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Summer 2009 Writing Workshops | ||||
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Workshops are being added to this schedule as they are confirmed. Please check back here often for updates. To register, click here. | ||||
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Please
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, some of our workshops may be held at an alternate location. We will notify you if your workshop is taking place at a location other than the Writers' Center building (Philipse Manor RR Station). | ||||
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Summer Workshops for Adults
One and Two-Day Workshops
Summer Workshops for Young Writers
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Summer 2009 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. |
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FINDING
THE HEART OF YOUR STORY 4
Saturdays, July 11 - August 1 "What's your story about?" Many writers hate that question because they think it reduces something big and complex to something small and simplistic. The truth is that when we can't get a story started or when we labor for months or years on dozens of drafts, it's often because we haven't found the simple human truth that the story is trying to tell. Fortunately, there are techniques we can use to cut through the fog and discover what your story is trying to be. In this workshop for begining and experienced fiction writers, we'll look at how other writers have turned simple human truths into the driving engine for their stories, and try those techniques ourselves in a supportive and creative setting. Status: started 7/11 |
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SERIOUSLY
SCARY STORIES 6
Saturdays, July 11 - August 15 Status: cancelled |
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HOW
TO WRITE PAGE-TURNING FICTION 4 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: started 7/16 |
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MEMOIR
WRITING 4 Tuesdays,
10:15 am - 12:15 pm Are you compelled to write about the transforming events in your life? Do you want to record stories from your past? Are you haunted by vivid memories and drawn to explore the circumstances that surround them? Whether you are in the process of writing a memoir or just getting started, this workshop is a supportive environment where you will read your work aloud each week and receive constructive feedback. It also provides a structure to help you develop and maintain a regular writing practice. Writers of all levels, working on short pieces or book-length works, are welcome. Status: completed |
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THE
ART OF THE ESSAY 4 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: cancelled |
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WRITING
AS HEALING 4 Fridays,
11 am - 1 pm “I came to see the
damage that was done Using her skills as poet, therapist, and certified life coach and sharing inspiration from the"healing" poets—Mary Oliver, Lucille Clifton, Rumi, Linda Pastan, etc.—Ms. Safir will lead you into writing exercises to free your emotions, find coherence and greater meaning. Finding language for our struggles becomes an active meditation that once shared, opens us to the comfort of others. In the words of Mary Oliver, "so this is how you swim inward/so this is how you flow outward." The free stream of writing becomes a digging instrument that helps to reconcile different aspect of our selves. Writers at all stages are welcome. Status: started 7/17 |
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PANNING
FOR GOLD Thursdays,
July 30; August 6 & 20 (note class start date
was moved from July 23 to July 30)
Status: cancelled |
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Summer 2009 One and Two-Day Workshops 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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WRITING
WITH THE BODY - A Workshop for poets and prose writers Saturday, June
20 The act of writing is far deeper than the act of thinking because it is a bodily exploration of the world. I'm not thinking about Hemingway going to the war, or whether to draft by hand or on computer. This is about the presence and primacy of sense experience in one's writing-in image, description, metaphor, sound, pacing, and the shaping of poems and narrative plots. The intellect certainly has its role in the writing process, though it is a far different one than people ordinarily assume. Through the use of models and exercises, in both poetry and prose, this workshop aims to connect participants to new attitudes and deeper layers of their writing craft. The opposite of writing with the body would be writing with the ego, which is how most writing is done, and why it fails, and so quieting the ego will be a big theme. For all levels of writers. Status: completed |
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PUBLISHING
SUCCESS Monday, August
3 Improve your odds of becoming a published writer. Beginning and emerging authors learn to analyze the editorial interests of publishers and match their own styles to print and online journals, magazines, and presses. We consider all aspects of the writing business, including how to keep up with changes in the marketplace. Topics covered include copyright and contracts, cover and query letters, chapbooks, print and electronic formats, standard publishing practices, readings and performances, literary agents, grants, fellowships, conferences, colonies, book promotion, and standard business practices--and strategies for success. Status: completed |
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Summer 2009 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. |
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LEARNING
TO SEE™: CREATIVE WRITING FOR TEENS AGE 14+ Wednesdays,
July 1 - July 29: sign up for 3, 4, or all
5 dates Five stand-alone 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: completed
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CREATIVE
WRITING FOR THIRD, FOURTH & FIFTH GRADERS 10 am - noon choose 4 or more dates:
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: open and accepting registrations for dates above in bold |
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To register, click here For information on any of our instructors, click here For further information on any of our workshop offerings, call the HVWC at (914) 332-5953 or email us at info@writerscenter.org. Due to Metro North’s ongoing Hudson Line station rehabilitation project at our Philipse Manor station home, some of our workshops may be held at an alternate location. We will notify you if your workshop is taking place at a location other than the Writers' Center building (Philipse Manor RR Station). |
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Spring
2009 |
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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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