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Summer 2002 |
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All
classes are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center and January
2003 Class Schedule CLASSES
& WORKSHOPS
Fiction Writing with David
Surface
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FICTION
WRITING
with David Surface 4 Saturdays, July 13, 20, 27, August 3, 2002 10:30 am - 12:30 pm Fee: $155 ($135 for members) Returning Surface students deduct $10 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.
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These two discussion sessions will help you unlock the mysteries of Eastern cultures with the help of an informed guide, a judge on the fiction committee of the 2001 Asian American Literary Awards. Examine key issues in the most recent story collections of two award-winning authors, Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize) and Ha Jin (National Book Award). Individual interpretations will be encouraged. Books will be read in advance. |
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This class of no more than six students will focus exclusively on manuscript critique. Interested students should submit a brief writing sample to the HVWC no later than 6/28 to insure consideration. (After 6/28, inquire at office for space availability.)
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“First-time writers of book-length non-fiction often imagine that publishers want to see a finished manuscript before they¹ll make an offer. Nothing could be further from the truth. It¹s the pitch you make, not the prose you craft, that sells the book," says writer and editor Melinda Marshall. She will acquaint participants with the way non-fiction books are conceived, sold, and executed today, a process that often begins with editors who know what they want rather than writers who have something they want published. You will learn about the role of book packagers; the right way to zero in on an agent; the all-important cover letter, in which you sell the agent on your concept; and the formula for a winning proposal.
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Screenwriting, done well, is an art, but it always begins as a craft. Whether you've never written a screenplay or, having mastered the essentials, you're wondering why Spielberg isn't beating down your door, this course gives you the tools you need. Topics include concept development, format, story structure, characters, dialogue, selling your script, and screenwriters' most common mistakes. There will be a guest speaker from the film industry.
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Oral history is an essential research tool for anyone working on memoirs or family histories, or documenting a community or organization, but all writers can stimulate their imaginations and enhance their work by adding the telling details and dialogue that oral history work produces. Learn how to select narrators, interview them productively, short-cut the tedious process of transcribing, and use the material effectively in your work. |
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Based on Ms. McClanahan's book of the same title, this workshop will help you discover subjects you feel strongly about, write about them with honesty and authority, explore various forms of writing (including poems, letters, essays, journal entries, collaborations, interviews, and stories), and develop productive work habits.
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A workshop for those who know writing fundamentals and have started a novel. We will critique work, looking at plot and structure, character development, point of view, and dialogue. There will be short take-home exercises.
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Whether you are writing novels, short stories, novellas, essays, or memoirs, the writing life involves more than just the creation of written works. A writer must also learn about the business of writing and gaining an audience. This class will teach you what to expect from book contracts, copyright, distribution, writers conferences, and literary agents. Examples will be given from current publishers to help participants find their community within print and online magazines and book publishers. Resource lists will be provided.
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Explore the varied and moderate trails of the Rockefeller Preserve in a day of close observation of the natural world with poet and gardener Susan Pliner. Featured in The New York Times, this workshop asks participants to write short descriptive passages on location, beginning with the smallest fern on the forest floor and working toward what we can see in the larger river and meadow vistas. There will be time for editing and revision with a longish piece of poetry or descriptive prose as the goal for the end of each day.
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| For further information on any of our class offerings, call the HVWC at (914) 332-5953 or email us at info@writerscenter.org. |
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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. |
David
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.
Thad
Rutkowski is a graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University.
His novel, Roughhouse (Kaya), was a finalist for the Members' Choice
of the Asian American Literary Awards. His writing has appeared in Fiction,
American Letters & Commentary, The Laurel Review, Global City Review
and The New York Times and he has been a resident writer at Yaddo,
MacDowell and other colonies. He has taught at Pace University, The Writer's
Voice, and the Asian American Writers Workshop.
Melinda
M. Marshall writes the "That's Life" column for Ladies Home Journal, where
she is a contributing editor. She is also the author, co-author, or ghost-writer
of five books, most recently Fight Your Fear and Win: The Seven Skills
for Performing Your Best Under Pressure (for Don Greene, Broadway
Books, 2001). Her first book, Good Enough Mothers: Changing Expectations
for Ourselves (Peterson's; 1993, 1994), explored the trade-offs women
choose in order to find balance in their roles as mother, wife, and wage-earner.
Good Enough Mothers received a Washington Irving Book Prize in
1995. Since 1990 Marshall has written for over 18 national publications,
including Reader's Digest, Parenting, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook.
Her work has appeared in newspapers nationwide through the New York
Times Syndicate. Before writing full-time, Marshall was a senior editor
for Hearst Professional Magazines, an associate editor for Diversion
magazine, and editor-in-chief of the city monthly, Charlotte Magazine.
Staton
Rabin is a screenwriter and freelance story analyst who has evaluated
hundreds of film projects for Warner Bros. Pictures, the William Morris
Agency, and New Line Cinema. She is a screenplay competition judge for
Scr(i)pt magazine, and an article of hers appears in its May/June
issue. Betsy and the Emperor, a novel she wrote based on her own
film treatment, is the basis of a movie expected to star Al Pacino. Her
most recent screenplay, A Quiet Town, has James Whitmore's commitment
to star. She has a BFA in Film from New York University (NYU) and is a
frequent guest in Mark DeGasperi's NYU course in screenplay marketing.
Helen
Barolini of Hastings-on-Hudson is the author of seven books (most recently,
More Italian Hours, and Other Stories) and her many stories and
essays have appeared in various publications and collections, including
The Best American Essays series. She has received a Carnegie
Grant for the Oral History Program at Columbia University, a National
Endowment for the Arts grant, and an American Book Award.
Rebecca McClanahan is the author of eight books, including four volumes
of poetry and two books about writing, Word Painting: A Guide to
Writing More Descriptively, and Write Your Heart Out (Writer’s
Digest Books.) The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, her first
book of essays, was published by University of Georgia Press in March
2002. 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, and the Carter prize for the essay
from Shenandoah, lives with her husband in New York City.
Christina Chiu has been the recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship, the
Lannon Foundation Fellowship, and the Claire Woolrich Scholarship. Her
stories have appeared in Tin House, The MacGuffin, and other magazines.
Her story collection, Troublemaker and Other Saints, was published
last year and she is now finishing a novel. She is a cofounder of the
Asian American Writers Workshop.
Amy Holman is a poet and prose writer, and the founder of The Publishing
Seminars at Poets & Writers, Inc., where she currently directs the Literary
Horizons program. Her poetry collection, Vanishing Twin, is due
in 2002. She is the associate editor of Get Your First Book Published
and has written essays on publishing issues for Poets & Writers Magazine,
A View From the Loft, SideRoad and Poet's Market. She teaches
writers how to publish at conferences, bookstores, and literary centers
around the country, as well as through e-mail and on audiotape. Her poetry
and prose have been published in many print and on-line journals and anthologies,
including Poet Lore, Exquisite Corpse, CrossConnect, Literal Latte,
The History of Panty Hose in America, and The Best American Poetry
1999.
Susan Pliner is a poet and gardener. She has taught writing at Teachers
College, Yale, Sarah Lawrence's Writing Institute, and Wave Hill. Her
poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review,
and The Paris Review. She has been a gardener and educator at the
New York Botanical Garden.