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Fall 2006 Writing Workshops |
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All
workshops are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center (Philipse Manor
Railroad Station building) unless otherwise indicated.
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Young Writers
One and Two Day Workshops
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Fall
2006 Writing Workshops |
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LIVING
THE POET'S LIFE It’s now or never! Whether you are an experienced poet who feels “stuck” or one fairly new to the craft, this workshop will help you get your poetry life on track with exercises and advice designed to get you writing poetry - and keep you writing poetry. Not for beginning poets.
Status:
started 9/11 |
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MEMOIR
WRITING Write stories taken from your own memories and experiences and free your voice as you shape the stories you want to tell in a relaxed, supportive environment. Subjects may range from early childhood memories to the transforming events of adulthood. Participants will read aloud and discuss their work each week.
Status: started 9/19 |
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THE
TRUTH HURTS, BUT IT'S FUNNY: Writing from Your Unique Point of View Through weekly assignments and class feedback you will learn to develop and trust your point of view, finding humor in even the toughest experiences, and get performance tips on how to make your live readings entertaining. The final session will be a chance to present your work to friends and family.
Status: started 9/26 |
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WRITING
CHILDREN'S BOOKS & STORIES Whether you are writing (or hope to write) a picture book or a YA novel, or something in between, this class will help you think through your project. In addition to critiquing of yours and other students’ work, there will be writing exercises, discussion of some particularly successful (and maybe not so successful) published work, mini-lectures about techniques, genres, getting started, and other topics, and a suggested reading list for further exploration on your own.
Status: started 9/27 |
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THE
ART OF THE ESSAY
More than any other kind of nonfiction writing, the essay offers the opportunity to express, in a short and conversational form, the whole range of thoughts and feelings, from intimacy and grief to joy and epiphany. This once-neglected form, now in renaissance, allows for the most satisfying and polished examination of ideas, beliefs, troubles and pleasures by writers beginning, renowned, and (like most of us) in between.
Status: started 9/20 |
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EXPERIMENTS
IN POETRY This workshop focuses on writing contemporary poems in both traditional and free verse forms. Although some class time will be spent responding to works in progress, we will also study model poems, write exploratory drafts, and discuss issues of process and creativity. Textbooks: Poetry Daily, edited by Boller, Selby, and Yost (Sourcebooks, 2003, paperback.) Also suggested: The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms, edited by Ron Padgett (1987, paperback).
Status: cancelled |
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EXPERIMENTS
IN BRIEF NONFICTION This workshop focuses on creating brief nonfiction pieces and shaping them for the reader’s eye. However, participants are also expected to respond to other writers’ work as well as to read the textbook selections and be prepared to discuss them.
Status: cancelled |
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USING
WRITING TO NAVIGATE CHANGE Writing can be an essential healing tool for self-discovery during times of change and life transitions—job and relationship shifts, illness, loss, and any event that causes us to take a deeper look at our life choices. In a safe, creative environment, you’ll use writing exercises and discussion to help explore turning points in your life, see how published writers use their craft to facilitate self-understanding and growth, learn techniques to tap into the deeper meaning in your writing, and gain new perspectives and tools to help you move smoothly through any transition.
Status: completed |
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SELF
SCRIPTING Work in a highly individualized way with a renowned writer and performance artist Karen Finley to heighten your imagination and create narrative in memoir, fiction, poetry, and performance or through interdisciplinary work.
photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Status: cancelled |
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WHODUNIT
AND HOW This workshop on mystery fiction will introduce you to the conventions and current practitioners of this popular genre and offer tips on literary elements essential to all fiction: plotting, characterization, setting, suspense-writing, mood, voice, and prose style. In-class exercises and peer critiques will loosen your inhibitions and expand your hands-on experience. For writers at all levels. This workshop made possible in part by gifts to a memorial fund for Robert Manning, a great fan of mystery writing and the HVWC.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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BEYOND
JOHN CHEEVER: Writing Suburban Life Today Despite being stereotyped as bland and uninteresting, suburban life offers an intrinsic complexity rich with possibility for literary exploration. Through literary techniques of fiction, essay and memoir, this course will explore imaginative possibilities of lives lived in the shadow of Manhattan. Team-taught by mystery novelist Joanne Dobson and New York Times contributor Kate Stone Lombardi, classes will focus on setting, characterization, plot development, prose style, mood, and memory.
Kate Stone Lombardi is a regular contributor to The New York Times. She wrote the “County Lines” column for the Westchester section of the paper for four years, a feature which covered the rhythms and trends of suburban life. She has also written for the other publications including Parenting, Hudson Valley and Westchester Magazine. She is the recipient of six Clarion awards for feature and investigative reporting by the Westchester Chapter of Women in Communications. Status: started 9/29 |
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INTRODUCTION
TO FICTION: Being the Character Fictional characters (like the rest of us) make choices based on who they are, what they want most, and what they’re afraid of. When you hear writers talk about their characters “taking over,” you know they understand their characters well. In this workshop you will learn specific practical techniques to put you deeply into the minds of your characters and help you use those insights to produce original and compelling writing. The techniques can help you start new stories as well as improve existing material.
Status: cancelled |
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CONTINUING
FICTION For this course, Mr. Surface has developed an entirely new set of writing exercises that challenge students’ imaginations at a higher level, expanding on the skills developed in the introductory fiction class. This course is recommended for people who have already taken Mr. Surface’s Introduction to Fiction workshop.
Status:
started 9/30 |
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Fall 2006 Workshops for Young Writers Please note that, in addition to the youth workshop fees shown below, there is a $15 nonrefundable registration fee (per workshop) charged to registering students who are not members of the Writers’ Center (HVWC). Registration fees are waived for HVWC members. |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR THIRD, FOURTH & FIFTH GRADERS Each day you take in the world around you—a fly perched on a leaf, the smell of spaghetti sauce bubbling on the stove, the sound of traffic rushing by on the street outside our window. How do you use these things to create stories and poems? This class will help stimulate your senses, imagination, and emotions, and allow you to try out various writing techniques and share ideas in a comfortable atmosphere.
Charlotte Walsh has taught poetry workshops at the Lakeland Schools Children’s Center, in New York City schools in cooperation with the Lehman College Art Gallery, The Scarsdale Young Writers’ Conference and the Armonk Library. Her works have been published in “Into the Teeth of the Wind” and by various small presses. Status: started 9/21 |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR AGES 11 - 13 Courage, betrayal, true love, revenge…the latest X-Box game? No! These are some of the themes in the Grimm Tales. Through listening to and “playing through” these dark versions of timeless tales that inspired many modern rags to riches stories, students will explore setting, conflict, plot and dialogue; giving their imaginations “legs” as they twist and shape the tales to re-invent them with their own hair-raising or humorous angles.
Status:
started 9/30 |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR TEENS Six workshop sessions in which writers age 14 and up can refine their “writer’s eye” and find their own voices. Participants will be challenged to use their imaginations and every sense of their being to get beyond the surface of things and to put on paper the stories and ideas that come to them. They will also celebrate the sound of words and the images they create. “It’s not like school,” says Connor-Bey, and the small groups allow for maximum individualization.
Status: started 9/16 |
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| Fall
2006 One and Two-Day Workshops Please note that, in addition to the one and two-day workshop fees shown below, there is a $15 nonrefundable registration fee (per workshop) charged to registering students who are not members of the Writers’ Center (HVWC). Registration fees are waived for HVWC members. |
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WORD
PAINTING : Writing More Descriptively Whether you write poetry, novels, essays, stories, biographies, or articles, you can benefit from increasing your descriptive powers. This hands-on workshop focuses on three main components of word painting: eye, word, and story. Using McClanahan's Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively as a starting point, you will experiment with techniques for engaging the eye of the imagination; practice shaping the words of your descriptions by using fresh and musical language, sensory detail, and effective figures of speech; and explore how description contributes to the overall story, poem, or nonfiction piece.
Status: completed |
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WRITING
YOUR LIFE Whether you are trying to write the story of your life for publication or as a family legacy, this workshop by the author of two memoirs will show you how to organize your stories into a readable, interesting work. You will be introduced to a simple formula that successful authors use to plan, organize, and write a book, and you will learn book-writing techniques such as the value of themes and how action and reflection balance one another in memoir and creative nonfiction. Exercises will help you put your learning into practice immediately.
Status: completed |
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CONQUERING
HOLLYWOOD AS A WRITER: The Curse of the Black Rejection Slip You’ve wielded your pen like a pirate cutlass and carved out a screenplay or book—or you plan to write one soon. But trying to sell your work can leave you wanting to walk the plank. Never fear, me hearties! Screenwriting guru Rabin will teach you “everything you need to know” to conquer the Good Ship Hollywood.
Status: completed |
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MAKING
LANGUAGE WORK FOR YOU Knowledge of how our language works goes far beyond the rules of grammar. This workshop will explore ways the complexities of English can add power and grace to your writing, increase your choices of expression, and reinforce the meaning and beauty of your words, whether in fiction, non-fiction or poetry. We may also consider your questions or confusions about grammar. Bring a few paragraphs or stanzas of your work to play around with.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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To register, click
here.
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Notes: HVWC = The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow, NY. Classes and worshops are held in the restored Philipse Manor railroad station. For travel directions, visit our Directions page or see train schedules at Metro-North's Hudson River Line.
For further information about any of these classes or workshops, call the Writers' Center at 914-332-5953. The Hudson Valley Writers' Center - Home Page
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Suzanne
Cleary has an MA in Writing from Washington University and
a Ph.D. in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University in Pennsylvania.
She is Associate Professor of English at SUNY Rockland. Her poems have
appeared in Poetry, Georgia Review, and other journals, and she
recently won a Pushcart Prize. Her first book, Keeping Time,
hailed by Billy Collins, is now in its second printing, and her second
collection, Trick Pear, will be published by Carnegie Mellon
in early 2007. 
Joan
Potter’s nonfiction writing has been published in numerous
magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. She is the author of three books,
including African American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known and Unsung
Triumphs of Blacks in America, published in fall 2002. She is the
editor of Growing Up Strong: Four North Country Women Recall Their
Lives, a collection of memoirs produced in a writing workshop she
led in the Adirondacks. She
recently edited Mountain Shadows: An Adirondack Novel of Courage, Danger,
and Love, published in August 2005 by Pinto Press, a small publishing
company of which she is co-owner. She is a regular contributor to the
Westchester County Times.
Vijai
Nathan is
a writer, actor, comedienne and former journalist. She tours nationally
with her one-woman show, “Good Girls Don’t, But Indian Girls Do” and this
July was featured at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. She was
nominated best comedian of ‘05 by South Asian Media Awards, was chosen
one of the top ten comics in the nation for the ‘04 NBC Stand-Up for Diversity
Showcase in L. A., and was named by Back Stage Magazine as one
of the top ten stand-up comics in ‘03. TV appearances include: ABC’s 20/20,
PBS, The Oxygen Network, the BBC and UK Comedy Central.
Marthe
Jocelyn of
NYC and Stratford, Ontario, says she reads everything she can get her
hands on in children’s literature “where some of the best writing being
published today is found—and should be found.” She is the author-illustrator
of several picture books and the author of three chapter books (The
Invisible Day, The Invisible Harry, and The Invisible Enemy)
and two works of historical fiction, Earthly Astonishments, and
Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril and Adventure.
She also wrote a non-fiction book, A Home for Foundlings, about
the Foundling Hospital in London, England, and edited an anthology of
short stories for middle grade readers called Secrets. She is the
first (and so far only) children’s author to win the new TD Canadian Children’s
Literature Award.
Herbert
Hadad’s work
has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times,
Poets & Writers, Reader’s Digest, Parenting, and Yankee. They
are also collected in several books, including The Random House Guide
to Writing and Sephardic American Voices: Two Hundred Years of
a Literary Legacy. He has received several awards for magazine writing
and the New York Press Club award for feature writing. One of his essays
was included as a “notable essay” in The Best American Essays 2003.
A collection of his essays, Home Fires, will be out soon.
Rebecca
McClanahan has
published four volumes of poetry, three books about writing, and a collection
of personal essays, The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, which
recently won the Glasgow Prize from Shenandoah. Her work has appeared
in The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, Georgia Review,
Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. McClanahan, who received
a Pushcart Prize in Fiction, the Wood prize from Poetry, the Carter
prize for the essay from Shenandoah, and a 2003 New York Foundation
for the Arts fellowship, lives with her husband in New York City and can
be reached at 
Mary
Carroll Moore has
published ten nonfiction books (including How to Master Change in Your
Life: Sixty- Seven Ways to Handle Life’s Toughest Moments). She has
just finished her first fiction book, Breathing Room, a collection
of linked short stories, and a chapter from this book won an honorable
mention in the 2005 McKnight Awards. For twelve years she was a nationally
syndicated newspaper columnist, and over 200 of her articles, essays,
and stories have appeared in publications such as the Boston Globe,
American Artist, and American Health. As an editor and book
doctor for major publishing houses since 1986, she knows what it takes
to write a successful book. She teaches writing at Litchfield Community
Center in Connecticut, The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, and other
locations around the U. S., Canada, and Europe.
Karen
Finley's raw
and personal performances, written and recorded work, installations, and
visual art have long provoked controversy and debate. She has an MFA from
San Francisco Art Institute, has won numerous grants, fellowships, and
awards (including MS. Woman of the Year in ‘98 and an Obie and Coaguala
Artist of the Decade in ‘99), and is currently a visiting professor at
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in Art and Public Policy.
Her published works include Shock Treatment, Enough is Enough, Living
it Up, and the memoir A Different Kind of Intimacy. A novella
George and Martha (think Bush and Stewart) was published by Verso
earlier this year.
Joanne
Dobson is the author of the Professor Karen Pelletier mystery
series from Doubleday and Poisoned Pen Press. In 2001 she was named Noted
Author of the Year by the RAAS section of the New York Library Association.
Until recently she taught literature and creative writing at Fordham University,
and she now writes full time.
David
Surface’s fiction
has been published in numerous literary journals, including DoubleTake,
North American Review, Crazyhorse, Fiction, Willow Spring, and Artful
Dodge. His essays on the craft and teaching of writing have been featured
in “The National Writers Union Newsletter” and “Teachers & Writers Guide
to WIlliam Carlos Williams.” He studied performance/ writing with Jessica
Hagedorn and Laurie Carlos at Basement Workshop, and developed unique
cross-disciplinary writing curriculum with the Lincoln Center Department
of Education. He was 2005 Fellow in Nonfiction Literature from the New
York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and was a finalist for the NYFA Prize.
Kate
Gallagher was a children’s book editor for many years and
is now a freelance editor and consultant. She has studied poetry with
Marvin Bell and Jorie Graham at the University of Iowa, and has read her
work at venues throughout NYC and Westchester.
Jane
Willis has written plays (her one-act Slam! has been
performed all over the U.S. and, most recently, in India), screenplays
(including The It Girl for Martin Poll Productions), and for daytime
dramas (garnering an Emmy Nomination along with her writing team for As
the World Turns). She taught play-writing for eight years at Sarah
Lawrence College and now focuses her teaching efforts almost exclusively
on middle school students.
Brenda
Connor-Bey, the 2002 recipient of the Outstanding Arts Educator
award from the Westchester Fund for Women and Girls, has long been active
in writer-residency programs throughout the region, often through the
Westchester Arts Council. She is the recipient of many grants and awards
(including four PEN awards) and was just named the first poet laureate
of the town of Greenburgh, New York. She has had her work published and
performed widely, and has just completed a collection of poetry and a
young adult novel and is working on a novel.
Staton
Rabin has
a BFA in Film from New York University (NYU), and has been a story analyst
to the film industry for 25 years. She lectures about guerilla screenplay
marketing for NYU and is a Senior Writer for scr(i)pt. She has
taught screenwriting aboard the Queen Mary 2 and for the HVWC. She also
has three novels from Simon & Schuster: Betsy and the Emperor (to
be made into a movie starring Al Pacino as Emperor Napoleon), Black
Powder, and The Curse of the Romanovs (coming 2007).
M.
Doretta Cornell taught literature and writing at Pace University for
26 years and is a member of Poetry Caravan. Her poetry appeared recently
in Inkwell, Commonweal, RedRiverReview, and the anthologies (encompass)
and McGraw-Hill’s Literature edited by R. DiYanni.