Early Winter 2002

All classes are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center and
are limited to 10 students unless otherwise indicated.

Winter 2002 Class Schedule
Spring 2002 Class Schedule

--- Advanced Poetry Workshop with Rebecca McClanahan
--- Creative Non-Fiction with Rebecca McClanahan
--- Fiction Writing with David Surface (for returning students only)
--- Memoir Writing with Joan Potter (for returning students only)
--- Test-Driving Your Screenplay with Staton Rabin

This workshop will focus on shaping your creative nonfiction pieces for the reader's eye Although there will be brief weekly assignments and continuing discussion of issues surrounding creative nonfiction, the emphasis will be on close review of your drafts and helpful responses from the instructor and fellow students.

Rebecca McClanahan has published four volumes of poetry, two books about writing, including Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively (Writer’s Digest Books, 1999), and One Word Deep: Lectures and Readings (Ashland Poetry Press.) Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, her first book of essays, is forthcoming from University of Georgia Press in March 2002. McClanahan, who received a Pushcart Prize in Fiction, the Wood prize from Poetry, and the Carter prize for the essay from Shenandoah, lives with her husband in New York City.

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This workshop will focus on shaping your creative nonfiction pieces for the reader's eye Although there will be brief weekly assignments and continuing discussion of issues surrounding creative nonfiction, the emphasis will be on close review of your drafts and helpful responses from the instructor and fellow students.

Rebecca McClanahan has published four volumes of poetry, two books about writing, including Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively (Writer’s Digest Books, 1999), and One Word Deep: Lectures and Readings (Ashland Poetry Press.) Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, her first book of essays, is forthcoming from University of Georgia Press in March 2002. McClanahan, who received a Pushcart Prize in Fiction, the Wood prize from Poetry, and the Carter prize for the essay from Shenandoah, lives with her husband in New York City.

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MEMOIR WRITING
with Joan Potter
4 Fridays, Jan 4 - 25, 2002
10 am - noon
Fee: $140 ($120 for members)
Class limited to 9 students
Please note that this class is for returning Potter students only.

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.

Ms. Potter is the author or co-author of three books, has published articles in numerous magazines and newspapers, and is co-owner of Pinto Press, a publishing company in Mt. Kisco. She edited Growing Up Strong: Four North Country Women Recall Their Lives, a book of memoirs produced in a writing workshop she led in the Adirondacks, and she has taught memoir-writing workshops for men and women of all ages. She is a regular contributor to Adirondack Life Magazine, for which her article about regional employment recently won a Public Issues award from the International Regional Magazine Association.

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Designed for writers at all levels, this course introduces you to various narrative strategies that help break through inhibitions and release a powerful, personal voice onto the page. You will look at how other writers have unlocked their imaginations and then try these techniques in writing exercises and peer-group critiques that sympathetically develop the skills needed to create more imaginative and emotionally rich work.

Mr. Surface's fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, including DoubleTake, North American Review, Crazyhorse, Fiction, Willow Spring, and Artful Dodge. Excerpts from his novel, A Good Life, have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has taught as a writer-in-the-schools for the Lincoln Center Education Department and as a Visiting Writer at the College of Wooster.

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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.

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