WELCOME TO THE HVWC CALENDAR: home of all our upcoming readings, events and workshops. You can view by list or calendar (see right menu to choose). Click the colored tabs below to show only specific options. Our workshops run as multi-session series or one-day “intensives.” Note, we list the multi-session courses on the first day they meet only. The full dates of the session are described in the course descriptions. You would need to scroll back to the start date if you needed to enroll for something already underway. But do let us know if you want to join something in midstream since we need the blessing of the instructor. Questions? Email us.
Workshops – This category encompasses all one-day and multi-week classes, whether in person or via Zoom.
Readings – Our readings are in many different genres and take place in person, on Zoom, or both!
HVWC Recurring Events – This category encompasses such regular favorites as Open Mic, Open Write, and Submission Sunday.
Special Events – These other creative experiences are sure to interest our creative community!
How to Find a Voice and Make It Yours: A Fiction Craft workshop with Ben Cheever (via Zoom)
July 9 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
$265.00
There’s a collision when we write—between what’s in our hearts and minds and what is expressed and altered on the page. The first car wreck is between ourselves and our words. The second one is between those words and our reader. Whether we survive or not as writers depends on how much or how little that reader believes us. How much the reader trusts our voice.
During our first class, we’ll read aloud a sample from a well known writer with a distinct voice. I’ll point out techniques being shown off in this flash of lightning. You’ll then take ten minutes to compose your own imitation of that voice. In the second class, we’ll also begin with one page in a great writers voice and we’ll talk about how that writer connects with us through voice. You will then take 15 minutes to write a page in your own voice. Each class will begin with a different, well known writers unique voice, which we will analyze to determine which basic skills are used. During the final class we will all write one extraordinary page in the voice we have been building and discovering for ourselves. I will give you my comments on this last work. Here’s the paradox of voice. We will all use the same rules which I will repeat and repeat and repeat. If we follow the rules, we will all sound good—but different. Good prose is a fingerprint. And voice is what makes it yours.
NB: This four-week class will be taught on Zoom (Tuesday, July 19-Tuesday July 30, 6-8 PM ET ) and will be capped at 12 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
Ben Cheever edited The Letters of John Cheever and has published four novels (The Plagiarist, The Partisan, Famous After Death and The Good Nanny). He has written two books of nonfiction—Selling Ben Cheever and Strides. With illustrator Tim Grajek, he produced a children’s book tittled The First Dog. Ben taught writing at The New School for Social Research and in the Bennington MFA program. If you go to PCTV.76.org and type Ben Cheever into the search you can see him hosting a show started with Herb Hadad. Ben has free-lanced for The New Yorker and The New York Times. He’s chin-deep in a book on Canis Lupus Familiaris. He lives in Pleasantville, New York.