accepted year-round.

Subscription and submission information is available at poetlore.com.

Honorary Board Kate Blackwell • Tim Crawford • Dana Gioia • Jim & Kate Lehrer Alice McDermott • Ellen McLaughlin • E. Ethelbert Miller • Howard Norman

Supported in part by:

Book Gallery TWC’s book gallery carries an extensive collection of literary magazines and books on craft.

The Writer’s Center also gratefully acknowledges the support we receive from: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Tau Foundation, The Omega Foundation, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, and The Bydale Foundation.

4508 Walsh Street Bethesda, MD 20815

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ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S NOTE ing of knowledge never ceases to affect the writers in our community.

Photo by Mignonette Dooley

W

hen you walk around the Jane Fox Reading Room, site of unforgettable events over the last 23 years, you’ll see a series of book posters for writers who have given or taken workshops with us. In each, the author briefly recalls what the Center means to them.

Poet Sandra Beasley remembers a visiting writer’s comment: “Thanks for inviting me to the coolest thing I have ever done.” Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco tells us how “The Writer’s Center became my literary home, connecting me with an incredible family of writers that I so needed and craved.” The tributes are moving, empowering, and at times, humorous. Novelist Katherine Hill, our receptionist many years ago, proudly proclaims, “I even learned how to make coffee.” All speak to the power of community that has grown here over the years.

I joined the staff of The Writer’s Center in the mid1980s, and 30 years later, I’m still excited about the place. I have organized or attended countless memorable programs, and while people have come and gone, the warmth of spirit and shar-

As we begin our 41st year of serving the D.C. literary community, we have great plans, including renovating our first floor and making the entire building more accessible, which will start in June 2017. We are also proud to welcome Morowa Yejidé to the Board of Directors.

She is a powerful force in the D.C. community and her voice at the table is an important one (see p. 49).

It’s an exciting time, made all the more so by the impending friendly invasion set to occur this winter. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Washington, February 8–11, 2017. Call it what you will: a kaleidoscopic extravaganza, a flood of riches, or sensory overload. We’re glad to be a sponsoring organization for this gathering of more than 12,000 writers in the nation’s capital.

In this issue of The Writer’s Guide, we’ve enlisted the help of several local literati to offer tips on navigating everything about the conference, from the book fair to panels to off-site events (p. 10).

We’re looking forward to seeing you at AWP. Please visit our booth #234 to meet staff, learn about our programs, take advantage of special offers, and, maybe best of all, get to know Poet Lore editors Jody Bolz and Ellie Tipton.

As a sort of prelude to the gathering, we’re presenting a program on February 6 that celebrates the central role workshops and readings have played in our mission. Rod Jellema, who retired after leading several dozen very popular workshops through the decades, will spend some time with us, as well as three poets who studied extensively with him: Kevin Craft, Mark Smith-Soto, and Marie-Pavlicek Wehrli.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

On February 26, we’re particularly pleased to feature the recently launched The Deaf Poets Society at a reading. The online journal has been a welcome addition to the literary community, giving voice to writers and visual artists who have long been marginalized in both the literary and broader society. A big shout out goes to Sarah Katz, who organized the event, which will bring Carrie Addington, Camisha Jones, Gregory Luce, Isis Nelson, and Jen Stein to the mic. We interviewed the editors of the journal and offer a short profile here of the exciting new project (see p. 6).

Elsewhere in the season, the Open Door Reading series broadens to a global scale with poets Teresa Mei Chuc and Shara McCallum, born, respectively, in Vietnam and Jamaica. We will also continue a longstanding tradition of celebrating literary journals from the Washington, including editor Robert Giron and writers published in The Sligo Journal early in the New Year. For a complete listing of events, consult our calendar (see p. 16).

We’re looking forward to these programs, renewed energy, and new members who will come through our doors, just as I did so long ago.

Wishing you a creative new year!

Warmly,

Sunil Freeman Assistant Director

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The Deaf Poets Society

By Vanessa Mallory Kotz

F

or a lot of people, accessibility is a passing thought that occurs when pushing a stroller, helping Grandma into the car, or during a brief foray on crutches after an injury. For the most part, it’s not something many think of at all. Nor do most consider the people who rely on ramps, large stalls in public bathrooms, elevators, or sign-language interpretation. They are too-often invisible. When was the last time you came across a person with a disability in art or literature?

Beyond that, how often do you read about someone with deafness or illness that isn’t presented as tragic or saintly?

Think about it.

Sarah Katz, founder of the online journal The Deaf Poets Society, thought about it, and she chose to take action, to create an inclusive platform for people who experience disability,

sickness, or chronic pain to share their stories and their art. Further, the journal is intersectional, calling for submissions from people of all races, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, religions, and sexual identities.

“I’ve been so pleased by the work that we’ve received,” Katz says. It’s an enormous privilege to read, view, and share all of the incredible work that people are doing. . . . It’s such a gift to see that happening and see people connect with each other.”

Each poet, essayist, and artist has, of course, their own personality, backstory, joys, and struggles. Their work explores the complexity of being human and brings to the forefront voices that demand and certainly deserve visibility.

Katz, who is also a contributor to our feature on AWP in D.C. (see p.

10) earned her M.F.A in poetry from American University. She took on the role of poetry editor and gathered the team of talented editors to produce the journal: Ava C. Cipri, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Travis Chi Wing Lau, T. K. Dalton, Janet Morrow, and MANDEM. The results of their efforts are beautiful, powerful, funny, heart-wrenching, infuriating—every aspect of the human condition can be found in these pages.

MANDEM, who is one of two art editors of the journal, emphasizes the need to present work that does NOT see disability as something to overcome in order to create art. “We like work that deals with deafness and disability as part of a wider lived experience and identity,” they said. “In the same way that you don’t expect a male artist to make work exclusively about how

Left to right: Curvature by Erin Clark, digital photograph, 2016; Flying Too Close to the Sun by Anastasia Keck, mixed media, 2015; Anna by Peter James, oil on canvas, 2015

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masculine he is, we don’t expect our artists to make work that’s only about their ‘condition.’ It’s enough to simply be a D/deaf, disabled, or neurodiverse artist and to make impressive, valid work.” Yet, MANDEM clarifies, the journal welcomes work that explores these experiences as well.

More than a journal, The Deaf Poets Society is a call to action—to disabled and abled bodies—to seek social justice for all marginalized peoples. The bimonthly publication launched in August 2016 and included a manifesto in the spirt of powerful art movements of the past. Part of it reads: Here at The Deaf Poets Society, all bodies are welcome at the table, with disabled artists and writers at center stage. If you are abled, come sit and listen to the voices and visions of Black, Asian, Arab, indigenous, Jewish individuals across the disability spectrum and across gender and LGBTQIA status. Understand that our work resists closure, resists bilateral ideology about disabled and abled bodies, resists simple delineation of complex bodies and lives.

Understand that, if you’re a cisgendered, heterosexual, white person with a disability, you do benefit from privilege in a way that a person of color does not, and it is you who will determine whether the privileges bestowed on you via white supremacy, transphobia, and homophobia diminish the voices of your counterparts. Allies are key to systemic change and true disability justice; as long as someone is not free, nobody is free.

So come to our home, come in and sit. Marvel at how our work reveals

the wide spectrum of experience across identities and at the intersections. Marvel at how alive we are, despite constant and implicit and complicit metaphorical arguments to the contrary. Marvel at how our language muscles through the page with verve and idiosyncrasy, at how our brushstrokes and pencil markings and photographs undo what you think you know about the body, what the narrow range of voices in the

traditional canon thinks they have figured out, but never did and never will.

To read the free journal online, submit your work, or make a donation to support the project, please visit www.deafpoetssociety.com.

Please join us on Sunday, February 26, at 2 p.m. at The Writer’s Center for a reading from writers published in The Deaf Poets Society.

To an Unknown Goddess

By Andrea Carter Brown She of the missing digits, who cradles a handful of sheaves which lost their tassels so long ago the broken stems flower with mildew and algae; she whose helmet of neat banana curls is netted by spider webs, whose two still perfect ears are stopped by fall’s drift and delicate left nostril drips a dust strand with which the breeze toys; she, whose voluminous dolomitic folds, tender inside of bent elbow, and flexed toes are dirty for eternity, or at least until they crumble to grit, whose one bared breast is polished by elements, her arched neck lovely, her open palms, despite lacking fingers, relaxed; you, who cannot see or hear, touch or feel, are more beautiful for being broken. Once children like us, imperfect, flawed, were left on a mountain to die.

Tell me, goddess, how we came to be stranded here together on this Adirondack porch.

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IN MEMORIAM

The Writer’s Center

In Memoriam Nan Fry

By Sunil Freeman

T

he Writer’s Center and the broader community suffered a terrible loss in September with the passing of poet Nan Fry. The beloved workshop leader was a familiar presence since our founding days in Glen Echo and a professor for more than 20 years in the Academic Studies Department at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Design.

I first came to know Nan more than 25 years ago when she led workshops with us on Old Georgetown Road, a few years before the Center moved to Walsh Street. I always enjoyed working with her when I organized our workshop series, and I particularly appreciated her presence as a strong link to the Center’s earliest days.

An excerpt from a blog post she wrote in September 2011 gives a glimpse into her creativity and her inquisitive mind. In response to the sense of discovery expressed by one of her workshop participants, Fry wrote: “[The student] said that she had been surprised by what she had written and that she probably couldn’t have done as well if she had approached the subject directly. That is the delight of poetry—either free or formal—we surprise ourselves and discover our poems as we write them.”

We received many tributes from her friends after learning of her passing. Adele Brown, a poet who led writing workshops for children at the Center, recalls of her friend: “Nan was one of the kindest and most generous poets and instructors that I had the pleasure to know.

She generously offered her advice and counsel to me and others often whenever we had questions about poetry, writing, and workshops.”

Nan Fry’s collection of poetry, Relearning the Dark, won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House competition in 1991. Her work has also appeared on posters in the transit systems of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md, as part of the Poetry Society of America’s Poetry in Motion® Program; in magazines and journals such as Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Poet Lore, and The Wallace Stevens Journal.

Photo by Mignonette Dooley

“Pear”

By Nan Fry Pear,

you hang from your tree like a teardrop grown solid, like snow with a freckled skin.

When the handless maiden came to you in moonlight, hungry, she stretched up and took you into her mouth.

Her father had sold her to the devil and lopped off her hands, but you bent to her, Pear, and offered yourself, breast and milk both, the earth grown pendulous and sweet.

Copyright © 2005 by Nan Fry. The poem first appeared in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #15, January 2005.

We were fortunate to have known her all these years, and we will miss her steady presence and her many contributions to our community here at The Writer’s Center.

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FROM THE WORKSHOPS Many talented writers have passed through The Writer’s Center’s halls, taking multiple workshops and honing their craft. We present here a small sampling of the amazing work they produce.

This is Our Land: For Nan Fry

By Richard Lorr, one of Dr. Fry’s recent students Green, hard bamboo grew in our yard for years. I was its Gardener, its mad surgeon, slashing out, seeking clean Margins, an angry curettage. I cleared paths and plots,

Arms, breasts, necks pressed between soiled gritty sleeping legs.

Hated for our fecundity. Our strength. Our resilience.

Tore weeds by roots, mediated the plaintive claims of Blue hydrangeas and spiky pink delphiniums: Water and

And above the ground, our tubular trunks sway, our green and

Soil and rights to the sun’s sweet warmth—I gave bamboo

Yellow fingers do dreamy dancing. We shake in the breeze and

None at all, and scattered them like decapitated snakes.

Bend under the weight of massive snow white storms, our long

One day, my body thickened, turned tubular and leafy,

Shapely spatulate leaves and our heads forced to touch the

Rooted, bound to the soil and to all the other bamboo

Frozen ground, our bodies arched in the catenary curve that

That could be seen, lost in the thicket. My wife searched

Warms humans when they see with triumph our helpless arc.

For me for days. The police with harried indifference.

I could not speak, I could not move. I still cannot. She was

Hated for the apparent idleness of our days. Our towering pride.

Stunned, she cried, just as lost as I, though I flourished, Affixed to the soil, growing taller and solemnly for years.

At our summit, we crest far into the sky, challenging the oldest maples, Blocking blue sky and weather-white clouds, claiming the sun as our

II. Now, I am part of a vast resplendent subterranean family.

Fierce and wild, churning ceaselessly in sinuous disorder, We channel tunnels below the soil, consume all the nutrients In a massive fibrous network of hairy, thick woody roots Folded over and over in an underground orgy, like human hands,

Own. Densely packed together, we create a shade within our limbs That draws thrush and wrens, even on the brightest days, to sing their Arias of dominance in the cool, clean, dark safety of our strong arms.

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From the Workshops continues on Page 38

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book fair haul

AWP in D.C. A Conference Guide for Writers

T

he Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)— a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for writing as “essential to a good education”—hosts the AWP Annual Conference & Bookfair in a different city each year.

This year’s conference takes on a special significance because, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it will be hosted right here at home in D.C., from Wednesday, February 8– Saturday, February 11, 2017. We reached out to a few literary friends, all AWP conference veterans, for insight and advice on how to navigate the event.

new favorite writer coffee #5

Illustration by Oliver Bendorf

Tips for Beginners (and everyone else) AWP, Within Reason

By Mike Scalise

T

he first thing to know about AWP is that writers love to write about AWP. Known in full as the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, held this year in Washington D.C., even the shallowest Google search of the event will turn up a network of listicles and advice columns, ranging from earnest and helpful to satirical and dismissive. You’ll get witty advice about when to register (early) to how to attend events ( judiciously), and even when to take naps or change

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Ellen Bryant Voigt and C. Dale Young, photo AWP / Robb Cohen Photography

shoes (often). “How to AWP” has become a genre unto itself, designed in part to build a kind of logic around a counterintuitive question: Why does an annual mass celebration of a quiet, solitary act exist? And what does it mean, exactly, to participate in it? I’ve attended AWP as a student, an emerging writer, a panelist, a spectator, and now as a debut author. Yet it’s difficult to add anything unique to the “How to AWP” canon. When it comes to writing about meeting about writing,

everything, in a way, has already been written.

But here goes, anyway. The basics: Registration ($80–$260 for individuals) gets you access to hundreds of writing, teaching, and publishing panels, as well as a labyrinthine, flea market-esque bookfair featuring staff members from hundreds of magazines, publishers, and literary organizations.

There’s a keynote address from a bigleague writer (this year: Azar Nafisi!),

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satellite events all around the host city, and a conference hotel bar overflowing nightly with packs of exhausted introverts who—every year, without fail—utterly overwhelm the hotel service staff and make a mockery of their most recent bulk alcohol purchase.

Apart from that, your AWP experience can vary wildly depending on the angle from which you approach it. With 12,000+ attendees, it can feel like being pulled into a sea of competing professional currents—young hopefuls and nervous job seekers mixed with veteran, renowned writers and those who will soon join their ranks. Your personal heroes mixed with your best friends, or James Franco. One year I heard Mia Farrow was walking calmly around the bookfair.

The only lesson I’ve learned, regardless of your station, is to be utterly open to all of it—within reason.

Have goals, but plan very little to meet them. Give over to the strength of that strange current. Have conversations with people you’ve never spoken to before. Leave conversations that feel too familiar. With articles about the death of books seemingly everywhere, AWP is that rare event where enthusiasm for writing and reading creates strength in numbers. It can feel good to let yourself celebrate that, just a little bit, if only to bank some optimism for later, when you’re alone with a page and a keyboard, and nothing seems quite as possible as it should.

Perhaps that’s why so many writers feel compelled to write about AWP as much as they do: to make the best parts of it mobile or lasting, or maybe to remind themselves—and one another—that while the act of writing is

solitary, the act of loving it isn’t. So what do you say we all get together in D.C.?

Mike Scalise is author of The Brand New Catastrophe, winner of The Center for Fiction’s 2014 Christopher Doheny Award.

Bookfair, photo AWP / Robb Cohen Photography

Navigating the Bookfair

By Nate Brown

T

here’s an old chestnut about AWP that’s intended to good-naturedly point out the occasional awkwardness of the conference. It goes something like this: Take ten thousand of the most introverted people you know and put them all in a conference center for five days surrounded by others who all want the same things: publication, an audience, and perhaps a teaching job.

What could go wrong?

Of course, anyone who’s been to AWP knows that this characterization doesn’t tell the full story. Not all writers, editors, and publishers are introverts, for one thing, and not everyone goes to the conference for the same reasons. That said, most attendees already know or are quick to learn that AWP’s bookfair is the real heart of the conference. And whether you’re an introvert or a social butterfly, with approximately 800 exhibiting organizations, the bookfair is bound to have something for you. Here are ten quick tips for getting the most out of AWP’s bookfair without going too crazy or too broke.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

1. If you’d like to go when it’s less crowded, make it first thing in the morning.

There will be less foot traffic and more time and space for you to meet people and to browse books and journals.

2. If you’d like to go when it’s busier, go later.

The afternoon is typically the busiest at the bookfair and, therefore, the time when you’re most likely to run into friends old and new.

3. Set aside a day for browsing.

It’s wise to set aside separate visits for browsing and for buying. By doing so, you’ll alleviate some of the pressure you feel to buy everything in sight.

4. BUT, buy the special stuff early.

Some tables and booths will get more traffic than others, and might sell out of the book or magazine you’re looking for.

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Discovering & Deciding Off-site Events

5. Introduce yourself to the exhibitors.

Editors and publishers attend AWP not just to sell their wares, but to meet people. Be sure to say hello and to shake a hand or two.

6. Avoid following-up about your submissions.

Asking for feedback on a submission at the bookfair is like trying to initiate an intimate conversation in an airplane hangar. It’s better to follow-up after the conference.

7. Pace yourself.

The AWP Bookfair is huge. Trying to visit every exhibitor that interests you in a single day is tough.

Make multiple visits over multiple days, and the bookfair will seem more manageable.

By Dan Brady

I

n addition to interesting panels, a blockbuster bookfair, and chances to meet new and old friends, much of the real action takes place at off-site events during AWP. Organized by literary magazines and small presses, these independent readings and parties often feature the most exciting up-and-coming writers in intimate venues.

9. Save some cash for the last day.

Usually, exhibitors don’t want to ship everything back home, so many of them will slash prices on the final day of the bookfair.

The AWP convention hall can be an overwhelming experience. Off-site readings are a more casual affair— they take place in bookstores and bars around town—and offer a chance to hear readers from diverse stylistic backgrounds. Expect to find all the regular D.C. literary hot spots like Bridge Street Books, Busboys and Poets, Politics & Prose, and Upshur Street Books hosting events each night of the conference. So, with all this going on, how do you know which readings to go to?

10. If it’s too much, give yourself a break!

Take a walk, buy yourself a smoothie, and visit one of D.C.’s monuments or museums. AWP and its busy bookfair will seem more manageable if you’ve allowed yourself a little time to unwind.

In recent years, AWP has done a great job creating an organized listing of off-site events on its website. Be sure to check awpwriter.org in the weeks leading up to the conference, and try to plot out a game plan. The Disabled & D/deaf Writers Caucus has

8. Attend a reading and signing at the bookfair.

Often, signings on the bookfair floor are more intimate than the ones elsewhere at the conference.

It’s where you can actually have a decent conversation with a writer who interests you.

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Above: Douglas Kearney, Robin Coste Lewis, April Naoko Heck, and Gregory Pardlo Below: Rigoberto Gonzalez, Marilyn Nelson, D.A. Powell, and Alice Quinn, all photos AWP / Robb Cohen Photography

also put together an excellent guide to D.C. venues, including accessibility information and parking. Finally, there’s Facebook. Prepare for a deluge of event invites as organizers finalize

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AWP: A Growing Community

the details and start promoting their events around the New Year.

Also, trust the editors and organizers. If you really like a literary journal or small press (or maybe you’ve been meaning to check them out), this is a great opportunity to see what they have to offer. With so many writers attending the conference, they will have their pick to present the best readers they possibly can. If you trust an outfit’s taste when you read them in print, chances are they’ll put together a stellar line-up live and in person.

Ultimately, trust your gut. If you see a huge list of readers, you might be tempted to think about how great it will be that you’ll get to hear from so many new voices. But readings can be notoriously hard to extricate yourself from when you’re trapped in an endless marathon of boring prose or floating along in a vast sea of poet voice.

On the other hand, if a reading only has one or two featured readers, and you know you really like one of them, take the chance. There’s not much to lose. Emphasize quality over quantity.

There’s no wrong way to do AWP off-sites. They’re fun. They’re (mostly) free. They’re a chance to meet new people and hear new work. After a long day of panel discussions and bookfair shopping, be sure to save some energy for off-site events. For many AWP veterans, the off-site events are where the real conference takes place. Don’t miss it.

Dan Brady is poetry editor at Barrelhouse, a D.C.-based, pop-culture obsessed literary magazine and small press. They’ll team up with Catapult, Lit Hub, and The Rumpus for a reading and party at U Street Music Hall on Thursday, February 9 at 7 p.m.

By Sarah Katz

B

ack when Lyndon B. Johnson was completing his first presidential term in 1967, the presence of writers in higher education had been growing—and so, too, the resistance to the establishment of creative writing graduate programs. In response to this opposition, 15 writers from 13 creative writing graduate programs combined forces to launch the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

Suffice to say it, AWP has mounted a strong defense as one of the largest literary nonprofits in North America.

Since those humble beginnings, the number of member creative writing graduate programs has proliferated to more than 500, while hundreds of other institutions, conferences, festivals, centers, and retreats for writers have been established.

relatively new (and free) Writer to Writer mentorship program also puts emerging writers in touch with published authors for a three-month series of modules on various elements of writing and the writing life.

As one of just 20 staff members at AWP, all of whom put aside their departmental responsibilities to help coordinate the four-day tradeshow, I marvel each year at the sheer size and quality of the project: the turnout, the array of programming, and, above all, the opportunities to network. Director of Conferences Christian Teresi, who has worked for the organization for more than 14 years in a variety of capacities, ran the numbers with me.

The conference hosted only around 150 events, 600 presenters, 3,000

In addition to hosting an annual conference, AWP publishes The Writer’s Chronicle, a bimonthly writing magazine of interviews, articles on the craft of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and cultural commentary.

The organization disseminates literary news on its website and blog; dispenses career advice on how to conduct a job search; lists publication, grant, and award opportunities as well as writing-related positions; and offers a calendar of writing retreats, conferences, festivals, centers, and residences. AWP’s Eula Biss, photo AWP / Robb Cohen Photography

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attendees, with less than 200 presses and magazines in the bookfair when he started at the organization. In comparison, the 2017 conference in D.C. will host more than 550 events, 2,000 presenters, 12,000 attendees, and 800 exhibitors in the bookfair.

“To witness that kind of growth,” said Teresi, “and be able to provide inclusive and far-reaching programming that appeals to such a broad range of literary enthusiasts, has been a tremendous privilege. I look forward to helping AWP continue to focus on making the conference appeal to the largest number of writers, editors, and literary arts professionals possible.”

Necessarily, the magnitude of AWP’s conference has required a sensitivity to and awareness of the diversity of its members. Prior to the April 2016 conference in Los Angeles, members took to social media to voice their concerns and request more information about the diversity of panels. In response, AWP released “The Communities of the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair,” which is a document that describes demographic information for AWP presenters.

AWP has also been working on “refining the delivery of accessibility services for a long time,” Teresi added.

“The current accessibility policy reflects a culmination of accommodations we have been mostly making for years, which we wanted to bring together in one place as one coherent policy. Most of the revisions to the policy this year merely provide better communication about those services.

The current policy is the most comprehensive version we have created, and builds on previous changes and advancements.”

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Fortunately, AWP members have also taken it upon themselves to work together on efforts to improve the experience for other conference attendees. TWC workshop leader Sandra Beasley, a D.C. native who coordinates the Arts Club of Washington’s events and teaches in the University of Tampa low-residency program, is a member of the AWP Disabled and D/ deaf Caucus, which, under her leadership, has developed a comprehensive resource of accessibility information Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, photo AWP / Robb about D.C. venues where Cohen Photography writers and organizations might host off-site events year, I take away new friendships, (https://awpdisabilitycaucus.wordideas toward craft and creativity, propress.com). fessional opportunities, and a tote bag “As a federal city, you’d think we’d be optimized in terms of accessibility—but the frustrating truth is that our town has a lot of ‘grandfathered,’ historically protected buildings where the space for people to gather is up rickety flight of stairs,” Beasley explained. “There are other event-centric issues of inclusivity as well, such as staging a reading that welcomes those with limited sight or hearing. . .

My ideal would be that this initiative creates a template for future hosting cities, to AWP and any literary conference.”

overflowing with literary magazines and books.”

Sarah Katz is publications assistant at AWP and co-founder of The Deaf Poets Society (see p. 6).

For Beasley and others, the conference is ultimately a site of tremendous opportunity for literary enthusiasts.

“I usually describe the AWP conference as ‘the maelstrom,’ Beasley said, “which accounts for the exhausting pace and the overwhelming volume of social interactions. That said . . . every View online at www.writer.org/guide

Familiar Faces Presenters from Our Community

G

athered here are folks associated with The Writer’s Center who are participating in readings and panels at this year’s AWP conference. While we’re sure we missed a few of you (sincere apologies), we wanted to give our readers a heads up and a sense of just how involved you are in the literary community. So look for these talented writers/teachers/ editors while plotting your schedule.

Mark Athitakis

Denise Duhamel

Shara McCallum

Christopher Bakken

Stephen Dunn

E. Ethelbert Miller

Jeanne Marie Beaumont

Cornelius Eady

Gregory Pardlo

Robin Becker

David Ebenbach

Leslie Pietrzyk

Reginald Dwayne Betts

Sue Eisenfeld

Elizabeth Poliner

Richard Blanco

Martin Espada

Lia Purpura

Caroline Bock

Ed Falco

Virginia Pye

Jody Bolz

Laura Fargas

Mary Quattlebaum

Dan Brady

Carolyn Forché

Kim Roberts

Karen Brennan

Barbara Goldberg

Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers

Sarah Browning

Terrance Hayes

Jane Satterfield

Nancy Naomi Carlson

Richard Hoffman

Kyle Semmel

Grace Cavalieri

Allison Joseph

Mark Silinsky

Alexander Chee

M. Nzadi Keita

Bianca Stone

Tyrese Coleman

David Keplinger

Mathu Subramanian

Martha Collins

Annie Kim

Art Taylor

Maureen Corrigan

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda

John Tribble

Kyle Dargan

Kim Dana Kupperman

Dan Vera

Hayes Davis

Tara Laskowski

Julie Wakeman-Linn

Teri Cross Davis

Phillip Lopate

Brandon Wicks

Kwame Dawes

Thomas Mallon

Morowa Yejide

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

15

EVENTS

The Writer’s Center

OPEN DOOR READINGS EVENTS

On most Sundays at 2 p.m., join us at The Writer’s Center for a free reading with award-winning and emerging authors, followed by a book signing and reception.

All books are available for purchase in The Writer’s Center Book Gallery.

JAN 8

Sophie Cabot Black’s latest poetry collection, The Exchange, has received praise from Billy Collins, Publisher’s Weekly, NPR, and many others. She will be joined by Alan King, whose second collection of poems, Point Blank, has received much praise: “With language both tough-minded and celebratory, Alan King ignites the important details.” –Tim Seibles.

FEB 26

The Deaf Poets Society Editor Sarah Katz leads a reading from works in the recently launched online journal. Hear work by Gregory Luce, Jen Stein, Camisha Jones, Carrie Addington, and Isis Nelson. Read more about the journal on p. 6.

Camisha Jones -&

THE

-7

MAR 5

EXCHANGE

poems|

Sophie Cabot Black

Alan King

Sophie Cabot Black

Jeanne Marie Beaumont

JAN 22

Shara McCallum, Cave Canem Fellow, and Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, reads from her fifth collection of poems, Madwoman. She is joined by Jeneva Burroughs Stone, author of Monster, a meditation on disability, medicine, and caregiving through linked essays and poems.

MAR 12

Shara McCallum

JAN 29

Marc Nieson reads from Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love and Landscape, described by Marjorie Agosin as “A remarkable memoir of love and landscape as well as a courageous narrative about writing and identity.” Nieson is joined by Ellen Prentiss Campbell, whose debut novel, The Bowl with Gold Seams, is set in the final days of World War II, and Melissa Scholes Young, author of Flood: A Novel. Nieson and Campbell will lead a workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (see p. 28).

Marc Nieson

FEB 12

Join editor Robert Giron, recently selected as one of the Héroes Latinos LGBTQ, part of the Latino LGBT History Project, along with poets published in the literary magazine Sligo Journal, a publication of Montgomery College.

16

Herta Feely reads from Saving Phoebe Murrow, a novel that examines cyber bullying in suburban Maryland. Feely is joined by Jeanne Marie Beaumont, who reads from her fourth poetry collection, Letters from Limbo, which was recently published by CavanKerry Press. Beaumont will lead a workshop from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (see p. 31).

Annie Kim reads from her debut collection, Into the Cyclorama, winner of the 2015 Michael Waters Poetry Prize. She is joined by Seema Reza, author of When the World Breaks Open, a non-linear memoir tracing her journey to build a writing and art program in military hospitals.

Annie Kim

Mar 26 Tara Campbell

W.M. Rivera

In her debut novel TreeVolution, Tara Campbell introduces us to a strange new world in which vengeful trees rise up to defend themselves against attackers. Campbell is joined by poet W.M. Rivera, whose fourth collection of poems, Café Select, also features art by Miguel Conde.

APR 2

We welcome Debra Nystrom and Lisa Russ Spaar, poets who teach at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Nystrom’s new collection, Debra Nystrom Night Sky Frequencies, was published by Sheep Meadow Press. Lisa Russ Spaar will read from Orexia.

View online at www.writer.org/guide

Lisa Russ Spaar

EVENTS

POETRY & PROSE OPEN MIC Don’t be shy! Share your latest poem, flash fiction, or excerpt from a longer work-in-progress.

APR 30

Poets recently published by the Broadkill Press and Broadkill River Press will read. BPR has been publishing now for six years. The journal’s pages have included work by international authors and is distributed to around 10,000 readers in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, China, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Eastern Central, and Western Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and the U.S.

L ITE RA R Y Join The Writer’s Center as we bring literary trivia to Petworth Citizen! Teams of one to four will have an opportunity to show off their book smarts with four rounds of literary questions.

Monday nights are all-night happy hour at the bar, so don’t miss out! The contest runs from 6:30–7:30 p.m. at Petworth Citizen, 829 Upshur St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20011.

This event is free.

Sign-up for readers begins at 1:30, and the reading starts at 2 p.m.

A reception follows.

FEBRUARY 5 MARCH 19 APRIL 23

JANUARY 30 FEBRUARY 27 MARCH 27

April 7–May 7, 2017

Building Community Through Workshops & Readings Monday, February 6, 7:30 p.m.

Doubt: A Parable

by John Patrick Shanley Directed by Stevie Zimmerman and featuring Chelsea Mayo and Stephanie Mumford.

For additional information call 301-816-1023 or visit www.QuotidianTheatre.org

Rod Jellema

As a prelude to the AWP writer’s conference, we explore the role workshops and readings have played in our mission. Rod Jellema, who retired after leading several dozen popular workshops through the decades, will spend some time with us, as well as three poets who studied extensively with him. Kevin Craft is editor of Poetry Northwest. Costa Rican-American poet Mark Smith-Soto has been an editor of International Poetry Review more than 20 years.

They are joined by Writer’s Center poetry workshop leader Marie Pavlicek-Wehrli. This event is free.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

17

EVENTS

APR 9

Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. shortly after the Vietnam War ended. Her most recent collection of poems is Keeper of the Winds. She will be joined by Karren LaLonde Alenier, whose collection, The Anima of Paul Bowles, draws inspiration from the lives of Paul and Jane Bowles.

ADVERTISEMENTS

The Writer’s Center

Need a place to meet, celebrate, or play?

Our Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre, Jane Fox Reading Room, and gorgeously renovated classrooms are available for extremely fair prices. Consider The Writer’s Center for your next: • Film Screening • Concert • Play • Conference • Writing Group Meet-up • Book Launch Party • Study Group • Book Club

Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre Rehearsals (no access to the public) $65/hr Performances - $125/hr Pre- and Post-Performance - $80/hr The Writer’s Center Staff Time* - $25/hr

Jane Fox Reading Room Rehearsals (no access to the public) $35/hr Performances - $80/hr Pre- and Post-Performance - $25/hr The Writer’s Center Staff Time - $25/hr

Classrooms $15/hr (members) $20/hr (non-members) For details, terms, and conditions, visit www.writer.org/resources/ space-rentals Please contact judson.battaglia@ writer.org for availability inquiries and to book our space.

18

View online at www.writer.org/guide

Gang of Five

By Mairin Rivett

W

riter’s Center instructor Richard Washer has taught a master playwright class for years. But he could never have guessed that five of his students—Marilyn Bennet, J.T. Caruso, Sarah Dimont, Dimitri Neos, and Michelle Rago—would come together to write, produce, and eventually perform a successful five-act play entitled PowerPlays at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2016. “I always consider writing groups that evolve out of my workshops as the greatest compliment,” Washer said. “To my knowledge, this was the first group to go beyond continued meetings and take on the challenges of a production.”

This group, who call themselves Gang of Five, credits Washer not only for improving their writing individually, but also for creating an environment in which they could offer advice and insight into each other’s work.

“In Richard’s classes, I’ve gotten helpful critiques from other playwrights, as well as [from] Richard himself,” Gang of Five member Sarah Dimont recalled. “In his semester-long workshop, he had professional actors come three times to stage read our works in progress. . . . It was fascinating to watch Richard shape the scenes with the actors, suggesting different ways to play lines [and] bringing out subtext.”

This balance of critique and camaraderie is something Washer considers to be integral to the experience in his classes. “It is important to me to establish a community of writers in the workshop meetings where there

is an environment conducive to trust, sharing, exploring, and experimenting,” he explained.

“I spend some time introducing what is important to a writer in terms of feedback, and I work hard at reinforcing that throughout all the meetings.”

While their love of writing is what ultimately bonded the Gang of Five together, Washer’s playwriting classes were the reason they found each other in the first place. “Gang of Five grew from those experiences [in Richard’s classes] and has included an extended family of participants—all class members from The Writer’s Center,” Dimitri Neos said. “Classes were structured to encourage and facilitate student involvement.”

While the history of Gang of Five may be short, everyone agrees that their future will be anything but. “We will continue to get together and share work,” Michelle Rago predicted. “We don’t have any definite plans now for another show, but I’m sure something will come up.”

Neos agreed. “Everyone’s working on projects and we’re excited about what’s next,” he said. “What ‘next’ means at this point is TBD, but it’s a wonderful group of writers to work with and I’m confident that the

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

Top: Marilyn Bennett, Dwane Starlin, and Keith Anderson; Bottom: Emily Sucher and Louis Lavoie, photos courtesy of Gang of Five

Gang will be heard from again.” If the standing-room-only shows by the group at Capital Fringe are any indication, Gang of Five’s success story is just getting started.

Mairin Rivett is a senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland where she studies English and anthropology and is an executive board member of the college literary journal Avatar.

19

WORKSHOP GUIDELINES WORKSHOP GUIDELINES Learning to write is an ongoing process that requires time and practice. Our writing workshops are for everyone, from novices to seasoned writers looking to improve their skills, to published authors seeking refinement and feedback, to professionals with an eye on competition. Group settings encourage the writing process by teaching writers to prioritize and to help each other using many skills at once.

From our workshops, participants can expect: • Guidance and encouragement from a published, working writer; • Instruction on technical aspects such as structure, diction and form; • Kind, honest, constructive feedback directed at individual work; • Peer readers/editors who act as “spotters” for sections of writing that need attention, and who become your community of working colleagues even after the workshop is completed; • Tips on how to keep writing and integrate this “habit of being” into your life; • Tactics for getting published; • Time to share work with other writers and read peers’ work, and • Help with addressing trouble areas and incorporating multiple, sometimes conflicting, ideas into a revision.

• Learning the elements of poetry, playwriting, fiction, memoir, etc.; • Identifying your writing strengths and areas of opportunity and • Gaining beginning mastery of the basic tools of all writing, such as concise, accurate language, and learning how to tailor them to fit your style.

We strongly suggest that newcomers start with a beginner-level workshop. They are structured to help you discover the fundamentals of creative writing, such as: • Getting your ideas on the page; • Choosing a genre and the shape your material should take;

the pool of applicants; selection is competitive.

REGISTRATION Workshop registration is available online at www.writer.org, in person at The Writer’s Center, via mail, online or by phone at (301) 654-8664.

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

REFUND POLICY

These workshops will build on skills you developed in the beginner level, and are designed for writers who have: • Critiqued some published works; • Taken a beginner-level workshop; • Achieved some grace in using the tools of language and form and • Have projects in progress they want to develop further.

To receive a credit, you must notify TWC by e-mail ( judson.battaglia@writer.org) within the drop period.

• Full refunds are given only when TWC cancels a workshop.

• Workshop participants who have enrolled in and paid for a workshop and choose to withdraw from it within the drop period (see below) will receive a full credit to their account that can be used within one year to pay for another workshop and/or a membership.

ADVANCED LEVEL Participants should have manuscripts that have been critiqued in workshops at the intermediate level and have been revised substantially. This level offers: • Focus on the final revision and completion of a specific work; • Fast-paced setting with higher expectations of participation and • Deep insight and feedback.

MASTER LEVEL

BEGINNER LEVEL

The Writer’s Center

Master classes are designed for writers who have taken several advanced workshops and have reworked a manuscript into what they believe is its final form. Master classes are unique opportunities to work in smaller groups with distinguished writers on a specific project or manuscript.

Workshop leaders select participants from

Find Your Niche The Writer’s Center recognizes that all writers and styles are unique!

Our staff can help you find the right course(s) for your level of experience, preferred genre and overall goals.

Call us at (301) 654-8664.

Drop Period for Credit 5 or more sessions: 48 hours notice required before the second meeting 4 or fewer sessions: 48 hours notice required before the first meeting 20

View online at www.writer.org/guide

ADULTS WRITE FOR CHILDREN (PAGE 25) LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

Creating Your Book for Children

Peter Mandel

1/23

M

7–9:30 p.m.

ALL

Writing Picture Books

Mary Quattlebaum

4/6–4/20

Th

7–9:30 p.m.

ALL

FICTION (PAGE 25–28)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

How to Build Complex Characters

Marija Stajic

1/14–2/18

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

The Extreme Novelist II

Kathryn Johnson

1/18–3/8

W

7–9:30 p.m.

A

Writing the Horror Story

Alex Smith

1/19–2/16

Th

6–8 p.m.

I/A

Conflict, Tension, and Pacing

Kathryn Johnson

1/21

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

The Facts of Fiction

Robert Friedman

1/21–3/11

S

1–2:30 p.m.

ALL

Beginning Fantasy Fiction

Brenda W. Clough

1/24–1/31

T

7:30–9:30 p.m.

B

Multicultural Fiction

Marija Stajic

1/30–3/6

M

7–9:30 p.m.

ALL

How to Write a Novel*

John DeDakis

1/31

T

10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.

ALL

Building Better Characters

Leslie Pietrzyk

2/2

Th

1–4 p.m.

B/I

From Novice to Novelist*

John DeDakis

2/4

S

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

ALL

Fiction III: Going from Good to Excellent

Aaron Hamburger

2/7–3/28

T

7–9 p.m.

I/A

Revision Workshop*

Nicole E. Miller

2/18–3/18

S

11 a.m.–3 p.m.

I/A

How to Write a Novel

John DeDakis

3/1

W

7–9:30 p.m.

ALL

From Novice to Novelist

John DeDakis

3/4

S

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

ALL

Write Off the Map

Julie Wakeman-Linn

3/8

W

7–9 p.m.

ALL

Elements of Fiction: Dialogue

Alan Orloff

3/11

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B

Write Tight!

Alan Orloff

3/11

S

2–4:30 p.m.

B

Whodunnit? Writing the Mystery

Alan Orloff

3/18

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B/I

Beginning Fantasy Fiction

Brenda W. Clough

3/23–3/30

Th

7:30–9:30 p.m.

B

Great Beginnings

Kathryn Johnson

3/25

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

Character Building*

Nicole E. Miller

3/25

S

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

ALL

Advanced Fiction Workshop

Virginia Hartman

3/25–4/29

S

1:30–4 p.m.

A

Writing the Popular Novel

Kathryn Johnson

3/29–5/3

W

7–9:30 p.m.

ALL

Short Story Revision for Publication

Julie Wakeman-Linn

4/5

W

7–9 p.m.

B/I

Your First Novel

Kathryn Johnson

4/8

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

B—beginner

I—intermediate

A—advanced

M—master

ALL—all levels

—online class

* Indicates workshops held at one of our satellite locations. Please see descriptions for more information.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

21

SCHEDULE

SPRING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

SPRING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The Writer’s Center

SCHEDULE

FICTION continued (PAGE 25–28)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

Let’s Talk About Sex: How to Write Effective Sex Scenes

Aaron Hamburger

4/18

T

7–9 p.m.

ALL

Characters We Love…Or Love to Hate

Kathryn Johnson

4/22

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

MIXED GENRE (PAGE 28–29)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

Step Into Your Story!

Kathryn Brown Ramsperger & 1/17–2/28 Tami Lewis Brown

T

11 a.m.–1 p.m.

B/I

The Secrets to Publishing in Literary Magazines*

Meg Eden

1/21

S

10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

ALL

Crashing the Party: Writing Inciting Events

Hildie Block

1/26–3/16

Th

11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

ALL

On Process & Progress

Marc Nieson

1/28

S

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

ALL

Speak Memory!

Marc Nieson and Ellen Prentiss Campbell

1/29

Su

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

ALL

It’s in the Details

Kathryn Johnson

2/4

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

Writing Short Humor Pieces

Sarah Schmelling

2/4–2/18

S

1–3 p.m.

ALL

Writing as a Path to Healing

Laura Probert

2/7–3/14

T

7–9 p.m.

B

Strong Beginnings for Fiction and Memoir

Lynn Schwartz

2/11

S

9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B/I

Write More: New Year’s Resolution Workshop

Jessica Anya Blau and Elizabeth Hazen

2/12

Su

11 a.m.–1 p.m.

ALL

How to Write A Lot

Kathryn Johnson

2/18

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

Getting Started: Creative Writing

Elizabeth Rees

3/1–4/26

W

7–9:30 p.m.

B

Promoting Your Own Book II*

Cherrie Woods

3/4

S

1–3 p.m.

I

Getting Started: Creative Writing*

Patricia Gray

3/11–3/18

S

1–4 p.m.

B

Applying Standup Comedy Techniques to Your Writing

Basil White

3/11–3/12

Sa/ Su

1–5 p.m.

ALL

Creating Complex Characters

Lynn Schwartz

3/18

S

9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B/I

Guides on Craft and The Writing Life*

Nicole E. Miller

4/29

S

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

B/I

NONFICTION (PAGE 29–30)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

My Life, One Story at a Time

Pat McNees

1/18–2/22

W

7:15–9:45 p.m.

B

Boot Camp for Writers

Beth Kanter

1/25–2/22

W

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

ALL

Readings in Narrative Nonfiction

Gina Hagler

2/2–3/23

Th

7–9:30 p.m.

I

The Writer’s Toolbox

Sara Mansfield Taber

2/7–4/4

T

1–3:30 p.m.

B/I

Finding Your Memoir Voice

Emily Rich and Desiree Magney

3/1–4/12

W

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

B/I

Building a Nonfiction Career

Kathryn Brown Ramsperger

3/1–4/19

W

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

ALL

Literary Travel Memoir

C.M. Mayo

4/22

S

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

ALL

Writing Effective Memoir

Susan Tiberghien

4/29

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

22

View online at www.writer.org/guide

POETRY (PAGE 30–32)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

The Force of Poetry

Elizabeth Rees

1/24–3/14

T

7–9:30 p.m.

I/A

Writing to the Emotional Core

Taylor Johnson

2/1–3/22

W

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

ALL

Beyond Storytelling: Writing the Narrative Poem

Sue Ellen Thompson

1/29

Su

1–4 p.m.

ALL

The Poetry Game

Zahara Heckscher

2/1

W

6:30–8 p.m.

ALL

Taming the Beast: On Putting Together a Poetry Collection

Sandra Beasley

2/5

Su

11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

I/A

Approaches to the Aubade

Taylor Johnson

2/6–3/27

M

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

ALL

Inspired by Research: From Sources to Poems Jeanne Marie Beaumont

3/5

Su

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

ALL

Beads on a String: Organizing a Poetry Manuscript*

Sue Ellen Thompson

3/18

S

1–4 p.m.

ALL

Facing It

Abdul Ali

4/1–4/22

S

1–3 p.m.

B/I

Writing From Your Roots: A Multicultural Poetry Workshop

Maritza Rivera

4/8–4/29

S

1–3 p.m.

ALL

How to End a Poem

Sue Ellen Thompson

4/23

Su

1–4 p.m.

ALL

PROFESSIONAL WRITING (PAGE 32)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

Grammar for Your Writing and Your Career

Marilyn W. Smith

2/28–4/4

T

1–3 p.m.

ALL

Build Your Own Author Website*

Meg Eden

3/4

S

10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

ALL

Writing Persuasively for Publication

James Alexander

3/9–4/13

Th

7–9:30 p.m.

B/I

Writing the Dreaded Query Letter

Alan Orloff

3/18

S

2–4:30 p.m.

B/I

Write Like the News

Hank Wallace

4/5

W

7–9 p.m.

ALL

STAGE AND SCREEN (PAGE 32–33)

LEADER

DATES

DAY

TIME

LEVEL

Playwriting: Character

Richard Washer

1/21

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B

Playwriting: Dialogue

Richard Washer

1/28

S

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

B

Playwriting: Exposition

Richard Washer

2/2

Th

7:30–10 p.m.

B

Playwriting: Structure

Richard Washer

2/11

S

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

B

Playwriting: Intermediate/Advanced

Richard Washer

2/16–4/6

Th

7:30–10 p.m.

I/A

Writing For TV & Film*

Khris Baxter

2/25

S

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

ALL

Writing For TV & Film*

Khris Baxter

4/1

S

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

ALL

B—beginner

I—intermediate

A—advanced

M—master

ALL—all levels

—online class

* Indicates workshops held at one of our satellite locations. Please see descriptions for more information.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

23

SCHEDULE

SPRING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

SPRING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The Writer’s Center

SCHEDULE

ONLINE

LEADER

DATES

LEVEL

Writing Memoir

Dave Singleton

1/3–2/21

I/A

Poetry Chapbook Workshop

Meg Eden

1/10–1/31

A

Intro to the Novel

T. Greenwood

1/13–3/3

ALL

Foundations of Poetry

Meg Eden

1/17–2/7

ALL

Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

C.S. Friedman

1/23–3/13

ALL

Writing Weird: A Taxonomy of Strangeness in Poems

Ross White

1/23–2/20

I/A

Writing to the Emotional Core

Taylor Johnson

1/27–3/17

ALL

Opinion Writing For Publication

Ananya Bhattacharyya

2/13–3/13

B

Magic Realism

Rae Bryant

2/20–3/13

ALL

Out-Write: An LGBT-Focused Memoir Workshop

Dave Singleton

2/21–3/28

ALL

Survey of LGBT Poetry, 1980 to the Present

Francisco-Luis White

2/22–4/5

ALL

Introduction to the Picture Book

Mathangi Subramanian

3/1–3/22

B

Creating Novel Characters

T. Greenwood

3/3–3/24

ALL

Plotting Your Novel

T. Greenwood

3/3–3/24

ALL

The Research Process in Poetry

Ross White

3/6–4/17

I/A

Poetic Forms Workshop

Meg Eden

3/13–4/17

ALL

Whose Story is This Anyway? Point of View and Narrative Voice

T. Greenwood

3/31–4/21

ALL

Hybrid Poetry and Other Forms

Joshua Young

4/3–5/22

ALL

B—beginner I—intermediate A—advanced M—master ALL—all levels

Iceland Writers Retreat 24

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WORKSHOPS FOR MORE DETAILED CLASS DESCRIPTIONS, PLEASE VISIT WRITER.ORG NOTE: TWC will be closed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Presidents’ Day. How to Build Complex Characters Marija Stajic

Creating Your Book for Children Peter Mandel Having a children’s book published in today’s tough market can seem like an impossible dream. But in reality, getting your book idea into shape and into print can hinge on just the right advice from a pro. Do you need an agent? Should you connect with an artist? What about selfpublishing? In a one-session workshop, nationally-known author Peter Mandel will deliver the insider’s tips you need to know in order to create a marketable first book and how to get it into the hands of exactly the right gatekeepers in the publishing world.

1 Monday Bethesda

7–9:30 p.m.

All Levels

Introduction

1/23 $50

Are you a storyteller able to keep kids entertained for hours? Are you an artist who wants to find a way to put words to pictures? Are you a sucker for silly rhymes? Then this course is for you! Explore the art of writing picture books that are fun and entertaining for both adults and children, and generate great ideas for story time with the youngest readers in your life.

3/1–3/22 $195

Writing Picture Books Mary Quattlebaum Learn how to write a picture book from a successful author of more than two dozen award-winning books for children.

Each session will begin with a short discussion of an aspect of writing for children, including story openings and arcs, characterization, plot/pacing, rhythm/sound, and marketing. Suggested readings, prompts, and feedback will inspire and guide writers in the class. By the end of the workshop, participants should have written and/or revised part or all of a picture book and have a better sense of how to create one in the future. Feel free to bring work to the first class (typed and double-spaced, 16 copies).

3 Thursdays

7–9:30 p.m.

4/6–4/20

Bethesda

All Levels

$135

FICTION Intro to the T. Greenwood

Novel

This workshop will clarify the process of writing a novel, focusing on everything from generating ideas to developing characters to establishing point of view. Participants will discuss many elements of fiction (dialogue, scene, etc.) but the emphasis will be on discovering the writing process that works best for each writer.

8 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/14–2/18 $270

Kathryn Johnson

to the Picture Book

N/A Beginner

6 Saturdays Bethesda

The Extreme Novelist II

Mathangi Subramanian

4 Weeks Online

How do you build a believable character whom you imagined to be a polyglot, immigrant, expat, worldly or well-traveled? Do you need to know someone who resembles your character or could you create them with diligent research? Will your reader believe you only if you personally know or inhabit your character in some way?

In this workshop, we will explore answers to all these questions while considering published examples, then try to build our own complex characters with insight and sensitivity.

1/13–3/3 $360

Participants who have completed one or more short stories, a novella, or at least half of their novel will take on the challenge of revising and polishing their work to meet the tough demands of today’s fiction market. This course is intended for writers serious about their publication goals and in need of gentle but experienced guidance.

Participants will learn ways to avoid the most common issues that result in rejection. Exposition, dialogue, characterization, focus, and pacing will be analyzed and corrected when necessary. Options for individual plotting issues will be discussed and applied to manuscripts, while the group provides mutual support. The goal is to arrive at a story that will entice literary agents (in the case of a novel) and acquiring editors to request a full read and, ultimately, accept the work for publication. Due to the intense nature of this course, and time invested by the instructor, space is limited; please register early to guarantee a seat.

8 Wednesdays Bethesda

7–9:30 p.m.

Advanced

1/18–3/8 $360

Writing the Horror Story Alex Smith Learn to generate fear and tension in your writing, daring readers to plunge forth into the darkness we create. In the first meeting, we will discuss three selected stories, considering what scares us, what leaves us cold, and what inspires us to write. In so doing, we touch on the elements of horror, attending to suspense, character, violence, and fear. In following meetings, we will workshop your newly written or in-progress scary stories, returning to and building on your understanding of the genre as we go. With some luck and determination, participants will leave this workshop well on their way to a completed horror story.

5 Thursdays Bethesda

6–8 p.m.

Intermediate/Advanced

1/19–2/16 $195

The Facts of Fiction Robert Friedman Explore the nexus between journalism and novel writing by learning how to use real-life characters and/or true

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

events in fiction. Each participant will come to class with the noted character or event they would like to novelize already in mind. We will discuss how journalistic principles apply to research for a factual article about the character and event, then create a fictional piece, putting the character or event in a central role. The result will, hopefully, intuit a fictional “truth” as filtered through the writer’s research and imagination. After the first session or two, the workshop will be heavy on writing and critiquing.

8 Saturdays Bethesda

1–2:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/21–3/11 $215

Conflict, Tension, and Pacing Kathryn Johnson It’s often said that without conflict there is no story. It also holds true that strengthening the conflict in any type of fiction will bump up the tension and turn a limp, ordinary tale into an extraordinary adventure that will keep readers turning pages until The End. Whether you choose to write literary fiction, mysteries, family sagas, thrillers, historical fiction, sci-fi, or fantasy—you can learn techniques for drawing readers into your tales through action, dialogue, setting details, and plot twists that make your work stand out from the crowd. Join us for a Saturday morning coffee chat and leave with a handout chock full of ideas to apply to your stories.

1 Saturday Bethesda

Writing

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/21 $50

Fantasy and Science Fiction

C. S. Friedman Learning how to take fantastic ideas and develop them into compelling stories is the heart and soul of both science fiction and fantasy. This workshop will exercise your creativity and hone the skills necessary to write compelling speculative fiction. Weekly assignments will be critiqued by the instructor and shared with fellow participants, providing feedback. By the end of the class, each participant will have produced and polished a short story suitable for submission to a genre publication.

8 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

1/23–3/13 $360

Beginning Fantasy Fiction Brenda W. Clough Vampires, zombies, and halflings with swords! Participants in this workshop will build a world and write in it. The first session will be devoted to the basics of fiction and story construction. In the second session, participants will do a start-up exercise to help get them going on a possibly longer work.

2 Tuesdays Bethesda

7:30–9:30 p.m.

Beginner

1/24–1/31 $80

2 Thursdays Bethesda

7:30–9:30 p.m.

Beginner

3/23–3/30 $80

25

WORKSHOPS

ADULTS WRITE FOR CHILDREN

WORKSHOPS Multicultural Fiction

The instructor will provide a written comment letter plus line edits. In addition, the class will discuss “tricks of the trade” that professional fiction writers use to make work “pop.”

Marija Stajic How do you incorporate another language and culture into your fiction, without confusing and losing your English speaking reader? In this workshop, participants will analyze excerpts from successful multicultural fiction, participate in writing exercises, have reading assignments, and workshop each others’ stories.

6 Mondays Bethesda

7–9:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/30–3/6 $270

How to Write a Novel John DeDakis

WORKSHOPS

Discover this practical 16-point plan that takes you from the mere germ of an idea all the way through the creative process and into your readers’ hands. We’ll discuss how to transform the nub of an idea into a book-length project populated with interesting characters, a twisty-turny plot, snappy dialogue, and an interesting setting. We’ll also look at strategies for finding an agent and marketing the finished product.

1 Tuesday Annapolis

10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.

All Levels

1/31 $50

1 Wednesday Bethesda

7–9:30 p.m.

All Levels

3/1 $50

2/7–3/28 $290

Revision Workshop Nicole E. Miller In an interview with The Paris Review, author Deborah Eisenberg said of being a writer, “you know you can make the horrible thing better, then you can make it better again, then you can make it better again.” This workshop will focus on the frustrations and revelations of revision, offering numerous exercises and approaches for re-seeing your stories. Participants will learn techniques writers have shared in more than 60 years of interviews with The Paris Review. Discover how to scrutinize style, structure, and subtext; quiz point-of-view, tone, and voice. Bring a story to the first session for feedback from the instructor and fellow participants. Then revise and workshop again in subsequent sessions. From the combination of advice and practice, participants will gain confidence in the process of revision and generate drafts with an optimistic approach to editing and rewriting.

Magic

11 a.m.–3 p.m.

Intermediate/ Advanced

2/18–3/18 $360

Realism

How does the writer create believable characters with depth and complexity? This interactive, hands-on workshop will guide you through a fun and thorough research process, teaching you how to ensure that your characters—whether literary or genre—will pop off the page. Because we’re doing some online research, you MUST bring along a smartphone or laptop along with paper and pen.

2/2 $50

Read short works and excerpts from foundational magic realism authors such as Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Diane Williams, and Kurt Vonnegut. Participants will then build writing and craft techniques tailored to bringing out the best in their writing. When you finish the workshop, you should be to generate new drafts of work, to further strengthen knowledge of form, and to gain better understand your individual voice.

4 Weeks Online

From Novice to Novelist

N/A All Levels

Creating

John DeDakis This day-long workshop deconstructs and demystifies the novel-writing process for struggling and/or aspiring writers. You’ll learn how to stay organized, write in the voice of the opposite sex, appreciate the art of rewriting, and how to overcome your writing and marketing fears. By the end of our time together, you’ll be ready to work on a novel and equipped with the skills to perfect it. The session will include time for writing.

1 Saturday Annapolis

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

All Levels

2/4 $115

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

All Levels

3/4 $115

Fiction III: Going from Good to Excellent Aaron Hamburger This course will help experienced writers take their work to the next level and become better editors. Just like a graduate school creative writing workshop, each participant will have an opportunity to see their work thoroughly vetted in an instructor-led class discussion. All participants are required to produce written responses to the work at hand.

26

2/20–3/13 $195

Novel Characters

T. Greenwood When writing a novel, you must know your primary characters inside and out. You need to understand their desires, motivations, and frustrations, as well as their histories and futures.

This workshop will focus on the development of authentic characters. Participants will examine character as both autonomous and residing within the context of other novelistic elements, and then tackle the challenge of creating and integrating these various elements into a cohesive whole.

Participants should have a novel-in-progress to work on.

4 Weeks Online

Plotting

N/A All Levels

3/3–3/24 $195

Your Novel

Whether participants are planners or writers who fly by the seats of their pants, a novel still needs structure. In this workshop, writers will study the architecture of a novel and devise plans for plotting their novels.

N/A All Levels

Julie Wakeman-Linn Where will your writing go if you let it go off the map? In this generative workshop, participants will write from a timed prompt and then share for positive and constructive feedback. Shake off bad habits and let the images and characters flow without barriers. If you are feeling stuck or trapped in an overworked plot, this is a chance to find new ideas and new approaches to your writing. Prompts will be drawn from classic examples, including What if, Three AM Epiphanies, and from other sources. By the end of the session, you’ll have generated three new story ideas.

1 Wednesday Bethesda

7–9 p.m.

All Levels

3/8 $50

Elements of Fiction: Dialogue Alan Orloff Having trouble getting your dialogue to sparkle? In this workshop, you will see that writing realistic-sounding dialogue has little to do with how people actually speak.

You’ll learn how to use dialogue to advance plot and reveal character, and tackle the effective use of tags, oblique dialogue, and subtext. In addition, we’ll discuss how to incorporate actions within conversations to make written scenes spring to life. Don’t let one of the most important building blocks of fiction fall flat!

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner

3/11 $50

Write Tight!

Alan Orloff In this workshop for beginning fiction writers, you’ll learn how to excise excess prose to streamline your work.

Improve clarity, pacing, and readability using fewer words!

Participants will learn concepts like: show, don’t tell; in late, out early; in media res; redundancy; pesky adverbs; purple prose; and much, much more. Say goodbye to bloated manuscripts!

1 Saturday Bethesda

2–4:30 p.m.

Beginner

3/11 $50

Whodunnit? Writing the Mystery Alan Orloff If you’ve always wanted to write a mystery novel but didn’t know where to start, this workshop is for you. We’ll discuss writing fundamentals as they apply to the mystery. We’ll examine characteristics of the many subgenres (thrillers, too!) and learn about mystery-specific conventions and pitfalls such as TSTL syndrome, MacGuffins, red herrings, killer twists, wacky sidekicks, and smooth clue-dropping.

Fun, educational, and… mysterious!

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

3/18 $50

Advanced Fiction Workshop

T. Greenwood

4 Weeks Online

Write Off the Map

1 Saturday Bethesda

Rae Bryant

Leslie Pietrzyk

1–4 p.m.

Beginner/ Intermediate

7–9 p.m.

Intermediate/ Advanced

5 Saturdays Capitol Hill

Building Better Characters

1 Thursday Bethesda

8 Tuesdays Bethesda

The Writer’s Center

3/3–3/24 $195

Virginia Hartman You’ve reached a certain level of mastery with your fiction writing, but you want some feedback you can trust, and moreover, you want to see what other good writers are doing with their fiction. Advanced Fiction Workshop will gather together people of like minds, working hard and willing to be supportive. Do you hook your readers in right

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WORKSHOPS away? Do your characters live and breathe? Are we unable to put your story down? If this kind of deep reading and insightful questioning is what you are looking for, please submit your best five pages of fiction to Laura Spencer (laura.spencer@writer.org) by February 17. Please do not pay for the workshop before you are accepted.

1:30–4 p.m.

Advanced

3/25–4/29 $270

4 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

3/31–4/21 $195

Short Story Revision for Publication Julie Wakeman-Linn

Great Beginnings Because literary agents and editors are so overwhelmed with submissions, they often judge a short story, novella, or novel by a quick read of the work’s opening pages. How does a writer ensure the person judging their work will read past page 2? Learn effective options for providing a strong hook and riveting entry for your story. Meet for coffee and pastries on a Saturday in spring, and discover a powerful opening for your work-in-progress.

Before your story heads out to an editor, add the finishing touches to the opening sentence, the closing paragraph, and to the syntax and imagery for publication. This workshop will focus on opening line strategies, how to make your last paragraph more powerful, and polishing every sentence so the reader is focused. A list of weasel words will be shared, syntax evaluation techniques will be provided, and the value of ‘playbacks’ or hooks that unify a story. Participants are invited to bring their stories for revision practice and feedback.

1 Saturday Bethesda

1 Wednesday Bethesda

Kathryn Johnson

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

3/25 $50

Character Building Author James Wood poses an important question in How Fiction Works: “Let us think about this for a moment. A stranger enters a room. How do we immediately begin to take his measure?” While it takes “a very few brushstrokes to get a portrait walking,” it takes more to create a convincing voice and consciousness, he advises. In this one-day workshop we will delve into the process of creation, dabbing on the flecks that bring a character to life. With help from historians of character-making, you will plumb the past and present of your protagonist, explore their thoughts, and put personality to the test in a series of revealing scenes.

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

All Levels

3/25 $100

Kathryn Johnson Whether you’re penning a mystery, family saga, actionadventure tale, Western, science fiction account, love story, historical novel, or a book based on personal experiences— understanding today’s readers’ (and therefore, publishers’) preferences will smooth your way toward a finished, readerworthy story. Even today’s award-winning literary authors (e.g., Jonathan Franzen, Donna Tartt, Haruki Murakami) borrow extensively from what we once thought of as elements of “commercial” fiction. Learn how to shape your novel through tried-and-true techniques of these and other best-selling authors. You’ll apply what you learn to your work-in-process and receive one-on-one feedback from the instructor for scenes selected from your story. (Note: This is not a workshopping class. The emphasis will be on technique growth and application, not on critiquing each other’s work.)

7–9:30 p.m.

All Levels

Kathryn Johnson Writing a novel involves a huge commitment of time and energy. But it doesn’t need to be a daunting experience.

Learn how to generate a handful of plots from which to choose, how to effectively plan your book, and improve your basic fiction skills (such as point of view, dialogue, action, exposition, setting, and mood). Participants may use this single-session course to select a concept for their novel, then take it home to use it to construct a flexible writing plan and keep their writing flowing. This is a great course for the beginning long-form fiction writer, or for the more experienced author who needs a quick strategy brush-up.

1 Saturday Bethesda

Writing the Popular Novel

6 Wednesdays Bethesda

4/5 $50

Your First Novel

Nicole E. Miller

1 Saturday Capitol Hill

7–9 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

WORKSHOPS

6 Saturdays Bethesda

story? This workshop will examine the many point of view options available to writers and explore the benefits and drawbacks of each. Master the importance of narrative voice and how you go about finding it.

3/29–5/3 $270

Whose

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

4/8 $50

Let’s Talk About Sex: How to Write Effective Sex Scenes Aaron Hamburger Writing about sex can cause many of us a lot of grief.

Some of us try to dance around the topic, perhaps out of fear that if we include too much sex in our work or write about sex in the wrong way, we won’t be taken seriously.

Others are eager to write about sexual subjects openly, but sometimes what seems erotic and authentic in the imagination can turn out childish and cringe-worthy when it appears on the page. In this class, we’ll discuss the challenges of writing an effective erotic scene, looking at examples from published writing to come up with strategies we can use in our work. We’ll also do an in-class writing exercise.

1 Tuesday Bethesda

7–9 p.m.

All Levels

4/18 $50

Story is This Anyway? Point of View and Narrative Voice

Characters We Love…Or Love to Hate

T. Greenwood

How do you breathe life into fictional characters—protagonists, antagonists, supporting cast? How do you make them so believable that readers will bond with your paper

Point of view may be the most important decision you make as a writer. But how do you decide who will tell your

Kathryn Johnson

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

27

WORKSHOPS people and keep turning pages to find out what happens to them? Learn a practical and effective way of looking at characterization suitable to all genres, accompanied by coffee and pastries with professional writing coach and author Kathryn Johnson.

only to what is on the page, but also show how and why it did or didn’t get there. The workshop leader will offer in-depth assessments of your individual writing spaces, regime, supports, and hindrances, as well as tricks-of-thetrade to apply to your ongoing practice and productivity.

1 Saturday Bethesda

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

4/22 $50

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

All Levels

1/28 $50

MIXED GENRE

Speak Memory!

Step Into Your Story!

In this highly participatory workshop, writers will look at how sense memories can serve to spark material and enliven their fiction or nonfiction. We’ll tap into found objects from within the folds of our recollection as well as physical documents from the past and present. Expect a trove of generative exercises, prompts, and hands-on assignments to help add presence and emotional depth to your words.

Please bring three personal photographs to class. Following the class at 2 p.m., workshop leaders Marc and Ellen will be reading at The Writer’s Center’s Open Door Reading Series.

Marc Nieson and Ellen Prentiss Campbell

Kathryn Brown Ramsperger and Tami Lewis Brown

WORKSHOPS

What if you were able to tap into the creative side of your brain with more speed and connectivity every time you write? The fun exercises you’ll learn in this workshop can be performed regularly at your own desk, freeing creativity and productivity. You’ll get unstuck and solve common writing dilemmas--accessing flow, finding inspiration, working out plot puzzles, and taming writing goblins. Each week, we’ll learn a new technique. Whether you’re a beginner who needs inspiration or a seasoned writer searching for the next scene, this class will take you to the next level.

Join us on a journey of conscious creativity. Participants will leave empowered and with the tools to overcome blocks and the first pages of their next project.

7 Tuesdays Bethesda

11 a.m.–1 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

1/17–2/28 $270

The Secrets to Publishing in Literary Magazines Meg Eden Want to submit your work to magazines but don’t know how? In this workshop, we’ll talk about what literary magazines are, what editors are looking for in submissions, tips on how to get the most out of a lit mag, and the secrets to writing a cover letter that gets an editor’s attention. The skills you learn in this session can easily apply to other publication realms, including writing to agents and editors of small book presses. All participants will receive a complimentary magazine of their choice.

1 Saturday Annapolis

10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/21 $50

Crashing the Party: Writing Inciting Events Hildie Block The story launches into an event that causes the world to turn upside down, and now you can’t stop reading. This workshop helps you create moments that get readers to fly through the pages! Open to both fiction and memoir/essay writers, this workshop will help you identify what makes a “story” work by reading examples from Best American Short Stories 2016 and other readings, as well as exercises in class.

8 Thursdays Bethesda

11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

All Levels

1/26–3/16 $360

On Process & Progress Marc Nieson Trouble getting to your desk? Inconsistent with your output and revisions? This workshop will draw your attention not

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1 Sunday Bethesda

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

All Levels

1/29 $50

It’s in the Details What makes a scene come alive? Whether you’re writing short stories or a novel; whether historical fiction, a sci-fi epic, mystery, romance, children’s story, memoir, or any other genre—you’ll want to know how to weave details into your tale without sacrificing the story’s momentum.

Learn the ways successful published authors create vivid, realistic scenes in this focused half-day class.

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

2/4 $50

Writing Short Humor Pieces Have you always loved short humor pieces like you find in McSweeney’s and The New Yorker’s “Shouts and Murmurs” and want to give it a try? In this workshop, we’ll focus on funny conceptual humor, from parody to imagined dialogues. We’ll look at great examples of humor pieces to see what made them work, discuss online and print outlets for humor and learn strategies for making pieces as strong as possible. We’ll also discuss ways of using these techniques to make all kinds of writing funnier.

Participants will receive feedback on their work and leave with a good draft and a handful of funny ideas for fictional humor pieces.

1–3 p.m.

All Levels

6 Tuesdays Bethesda

7–9 p.m.

Beginner

2/7–3/14 $215

Strong Beginnings for Fiction and Memoir Lynn Schwartz Where should your story open? In the middle? With a bit of dialogue? A character in action? Do your beginning pages introduce conflict? Do they establish point of view, setting, and expectation? Let’s explore the components of a strong start, one that is not gimmicky, but an integral part of the narrative—capturing the reader from the first page.

1 Saturday Bethesda

9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

2/11 $50

Write More: New Year’s Resolution Workshop Join poet Elizabeth Hazen and novelist Jessica Anya Blau as they share their work, discuss the writing process, and lead you through writing prompts that helped them finish their books. Bring a pen and pad or computer, and be prepared to write. By the end of the session, you should have plenty of material to make progress with your book!

1 Sunday Bethesda

11 a.m.–1 p.m.

All Levels

2/12 $50

How to Write A Lot Kathryn Johnson

Sarah Schmelling

3 Saturdays Bethesda

will enjoy an enhanced level of awareness that’ll inspire their creative endeavors, make their writing come alive and create a path toward healing and happiness they didn’t know was possible.

Jessica Anya Blau and Elizabeth Hazen

Kathryn Johnson

1 Saturday Bethesda

The Writer’s Center

2/4–2/18 $115

Writing as a Path to Healing Laura Probert What if there are things you haven’t learned yet that could change everything? Participants of this course learn powerful tools that allow them to use writing as a path to healing and happiness. We’ll explore the topics of body awareness, the inner critic, using fear as a compass, and mindset magic, in combination with body awareness, breath work and therapeutic writing exercises that get participants connected with their soul; the place where you want your writing to come from. By the end of this course participants

You may think you don’t have the time, energy, or inspiration to write because of your hectic lifestyle. Wrong! Join us for coffee and pastries, and learn about organizing your time, establishing a productive writing routine, and getting stories written. This workshop will offer methods that many professional writers use to complete their books in months instead of years, and their short stories in mere weeks.

Become the dedicated author you’ve always dreamed of being.

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

2/18 $50

Getting Started: Creative Writing Elizabeth Rees Beginning writers will have the chance to explore three different genres: memoir writing, short fiction, and poetry.

Each week participants will be given a writing assignment and several readings to be followed by a critique of each participant’s assignment. Participants will learn about voice, point of view, dialogue, description, imagery, and sound.

By the end of this workshop, participants will have written one personal memoir, one short-short story, and three original poems, and have developed a greater understanding of their own writing interests. No meeting on April 12.

8 Wednesdays Bethesda

View online at www.writer.org/guide

7–9:30 p.m.

Beginner

3/1–4/26 $360

WORKSHOPS Cherrie Woods You published your first book a year ago, and you’ve had moderate success at sales, but now you want to increase your book sales. Attend this workshop and learn how! Learn where to look for reading opportunities, how to develop or strengthen your brand, and how to develop a strong author platform to help you increase your book sales.

1 Saturday Capitol Hill

1–3 p.m.

Intermediate

3/4 $50

Getting Started: Creative Writing Patricia Gray Spring! This can be your time to plant the seeds of creativity. Begin by exploring imaginative forms of writing in a supportive environment. Fun exercises in this workshop can circumvent the analytic brain and give creativity a chance to thrive. You’ll find new ways to free up memories and experiences and use them as inspiration for memoir, fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or journal writing. Hallmarks of the workshop include in-class assignments, opportunity to read your writing—or not, as you choose—and receive feedback to identify your writing talents. You’ll also receive tips on how to continue writing after the workshop is over.

2 Saturdays Capitol Hill

1–4 p.m.

Beginner

3/11–3/18 $115

Applying Standup Comedy Techniques to Your Writing Basil White If you can read this and you can laugh, you can write humor! Learn to apply the basic psychology of how your brain gets a joke to discover what’s “gettable” about your subject matter, real or fictional, for humor writing or other ironic purposes. This class also works as a fun introduction to the fundamentals of workshopping for those new to the expectations of creative workshops. Class meets over one weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Before class, read the handout at basilwhite.com/comedyworkshop and bring questions. Must be 18 years or older.

1 Sat/Sun Bethesda

1–5 p.m.

All Levels

3/11–3/12 $135

Creating Complex Characters Lynn Schwartz What do your characters yearn for? Examine how a character’s wants and desires drive key elements of story, including narrative, dialogue, conflict, and plot. Short exercises and readings will illustrate ways to identify and depict a character’s passion, which is essential to creating a compelling person—someone with whom a reader wants to spend time.

Come to strengthen what is memorable about the people who populate your tales, or come ready to create a new character whose story commands attention. This workshop is appropriate for those working on a novel, short story, or memoir.

1 Saturday Bethesda

9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

3/18 $50

Guides on Craft and The Writing Life Nicole E. Miller This class is designed as an introduction to the guides and resources available to the fiction writer, and will also

include “warm-up” exercises to get the creative process flowing. Read highlights from a number of the classics, including E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, Edith Wharton’s The Writing of Fiction, and Henry James’s famous prefaces to his books. From these oldies but goodies, we will turn to fiction’s more recent gurus and apostles—John Gardner, Charles Baxter, Robert Olen Butler, James Wood—for some controversial tips. We will also take a tour of accounts about the writing life and the host of books that have sprung up following Francine Prose’s Reading like a Writer. At the end of class, the instructor will distribute a general bibliography as well as suggestions tailored specifically to the participants.

1 Saturday Capitol Hill

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

4/29 $100

NONFICTION What’s your story? What are the tales that you’ve been dying to tell, but haven’t had the time or structure to put pen to paper? Get started and write about your life in this hands-on, practical course in which you’ll write four pieces in eight weeks and get individual feedback from the instructor on each. Whether you have family stories you’d like to record for posterity or different moments of your life you want to capture, you’ll learn new strategies every week to help you write effectively about your life. Exercises will help you develop disparate memories and thoughts into a meaningful and organized form. Take advantage of practical tools and get supportive feedback from teacher and classmates. Deadlines make you write, so give yourself eight weeks of them!

N/A Intermediate/Advanced

5 Wednesdays Bethesda

1/3–2/21 $360

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

All Levels

1/25–2/22 $225

Readings in Narrative Nonfiction Gina Hagler In this workshop, participants will learn how to incorporate literary elements like dialogue, imagery, and setting into nonfiction articles and essays. After reading examples by McPhee, Orleans, Skloot, Kidder, Grann, and others, and analyzing thier prose for narrative elements that enhance research and facts, particpants will work on their own pieces. By the end of the course, participants will gain a thorough understanding of the genre and how to use it effectivley to engage, persuade, and provoke their readers.

8 Thursdays Bethesda

Writing Memoir Dave Singleton

8 Weeks Online

backgrounds who are looking to take their writing endurance and skills to the next level.

7–9:30 p.m.

Intermediate

2/2–3/23 $360

The Writer’s Toolbox Sara Mansfield Taber Writing is “a careful act of construction,” William Zinsser notes. “You must know what the essential tools are and what job they are designed to do.” This is a workshop for those who wish to sharpen the tools in their writer’s toolbox to create fine literary nonfiction. We will examine published essays and memoirs and practice aspects of the writer’s craft such as: concrete detail, use of the senses, figurative language, characterization, dialogue and scene, summary, and musing. Time for the sharing of work and a free-write are included in the meetings.

8 Tuesdays Bethesda

Opinion

1–3:30 p.m.

Beginner/Intermediate

2/7–4/4 $360

Writing For Publication

My Life, One Story at a Time

Ananya Bhattacharyya

Pat McNees

Learn how to weave your opinions into compelling essays that will provoke thought in others and impress editors.

For the first two classes, we will discuss various “rules” of opinion writing and how to hone your expertise. We will also read articles and essays about the craft of writing as well as some great op-eds and reported essays. We will workshop your pieces during the last three weeks, and go over some submission tricks and tips. The aim is to have your piece(s) ready for publication.

Capture your life experiences in six short pieces of autobiographical writing (true stories). The emphasis here is on storytelling, not critique, and in leaving a record for future family members. Knowing that you are writing not for publication but to set the record straight (in your own mind, if nothing else) may liberate you, allowing you to frankly explore your life choices and experiences.

Bring a story about a turning point in your life to the first session—one that will introduce yourself to others in the group. This course is ideal for writers who have never taken a workshop before. Pieces will be read aloud but not critiqued.

6 Wednesdays Bethesda

7:15–9:45 p.m.

Beginner

1/18–2/22 $270

Boot Camp for Writers Beth Kanter This course is for individuals who want to tone up their writing muscles so they can go the distance. Each class will begin with a short warm-up exercise followed by a prompt for a longer piece. We will then focus on specifics like effective beginnings, creative prose, and strong conclusions. Participants will also learn how to avoid common grammatical and usage errors that can distract from their message. This workshop is designed for participants of all

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

5 Weeks Online

N/A Beginner

2/13–3/13 $225

Out-Write:

An LGBT-Focused Memoir Workshop

Dave Singleton From coming out to fighting oppression to exploring the world through an LGBT lens, what’s your story? What are the tales that you want to tell, but haven’t had the time or structure to put pen to paper? Get started and write about your life in this course in which you’ll write four pieces in six weeks and get individual feedback from the instructor on each. Whether you have coming out stories you’d like to record for posterity or aspects of LGBT life you want to share and publish, you’ll learn new strategies every week to help you write effectively about your life. The class will focus on exercises that will help you develop disparate

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WORKSHOPS

Promoting Your Own Book II

WORKSHOPS

The Writer’s Center

memories and thoughts into a meaningful and organized form. Take advantage of practical tools and get supportive feedback from the group. Deadlines make you write, so give yourself six weeks of deadlines.

you along the way. The instructor will suggest tried-andtrue steps that will inspire and practically guide you to start your memoir or to inform the memoir you are presently writing.

Spring: February 2–May 11

6 Weeks Online

1 Saturday Bethesda

Summer: June 1–August 31: Individual check-ins with the instructor

Finding Your Memoir Voice

The Memoir Year Cathy Alter

Fall/Winter: September 21– December 14 (No meeting November 23) FREE info session: January 7, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m.

WORKSHOPS

This year-long program is intended to support serious writers looking to revise and pitch their memoir or creative nonfiction manuscripts. Memoir Year participants will experience the rigor and structure of an M.F.A. program, but with less of an expense and time commitment.

Working with a published author, 10 participants will workshop their entire memoir-in-progress. Other benefits include:

Having a great story is just the first step to writing a compelling piece of memoir. In this class, we will explore what takes a piece of personal writing “from draft to craft,” looking at elements such as character development, incorporating sensory detail, and writing in scenes.

We will focus on the importance of taking a story that’s true and connecting it, as Cheryl Strayed says, “to the greater, grander truth.” In addition to workshopping each other’s writing, participants will read essays on craft and sample works of successful memoirists. When the course is over, participants will come away with an appreciation of what makes a piece of memoir stand out and appeal to an audience beyond themselves. Note: No meeting on March 15.

6 Wednesdays Bethesda

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

Beginner/ Intermediate

• Free access to the Studio at The Writer’s Center during the full year (valued at $1,000)

3/1–4/12 $270

• Free admission to ticketed literary events at the Center Participants must have completed at least 100 pages of a memoir before enrolling. To be admitted into the program, potential candidates will need to submit: • A one-page cover letter detailing their interest in the program • A 10-page writing sample from their work in progress

This multi-session critique-based course takes a writer through all the nonfiction writing paces. Participants will do online research, write a query, start a blog or journal, submit an article to a print or online publication, and learn how to organize and expand on their short nonfiction to create a book. Whether you’re hoping for a freelance career or trying to get your name known, you’ll learn how to set a foundation and build a career that will attract readers, earn you bylines, and bring in earnings. Writers will be expected to submit the draft of one query and one article or guest blog by the end of the course, and then submit it for publication.

8 Wednesdays Bethesda

10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

All Levels

3/1–4/19 $360

Literary Travel Memoir C.M. Mayo Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects..

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

All Levels

4/22 $50

Writing Effective Memoir

Admissions will be on a rolling basis, so please submit early. Send your submission to: laura.spencer@writer.org.

2/2–12/14 $5,000

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10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

4/29 $50

POETRY

Emily Rich and Desiree Magney

Kathryn Brown Ramsperger

• Panels and Q&As with experts in the industry, including literary agents and visiting writers

7–9 p.m.

Master

2/21–3/28 $270

Building a Nonfiction Career

• Consistent writing deadlines, studying aspects of craft, and being part of a supportive community

Thursdays Bethesda

N/A All Levels

Susan Tiberghien In writing memoir, you are writing the story of one aspect of your life, and searching for meaning. In so doing, you are contributing to the greater understanding of human life. In this workshop, you will look at effective ways to shape life experience into story. Examples from the work of contemporary memoirists and writing exercises will help

Poetry Meg Eden

Chapbook Workshop

This workshop provides participants with the tools for forming and submitting poetry chapbooks. Lessons will focus on identifying what makes a chapbook, exploring your voice in the chapbook medium, choosing and ordering poems within your chapbook, and researching appropriate publishers. By the end of the course, participants will have a chapbook manuscript that can be sent out to publishers.

4 Weeks Online

N/A Advanced

Foundations

1/10–1/31 $195

of Poetry

Meg Eden Over the course of four weeks, we’ll discuss four key elements of poems: image, sound, form, and realization.

Participants will produce a variety of poems and learn tips for maintaining the practice of writing. They also will have the opportunity to workshop and revise four poems and will receive personalized feedback on their work.

4 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

1/17–2/7 $195

Writing

Weird: A Taxonomy of Strangeness in Poems

Ross White Strangeness wakes us up and heightens our attention. And oddly enough, strangeness can make our poems more tender, more sensible, more human. This course will encourage participants to examine what strangeness is and why earned strangeness can have a profound effect on a reader’s sense of the real. Through readings, discussions and prompts, we’ll develop strategies for infusing our poems with elements of strangeness like absurdity, tonal mismatch, associativeness, and surrealism.

5 Weeks Online

N/A Intermediate/Advanced

1/23–2/20 $225

The Force of Poetry Elizabeth Rees In this eight-week workshop, intermediate and advanced poets will concentrate on reading, writing, and critiquing poetry. Each session will include a brief discussion of selected contemporary poems, an in-class writing prompt, and workshopping of participants’ poems. Specific exercises will be given to free the imagination, and quiet the inner censor. We will explore formal considerations, stylistic choices, and those moments when a poem catches its own voice. By the end of the class, participants will have produced seven original poems and one revision, and will have refined their poetic voice. Please bring 15 copies of a

View online at www.writer.org/guide

WORKSHOPS poem you love (not your own) to the first session, as well as 15 copies of one of your own.

includes taking home this beautiful game for yourself or to give as a gift.

the workshop, at 2 p.m., Beaumont will read from her work as part of the Open Door Reading Series.

8 Tuesdays Bethesda

1 Wednesday Bethesda

2/1 $50

1 Sunday Bethesda

Taming the Beast: On Putting Together a Poetry Collection

The

1/24–3/14 $360

to the Emotional Core

Taylor Johnson This workshop will allow participants to draw upon their personal lives and experiences to create poems that sing and resonate with a clear and unique poetic voice. Participants will use the workshop as a space to strengthen their sense and observation techniques, make their voices clear and distinct on the page, and learn ways to approach difficult topics in poems. Each week, we will read and analyze poems by contemporary poets, looking primarily at their images, their use of line, and their formal structure, as well as the emotional quality of their poems. Participants will respond to the works we read with poems of their own, and respond to prompts created by the instructor.

We will also workshop poems that participants write on an alternating schedule, ensuring that each participant has the chance to workshop their work. At the end of the workshop, participants can expect to have at least eight new poems, new techniques on revision, and a toolkit on how to find their voice and emotional resonance in a poem. On the first day of the workshop, please bring a photo of someone who you would ask for help if you were lost.

8 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

1/27–3/17 $360

8 Wednesdays Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

All Levels

2/1–3/22 $360

There’s more to a good narrative poem than telling a story in lines rather than paragraphs. In this workshop, we will examine the distinction between lyric and narrative poetry and look at some contemporary narrative poems to see what makes them succeed or flounder. We will discuss the varying perspectives from which a story can be told and the elements that bring it to life in a poem. If time allows, we’ll draft a brief narrative in prose that can be turned into a poem, paying particular attention to the techniques that good poets use to lift their words above the level of simple, straightforward storytelling.

1 Sunday Bethesda

1–4 p.m.

All Levels

1/29 $50

3/5 $50

Research Process in Poetry

Ross White

Ordering a poetry manuscript is both an art and a science, and this one-day seminar will present strategies that appeal to both temperaments. We will spend the first half of class exploring established approaches to ordering, including the consideration of section breaks, epigraphs, and the book’s title. The second half of our session will focus on workshopping your table of contents. Bring a sense of the manuscript you have at hand (full length or chapbook) and a couple of burning questions.

1 Sunday Bethesda

7 Weeks Online

11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

Intermediate/ Advanced

2/5 $50

N/A Intermediate/ Advanced

3/6–4/17 $315

Approaches to the Aubade

Poetic

Taylor Johnson

Meg Eden

In this workshop, participants will undertake an intensive study in the aubade as a poetic form. Participants will read aubades from classical and contemporary poets and will write aubades of their own in response. Participants should expect to share their work and have it workshopped at least twice. At the end of the course, participants will have six aubades and an understanding about the modern and classical use of the aubade as a poetic form. On the first day of the class, please come prepared to share your morning routine.

In this workshop, we’ll explore why form is relevant for contemporary poets, and how we can take advantage of form to strengthen both traditional and free-verse poems.

Poetic form isn’t just meter and rhyme--it encompasses a diverse range of vessels that poems can inhabit. Form can help focus our poems and reinforce a tone beyond our written words. When we have writer’s block, form can give us direction on how to keep writing. Over the six weeks of this workshop, we’ll write in several forms, and explore what content works well with different types of forms.

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

All Levels

2/6–3/27 $290

Survey

Sue Ellen Thompson

10 a.m.–12 p.m.

All Levels

Research informs action—for scientists and for writers. This course will help participants, particularly those interested in writing a book-length manuscript, utilize the research process that culminates in a suite of linked poems. They will delve into a topic or topics of concern, including their own preoccupations, personal histories, and geographic concerns. Exercises will include keyword generation, a research journal, data-mining previous poetic work to discover hidden affinities, a primer for field work and interviews, and experimentations with bibliometrics, ekphrasis, and erasure.

Sandra Beasley

8 Mondays Bethesda

Beyond Storytelling: Writing the Narrative Poem

6:30–8 p.m.

All Levels

of LGBT Poetry, 1980 to the Present

Francisco-Luis White This workshop will survey exemplary work published by LGBTQ poets since 1980, centering the most marginalized literary voices (people of color, immigrants, HIV positive and AIDS diagnosed persons, etc.). Participants will be led in critical discussion of these works and their necessity in contemporary American literature, gaining a broader exposure to LGBTQ poetics.

7 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

2/22–4/5 $315

The Poetry Game

Inspired by Research: From Sources to Poems

Zahara Heckscher

Jeanne Marie Beaumont

The Poetry Game is an interactive game that makes it easy and fun to write a poem, whether you are an experienced poet seeking a new technique to generate poetry, or you haven’t written a poem in decades! The focus is on creativity; sharing is optional and work will not critiqued or judged. Everyone wins. The game involves a wide variety of prompts, a supportive and encouraging environment, and an attitude of warmth, fun, and poetic camaraderie. Educators are welcome to come and learn how to use this game in settings including schools and healing environments. Snacks provided. Workshop price

How do poets use the techniques of historians and journalists to develop great poems? We will look at model poems to uncover the different methods that poets have used to transform source materials into poetry. Historic records, family documents, case studies, photographs, and interviews are just some of the materials poets have incorporated into poems. Bring some intriguing documents, texts, or photos of your own, and we will practice different strategies for presenting these materials in poetic form. Participants will learn new approaches to using resource materials that can deepen and expand the range of their poetry. Following

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

6 Weeks Online

Forms Workshop

N/A All Levels

3/13–4/17 $270

Beads on a String: Organizing a Poetry Manuscript Sue Ellen Thompson Poets who are putting together their first chapbook or fulllength book often agonize over what they can do to make their manuscript “hang together” and grab the attention of an editor or contest judge. There is no one approach to arranging a sequence of poems that is inherently superior.

Instead, it has more to do with gaining some perspective on your own work and identifying the themes, images, and impulses that certain poems share. In this workshop, we will gather advice from a number of successful poets and then take a close look at how a Pulitzer Prize-winning volume was put together.

1 Saturday Annapolis

1–4 p.m.

All Levels

3/18 $50

Facing It Abdul Ali You’re Busy, I’m busy; who has time to read a poem that hides your true feelings? In this workshop, we will practice being honest with our emotions so that we can write the poems we are afraid to write but that readers are desperately waiting for.

4 Saturdays Bethesda

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1–3 p.m.

Beginner/ Intermediate

4/1–4/22 $135

WORKSHOPS

Writing

7–9:30 p.m.

Intermediate/Advanced

WORKSHOPS Hybrid

Poetry and Other Forms

Joshua Young This workshop will focus on creating work that utilizes practices from other genres and art forms; work that can be hard to categorize, but at its core, is poetry. Hybridity is constantly mutating, and this workshop will focus on the ideas and practices behind that. We will look at works of Michael Ondaatje, Anne Carson, Lara Glenum, Maggie Nelson, Jenny Boully, and Ronaldo Wilson, among others.

8 Weeks Online

N/A All Levels

4/3–5/22 $360

Writing From Your Roots: A Multicultural Poetry Workshop Maritza Rivera

WORKSHOPS

What is your favorite meal? What was your first job? What customs and traditions do you follow? Although these may sound like security questions, these and other topics will unlock commonalities among all cultures, and will be explored in this workshop. Using the poetry of Rita Dove, Martin Espada, Leslea Newman, Richard Blanco, DJ Renegade, Naomi Shihab-Nye, and other poets, this workshop is designed to uncover your poetic roots.

4 Saturdays Bethesda

1–3 p.m.

All Levels

4/8–4/29 $135

10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

All Levels

Is there a right or wrong way to end a poem? a better way?

This workshop will focus on closure—the strategies that poets have traditionally used to bring their poems to a clear, resonant conclusion. We will also discuss anti-closure—the resistance that so many contemporary poets feel toward poems that “click shut.” Bring a poem of your own and get feedback on your approach.

4/23 $50

PROFESSIONAL WRITING

Writing Persuasively for Publication James Alexander Learn the concepts and techniques for conceiving and developing message-driven persuasive writing materials and articles for publication. The course will focus on the process of crafting newspaper op-eds and prepared speeches. However, participants will be shown how they can apply that knowledge to other persuasive writing models, including memos and emails. The instructor will present key elements of persuasive writing, including audience analysis, message development, targeted research, effective use of social media tools, and organization. As part of the learning experience, each participant will have the opportunity to develop either their own op-ed or speech by applying the principles being taught in the class. Be prepared for active discussions, recommended reading, and a password-protected blog for ongoing discussions and questions.

6 Thursdays Bethesda

7–9:30 p.m.

Beginner/ Intermediate

2–4:30 p.m.

Beginner/ Intermediate

Marilyn W. Smith

Write Like the News

This course is designed for those who want to brush up on English grammar and composition. Quite often, writers are rusty on the basic principles and forms and are challenged and frustrated with work performance and writing productivity. Through interactive and supportive class sessions, we will review rules of usage and punctuation.

Hank Wallace

1–3 p.m.

All Levels

3/9–4/13 $270

You’ve spent months (or years) of your life—not to mention copious amounts of blood, sweat, and tears—writing a dynamite novel. Don’t spend five minutes slapping together a weak query letter! You owe it to yourself to write a great one that will break through the slush at top literary agencies. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to entice your dream agent into reading your masterpiece by writing a tight query that really sings (while avoiding those pitfalls that will land your query in the trash). The instructor will outline his “A-B-C” submission strategy while highlighting valuable targeting resources. Bring four copies of a draft query and a red pen with lots of ink! Note: primarily intended for novel writers.

1 Saturday Bethesda

Grammar for Your Writing and Your Career

6 Tuesdays Bethesda

3/4 $50

Alan Orloff

Sue Ellen Thompson

1–4 p.m.

All Levels

1 Saturday Annapolis

Writing the Dreaded Query Letter

How to End a Poem

1 Sunday Bethesda

three-hour block, participants will be able to walk away with some of their website done--maybe all of it! We may also discuss social media and other elements of having an online presence will be discussed.

2/28–4/4 $215

Build Your Own Author Website Meg Eden In this workshop, learn about the importance and function of having an author website, walk through the process of getting a custom domain, and actually building the website through Squarespace. Participants will be able to get real-time feedback on their website design. After the

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3/18 $50

Lead with the future -- not background. That’s the most important of eight journalism skills that will transform your writing. The others: write your readers’ language, be positive (to be both clear and upbeat), lay out logically, be consistent, be precise, be brief, and choose strong verbs.

Highlights: communicate in a crisis, correct errors the correct way, choose between raw numbers and a ratio, and write around generic “he.” (Plus a Speak Like the News skill: avoid “uptalk.”) Emulate the vivid news examples you’ll see in this workshop, and you’ll strengthen your writing voice with lively, engaging news style. At 7 sharp, we’ll critique the day’s WallStreetJournal.com homepage, seeing how to communicate your main point in just a few words. Then we’ll talk our way through the workshop booklet, emphasizing reasons, not just rules, for your writing choices. To cover as much ground as possible, we’ll have

The Writer’s Center just a few writing exercises and most of them will take less than a minute each.

1 Wednesday Bethesda

7–9 p.m.

All Levels

4/5 $50

STAGE AND SCREEN Playwriting: Character Richard Washer Characters set in motion a series of events and actions that become the engine of your play. In this workshop, participants will look at strategies for exploring and developing characters in the early stages of writing their play and discuss ways to assess the potential of the characters to drive action into story. Additionally, participants will look at character through the eyes of actors and directors seeking to interpret and portray a character, informing the process of building a play.

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner

1/21 $50

Playwriting: Dialogue Richard Washer Dialogue is the playwright’s primary tool for conveying a story that ultimately becomes a visual, aural, and emotional experience for an audience. In this workshop, participants will look at various functions of dialogue and discuss how actors, designers, and directors use dialogue as a basis for transforming words on the page to life on stage.

Although the focus in this session will be on playwriting, writers of all genres are welcome.

1 Saturday Bethesda

10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Beginner

1/28 $50

Playwriting: Exposition Richard Washer What does your audience need to know and when do they need to know it? With only a couple of hours (often less) to tell a story onstage, there isn’t much time for providing back stories. In this workshop, participants will consider various strategies for managing exposition and look at examples in historical context to better understand how to handle this in their own writing.

1 Thursday Bethesda

7:30–10 p.m.

Beginner

2/2 $50

Playwriting: Structure Richard Washer This all-day workshop will focus on organizational principles at work in structuring a stage play. Participants will take a close look at Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and watch selections from the film version to better understand structure, character, and exposition.

In addition, participants will look at screenwriting principles as they might apply to writing for the stage along with the ways that various elements of playwriting craft (character, exposition, inciting incident, revelation, etc.) intersect with structure. Participants are encouraged to read the play ahead of the workshop. There will be a lunch break of approximately 45 minutes.

1 Saturday Bethesda

View online at www.writer.org/guide

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Beginner

2/11 $115

WORKSHOPS Writing For TV & Film

Richard Washer

Khris Baxter

This workshop is intended for anyone looking to sharpen their playwriting skills in a supportive setting. Participants are encouraged to explore their writing through 10-minute plays, one-acts, or full-length plays. The focus of the workshop will be on reading and responding to each other’s work using feedback strategies outlined by the instructor.

Each meeting will also include discussions of playwriting elements and writing exercises, both provided in the context of participant work. As an intermediate-level course, participants should have taken an introductory class in playwriting or have some experience writing plays.

These are exciting times to be a screenwriter. With more shows and television channels than ever, the opportunities for inventive ways of storytelling increase daily. This hands-on workshop will guide beginning and intermediate screenwriters through the process of crafting a professional-grade screenplay and/or TV pilot. Participants will examine proven methods for adapting fiction and narrative nonfiction to the big screen, discuss strategies for promoting and marketing their screenplays or pilots, and work on advancing their careers as screenwriters. This workshop is open to all levels and genres.

8 Thursdays Bethesda

1 Saturday Glen Echo

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

All Levels

2/25 $100

1 Saturday Glen Echo

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

All Levels

4/1 $100

7:30–10 p.m.

Intermediate/ Advanced

2/16–4/6 $360

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

Advertise in the Workshop & Event Guide!

To reserve ad space, email Vanessa.MalloryKotz@Writer.org Members receive an additional 10% discount!

Ad Rates (4-color included) Ad Size

1 Issue

2 Issues

3 Issues

Full page

$450

$405

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Half Page

$225

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Third Page

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Quarter Page

$120

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$90

Sixth Page

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Business Card

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Book Talk Listing

$50

$45

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WORKSHOPS

Playwriting: Intermediate/Advanced

WORKSHOP LEADERS JAMES ALEXANDER has been writing professionally for more than 30 years with several of those years as a political speechwriter including at the Cabinet level. After earning a B.A. in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he worked as a by-lined newspaper reporter at The Charlotte Observer and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also interned at The Washington Post. He later worked on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Congressional Fellow and as a Hill press secretary which included writing speeches and op-eds. As a ghostwriter, he penned dozens of op-eds for political figures with publications in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and Newsday, among others.

ABDUL ALI’s debut collection of poems, Trouble Sleeping, won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize.

His work has been published or is forthcoming by the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series, Gathering of Tribes, Poet Lore, and Plume, to name a few. He has taught writing at Montgomery College, Goucher College, and Towson University. Ali earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University where he was a graduate fellow. He is currently at work on a new collection of poems and some essays.

LEADERS

CATHY ALTER’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, Washingtonian, TheAtlantic.com, The New York Times, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of Virgin Territory, Up for Renewal, and is co-editor of CRUSH: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing, and the Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush. More about her at: www.cathyalter.com.

KHRIS BAXTER is a screenwriter, producer, and co-founder of Boundary Stone Films (“BSF”). BSF develops, finances, and produces a wide range of projects for Film and TV. Baxter has been a screenwriter for two decades and has taught screenwriting since 2004, most recently at The M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Queens University, and American University. He’s been a judge for the annual Virginia Screenwriting Competition since 2004.

SANDRA BEASLEY is the author of Count the Waves (W.W. Norton, 2015); I Was the Jukebox (W.W. Norton, 2010), winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; Theories of Falling (New Issues, 2008); and Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life (Crown, 2011). She lives in Washington, D.C. JEANNE MARIE BEAUMONT is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Letters from Limbo (2016). She is on the poetry faculty of the Stonecoast M.F.A. program at the University of Southern Maine and a longtime instructor at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York.

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ANANYA BHATTACHARYYA is a Washingtonbased writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America, Washingtonian, VICE, The Baltimore Sun, Reuters and other publications. She is an assignment editor at Washington Independent Review of Books and tweets at @AnanyaBhatt.

JESSICA ANYA BLAU’s novels have been featured on The Today Show, CNN and NPR, and in Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Bust, Time Out, and other national publications. Blau’s short stories and essays have been widely published. For many years, she taught writing at Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College. Currently, she divides her time between Baltimore and New York.

HILDIE BLOCK has been a writing instructor for 20 years at places like American University, George Washington University, and The Writer’s Center.

She’s published 50 short stories, and many essays and articles. Her book Not What I Expected was published in 2007. In January 2012, she took her award-winning short story “People” and made it into a Kindle and Nook download.

TAMI LEWIS BROWN writes books for adventurous children. She’s the author of a middle-grade novel, The Map of Me, and the picture book Soar, Elinor!, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Radiant Man, a biography of Keith Haring, will be published Spring 2018 by FSG. Wanted: Women Mathematicians, about the first programmers of the modern computer, will be published Fall 2019 by Disney/Hyperion. More about her at: www. tamilewisbrown.com.

RAE BRYANT is the author of the short story collection The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press). Her stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in print and online at The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, McSweeney’s, DIAGRAM, Huffington Post, Gargoyle Magazine, and Redivider, among other publications. She has won prizes and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, Aspen Writers Foundation, VCCA and Whidbey Writers and has been nominated for the Pen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, The &NOW Award, Lorian Hemingway, and multiple times for the Pushcart award. Rae earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing and is founding editor of The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She also teaches and lectures in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa and The Eckleburg Workshops.

ELLEN PRENTISS CAMPBELL is the author of The Bowl with Gold Seams (Apprentice House), her debut novel, and the short story collection Contents Under Pressure (Broadkill River Press, 2015 Nation-

The Writer’s Center al Book Award nominee). Essays and reviews appear in The Fiction Writers Review and The Washington Independent Review of Books. She is a practicing psychotherapist.

BRENDA W. CLOUGH is a novelist, short story, and nonfiction writer. Her novels include How Like a God, The Doors of Death and Life, and Revise the World. She has been a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. She has been teaching science fiction & fantasy workshops at The Writer’s Center for more than 10 years.

Novelist and writing coach JOHN DEDAKIS is a former editor on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” DeDakis is the author of four mystery-suspense novels. His fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, deals in part with the death of his son in 2011 due to an accidental heroin overdose. More about him at: www.johndedakis.com.

MEG EDEN’s work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel Post-High School Reality Quest is forthcoming June 2017 from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. More about her at: www.megedenbooks.com.

CELIA (C.S.) FRIEDMAN has been writing science fiction and fantasy best sellers since 1985. Her science fiction novel This Alien Shore was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Madness Season recently appeared on The Washington Post’s list of Top Ten Recommended Books. Her latest novel, Dreamweaver, was recently released in December 2016, the third and final volume of The Dreamwalker Chronicles.

ROBERT FRIEDMAN is the author of four novels: The Surrounding Sea, Under a Dark Sun, Shadow of the Fathers and Caribbean Dreams. He was a reporter, columnist, city editor, and Washington correpondent for the San Juan Star, and a correspondent in Puerto Rico for the New York Daily News.

PATRICIA GRAY lives and works on Capitol Hill, where she formerly headed the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. In 2016 she received an Artist Fellowship in literature from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She is author of Rupture, and a limited edition chapbook, Rich with Desire. She is at work on a novel and her next poetry collection.

T. GREENWOOD is the author of eleven awardwinning novels. She teaches creative writing for San Diego Writer’s Ink, Grossmont College, and online for The Writer’s Center.

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WORKSHOP LEADERS

AARON HAMBURGER is the author of The View From Stalin’s Head, winner of the Rome Prize, and the novel Faith For Beginners. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Tin House, and many others. He has taught writing at Columbia University, George Washington University, and the Stonecoast M.F.A. Program.

VIRGINIA HARTMAN has taught writing at George Washington University, American University, and the Smithsonian, and has been teaching at The Writer’s Center for the past 10 years. Her work has appeared in The Hudson Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Potomac Review, among others, and is forthcoming in the Delmarva Review. She is the co-editor, with Barbara Esstman, of a literary anthology called A More Perfect Union: Poems and Stories about the Modern Wedding (St. Martin’s Press). Her stories have also been shortlisted for the New Letters prize judged by Benjamin Percy, the Tennessee Williams Festival Prize, and the Washington Writers’ Publishing House Prize.

ELIZABETH HAZEN is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2013, Southwest Review, The Normal School, The Threepenny Review, and other journals. Her first book, Chaos Theories, was published in April. She teaches English at Calvert School in Baltimore.

ZAHARA HECKSCHER, M.A., is the co-author of the book How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas. She has also written numerous articles that have appeared in books and the online travel magazine www.TransitionsAbroad.com, where she serves as contributing editor. Heckscher teaches professional writing at University of Maryland at College Park. She is a breast cancer survivor who prefers to be known as a “cancer thriver.” She blogs at: www.cancerthriver.blogspot.com.

KATHRYN JOHNSON’s 40+ popular novels (nominated for the Agatha Award, winner of the Heart of Excellence and Bookseller’s Best Awards), include Victorian thrillers (writing as Mary Hart Perry) and a suspense series, “Affairs of State.” Her most recent book—The Extreme Novelist—is based on her popular course at The Writer’s Center.

TAYLOR JOHNSON is a poet from Washington, D.C. They have received fellowships and scholarships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, Lambda Literary

Foundation, VONA, the Vermont Studio Center, the Lannan Center at Georgetown University, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Recently, their work appeared in The Minnesota Review and Callaloo.

BETH KANTER is the author of Washington, DC Chef’sTable, a collection of stories, photographs, and recipes from Washington’s most popular restaurants. Beth also is the author of Food Lovers’ Guide to Washington DC and two editions of Day Trips from Washington DC -- all from Globe Pequot Press.

Beth’s essays and articles have appeared in a range of national newspapers, magazines, and online publications including the Chicago Tribune, The Kitchn, Paste, Kiwi, Parents, American Baby, and Shape.

DESIRÉE MAGNEY’s nonfiction has been published in bioStories, Bethesda Magazine, The Delmarva Review, Washingtonian Magazine, (Washington Voices), and The Washington Post Magazine.

Her poetry appeared in Jellyfish Whispers and Storm Cycle 2015: The Best of a Hurricane Press.

She co-publishes Little Patuxent Review.

PETER MANDEL is a regular contributor to The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, and the author of eleven books for children including Bun, Onion, Burger (Simon & Schuster), Jackhammer Sam (Macmillan) and Zoo Ah-Choooo (Holiday House).

His books have been translated into Japanese, German, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, and Danish.

C.M. MAYO is the author of several works on Mexico, including The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book of 2009. She is also the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles Through Baja California, The Other Mexico, a travel memoir of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula; Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual; and Sky over El Nido, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. More about her at: www.cmmayo.com.

PAT MCNEES is a writer and editor who for 25 years has helped individuals tell their life story. A former editor in book publishing (at Harper & Row and at Fawcett), she is also past president of the Association of Personal Historians, and managerscribe of the local Washington Biography Group.

She received training in Guided Autobiography and has taught life writing at The Writer’s Center for several years. More about her at: www.writersandeditors.com.

NICOLE MILLER’s prize-winning essays have appeared recently in New Letters and Arts & Letters magazines. “Last Night at the Breakers” was a Best American Essay Notable for 2016. Her short fiction

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

has appeared twice in The May Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Jill Paton Walsh and Sebastian Faulks. She received an M.Phil in Victorian Literature from Lincoln College, Oxford; a PhD in English at University College, London; and an M.F.A. at Emerson College, Boston, where she held the Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. At The Oxford English Dictionary, she has served as a scholarly reader for British Dialects since 2002. She teaches nineteenth and twentieth century British literature at Politics & Prose and writing at Grub Street in Boston and Kingston University in Kingston-uponThames, UK. MARC NIESON is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and author of the recent memoir Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape. He has won a Raymond Carver Short Story Award, Pushcart Prize nominations, and been noted in Best American Essays. He teaches at Chatham University, and edits fiction for The Fourth River. More about him at: www.marcnieson.com.

ALAN ORLOFF’s debut mystery, Diamonds For the Dead, was an Agatha Award finalist. His seventh novel, Running From The Past, was an Amazon Kindle Scout winner. His short fiction has appeared in Jewish Noir, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Storm Warning, and Windward: Best New England Crime Stories 2016. More about him at: www.alanorloff.com.

LESLIE PIETRZYK is the author of two novels. This Angel on My Chest, her collection of short stories, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Short fiction/essays appear in Salon, Gettysburg Review, Sun, Shenandoah, Washingtonian, and The Cincinnati Review. More about her at: www.lesliepietrzyk.com.

LAURA PROBERT, MPT is a holistic physical therapist, published author, teacher, poet, and black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She’s serious about integrating mind, body, and soul as a journey to passion and power and it’s her mission to show you how.

You can find her writing featured in places like The Huffington Post, MindBodyGreen, Best Self Magazine, The Wellness Universe, Wild Sister Magazine, Tiny Buddha, and The Elephant Journal. More about her at: www.BraveHealer.com.

MARY QUATTLEBAUM is the author of 24 award-winning children’s books, including Pirate vs. Pirate, Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, the Jackson Jones chapter-book series, and most recently, Together Forever: True Stories of Amazing Animal Friendships. She also writes for children’s media, reviews children’s books, speaks frequently at schools, and teaches in the M.F.A. program in writing for

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LEADERS

GINA HAGLER is a nonfiction writer. She covers the science and technology behind every day phenomenon. She also writes about food tech and innovation for TheFoodRush, as well as about a variety of topics including STEM and history for middle grade students. Her work has received several awards.

WORKSHOP LEADERS children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. More about her at: www.maryquattlebaum.com.

KATHRYN BROWN RAMSPERGER is a journalist, short story writer, certified creativity coach, and author of two award-winning novels. Her novel The Shores of Our Souls, a finalist in the FaulknerWisdom Literary Competition, will be published

by TouchPoint Press Summer 2017. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Yahoo! Parenting, The Good Men Project, and Thought Catalog. She also ghost writes and copy writes. More about her at: www.groundonecoaching.com and shoresofoursouls.com.

ELIZABETH REES is the author of Every Root a Branch (2014), and four award-winning chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in many of the finest literary magazines. She has taught at Harvard University, Boston College, the U.S. Naval Academy, Howard University, Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program, and at The Writer’s Center since 1990. Additionally, she works as a “poet-in-theschools” for the Maryland State Arts Council.

LEADERS

EMILY RICH is Editor of the Delmarva Review and Deputy Editor of Little Patuxent Review. She writes mainly memoir and essay. Her work has been published in a number of small presses including Little Patuxent Review, r.kv.ry, Delmarva Review, the Pinch, and Hippocampus. Her essays have been listed as notables in Best American Essays 2014 and 2015. Her story “Black Market Pall Malls” won the Biostories 2015 War and Peace essay contest.

MARITZA RIVERA is a Puerto Rican poet and Army veteran. She founded the weekly Mariposa Poetry Series, and hosts the annual Mariposa Poetry Retreat at the Capital Retreat Center in Waynesboro, PA. Maritza is the author of About You, a collection of poetry “for women and the men they love”; A Mother’s War, written during her son’s two tours in Iraq; Baker’s Dozen, and Twenty-One: Blackjack Poems. Maritza is also a supporter of the Memorial Day Writers Project (MDWP); participated in the Warrior Poetry Project at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD; and served on the Board of Directors of Split This Rock.

SARAH SCHMELLING’s humor has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, Parents Magazine and The Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She’s the author of a humor book, Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don’t Float, and has a Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

LYNN SCHWARTZ is a story development editor, ghostwriter, teaches fiction at St. John’s College, and produces the Page to Stage series in Annapolis. She

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has received two Individual Artist Awards in Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Annie Literary Arts Award in Anne Arundel County.

More about her at: www.writerswordhouse.com.

DAVE SINGLETON authored the newly released memoir anthology CRUSH, Writers Reflect on Love, Longing and the Power of Their First Celebrity Crush (Harper Collins, April 2016) and two nonfiction books, The Mandates and Behind Every Great Woman. His work has appeared in several print and online publications, including the The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Washingtonian, Harper’s Bazaar, and OUT. He is a regular columnist for Caring.com. He holds degrees from the University of Virginia and New York University, writes for various publications, and speaks at universities, conferences, and events. More about him at: www. davesingleton.com and @DCDaveSingleton.

ALEX SMITH is the author of Hive (Muzzleland Press), The Berserk, and Blown (Superchief Press).

His stories and poems appear in Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction, Black Ink Horror, Sink Review, and the Best American Poetry Blog. He holds an M.F.A. from The New School, and lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

MARILYN SMITH has a Ph.D in Education Policy/ Higher Education and an M.A. in Reading Education. She has taken numerous writing classes from The Writer’s Center, and has taught a wide variety of workshops in the area since 1969. Marilyn retired a few years ago and has recently published two books—her memoir and an anthology of medical memoirs. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

MARIJA STAJIC was The Writer’s Center’s 2014 Undiscovered Voices Fellow, a winner of a Neoverse short story award, and a WWPH novel competition finalist. She has a B.A. in literature and an M.A. in international journalism. She studied fiction at the George Washington University under Tim Johnston, and worked for the New Yorker magazine. Her fiction has been published in dozens of literary journals and two anthologies MATHANGI SUBRAMANIAN, Ed.D., is an award winning writer and educator who believes stories have the power to change the world. In 2016, her novel, Dear Mrs. Naidu, won the South Asia Book Award and was shortlisted for the Hindu-Goodbooks Prize. A Bethesda native, she currently lives and works in India.

SARA MANSFIELD TABER is the author of award-winning Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter, Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia and Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf. Her essays, memoirs, and cultural commentary have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, including

The Writer’s Center The Washington Post, and been produced for public radio. Holder of a doctorate in human development from Harvard, she is a past William Sloane Fellow in Nonfiction for the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and a long-time Writer’s Center instructor.

She has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and other programs, and works as an editor and writing coach.

SUE ELLEN THOMPSON’s fifth book of poems, They, was published in 2014. An instructor at The Writer’s Center since 2007, she has previously taught at Middlebury College, Binghamton University, the University of Delaware, and Central CT State University. She received the 2010 Maryland Author Award from the Maryland Library Association.

SUSAN TIBERGHIEN, author of four memoirs and the best selling One Year to a Writing Life, has taught workshops for twenty years at C.G. Jung Institutes in America and Europe. She lives in Geneva, Switzerland, where she directs the Geneva Writers’ Group, an association of 250 writers. More about her at: www.susantiberghien.com.

JULIE WAKEMAN-LINN has edited The Potomac Review since 2005. Her short stories have appeared in many literary magazines. Her novel, Chasing the Leopard, Finding the Lion, a finalist for Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize, was published by Mkuki Na Nyota in 2012. Her short story collection was a finalist for the WWPH 2014 Fiction prize.

HANK WALLACE, a Columbia Law School graduate, was a government reporter for New Jersey’s Middletown Courier and Red Bank Daily Register, and the assistant director of law-school publishing for Matthew Bender. He wrote the FCC’s plain-language newsletter and newswriting tips for the Radio Television Digital News Association. More about him at: www.wsln.com.

RICHARD WASHER, M.F.A., playwright and director, was a founding member of Charter Theater and currently works with First Draft as a playwright and director. He holds a B.A. (University of Virginia) and an M.F.A. (American University).

His full-length plays include Missa at New Works Theatre, Of a Sunday Morning (Charter Theater), Monkeyboy (co-written with Keith Bridges and Chris Stezin; Charter Theater), The Chicken of the Family (a children’s musical co-written with award-winning author Mary Amato; Charter Theater), The Fetish (The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts), Getting It (The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts),and Quartet at the Hamner Theatre. Other plays produced at various theaters and festivals include Shalimar, Loops, Elegy and Fulcrum.

View online at www.writer.org/guide

WORKSHOP LEADERS BASIL WHITE is a speechwriter, a published joke writer (Judy Brown’s Squeaky Clean Comedy: 1,512 Dirt-Free Jokes from the Best Comedians, Comedy Thesaurus, and Larry Getlen’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes), public speaker, and business humor consultant. Basil helps people add humor to presentations, advertising, movie scripts, and user manuals.

He also writes articles and online courses on creative technology writing, usability, and information design. More about him at: www.basilwhite.com.

FRANCISCO-LUIS WHITE is an Afro-Latinx poet and storyteller and D.C. resident. White released their first work of poetry Found Them in May 2016, a chapbook of seventeen poems dealing with transformation and departure in response to trauma along their gender/sexuality journey. White has presented at Fire & Ink: Witness - A Conference For LGBTQ Writers of African Descent, Carolina Conference on Queer Youth, and the United States Conference on AIDS. They have been recognized

by National Black Justice Coalition as an LGBTQ Emerging Leader to Watch. The poet has featured at Busboys & Poets (Sparkle) and the You Can’t Kill A Poet Reading Series in Philadelphia. Currently, they’re touring poetry and slam venues, while working on a collection of poems.

ELIJAH’S HAND A SPY NOVEL ABOUT ISRAEL AND THE USA, EGYPT AND ISIS

CHERRIE WOODS is a 15-year plus public relations (PR) veteran known for her work as a PR coach, publicist, and workshop facilitator. Woods is the author of Where Do I Start?10 PR Questions and Answers to Guide Self-Published Authors as well as an award-winning author of a book of poetry.

JOSHUA YOUNG is the author of six collections, most recently, The Holy Ghost People (Plays Inverse Press, 2014), and the forthcoming, Psalms for the Wreckage (Plays Inverse Press, 2017), and with Alexis Pope, I Am Heavy w/ Feeling (Fog Machine, 2017). His work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Gulf Coast, Court Green, Fugue, Salt Hill, among others. He is Editor-in-Chief for The Lettered Streets Press and works at the University of Chicago.

“EVERYBODY’S ALL-IN IN THIS GAME!”

BY NOEL ABLE (THE PSEUDONYM OF A WRITER’S CENTER AUTHOR) ORDER DIRECT FROM

https://www.createspace.com/6348442

LEADERS

ROSS WHITE is the author of How We Came Upon

the Colony (Unicorn Press, 2014) and The Polite Society (Unicorn Press, 2017). He is the executive director of Bull City Press and the poetry editor of Four Way Review. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2012, New England Review, Poetry Daily, and The Southern Review, among others. He teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. A graduate of the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, he co-coordinates The Grind Daily Writing Series.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

37

FROM THE WORKSHOPS

The Writer’s Center

Nunavut

By Rachael Petersen Getting Started: Creative Writing with Patricia Gray

D

on’t write about me,” D says over our usual bacon and eggs, his small, almost-black brown eyes narrowing as a smirk forms under his mustache. “I don’t want to be just another one of your subjects. This is personal.”

I nod.

We resume our conversation, which ranges from the banal to the fantastical— although as an outsider in the High North, it’s often hard to know the difference. D recounts the success of the first Beluga whale hunt of the season, transitioning seamlessly into a critique of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers’ album. Customers file in and out of the restaurant— the only one in the village —astonished at the sight of the punk-rocker Inuk and his Qallunaat (white) girlfriend.

The manager places a bowl of sugar cubes between us on the Formica table.

D plops five into his white ceramic mug. I’ve tried to take my coffee the “Inuit way”—creamer and sugar with a dash of coffee— but one can only go so native.

“You know what we used these for in school?” I ask, holding up a cube.

“Akkaaaa,” he says. No. “We had these history lessons about the ‘Eskimo.’ We glued them together to make igloos.”

He howls at the image: Texan schoolchildren piecing together miniature saccharine structures of Arctic dwellings.

38

See? How can I not write about you? I think. I was taught to tell your story a long time ago.

We walk outside towards the shore, where chunks of sea ice gather in the ocean, waiting for winter. I gasp as the cold air invades my lungs. D puts his arm around my waist. Despite living here for months, these sensations still surprise me.

How did he go from the subject of my study to the object of my affection? I can’t recall the moment, but I remember the backdrop: an infinite spectrum of color between snow, ice, rock, and sky.

One night I invited him over for tea—an interview more than a date.

As he cupped a chipped mug with his big bass-playing hands, he confessed, “We’re just so different. I don’t think our cultures can mix. I mean, a hundred years ago we lived in igloos. Now we have the Internet,” he said sipping his tea thoughtfully. “It’s so much change in so little time. It’s like we’re between worlds.”

I fall in love with him in the space between these worlds: with a mouthful of seal meat and a handful of frostbit fingers. He fills my head with words I struggle to grasp: Qanuippit? (How are you?). Inuktituusuunguvit? (Do you speak Inuktitut?) Nagligivagit (I love you).

One afternoon, the radio announces a polar bear sighting in town. We’ve

The Muse, photo by Naveed Ashraft

nowhere to go. I lie on the couch studying Inuktitut. He surfs Facebook.

“You know ‘Eskimo kisses’?” He blurts.

I’m sure he’s going to tell me that Eskimo kisses are a fantasy fabricated by outsiders—something appropriated by missionaries or mistranslated by anthropologists.

He demonstrates before I have time to answer.

“They’re real . . . kuniik!”

Oh and they are so much better than the sanitized nose-to-nose rubbing taught to kids. Eskimo “kiss” is a misnomer. They more closely resemble full-frontal face sniffing, the unsanitary smooshing of noses and mouths together. That night, I almost faint from huffing his round brown cheeks; I sniff them so hard I fear they might fall off.

For the months I spend in the village, my skin burns with millions of his kuniik. I want to tattoo a trail of them from ear to ear, like the traditional Inuit face tattoos, tunniit. But the only ink I have is in my pen. So instead, I write.

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FROM THE WORKSHOPS

I Dream of Shorty

By Helen Zubaly Telling and Writing Your Stories with Solveig Eggerz

I

don’t like moving my body, much.

I dread it; I have ever since I was a kid and everybody around me was better at, well, just about everything.

I was bad at playing outdoor games and running races and climbing hills.

I couldn’t jump very far or swing very high. But I wanted to be good at things, so I developed an ingenious workaround: I pretended I was. For a while, I carried around my older brother’s battered baseball mitt, thumping a ball deep into its palm, and asked my family to start calling me “Shorty.”

Shorty was a natural athlete. Shorty could dart around corners and throw a ball—far—and climb trees and dig holes and build stuff. Shorty was roguish, clever, and unique. Shorty winked a lot. And best of all, Shorty was a boy.

I, alas, was a mere girl.

tree. I scouted for wild animals. I never found any, but I knew they were there—foxes, deer, Grizzly bears, wolves, hyenas, tarantulas, all manner of dangerous snakes, and mountain lions—so I counted myself a bona fide hunter.

I’m a middle-aged woman now, with a body that never did accomplish much in the way of athletics. I birthed two babies and paid for it in the usual ways—with sagging flesh, a bladder that won’t hold, and bigger feet. I still dream of Shorty, though; I dream and hope Shorty is somewhere inside

me, itching to get out. Any day, I’ll hitch a rifle up onto my shoulder and stride into some woods, somewhere, and catch me some dinner. I’ll light a campfire and skin my catch and roast it on a big stick. I’ll eat off the blade of my pocketknife and stare, contented, at the stars overhead. I live in the crowded, exasperating suburbs of Washington, D.C., now, but somewhere, in that stand of trees in my overgrown yard, or on the path near our neighborhood school, or over behind the Rec Center, Shorty waits for me. Whistling, of course.

Reminiscing Bali by Meenakshi Mohan

The idea of Shorty never caught on, and I was relegated to remaining me. Plain old Helen lived in a pleasant neighborhood in the hills of Charleston, West Virginia, and went to Catholic school, and had a father who worked for “the phone company,” and a mother who yelled a lot and did not indulge childish whims.

But inside my mind, where I kept my deepest secrets, I was Shorty.

Alone, I moved with an athlete’s natural grace, running silent and fleetfooted through the woods. I heaved great boulders out of my way. I swung on vines, I crossed deep creeks while balancing, arms out sideways at shoulder height on a rotting, fallen The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

39

FROM THE WORKSHOPS

The Writer’s Center

Triptych: Lou Reed

By Sara Gama The Force of Poetry with Elizabeth Rees Morning begins with a music box jangle, bright Sunday sunlight streams in, and moves the shadows from our bodies.

The blossoming warmth, the heat of your skin, there’s nowhere to go, and for once I don’t want to.

Above me a star is moving not falling, a star of metal and wires, cold and distant.

I watch its faithful movement through the heavens night after night, and love its transmission: I am here, I am here . . .

My love – I am here.

Our arms phoenix wings rising through cigarette smoke, bodies dancing to the drone of “Venus in Furs” in the darkened room, then silence falls like a spell static plays on the television, we are young and the hours are small, we will rule this momentary kingdom forever.

A Day or Two Before

for H.D.B.

By Jacquelyn Bengfort Master Poetry with Sandra Beasly

I

t’s strange, harboring a body inside one’s own, The fugitive result of a spiritual experiment, Two cells fusing in a hidden place.

Then, a journey of a few inches, But slow. But perilous.

Labor: the final work of binding soul and flesh.

Arrive; hear voices carried on air for the first time.

No less fantastic for being common, For being, sometimes, an accident—though you weren’t.

There’s no getting used to it, but then:

Meet a world of vast hands waiting to catch you.

The double image can’t last forever.

A night or two before, your mama sat up in bed Writing these lines, watching the notebook on her belly Undulate under her pen.

Because your curiosity grows as you do, Tiny hands fluttering against warm walls, Forty-odd weeks in the blood-rosed light.

Your feet pressed toward her mouth And words rose and caught in her chest As you prepared to dive to earth.

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View online at www.writer.org/guide

BOOK TALK Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America

The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story

Closing the Book on Santa Claus and other Holiday Stories

Patty Alper

Cheryl Somers Aubin

Ron Chandler

ISBN: 978-0983833406

ISBN: 978-1508434900

ISBN: 978-1629561622

Teach to Work is an inspired “call to action” for reticent mentors: bankers, scientists, engineers, accountants, journalists, etc., who ask, “How would I work with kids?” Written by distinguished author, speaker, and philanthropist Patty Alper, Teach to Work is a culmination of what she’s learned from 15+ years of mentoring, coupled with corporate case studies, expert research, and best practices. www.routledge.com

The Black Dog: Poems on Death, Grief and Loss Anonymous ISBN: 978-1511648448

This book is a part of a project that was created to share a personal collection with those going through dark times; those close to them who want to understand better what that struggle’s like; those who share an interest in the issues that potentially affect us all. www.kuidapop.com

Brown Water Runs Red: My Year as an Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force Bob Andretta ISBN: 978-1515342861

Including 47 maps and photos, U.S. Naval Lieutenant Bob Andretta tells his tale of the Vietnam War. It speaks of culture, social imperatives, food, religion, medical matters, difficulties of life in a brutal climate, interpersonal relations with nearby civilian populations, and the author’s agonizing realization of the futility and wrongness of the war.

Amazon.com

Cheryl Somers Aubin’s book, The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story takes the reader on a journey of hope and healing by imaginatively describing the experiences, memories, and feelings of the 9/11 Survivor Tree. Illustrations by Sheila Harrington. Available on Amazon. All profits go to charity. www.thesurvivortree.com

Breathing Room Mark Belair ISBN: 978-0692434635

“‘Moored’ in wonder (to transpose a phrase from Breathing Room), Belair’s poems make space for collecting including 47 maps and photos and recollecting, sensing and seeking.

Like exhibits in an airy but intimate museum, his images accrue: a barn broom shaped by use; a fruit vendor’s collapsed umbrella; sidewalk tables; park lamps; the “sparks of a welder / lit by his own work.” Room by (breathing) room, they offer up the heft of close attention, familiar and strange as memory itself.”—Jody Bolz, Editor, Poet Lore

Amazon.com

Thin Mint Memories: Scouting for Empowerment through the Girl Scout Cookie Program Shelley Johnson Carey ISBN 978-0998148007

In Thin Mint Memories, past and present Girl Scouts plus patrons who love the iconic cookies will learn about the history of the program and the role that each box plays in helping girls develop life skills that will serve them long after the last crumbs are eaten. www.shelleyjohnsoncarey.com or www.clearmessagepress.com

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

“Holiday Short Story Collection Speaks To The Heart”— Frederick Newspost. This book contains nine contemporary stories about Christmas. Notable stories concern a gymnast who receives an early gift to spur her recovery, homemade holiday cards that raise a ruckus, and a relative who gives small gifts that have epic repercussions.

Amazon.com

The Unraveling Michel N. Christophe ISBN: 978-1530764143

The Unraveling is a story of transcendence, a fable that weaves leadership lessons around the corporate journey of Antoine, a man who answers the call of 9/11, joining the fight against terror only to be slapped with his ‘otherness.’ Antoine experiences exclusion by frustration. Will he discover the victory hiding in his setback?

Amazon.com

Leaving Lisa Jackson Coppley ISBN: 978-1534859715

What if a device could capture everything imaginable about one person, that person dies and you could ask it anything…especially the questions you neglected to ask? Jason Chamberlain’s wife, Lisa, dies and the device, in her voice, sends him on a journey around the world to spread her ashes. www.JacksonCoppley.com

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BOOK TALK JanJak, The Rooster Who Couldn’t Wake Up K.J. Crane ISBN: 978-1626323308

The tale of a rooster who, hating strutting and crowing, finds his talent in love of dance. Illustrated by Haitian student-artists, sales benefit their continuing education. “JanJak is a wonderful tale that introduces kids to the brilliance and charm of Haitian storytelling and art.”— Amy Willentz, The Rainy Season Amazon.com

Haint: Poems Teri Ellen Cross Davis ISBN: 978-1940724041

Inaugural Publication in the Giron/Valdez Series for Unique Voices in Literature & Finalist in the 2016 Amsterdam Book Festival for Poetry.

“Teri Cross Davis has the courage to make this complex experience come to life, to address it, to let her readers know what it feels like, and to tell them she will go on, facing and giving life to a new level of understanding that is seldom addressed.”—Myra Sklarew www.givalpress.com

Journey to Colonus Franklin Debrot ISBN: 978-1781325032

It is the summer that man first walks on the moon, the Vietnam War is dragging into its sixth year, and riots are breaking out in American cities. At a university, two young men on opposite sides of the racial divide come to know the elderly and enigmatic Professor Doswell, who transforms their lives. debrotnovels.com

The Divorce Manual Sunny Devese ISBN: 978-1888180695

A must-have book for anyone getting divorced, Sunny Devese’s manual helps you reduce hos-

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tility between the parties, and gives advice on how to tell family and friends about the split, how to comfort your children, how to hire legal representation, and what to do in court.

Amazon.com

Civilizations of the Unconscious or the Decipherment of the Linear A Script Nandini Dickens ISBN: 978-0615922010

Dr. Dickens analyzes the Linear A script of ancient Crete and presents evidence from archaeological, linguistic, and historical sources to show that its underlying language is an Elamo-Dravidian one. She proposes this culture was quite advanced, in terms of its intellectual, religious, and material aspects, 15 centuries before Classical Greece.

Amazon.com

The Cat at the Corcoran Ann Zane Fels ISBN: 978-1503592063

Midnight the art-loving cat lives in the basement of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. His job is to go around with Joe, the guard, at night and look for mice. He has great adventures when he falls asleep and dreams of interacting with the paintings and sculptures in the gallery. And so will you.

Amazon.com

Kasper Mützenmacher’s Cursed Hat Keith R. Fentonmiller ISBN: 978-1620072738

Jewish hat makers threatened by a veil-wearing Nazi known as the “stealer of faces” must use the god Hermes’ “wishing hat” to teleport out of Germany. They won’t be any safer in America, however, until they break the curse that has trapped them in the hat business for sixteen centuries.

Amazon.com

The Writer’s Center The Marriage of True Minds L. L. Field ISBN: 978-1-478728733

Fans of “Downtown Abbey” will enjoy this earlier period of Georgian England through the family of Lord and Lady Stoneleigh, who are weighed down by their failure to produce an heir. Vivid descriptions of country manors and elegant dress, all historically accurate, add depth to the colorful characters—especially the dowager countess—in this politically and socially charged novel. www.llfield.ocm

The Rose Beyond Sharon Allen Gilder ISBN: 978-0692214695

The year is 1897. A long-buried indiscretion melded with misplaced devotions threatens the stability of the Hargrove family.

From Wales to England to the U.S. capital, The Rose Beyond is a fragrant reminder of the tenacity of the human spirit and the power of love. www.sharonallengilder.com

The Best of Gival Press Short Stories Robert L. Giron ISBN: 978-1928589952

Winner of the 2015 Great Midwest Book Festival Award for Compilations/Anthologies, Foreword Reviews’ 2015 Silver Award, and The Indiefab Book of the Year Award for Anthologies.

These 11 award-winning stories will hold your attention because they are vividly cast and the characters are so real you are bound to identify with them on different levels, even if you may not be walking in their footsteps. A perfect collection for composition, introduction to literature, fiction, or creative writing to guide students to write compelling stories.

View online at www.writer.org/guide

www.givalpress.com

BOOK TALK Dear Andrew

Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions

Son Dog

Robert M. Goor

Larry Hodges

Joe Kelly

ISBN: 978-1533350268

ISBN: 978-0692657485

ASIN: B01M8OUZM4

Dear Andrew is a chronicle of love and grief as expressed through letters from a father to his deceased eight-year-old son.

The letters show that it is possible to find new joy and deepened passion in life and living after great loss. This collection of letters may give hope and comfort to others in grief, and to those caring souls who would offer support.

Amazon.com

Campaign 2100 covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, when the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system. A father takes on his daughter in a third-party moderate challenge with an alien ambassador along for the ride. It is West Wing in the 22nd Century.

Amazon.com

Stone’s Throw: Promises of Mere Words

The Beauty of What Remains

Gary Hotham

Susan Hadler

ISBN: 978-1936671335

ISBN: 978-1631520075

Gary Hotham’s new haiku offering, Stone’s Throw, is a masterwork, echoing the Japanese masters—Bashõ, Buson, Issa—yet with his own originality and lightness: “our bare feet / next to each other / next to the ocean.” With elements of nature, poignancy, and calm, these poems resonate with watchful clarity. www.pinyon-publishing.com

Captivating and often heartwrenching, The Beauty of What Remains is a story of liberating a family from secrets, a ghost, and untold pain; of reuniting four generations shattered by shame and fear; and of finding the ineffable beauty of what remains.

Amazon.com

The Light of Hidden Flowers The Extreme Novelist

Jennifer Handford

Kathryn Johnson

ISBN: 978-1503947511

Book-smart Melissa Fletcher lives a predictable life working for her charismatic father, but when he is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Missy is forced to step up. After her father’s death, Missy finds a letter from him, challenging her to live a larger life. Missy packs her suitcase and heads for Italy. There she meets a new friend who proposes a radical idea. Soon, Missy finds herself in impoverished India, signing away her inheritance and betting on a risky plan. The Light of Hidden Flowers is a reminder that it’s never too late to pursue our dreams.

Amazon.com

ISBN: 978-0692420836

The Extreme Novelist is all about getting a novel written despite the time-sucking distractions of today’s world.

By mastering the simple methods introduced in this book, writers of any genre will commit to an aggressive writing schedule and gain confidence in their fiction skills. They’ll learn how to deal with real-life issues such as time management, as well as establishing a truly productive writing environment. writebyyou.com

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

Son Dog is not your typical western. It is a brutal, uncompromising look at post-Civil War America, a land wracked by grief, turmoil, poverty, and lingering anger and violence. Against this bloodstained backdrop, Son Dog, a Choctaw vagabond and revolutionary, will either find his redemption, or his own unmarked grave.

Amazon.com

The Vessel Rita Kempley ISBN: 978-0985901028

Want to live longer? See Margaret Hughes. New York’s celebutants, politically connected, and idle rich swear by her. But can she save her dying father’s life after his Vessel is stolen? Like the best speculative fiction, this razor-sharp romp delivers a sly, funhouse reflection of the world today.

Amazon.com

YESHU: A Novel for the Open-Hearted Charles David Kleymeyer ISBN: 978-1490353005

In this award-winning novel, a storytelling carpenter touches humankind forever and a wilderness wanderer connects nature with the spirit. This fresh retelling of the New Testament saga is a lyrical, interfaith adventure recounted by a performing storyteller who has worked five decades with ethnic peoples of the Americas.

Amazon.com

Dark Rage Iman Llompart ISBN: 978-1-514409824

Astra is a biracial woman who can only express herself through aggression and anger.

She wrestles to deal with her frustrations but starts to suffer from blackouts, and she hurts

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BOOK TALK people during them. As her “rages” become a part of her, she beats and kills a cop, which lands her in jail. The deceased cop’s son releases her from prison, thinking Astra is somehow innocent of this crime. raemyst.worpress.com

Territory Skies: Book 1 of the Crooked M Saga TJ McCann ISBN: 978-1534855519

With their parents missing, childhood friends Cassidy McCandless and Peter McAllister come together to raise their younger brothers and sister in 1840s New Mexico Territory, battling hunger, isolation and the elements in the struggle for survival. Dark and violent, Denny, Peter’s estranged older brother, seeks home in a desperate effort for redemption.

Amazon.com

The Way We Are: How States of Mind Influence our Identities, Personality and Potential for Change Frank W. Putnam ISBN: 978-0998083308

From newborn infants to meditating Zen monks, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Frank Putnam investigates the states of mind that underlie both the every day and unusual mental experiences that constitute the way we are.

www.ipbooks.net

Frameshifts, a two-volume work Richard Rose ISBN Vol. 1: 978-1461061281; Vol. 2: 978-1461157731

Frameshifts are transformations—of individuals, society, and ways of life. Even genres shift—from mystery, suspense, memoir, and poem—to science fiction. Going into new frames of reference always leads to discoveries. These stories tell how insurgents broke away to begin the Great Shift to a decentralized, more resilient society.

www.frameshifts.com

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The Brand New Catastrophe Mike Scalise ISBN: 978-1941411339

After a tumor bursts in Mike Scalise’s brain, leaving him with a hole in the head and malfunctioning hormones, he must navigate a new, alien world of illness maintenance. The Brand New Catastrophe is a moving, funny exploration of how we define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell. www.indiebound.org

Jihad and the West: Black Flag over Babylon Mark Silinsky ISBN: 978-0253027122

U.S. Department of Defense analyst Mark Silinsky reveals the origins of the Islamic State’s sinister obsession with the Western world. He provides a detailed and chilling explanation of the appeal of the Islamic State and how those abroad become radicalized, while also analyzing the historical origins, inner workings, and horrific toll of the Caliphate.

Amazon.com

Library of Small Happiness Leslie Ullman ISBN: 978-0997201123

Library of Small Happiness is a hybrid collection of essays, poems, and writing exercises that invites writers into the spaces poetry can open up around us and inside us.

Along with aspects of craft and process, it embraces a holistic approach as it enacts and makes accessible the unique intelligence of poetry. www.leslieullman.com

The Writer’s Center and voice. Cut down to the bare essentials, these poems speak to the inner life’s raw landscape.

In swirling eddies of recurring images, they sing in the sensual tense of yearning. www.vanvlietarts.com/ poetry.html

Painting Life: My Creative Journey Through Trauma Carol Walsh ISBN: 978-1631520990

“A lovely, inspiring book about the rich interplay of life and art . . . Carol Walsh shows us how creative work may, over and over again, nourish us, sustain us, and retrieve us even from the worst that life may toss us.”—Sara Taber, author of Born Under an Assumed Name www.ckwalsh.com

From Hill Town to Strieby: Education and the American Missionary Association in the Uwharrie “Back Country” of Randolph County, North Carolina Margo Lee Williams ISBN: 978-0939479092

From Hill Town to Strieby is Williams’ second book and documents the Reconstructionera community of Hill Town, later Strieby, and the American Missionary Association affiliated church and school, led by the Rev. Islay Walden.

The Strieby Church, School, and Cemetery property is a Randolph County Cultural Heritage Site.

Winner of the Marsha M Greenlee History Award and the North Carolina Society of Historians Book Award.

Amazon.com

The River from My Mouth Karla Van Vliet

Advertise Your Book in Book Talk!

ISBN: 978-1941830567

The River from My Mouth is a collection of lyrical poems that run like a mountain river through the territories of love and loss, identity

$50 ($45 Members) vanessa.mallorykotz@writer.org

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The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

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ON THE SCENE

The Writer’s Center

EVENTS

This page clockwise: The Writer’s Center Staff - Ellie Tipton, Vanessa Mallory Kotz, Sunil Freeman, Laura Spencer, Kristen Zory King, and Judson Battaglia, photo by Mignonette Dooley; John Morris and Rachel Eliza Griffiths at their Open Door Reading; Jane Hillbery, Jonathan Moody, and Lalita Naronha at their Open Door Reading; More than 100 people gathered on Dec. 3, 2016 to mourn and celebrate beloved poet and workshop leader Nan Fry.

Opposite page: Late last summer, we hosted, along with Barrelhouse, our first Pub Crawl through Petworth. It was hot. It was crowded. And the poetry was phenomenal. The party started at Walter’s Sports Bar, then traveled to Upshur Street Books, followed by drinks at The Twisted Horn. Clockwise: Tolonda Henderson, Thea Brown, Regie Cabico, overflow at Upshur Street Books, Rion Amilcar Scott, Oliver Bendorf (our cover artist!), and poetry-loving folks on the patio of Walter’s Sports Bar. Photos by Mignonette Dooley.

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View online at www.writer.org/guide

EVENTS

ON THE SCENE

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

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WE ARE GRATEFUL

The Writer’s Center

Thank you to all of our Annual Fund Circle Level donors who have helped make our programs possible between October 2015–November 2016.

Flannery O’Connor Circle—$10,000+ Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County Sally Mott Freeman & John Freeman The Reva & David Logan Foundation Maryland State Arts Council The Omega Foundation Langston Hughes Circle—$2,500+ Margot Backas—The Christian Mixter and Linna Barnes Charitable Fund—John & Barbara Ann Hill—The Nora Roberts Foundation—Joram Piatigorsky—The Tau Foundation Zora Neale Hurston Circle—$1,000+ Kenneth and Karen Ackerman—Pat Alper—Bydale Foundation—Timothy Crawford— Mark Cymrot & Janinne Dall’Orto —Ann Friedman—David Goodrich—Virginia Grandison— Patricia Harris & Sandor Slager—James & Kate Lehrer—Ann McLaughlin—The T.A. Todd Foundation—Mier Wolf—Wilson Wyatt Jr. Anton Chekhov Circle—$500+ The Catalyst Foundation Inc.—Roberta Beary—Naomi F. & James F. Collins—Felix A. Jakob—Greenbaum Family Foundation—Shelby Harper—Erika Horton—Joseph Kolar—Howard Lavine—Desiree Magney—James & Diana Mathews—Margaret & Calvin Meleney—The Viner Foundation—Ernst & Sara Volgenau—Ira Wagner Emily Dickinson Circle—$250+ A Friend of The Writer’s Center in Memory of Candida Fraze—Maria Bothwell—Brooks Cressman—Ellen Herbert—Laurel Huber— Kathryn King—Koubek Family Rainbow Fish Fund—Perry Maiden—Steven and Janice Marcom—David Metz—Robert & Irene Morrissey—William & Louisa Newlin—Gaurang Parikh—Peter Pastan & Amy Kessler Pastan—Mary Pope Hutson—Claudia Smith—Craig Tregillus—Robert Winter Founder’s Circle—$100+ Krista Adams—Kathy Elaine Anderson—Erin Archuleta—B. K. Atrostic—Frances Baldwin—Worth Bateman—Carmelinda Blagg—Donald Bliss— Jody Bolz & Brad Northrup—Cynthia Boyle—Phil Budahn—Dana Cann—Nancy Carlson—Robert Carpenter—Patricia Carrico—J.T. Caruso—Alice Cave—David Churchill—Toni Clark—Susan Coll—Christopher Dann—John DeDakis—Anthony Dobranski—Mary Dragoo—Linda Dreeben—Robert & Mary Eccles—Jonathan Eig—Leslie Ekstrom—Peggy Elkind—Karen Elkins—Shannon England—Linda Fannin—Ed Finn—Lesley Francis— Donald Franck—Robert Giron—Jorge & Sandy Goldstein—Theodore Groll—Ann Haman—Brigid Haragan—Mira Hecht—Jay & Linda Herson— Teresa Hill—Joanna Howard—Tim & Sharle Hussion—Kenneth Ingham—Holly Johnson—Warren Jones—Dick Jorgensen—Frank Joseph & Carl Jason—Peter Kissel—Barbara Kline—Robert Leddy—David Lees—Allan Lefcowitz—Dee Leroy—Charles Lewis—Lisa Lipinski—Stacy Lloyd—Tarpley Long—Patrick Madden—Mary Lee Malcolm—John Malin—Scott McCarthy—Judith McCombs—Ethelbert Miller—John & Ann Montgomery—Jane Oakley—Diana Parsell—Arne & Sara Paulson—Leslie Pietrzyk—Susan Pigman—Paula Purdy—Barbara Rosing—Phyllis Rozman—Colin Sargent— Irene Schindler—William Schofield—Mady Segal—Maryhelen Snyder—Lynn & Michael Springer—Stanley Stern—David Stewart—Gerald Thompson—Marion Torchia—Robert Wise—Judith Wood—James & Jane Yagley For a full list of our supporters, please visit www.writer.org/about/donors

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BOARD MEMBER PROFILE

Board Member Profile: Morowa Yejidé

By Pamela Alston

T

he Writer’s Center is proud to welcome D.C.-based author Morowa Yejidé to the Board of Directors. “Today’s content creators need to be at the table and have a bird’s-eye view,” she said. Excited to join the board, Yejidé has high hopes and aspirations for the direction of The Writer’s Center. A native to the District, she is no stranger to connecting with the D.C. community.

Her novel has been a dedicated force in high schools, including McKinley Tech, The School Without Walls, Eastern High School, Banneker High, Washington Metropolitan High, KIPP D.C. College Preparatory, and Nantucket High in Massachusetts. Advanced Placement (AP) English teachers have been using her novel in their classes as a tool for understanding difficult subjects, family dynamics, and as an example of outstanding prose. Time of the Locust (Atria Books, 2014) is an odyssey into the world of an extraordinary autistic boy, his mother who has given all of herself to raising him, and his incarcerated father.

Teachers say students connect tangibly with the novel, enjoy the rich imagery, and appreciate the concept of the characters and distinctive plot. “Young people need to know how writing can expand their world,” Yejidé said. That goes for adults too, which makes her a great fit for The Writer’s Center.

Yejidé’s vision for the Center is vigorous. She desires to build bridges within the literary community and work together to establish a continuum

of strong, passionate writers to keep the legacy of arts and a renaissance culture of writing in D.C. alive and well. “The image of D.C. is usually monolithic or political, but there is true richness,” she said. “We need to tap into that well of richness.”

Vice Chair Mier Wolf is thrilled that Yejidé is on the team.

“Morowa is the wave of the future for The Writer’s Center. [She has] a clear understanding of how our mission can further succeed and grow in the changing literary world.”

Photo by Sarah Fillman

Yejidé’s has both practical and inspirational advice for aspiring writers. “There is no writing life. There is your life and how writing fits into it,” she said. “You must be your own cheerleader with your own vision. Decide where you want your work to go and aim in that direction. No one is going to push for your dream harder than you.”

Outstanding Literary Work. Her story “Tokyo Chocolate” was nominated in 2009 for the Pushcart Prize, anthologized in The Best of the Willesden Herald Stories, and reviewed in the Japan Times. Her short stories appeared in The Adirondack Review and The Istanbul Review. Learn more at morowayejide.com.

Morowa Yejidé’s novel Time of the Locust was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/ Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, longlisted for the 2015 PEN/ Robert W. Bingham award, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award Nominee for

Pamela Alston is a Washington, D.C. native and grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She studied communications at Bowie State University and University of Maryland University College.

The Writer’s Guide Winter/Spring 2017

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THE LAST WORD

The Writer’s Center

On Writing What You Know, Until You Don’t

By Natalie E. Illum know it’s a cliché, but many writers rely on it as a mantra, write what you Iknow.

Without even thinking about it,

that belief led me to poetry. As a disabled writer, I saw it as a medium not only to express myself, but also to show people more about living with a disability. I figured if I had 5 minutes on an open mic, or a 15-minute feature, or years later, a headlining set or published essay, it should all be about changing people’s perception of disability. Because people make judgments, conscious or not. Because most often I think people only see me as crutches or wheelchair first, not woman or writer. And if the personal is political, then I had a job to do, which meant that 90% of my creative output was autobiographical.

It felt like every page poem, or slam poem or one-woman show was about cerebral palsy or body shame, and the overprotective, dysfunctional family and depression that came with it. Of course, I always prefaced my pieces or interviews with the fact that I’m not claiming to represent everyone’s experience with CP or depression, just my own. And when I did venture out to topics such as Hurricane Katrina, Gun Control, Health Care Reform, I still made sure I wasn’t claiming to know everything, and even then my angle usually stemmed from a personal experience.

I started my (semi) professional writing career in earnest in 2002, though I had been writing since high school,

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and by 2013, I was literally sick of my own voice and out of material. Besides, by that time there were plenty of up-and-coming writers with various disabilities who, rightfully, had so many amazing things to say, and almost all of them were immediately accessible on social media. I felt irrelevant, and worse, suddenly unqualified as a writer, which led to more than three years of writer’s block. Even this piece I delayed for months (thank you Vanessa for your patience and encouragement).

So, what happens next? Maybe as I get older, so does my writing voice and experiences. Because what I know has certainly changed in 3 years, or 10. But how do we all get away from what we know and still call ourselves writers?

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure, but I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone, and not use the words “I” or “my” or “body” or “ribcage.”

If you identify with any of the above, look at your favorite pieces of your own writing. Highlight your favorite 10 words; now don’t use them for at least a year. I’ve also been experimenting with common objects like fruits and utensils or cities I’ve never been to. If I want to talk about my mother, then she is Morocco, my brother is Venice, my disability is the apples I’m allergic to. This imaginary world is now what I know, without telling anyone the backstory I just told you. Try it. Maybe it will unlock a whole new landscape for you too.

Photo by Corwin Levi

Natalie E. Illum is a poet, disability activist, and singer living in Washington, D.C. She was a founding board member of the mothertongue poetry series, a D.C. women’s open mic that lasted 15 years. Her work has appeared in Word Warriors: 35 Women of the Spokenword Revolution and Full Moon on K Street, as well as in Feminist Studies and on NPR’s Snap Judgment. She competed on the National Poetry Slam circuit from 2008–2013, and is the 2013 Beltway Grand Slam Champion. Illum has performed with many artists across the U.S., including Michelle Tea, Eileen Myles, Buddy Wakefield, and Andrea Gibson. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University and teaches workshops in a variety of venues. To learn more, visit www.natalieillum.net.

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