Workshop Descriptions
JURIED WORKSHOPS
This will be an instensive workshop and, if we work together, a great time. We'll discuss fundamentals such as plot, character, and voice. There may be a short exercise or two. But for the most part, the emphasis will be on critiquing studentwork. You've all worked hard on your manuscripts, and they will be discussed in detail.
Required Reading
Joyce Carol Oates: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Tobias Wolff: Bullet in the Brain
Donald Barthelme: The School
Novel Workshop
conducted by Victoria Redel
In this workshop we will explore the openings of novels. What is contained, possible, announced, demanded, forecast and imagined in the opening section of the novel. How do we as writers establish the novel's expectations and tone? How do we create character in the first gestures of a novel? What is implied narratively by the events, actions and objects of the novel's beginning. What might we consider about the book's structure from it's first pages. In addition to our own writing, we will consider a variety of novel openings-- to consider possible strategies and opportunities.
Generative Fiction
conducted by Dean Bakopoulos
Landscapes, Lists, Letters: Turning Your Private Obsessions into Public Stories
Our deepest secrets, darkest fears, and divine longings not only give us the urge to write, they also give us an abundance of material. In this workshop, you'll mine your own memories and travel through the hidden crevices of your psyche to come up with fiction that's based on fact. In other words, though names will change, places will shift, and details will morph, you'll be writing 'emotionally true' fiction--the ideal launching pad for your first novel or breakthrough story. Through a series of daily exercises and critiques, you'll soon discover what you really want to write about, and come away with strategies for making that writing happen.
Poetry Workshop
conducted by Kim Addonizio
WHITE-HOT HEAT AND NECESSARY COLDNESS
“Dare you see a soul at the White Heat?”
–Emily Dickinson
“When you want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder — that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. Yes, be more cold. ... The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make.”
–Anton Chekhov
In this workshop, we will read poems that we admire for their authenticity of feeling and compelling use of detail, imagery, metaphor, and simile to learn the ways poets have balanced emotion with intellect, passion with the power of craft. We will explore some strategies for creating poems that use techniques that unlock the emotional, dramatic, and spiritual energy of a piece of writing. There will be writing prompts, feedback on previously written work, and discussion of, among other issues of poetry writing, what keeps us from intense emotion on the page and how to handle it once it’s there. Bring copies of 3 works-in-progress for critique and be prepared as well to generate new writing.
Creative Non-Fiction Workshop
conducted by Abigail Thomas
This will be a workshop designed to generate new work, as well as to examine works in progress. There will be assignments every day. The first assignment, which must be completed for the first class, is to take any ten years of your life, reduce them to two pages, and every sentence has to be three words long. Not two, not four, but three words long. By the end of the week, I hope each writer will have a larder of new material to work on, and some idea where his or her mind goes when its off-leash..
LIFELONG LEARNING WORKSHOPS
Open Registration Workshops for which no writing sample is required.
Fiction Workshop
Develop your storytelling skills as we delve into the craft of fiction. We’ll combine in-class activities, discussion, and take-home readings to explore how stories may be shaped through characterization, dialogue, setting, narrative point-of-view, and more. Be ready to share work generated for class and to give and receive constructive feedback in a supportive environment.
Instructor Jenn Gibbs holds an MFA from the U, where she currently teaches writing. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals such as The Chattahoochee Review and Blueline. Jenn offers literary coaching through her company, Invisible Sun.
Creative Nonfiction
Explore this popular genre, which ranges from literary journalism to personal narrative and memoir, in this interactive course. Through sample readings, discussion, and writing assignments, we will learn to use the devices—narrator stances, characterization, verb tenses, dialogue, and scene and setting—that make this form of prose especially appealing.
Instructor Dawn Marano is president of Dawn Marano & Associates, a literary consulting and developmental editing firm. She is co-author of When We Say We’re Home: A Quartet of Place and Memory, and author of Trusting the Edge, which won first place in the nonfiction book category of the 2005 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition. Her work has been cited in The Best American Essays.
Writing Lab
time as a true laboratory, a place for experimentation where the words failure and success have no relevance. If you have been craving a place to think, write, brew, invent, and discover, this class is for you. Open to all levels, abilities, and genres.
Poet and creative nonfiction author Maureen Clark teaches writing at the U and is a former president of Writers at Work. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Gettysburg Review, and Alaska Review. She is the author of a memoir, The Gods Between Us, and is working on a nonfiction novel.