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Summer 2006 |
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All
classes and workshops are held at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center (Philipse
Manor Railroad Station building) unless otherwise indicated.
Winter 2006 Class Schedule CLASSES
& WORKSHOPS
Adults Ancient
Greek Comedy: Aristophanes' Frogs with Barbara
Morrow Young Writers Creative
Writing for Teens with Brenda Connor-Bey
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ANCIENT
GREEK COMEDY: ARISTOPHANES' FROGS The master of Ancient Greek comedy, Aristophanes continues to delight and startle audiences with his combination of serious political satire and extravagant bawdiness, jaw-twisting invective, and delicate lyrics. In this course we will read The Frogs (recently performed at Lincoln Center in a Nathan Lane / Stephen Sondheim production), Aristophanes’ underworld fantasy that pits Aeschylus and Euripides against each other in a fiercely funny competition for the supreme prize in tragedy. Use the translation of your choice.
Status:
cancelled |
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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. Limited to 8 students.
Status: Class Full; waiting list only |
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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.
Status:
Morning Class has one space open |
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HOW
TO PLAN, WRITE, & DEVELOP A BOOK Spend a weekend getting to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to plan to finish it! Learn a step-by-step plan, including flexible time lines, chapter grids, storyboarding, and other techniques. Look at ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, construct plots, and bring your book to life. Learn what editors and agents look for and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book in all its stages. For nonfiction authors who have a book concept or a work in progress, and for novelists who need a fresh look at their material. Limited to 20 students.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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INTERMEDIATE
& ADVANCED POETRY
This workshop will make a distinction between editing and revising and will approach each poem with this difference in mind. Both are needed, so all levels of the poem from surface to depth are addressed. You will consider the many elements comprised by a poem: image, metaphor, diction, tone, voice, perspective, grammar, syntax, line breaks, form, etc., focusing on those issues that arise from this particular group of writers. Participants must have taken at least one poetry class previously.
Status: Class Full; waiting list only |
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MEMOIR
WRITING 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. Limited to 9 students.
Status: Class Full; waiting list only |
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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.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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SHAMELESS
SELF-PROMOTION FOR SISSIES Shy, self-effacing and introverted—the very qualities that might make you a sensitive observer of the world may work to your detriment when it comes time to interest the outside world in your work. Learn not only the nuts and bolts of self-marketing but the psychology behind marketing success. Write query letters, resumes and synopses and learn how to “put on your marketing hat” and develop the self-confidence needed to present yourself positively to others—be it agents, publishers, editors or readers.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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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 jump-start 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.
Status: Cancelled |
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WRITING
CHILDREN'S BOOKS & STORIES 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 book or story for “easy readers” and up.
Status: Open; accepting registrations |
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WRITING
MEMOIR & FAMILY HISTORY No writer is more synonymous with memoir-writing and with natural and clear writing in general than Bill Zinsser, and we are grateful for this return visit. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to discuss the challenges of writing a memoir or family history with him in our intimate space. Limited to 35 students.
photo credit: Thomas Victor Status: Class Full; waiting list only |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR TEENS Four 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: one space open |
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR AGES 11 - 13 Courage, betrayal, true love, revenge…the latest X-Box game? No! These are some of the themes in the Grimm Tales. Through listening to and “playing through” these dark versions of timeless tales that inspired many modern rags to riches stories, students will explore setting, conflict, plot and dialogue; giving their imaginations “legs” as they twist and shape the tales to re-invent them with their own hair-raising or humorous angles.
Status: Class Full; waiting list only |
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WRITING
WORKSHOPS FOR AGES 8 - 10 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 non-competitive 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 some sessions will be taught by Kate Gallagher and the others will be taught by Bridget Bentley.)
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. Status: Some dates still open - call or e-mail for up-to-date information |
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ORGANICALLY
GROWN : A Fiction Writer's Workshop Set aside your desire to make the story happen and let your fiction tell you where it wants to go. Explore and refine the “fiction switch” that helps a writer become receptive to what stories really want to say. Discover more about your characters via writing exercises on characterization through backstory, dialogue, setting, finding a character’s motives and self-concept, and point of view. Get constructive small group feedback on writing in progress to help your characters evolve from flat to unforgettable. Especially geared toward intermediate to advanced fiction writers who have stories or a novel that is not quite coming together.
Status: cancelled |
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register, click here. 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. Weather-related closings: As a general rule, if bad weather causes the Tarrytown schools to close, it is likely that classes at the Writers’ Center will be cancelled. We will record a message on the office answering machine (914-332-5953) at least 2 hours prior to class time if the decision is made to close. Refund policy: For classes dropped at least 24 hours prior to the first class, 100% of the class fee will be refunded. For classes dropped at least 48 hours before the second class, 75% of the class fee will be refunded. After that time, a partial refund will only be issued if your space in the class can be filled. For classes cancelled by the Writers’ Center, 100% of the class fee will be refunded. For further information about any of these classes or workshops, call the Writers' Center at 914-332-5953. |
BARBARA
MORROW, an editor and copy writer, has a Masters in Ancient Greek
from Columbia University. The classes she has taught in Homer, Aeschylus,
Euripides, Aristophanes, and other Greek writers in the Intervillage
Continuing Education program in Hastings-on-Hudson have attracted a
large and devoted following, even among those who initially approached
Ancient Greek literature hesitantly. 
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.
DAVID
SURFACE ’s fiction has been published in numerous literary journals,
including DoubleTake, North American Review, Crazyhorse, Fiction, Willow
Spring, and Artful Dodge, and has 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. He was a 2005
Fellow in Nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundation for the Arts
(NYFA) and was a finalist for the NYFA prize.
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.
KURT
BROWN
is founding director of the Aspen Writers’ Conference, served for years
on the board of Sarabande Books, is currently on the board of Poets House,
and is the editor of three annuals which gather outstanding lectures from
writers’ conferences and festivals. He has edited several anthologies.
The most recent, Conversation Pieces: Poems That Talk to Other Poems
will be published next year in Knopf’s Everyman’s Library series. He is
the author of five chapbooks and four full-length collections of poems.
He is on the graduate studies writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College
and teaches at writers’ conferences, retreats and other venues across
the U.S.
JOAN
POTTER's
nonfiction writing has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers,
and anthologies. She is the author of three books, including African
American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in
America, published in fall 2002. She is the editor of 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 recently edited Mountain Shadows: An Adirondack Novel of Courage,
Danger, and Love, published in August 2005 by Pinto Press, a small
publishing company of which she is co-owner. She is a regular contributor
to the Westchester County Times.
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.
CATHERINE
WALD is author of The Resilient Writer: Tales of Triumph and Rejection
From 23 Top Authors (Persea Books, 2005), winner of an American Society
of Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award. She maintains an engaging
website, www.rejectioncollection.com and her articles have been anthologized
and published widely (including The New York Times, Poets & Writers,
and Writer’s Digest).
THAD
RUTKOWSKI ’s novel, Roughhouse (Kaya Press), was a finalist
for the Members’ Choice of the Asian American Literary Awards, and his
new novel, Tetched, has just been published. 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. He teaches fiction writing
at the Writer’s Voice of the West Side YMCA.
ELIZABETH
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.
WILLIAM
ZINSSER is the author of two very widely used books about writing,
On Writing Well (family history is a new chapter in the just-released
30th anniversary edition) 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.
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 was just named Poet Laureate of Greenburgh, New York.
Brenda 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.
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.
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.