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Fall 2007 Writing Workshops |
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workshops are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center (Philipse Manor
Railroad Station building) unless otherwise indicated.
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Fall Workshops for Adults
One-Day Workshops
Fall Workshops for Young Writers
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Fall
2007 Writing Workshops for Adults To register, click here. |
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HOW
TO PLAN, WRITE, AND DEVELOP A BOOK Whether you’re a nonfiction author, memoirist, or novelist, and whether you have a book almost finished or merely a concept for one, this 6 week class will help you get to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to finish it! You’ll learn a step-by-step plan (including timetables, chapter grids, story-boarding, and other techniques) and ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, and construct plots. You’ll also learn how to package your book for agents and publishers and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book at all stages. Status: completed |
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HOW TO PLAN,
WRITE, AND DEVELOP A BOOK Late
Fall Session: Whether you’re a nonfiction author, memoirist, or novelist, and whether you have a book almost finished or merely a concept for one, this 5 week class will help you get to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to finish it! You’ll learn a step-by-step plan (including timetables, chapter grids, story-boarding, and other techniques) and ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, and construct plots. You’ll also learn how to package your book for agents and publishers and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book at all stages. Status: Morning session full; Afternoon session accepting registrations |
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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 poetryand keep you writing poetry. Not for beginning poets. Status: completed |
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MEMOIR
WRITING Writing is a solitary endeavor, and feedback is crucial to developing your voice and honing your style. Whether you are in the process of writing a memoir or just getting started, this workshop provides a supportive and constructive environment in which you will read your work aloud each week and receive responses. Your subjects may range from early childhood memories to the transforming events of adulthood, and finished pieces may be short or book-length. Several workshop members have published their work in The New York Times and various literary journals. For writers of all levels. Status: started 9/18 |
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WRITING
CHILDREN'S BOOKS & STORIES Develop a strong narrative voice and distinctive style when writing for readers from middle grade to young adult. In this intensive course, unique writing exercises will help writers, both the inexperienced and the skilled, explore their writing strengths. Each session will focus on a different aspect of writing. Information about being published will also be addressed. Status: cancelled |
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WRITING
FOR CHILDREN: MEET THE CHALLENGE Writing a story for young readers is not simply a matter of using fewer words. Whether you are writing (or hope to write) a picture book, a novel for teens, or something in between, this eightsession course will help you think through your project. We’ll discuss the range of books for all ages of children in many genres, helping you discover your own voice and who it speaks to. You’ll have in-class writing practice, lots of homework and a much better understanding of how the children’s publishing market works. A suggested reading list is provided as well as weekly critiques of students’ work. Status: completed |
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THE
ART OF THE ESSAY More than any other kind of non-fiction 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: cancelled |
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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: completed |
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EXPERIMENTS
IN BRIEF NONFICTION This workshop focuses on creating brief nonfiction pieces and shaping them for the reader’s eye. Participants are also expected to respond to other writers’ work as well as to read the textbook selections and be prepared to discuss them. Textbooks: Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction, edited by Judith Kitchen, (Norton, 2005); In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal, edited by Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones (Norton, 1999) Status: completed |
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HOW
TO WRITE PAGE-TURNING FICTION We’ve all done it, stayed awake until three a.m. compulsively turning pages until we finish the book or our eyes betray us and we fall asleep. How do writers grab us like that and not let go? As writers ourselves we can learn from literary techniques of popular genres how to keep the story moving in a compelling fashion. Whether we write about the everyday dramas of ordinary life or the extreme situations of the detective novel or the pulse-pounding thriller, our work will benefit from consideration of how to develop compelling and sympathetic protagonists, disquieting antagonists, a unique voice, well-considered plots, conflict and tension. Our characters may or may not be seeking the Holy Grail, but everyday life with its quiet agonies and quiet satisfactions is equally sacred to the writer of intelligent fiction—and equally deserving of that special magic it takes to keep the reader turning “just one more page.” Status: completed |
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FICTION
INTENSIVE In this intensive class we will critique students’ work with the goal of publication in mind. Through close attention to characterization, dramatization, style, pacing and tone we will devote our attention to the turning of the nearly finished into the finished and of the well-crafted into the distinctive and memorable. For intermediate students and above. Status: October session completed; Nov/Dec session started 11/9 |
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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 9/29 |
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INTRO
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: started 9/29 |
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WRITING
AS HEALING “I came to see the
damage that was done Using her skills as poet and therapist, and sharing inspiration from the “healing” poets—Mary Oliver, Stafford, Rumi, Pastan, etc.—Ms. Safir will lead you into writing exercises to free your emotions, find coherence and greater meaning. Finding language for our struggles becomes an active meditation that once shared, opens us to the comfort of community. In the words of Mary Oliver, “so this is how you swim inward/so this is how you flow outward.” Writers at all stages are welcome. Status: started 10/21 |
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One-Day
Workshops To register, click here. |
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THE
WHEEL OF TEN: Essential Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive Spend a lively day exploring the ins and outs of ten essential writing tools that professional writers never leave home without. Even one, well used, will bring new vibrancy to a not-quite-there-yet memoir, short story, or novel. Fun writing exercises, short readings, discussion will help us see new levels of these basic tools—how to use them, how they influence a writer’s voice and the success of a piece of writing, and why they must be considered for any good storytelling (true tales, faction, or fiction): action, dialogue, pacing, point of view, backstory, chronology, setting, motive, closeness/distance, and change. Bring a bag lunch and short piece of writing in progress to use during the exercises or start something new in class. For all skill levels. Status: completed |
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THE
QUERY LETTER AND BOOK PROPOSAL This class addresses the key components of pitching your book of fiction or nonfiction to a literary agent or book publisher. The query letter is a letter asking an agent or publisher to read a book already written, such as a novel, story collection, essay collection, memoir, or literary nonfiction book. The proposal is a document that proposes a book not yet written, and can be used for general nonfiction. It includes examples, exercises, and formulas for producing the kind of language that entices a reader without explaining, hooks her instead of releasing her. There will be hand-outs. Status: completed |
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GETTING
UNSTUCK: Overcoming Writer’s Block and Rejections Hemingway sharpened dozens of pencils before starting work each day. What’s your method of stalling? If you’re like most writers, you’ve gotten really good at making excuses for not writing: too busy, no ideas, too many rejections, and the ever-popular, “I got stuck in the middle.” There are as many excuses as there are writers—and getting “stuck” happens to the best of them. Staton Rabin explains why writer’s block happens, shows you how to deal with it, and teaches you how to pick yourself up after the zillionth rejection. Bring your own writing problems and get unstuck! Status: completed |
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TELLING
OUR STORIES: Exploring the Personal Essay A good essay opens a window and invites the reader into a writer’s beliefs about the world. But it also takes the reader on a journey of discovery—as the writer finds out more about these beliefs. So good essays start with strong feeling, thoughtful questions--and this desire to explore uncharted territory. Within this “risk on paper,” your essay can take multiple forms (linear, snapshot, collage, narrative) and endless subjects (from illness, loss, or trauma to nature to a neighborhood’s disappearing culture). In this one-day workshop we’ll learn the steps to explore, craft, and develop a personal or opinion essay. Using short pieces by well-known essayists, we’ll practice writing exercises to discover what our own essay really is about—what's the theme? the seed idea that will speak most clearly to the reader and deliver our point? Be prepared to explore deeply, write a lot, and go home with an essay to finish. Bring an essay-in-progress or an idea for one, as well as a bag lunch. For all levels of writers. Status: full - call or e-mail to be added to waiting list |
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Fall
2007 Workshops for Young Writers To register, click here. |
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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 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. (Note that some sessions will be taught by Kate Gallagher and others will be taught by Charlotte Walsh.) Status: started 9/20 |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR AGES 11 - 13 What do George Lucas and J.K. Rowling have in common? They borrow from the best for their stories, and you can too! In this class, you’ll investigate different classic story plots and learn how to create riveting conflicts and people them with valiant heroes, loyal friends and unpredictable villains. Your stories are ready to be written, and this collaborative and supportive workshop will help you make them into short plays. (Plays may be video-taped as an end project if class has full enrollment.) Status: cancelled |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR TEENS AGE 14+ Six workshop sessions in which writers age 14 and up c an 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 9/29 |
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To
register, click here. |
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| About Our Instructors | |
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 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 in 2006 was 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. |
 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. |
 Elizabeth
Sachs is the author of ten books for young adults and middle grade readers,
including The Boy Who Ate Dog Biscuits and Just Like Always.
She has served as editor of Kidspace, the children’s section of the
paper, The News Times, and has written book reviews for The New
York Times and Kirkus and articles for School Library Journal.
Her extensive career as a teacher and librarian includes children’s librarian
at Tuckahoe and the head of technical services at Eastchester Public Library. |
 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 taught creative writing for children,
adults, and the developmentally disabled. She is a member of Poetry Caravan
and has read her work at venues throughout NYC and Westchester. |
 Natalie
Safir is a therapist and the author of four collections of poetry: Moving
into Seasons, To Face the Inscription, Made Visible, and
A Clear Burning: Poems (2004). Her work has been widely published
in literary journals and anthologies. She has been an editor, lecturer and
leader of writing groups for over twenty years, teaches Memoir Writing at
The Neighborhood House in Tarrytown, and runs private groups in her home. |
 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.
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 Liana
Scalettar’s fiction has appeared or will appear shortly in American
Short Fiction, Arts & Letters, Drunken Boat, Failbetter, Gutcult, LIT
and Washington Square; her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming
in Sentence and Nidus. She has taught at Boston and Fordham
Universities, Queens College and Gotham Writers’ Workshop. |
 Amy
Holman is the author of An Insider’s Guide to Creative Writing Programs:
Choosing the Right MFA or MA Program, Colony, Residency, Grant or Fellowship,
and is a literary consultant to writers and literary groups. Her essays
on the writing business can be found in the anthologies, Making the Perfect
Pitch and The Practical Writer, and on the New York Foundation
for the Arts web site. She is the associate editor of Get Your First
Book Published, and its earlier edition, First Book Market. Her
poetry has won the 2004 Dream Horse Press National Poetry Chapbook Competition
and been selected for The Best American Poetry 1999. Poetry and nonfiction
have been nominated for Pushcart prizes and published in numerous anthologies
and magazines. |
 David
Surface was awarded a 2005 Fellowship in Non Fiction Literature from
the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), and was also nominated for
the NYFA Prize. He has also twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize
in fiction. His essays and stories have been published in a wide variety
of print and on-line journals, including DoubleTake, North American
Review, Crazyhorse, Fiction and Slow Trains. He
is a founder of WriteMind, a creative language arts program for teachers
and students of grades 4 - 12, and is currently writer-in-residence at the
Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts. |
 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. In 2005, she was winner of the first
annual TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for Mable Riley. |
 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 other
small presses. |
 Rebecca
McClanahan has published five 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 www.mcclanmuse.com. |
 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. |
 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. www.marycarrollmoore.com |
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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, has just been published by Carnegie Mellon.
Joan
Potter’s nonfiction writing has been published in numerous magazines
and newspapers, including The New York Times and the Westchester
County Times. Her essays appear in the anthologies Rooted in Rock,
Living North Country and the upcoming Illness and Grace,
and in the online journal Perigee. She is the author of three books,
including African American Firsts: Famous, Little- Known and Unsung
Triumphs of Blacks in America. She has edited, among other books,
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 has also led workshops for prisoners and Latino immigrants.