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Fall 2008 Writing Workshops | ||||
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note that there is a nonrefundable $25 registration fee per workshop Due to Metro North’s ongoing Hudson Line station rehabilitation project at our Philipse Manor station home, our Monday - Friday daytime workshops are occasionally moved to the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson, 35 South Broadway, Tarrytown. You will be notified as far in advance as possible if your class needs to be relocated on any given day. | ||||
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Fall
2008 Readings & Workshops newsletter
available for
viewing or download
(PDF file) Fall Workshops for Adults
One and Two-Day Workshops
Fall Workshops for Young Writers
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Fall 2008 Writing Workshops for Adults Please note that, in addition to the adult workshop fees shown below, there is a $25 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. To register, click here. | |
| HOW
TO WRITE PAGE-TURNING FICTION 8
Thursdays, 7 - 9 pm 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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THE
SEVEN STAGES OF CREATIVITY: The Creative Process Uncovered 8
Wednesdays, 10:15 - 12:15 How are we inspired? Is there a method to our creativity? Can the creative processes have a formula? How does research inform the creative process? It has been argued that creativity has seven stages: orientation, preparation, analysis, ideation, incubation, synthesis, and evaluation. Each of these steps will be explored with complementary writing exercises. These seven steps of creativity will be a platform to structure the class and hopefully come to understand the mystery of inspiration, originality, and invention. We will examine other related theories such as trauma and creativity, spontaneity, chance, creativity as a voice for empowerment, and the function of freedom and lack of freedom to heighten artistic movement. Status: started 10/15 | |
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THE
VISUAL SPARK: EKPHRASTIC WRITING 8
Mondays, 7:30 - 9:30 pm Explore the visual arts as inspiration for your writing. Art can be a source of vivid material for writers in any genre, whether as a springboard for reflection, a fresh glimpse of a character or dramatic situation, or simply a way out of writer’s block. “Ekphrasis”—creative writing about visual art—is booming. Poets will tap into the prolific tradition of ekphrastic poetry from Homer to Ashbery, generating new work that compels and provokes, improvises and inquires. Fiction writers will find paintings that trigger stories or even open up a fictional universe (as in some recent bestsellers like Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and Susan Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue). Playwrights will develop monologues and multi-character scenes with artworks as real or implicit backdrops. Sources for ekphrasis will not be limited to painting and sculpture, but may also include advertising, television, film, graffiti, folkloric art, natural science exhibits, and web media. To find new material, we will take three “field trips” outside of class time—to the Hudson River Museum (9/26), the Neuberger Museum of Art (date TBD), and the Katonah Museum of Art (date TBD). We will do some in-class exercises, but devote most classes to workshopping your new work in a supportive, challenging, and lively environment. The course will also include publication tips and resources, and performance coaching for readings. Students will be encouraged to submit their ekphrastic work to be considered for a collaborative reading at the Hudson River Museum on November 16. (Four writers will be chosen by juried selection to read their work and receive a small honorarium.) Status: replaced with 2-day workshop below | |
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THE
ART OF THE ESSAY 8
Wednesdays, 7 - 9 pm 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: completed | |
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EXPERIMENTS
IN POETRY 9
Thursdays, 9:30 am - noon This workshop focuses on producing new work based on the study of model texts. Though most class time will be spent responding to works-in-progress, we will also discuss issues of process and creativity. Required Textbook: Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, ed. by J. D. McClatchy, revised edition, 2003. Status: completed | |
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EXPERIMENTS
IN NONFICTION 9
Thursdays, 12:30 - 3 pm In this workshop, we will study model nonfiction texts, write and share brief assignments, and discuss issues of craft and creativity. Required Textbook: Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Nonfiction (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2007) Status: completed | |
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PERFORMING
POETRY 3
Fridays, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm A workshop for poets who want to work on reading skills. Using theatre techniques of script analysis, dramatic arcs, and emotional decoding, poets will get a chance to improve their poetry reading skills and rediscover their own work. Please bring a poem to work on! The end of the final class will be a presentation and talk back with Mara and fellow writers. Outsiders may be invited depending on the desires of the workshop participants. This will give writers a chance to feel how the work sounds “on its feet.” Status: cancelled | |
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HOW
TO PLAN, WRITE, AND DEVELOP A BOOK 6
Mondays, 1:30 - 4:30 pm* 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 *Note: workshop for returning students only, Monday and Wednesday mornings (10 am - 1 pm) -- contact the office for status | |
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PLAYWRITING
8
Wednesdays, October 8 - December 3 (skips November 26) In this playwriting workshop we will be working on in-class exercises that will help us learn how to create conflict and develop characters.We will read excerpts from published plays and, most importantly, pages of our original work weekly. The readings will be followed by discussion. The focus of this eight-session course is to complete a working draft of a scene, short play or perhaps the beginning of a longer play. Status: cancelled | |
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MEMOIR
WRITING 10
Tuesdays, September 23 - December 9 (skips September 30 & November 11) 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 9/23 | |
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INTERMEDIATE
FICTION 8
Tuesdays, 12:30 - 3:00 A workshop for students who wish to create vibrant memorable fiction. Be prepared to jettison old work, to delve into literary technique, and to think hard about the essentials. Please arrive with a sound knowledge of craft. Status: cancelled | |
| TRUE
FICTION: BREATHING LIFE INTO OUR STORIES 8
Saturdays, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm Someone once said that fiction is a lie that tells the truth. If fiction-writing is basically “making things up”, how can we make things up that feel true? What is it that turns a character from a bunch of random ink-marks on a page into a flesh and blood human being? How can we change our stories from something other people will merely read about into something they will experience? In this workshop, we will explore practical techniques for breathing life into fiction and finding the truth in our stories. Status: completed | |
| A
PROSODY WORKOUT WORKSHOP FOR POETS & WRITERS 6
Saturdays, 12:45 pm - 2:45 pm Whether we craft poems in free verse or adopt received forms—sonnets, haikus, villanelles and such—, and whether we use conventional rhyme and meter or don't know our iambs from Adam, all poets can benefit from a deeper understanding of prosody. In this course, through in-class exercises and weekly assignments, participants will be given the opportunity to practice creating poems in a variety of forms, using a range of prosodic techniques and devices. Much as a pianist who practices basic scales can expect to improve her concert performances, a poet who practices prosody can expect to improve the quality of her writing. The only prerequisites for this course are attitudinal: an openness toward experimentation and play; an appreciation of failure as a crucial part of artistic creation; and a desire—no matter your level of experience and skill—to strengthen your work. Fiction and non-fiction writers seeking to bring greater force and variety to their prose are also encouraged to participate. Status: cancelled | |
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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. To register, click here. | |
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JUMPSTART
YOUR POETRY WRITING LIFE Saturday, December 6
Want to get writing and keep writing? This special one-session version of one of our most popular workshops presents exercises and advice to jumpstart your poetry life. We will workshop one of your poems. Bring 12 copies, and practice seeing it for what it is: a springboard to your next poem, and your next! Status: cancelled | |
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THE
VISUAL SPARK: EKPHRASTIC WRITING
New! 2
Fridays, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Explore the visual arts as inspiration for your writing. Art can be a source of vivid material for writers in any genre, whether as a springboard for reflection, a fresh glimpse of a character or dramatic situation, or simply a way out of writer’s block. “Ekphrasis”-creative writing about visual art-is booming. Poets will tap into the prolific tradition of ekphrastic poetry from Homer to Ashbery, generating new work that compels and provokes, improvises and inquires. Fiction writers will find art that triggers a story or even opens up a fictional universe (as in some recent novels like Susan Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue). Playwrights will develop a monologue or multi-character scene with an artwork as setting. Sources for ekphrasis will not be limited to painting and sculpture, but may also include advertising, television, film, graffiti, folkloric art, natural science exhibits, and web media. Between the two sessions, writers will be dispatched on one “pilgrimage” to a museum or gallery in search of material. In the second session, we will workshop new work in a supportive, challenging, and lively environment. (Lunchtime sessions: bring a bag lunch.) Participants will be encouraged to submit their ekphrastic work to be considered for a collaborative reading at the Hudson River Museum on November 16. (Four writers will be chosen by juried selection to read their work and receive a small honorarium.) Status: completed | |
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PUBLISHING
YOUR BRILLIANT WORK Friday, September 26
Amy Holman teaches poets and writers of fiction and nonfiction how to analyze the publishing market, match their writing styles to the editorial interests of magazine and book editors, and literary agents, and how to be savvy about the writing business. Writers will learn how to be organized and create their own reference guide to publishing. We will read from four literary journals, and assess two book publishers and two agents. There will be a few handouts. Status: completed | |
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WRITING
FOR CHILDREN: MEET THE CHALLENGE Monday, December
8 You've always wanted to write a book for young readers? How hard could it be? A lot harder than you think! This one day intensive workshop is for writers who have already made a start, but need guidance and motivation to keep going. Athough we'll cover the basics of what you need to know to compete in today's publishing world, we will focus on writing for the Chapter Book set usually from about 7 to 11 years old. The first ten pages of a manuscript in progress must be submitted at least two weeks before the class begins. We'll critique your work with the specific readership in mind how to make choices about genre, language, point-of-view, plot, and all the other tricky ingredients to creating a children's novel. You'll have in-class writing practice, suggested reading, and a better understanding of how the market works. Be prepared to have your work discussed in a realistic - and yet inspirational - forum. Status: completed | |
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CREATING
THE CONTAINER: Grounding Your Fiction and Memoir in the World Friday, September 12
Chekhov wrote, "Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Writers face a big problem when they try to bring their true or fictional stories out of memory, ideas, emotion, and backstory and place them in believable time and space. Learn five techniques to create a container of setting, suspense, feeling, and momentum that will keep your reader engaged. Full of great writing exercises, this one-day workshop will help you fine-tune your ability to "show, don't tell." Bring 3 pages of your own writing-in-progress and a book from a published writer you admire.
Status: completed | |
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THE
WHEEL OF TEN: Essential Tools to Make Memoir and Fiction Come Alive Friday,
October 17 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: cancelled | |
| TELLING
OUR STORIES: Exploring the Personal Essay Friday,
November 7 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: cancelled | |
| WRITING
YOUR LIFE: How to Plan, Develop, and Write a Memoir Friday,
December 12 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: open and accepting registrations | |
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Fall 2008 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. To register, click here. | |
| LEARNING
TO SEE™: CREATIVE WRITING FOR TEENS AGE 14+ 8
Saturdays, Sept. 27; Oct. 4, 25; Nov. 8, 15, 22; Dec. 6, 13 Eight 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 9/27 | |
| CREATIVE
WRITING FOR THIRD, FOURTH & FIFTH GRADERS 10
Thursdays, September 25 - December 11 (skips October 9 & November 27) 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 9/25 | |
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To
register, click here. Due to Metro North’s ongoing Hudson Line station rehabilitation project at our Philipse Manor station home, our Monday - Friday daytime workshops are occasionally moved to the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson, 35 South Broadway, Tarrytown. You will be notified as far in advance as possible if your class needs to be relocated on any given day. | |
| About Our Instructors - Fall 2008 | |
 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, was published last year by Carnegie
Mellon. |  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.
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 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 has taught at Amherst
College and at Tufts University. Joanne now writes full time. www.joannedobson.com |  Mary
Carroll Moore has published twelve nonfiction books (including How to Master
Change in Your Life: Sixty-Seven Ways to Handle Life’s Toughest Moments, now
in its third printing, and Healthy Cooking, winner of a Julia Child award).
Her novel, Qualities of Light, will be published in 2009 by Spinsters Ink.
A chapter from her second novel, Breathing Room, won an honorable mention
in the 2005 McKnight Awards and was a top-ten finalist in the 2004 Loft Mentor
Series in fiction, judged by Amy Bloom. For twelve years she was a nationally
syndicated newspaper columnist, and over 500 of her articles, essays, poems, and
short stories have appeared in publications such as the Boston Globe, Quay:
Journal of the Arts, American Artist, and American Health. She has
been featured in USA Today, the New York Times, and other publications.
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 The Loft Literary
Center in Minneapolis and other locations around the United States, Canada, and
Europe. www.marycarrollmoore.com
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|  Susan
Jennifer Polese's full-length play, Klaus' Closet, was produced by
The American Theatre for Actors at the Beckmann Theatre, and subsequently at the
Westbeth Artists' Residency, NYC. Her one-act play, After a Night with Abe,
was produced at the Herbert Mark Newman Theatre. Susan has studied playwriting
at The Wonderhorse Theatre, Herbert Berghof Studio, and Hunter College. She's
taught playwriting to children through a camp program at Purchase College, and
has taught with The Howard Meyer Acting Program. Most recently her play Under
the One-Time Sky was produced at Here, Performing Arts Center in Manhattan
with Axial Theatre Company. As a journalist, Susan writes for The New York
Times and The Advocate. She is member of The Dramatists Guild. www.susanpolese.com |
 Barbara
Fischer is the author of Museum Mediations: Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary
American Poetry (Routledge, 2006). Her ekphrastic poems have appeared in The
Paris Review, Boston Review, Western Humanities Review, and other journals,
and her poem “Luminous Zag: Night” was a finalist for the 2007 Ekphrasis Prize.
She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in English
and American Literature from New York University, and has taught writing and literature
at Columbia, NYU, and Marymount College. |  Joan
Potter’s nonfiction writing has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers.
Her personal essays appear in the anthologies Rooted in Rock, Living
North Country, the new collection, Illness & Grace, Terror & Transformation,
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. |
 Kate
Gallagher, a poet and former children's book editor, has taught at venues
which include the Scarsdale schools, the Kids' Short Story Connection in Greenburgh,
the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts. In addition to teaching children
and young adults, she also works with the developmentally disabled and women with
eating disorders. She has studied with Jorie Graham and Marvin Bell at the University
of Iowa and is a member of the Poetry Caravan. |  Liana
Scalettar's fiction and poetry have appeared in American Short Fiction,
Arts & Letters, Drunken Boat, Failbetter, Gutcult, LIT, Nidus, Sentence and
Washington Square. Awards include a Pushcart Prize nomination, a Glimmer
Train prize, and the Amanda Davis scholarship given by the Wesleyan Writers' Conference,
as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Vermont
Studio Center. She teaches at Queens College. |
 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.Most recently, his writing has appeared in The International
Herald Tribune and The Journal News. |  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 leader
of The F*E*G*S Writing Project which conducts writing workshops in mental health
facilities throughout New York City. |
 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. www.amyholman.com |  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. |
 Marthe
Jocelyn 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. www.marthejocelyn.com |  J.
Clark Zafrin’s poems have appeared in journals in the US and UK, including,
The Western Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner, The New Republic and Reactions4:
an Anthology of the UK’s Best New Poets. Her translations of Anna Akhmatova
have been featured in The Paris Review. In 2007 her collections Cancelled
Safari and Ambush Exercises placed as finalist and semi-finalist chapbook
selections with The Slapering Hol Press; her work has also been selected as a
finalist for The Hudson Prize. She has taught literature and writing at international
schools in Italy and at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A former Director
of CITYterm at The Masters School, she currently heads the American office of
St. Stephen’s School in Rome. |
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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. Junior League = The Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson, 35 South Broadway, Tarrytown, New York. Due to Metro North’s ongoing Hudson Line station rehabilitation project at our Philipse Manor station home, our Monday - Friday daytime workshops are occasionally moved to the Junior League. The building is located at the intersection of South Broadway (Route 9) and West Elizabeth Street, north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
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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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. 
Mara
Mills has been a professional storyteller, stage director, producer and arts
educator for more than twenty years. She is the author of Rites of Passage,
an integrated curriculum on script writing (National Middle School's Association
Journal, February 1990), and a chapter on children as storytellers in the text
Integrating Curriculum through the Arts, as well as a book of poetry, Ashes
and Tea. Recently, she worked with Domestic Abuse Survivors to create a choral
script. Mara created Drama Departments for The Mead School in Greenwich and The
Learning Community in Westport and was the Artistic Director of the successful
Herbert Mark Newman Theatre from 1991 - 2004. She received the 1996 award for
outstanding service to theatre from the national theatre association and the 2007
Cab Calloway award for her work in theatre in Westchester.
Karen
Finley is an Arts Professor at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
in the department of Art and Public Policy. Her raw and transgressive performances
have long provoked controversy and debate. She has appeared and exhibited internationally
her visual art, performances and plays. Her performances have been presented at
Lincoln Center, New York City, The Guthrie, Minneapolis, American Repertory Theatre,
The ICA in London, Harvard, The Steppenwolf in Chicago, and The Bobino in Paris.
Her artworks are in numerous collections and museums including the Pompidou in
Paris and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Finley attended the San Francisco
Art Institute receiving an MFA and honorary PHD. She has received numerous awards
and fellowships including a Guggenheim, 2 Obies, 2 Bessies, MS. Magazine Woman
Of The Year, NARAL Person of the Year (which she shared with Anna Quindlen and
Walter Cronkite), The Edwin Booth Award, The Lee Reynolds Award, NYSCA and NEA
Fellowships. She has appeared in independent films and in the film Philadelphia.
Finley has authored and or edited seven books including Shock Treatment
(City Lights 1990), Enough is Enough (Poseidon, Simon and Schuster 1993),
Living It Up (Doubleday 1996), Pooh Unplugged (Smart Art Books 1999),
A Different Kind Of Intimacy: The Collected Writings of Karen Finley (Thunders
Mouth Press 2000), and edited and contributed to Aroused, A Collection of Erotic
Writings (Thunders Mouth Press 2001) and George and Martha (Verso 2006).
She written essays and commentary for The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice,
Huffingtonpost.com and other journals.