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| Summer 2005 |
| All
classes and workshops are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center (Philipse
Manor Railroad Station building) unless otherwise indicated.
Fall 2005 Class Schedule CLASSES
& WORKSHOPS Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday:
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| WRITING
WORKSHOPS FOR AGES 8 and up Using writing challenges, lively activities, and children’s literature, this workshop will inspire children to write from their hearts, tap their imaginations, and find their voices in their written words. The noncompetitive and nurturing atmosphere, small group size, and a beautiful facility devoted exclusively to writing will all help stimulate young talent. Limit of 9 students per session. (Note that Kate Gallagher will teach through 7/21; Bridget Bentley will teach the remaining sessions.)
Bridget Bentley is a fourth grade teacher in the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns and a two-year participant in the HVWC’s WriteMind Workshop with David Surface, a program that treats both classroom teachers and their students as writers. | |
| ADVANCED
POETRY Enjoy this rare opportunity for experienced poetry students to study with one of our region’s wittiest and most accomplished poets and a long-time teacher of creative writing. You must have taken at least one poetry class previously.
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SELF
SCRIPTING Work in a highly individualized way with a renowned writer and performance artist to heighten your imagination and create narrative in memoir, fiction, poetry, and performance or through interdisciplinary work. The final session will be a public presentation (tentatively Thursday, July 28, 7:30 pm).
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SELF
SCRIPTING for TEENS Work in a highly individualized way with a renowned writer and performance artist to heighten your imagination and create narrative in memoir, fiction, poetry, and performance or through interdisciplinary work. The final session will be a public presentation.
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STOKING
THE FIRE You begin with a poem. This is a workshop for poets who realize that their mission is to give that poem a voice. We’ll work with pieces from pen to page to stage to make sure your poem reaches as many people as possible as you gain confidence in bringing it to life. Whether you’re a fledgling open-miker or an established writer seeking a wider audience, you’ll get the help you need— from choosing the “right” poem to conquering stage fright. And you’ll have fun along the way!
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SHORT
AND SWEET Feeling timid, bored, lost or otherwise stalled in your writing—or just looking for a new way to spark your creativity? This class, which emphasizes play and experimentation as ways to jumpstart the creative process, is led by a poet whose novel is composed of fractals (short pieces that mirror the shape of the whole). It will focus on the latest literary fashion—prose poetry and flash fiction—through brief exercises that explore elements of craft: voice, point of view, time frame, characterization, etc. The course will also show how to use these approaches as inspiration for longer forms, such as stories or novel chapters. Open to writers at all levels, the class will encourage new work and support ongoing projects.
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PANNING
FOR GOLD For poets at all levels who have a trove of poems and drafts and want to “mine” them for the gold within. You will examine some early and late versions of published poems, explore various methods of re-imagining a poem to discover its latent possibilities, and discuss your works in progress with fellow poets. Limited to 8 students.
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR TEENS Four workshop sessions in which writers age 11 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.
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| WRITING
LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN Work with a much-published children’s writer and fellow students to refine your skills as a writer for young readers and to develop or kick-start your own children’s book or story. Elizabeth-Ann Sachs is the author of ten books for young adults and middle grade readers, including The Dog Who Ate Dog Biscuits and Just Like Always. She has served as editor of the children’s section of the paper, Kidspace, 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 several years as children’s librarian at Tuckahoe and she is currently head of technical services at Eastchester Public Library. | |
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ORGANIZING
YOUR MEMOIRS Skilled and beginning memoir writers alike struggle with the problem of giving their memoirs shape. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to discuss this challenge with a man whose name is sure to come up in any discussion of how to write memoirs. Mr. Zinsser will be reading from his latest book at 7:30 pm. Note: size limit of 10 students does not apply to this class.
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THE
CRAFT OF FICTION Both new and experienced writers can benefit from a review of such topics as characterization, plot, dialogue, description and point-of-view. The first two classes will be devoted to lectures, in-class and take-home exercises, and close readings of selections by master writers. In the second two meetings you will put your new skills in practical criticism to use as you consider your fellow students’ manuscripts.
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FICTION
WRITING Designed for writers at all levels, this course introduces you to various narrative strategies that will help you find your voice as a writer and bring your material to life on 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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| For further information on any of our class offerings, call the HVWC at (914) 332-5953 or email us at info@writerscenter.org. |
| 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. |
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. 
Paul
Violi is the author of eleven books of poetry and is the recipient of the
John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award and the Zabel Award from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, as well as poetry grants from the Ingram Merrill Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fund for Poetry. He teaches Imaginative
Writing at Columbia and in the New School University graduate poetry program.
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, Pooh Unplugged, Aroused: A
Collection of Erotic Writing, and the memoir A Different Kind of Intimacy.
Patricia
Smith is a four-time national poetry slam champion and the author of three
poetry volumes, Close to Death, Life According to Motown, and Big Towns,
Big Talk. Her poetry has also been published in many fine literary journals
and anthologies and she has performed at innumerable spoken word venues throughout
the U.S. and abroad. Smith is also the author of Africans in America, a
companion volume to the ground-breaking PBS documentary, and the children’s book,
Janna and the Kings, which won Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Award. She is
currently at work on Fixed on a Furious Star, a biography of Harriet Tubman
to be published by Crown in 2006, two new poetry volumes, and another children’s
book. She has served as the Bruce McEver Visiting Chair in Writing at Georgia
Tech University and a faculty member at the Cave Canem retreat for African-American
writers.
Thaddeus
Rutkowski’s novel, Roughhouse (Kaya Press), was a finalist for the
Members’ Choice of the Asian American Literary Awards. His work has been anthologized
in Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images (Coffee House),
Sweet Jesus: Poems About the Ultimate Icon(Anthology Editions) and elsewhere.
His stories have appeared in Fiction, American Letters and Commentary, Asian
Pacific American Journal, Rattapallax, Columbia Review, CutBank, Artful Dodge
and other magazines. He has been a resident at Yaddo, MacDowell and other
colonies and has written book reviews for The New York Times and other
papers. A graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University, he
teaches fiction writing at the Writer's Voice of the West Side YMCA.
M.
Doretta Cornell teaches writing and literature at Pace University, Pleasantville,
and is a member of Poetry Caravan. Her poetry has appeared recently in Connecticut
River Review, Red River Review, Inkwell, JMWW, Commonweal, and the anthology
(en)compass.
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 has had her work published
and performed widely. She has just completed a collection of poetry and a young
adult novel and is working on a novel.
William
Zinsser is the author of two very widely used books about writing, On Writing
Well (which has sold more than a million copies) and Writing to Learn,
as well as 15 other works. His most recent book, Writing About Your Life: A
Journey Into the Past (2004) follows several other fine books that explore
memoirs and related genres. He began his career as a writer and editor at the
New York Herald Tribune for 13 years and he was executive editor of the
Book-of-the-Month Club from 1979 - 87. He has taught widely, including at Yale
University and currently at the New School. He is a 4th-generation New Yorker.
Liana
Scalettar holds degrees from Columbia, Brown and Sarah Lawrence. Her fiction
and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals, and her recent awards
include a MacDowell Colony fellowship, a Glimmer Train fiction award, a
Pushcart Prize nomination, and the Amanda Davis Scholarship given by the Wesleyan
Writers’ Conference. She has taught at Boston and Brown universities and Queens
College.
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. 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 has taught as a writer-in-the-schools for the Lincoln
Center Department of Education and as a Visiting Writer at the College of Wooster.