EVENTS 16
WORKSHOPS 20
Workshop & Event Guide
Meet Joe
BOOK TALK 43
Summer 2016
The hottest literary event in the region!
The 7th Annual Gaithersburg
Book Festival Saturday, May 21, 2016 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. FREE Admission
Gaithersburg City Hall Grounds Meet dozens of today’s best-selling, award-winning and up and coming authors, presenting on 10 stages: Diane Rehm, Jeffery Deaver, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Anthony Marra, Roger Rosenblatt, Gennifer Choldenko, Juan Williams, Alice McDermott Also enjoy free writing workshops, book sales and signings, and a world of activities for kids.
www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org
Also find us on
(@GburgBookFest)
In Partnership with
The Writer’s Center Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
writer.org
DEPARTMENTS
Editor
DIRECTOR’S NOTE 5
Vanessa Mallory Kotz
INSTRUCTOR BIOS 34
EVENTS 16
vanessa.mallorykotz@writer.org
BOOK TALK 43
WORKSHOPS:
Contributors
Joanne “Rocky” Delaplaine Genevieve DeLeon Renee Gherity Leslie Harris Sarah Katz Vanessa Mallory Kotz Lia Purpura Amanda Stoltz Robin Talbert Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios Pamela Murray Winters
ON THE SCENE 44
Schedule 20 Descriptions 24
REGISTRATION 47
FEATURES 6 Finding Your Literary Community Prolific essayist and poet Lia Purpura, who reads at the Center on May 15, offers advice on how to make your writing group successful.
8 Joe Callahan Takes Charge
Graphic Design
Virtually Detailed, Inc.
Fresh from a five-year stint leading 826DC, Joe Callahan brings energy and charm—and a ton of new ideas to The Writer’s Center.
Copyeditors
Laura Spencer Ellyn Wexler
32 You Asked, We Answered Workshop participant and TWC intern Sarah Katz explains, step-bystep, how to navigate our online worshop platform.
Cover Image
Mignonette Dooley Contact Us
38 E. Ethelbert Miller The poet, activist, and arts advocate opens up about his influences and his pursuit of social justice through art.
4508 Walsh Street Bethesda, MD 20815 301-654-8664 (p) 240-223-0458 (f) Writer.org E. Ethelbert Miller, co-editor of Poet Lore, and Genevieve DeLeon, managing editor, celebrate the journal’s birthday celebration last year. Photo by Judson Battaglia
Facebook.com/writerscenter Twitter: @writerscenter Instagram: thewriterscenter Youtube & Pinterest
The Writer’s Center
cultivates the creation, publication, presentation and dissemination of literary work. We are an independent literary organization with a global reach, rooted in a dynamic community of writers. As one of the premier centers of its kind in the country, we believe the craft of writing is open to people of all backgrounds and ages. Writing is interdisciplinary and unique among the arts for its ability to touch on all aspects of the human experience. It enriches our lives and opens doors to knowledge and understanding. The Writer’s Center is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible. A copy of our current financial statement is available upon request. Contact The Writer’s Center at 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815. Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of copying and postage. Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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ABOUT US
The Writer’s Center
Other Locations Annapolis Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts 801 Chase Street Annapolis, MD 21404 marylandhall.org
Capitol Hill
Executive Director
Marketing & Comnmunications Manager
Joe Callahan
Vanessa Mallory Kotz
Assistant Director
Managing Editor of Poet Lore & Membership Manager
Sunil Freeman
The Hill Center 921 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 hillcenterdc.org
Genevieve DeLeon
Program Manager
Office Manager & Graphics Assistant
Laura Spencer
Judson Battaglia
Development Coordinator
Glen Echo
Night Receptionists
Kristen Zory King
Glen Echo Park 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD 20812 glenechopark.org
Liz McGuire James Ebersole
Board of Directors Leesburg
Chair: Sally Mott Freeman
Leesburg Town Hall 25 West Market Street Leesburg, VA 20176 leesburgva.com
Treasurer: Margaret Meleney
Vice Chair: Mier Wolf Secretary: Patricia Harris
Chair Emer: James T. Mathews Ken Ackerman • Margot Backas • Linna Barnes • Naomi F. Collins Mark Cymrot • Michael Febrey • Les Hatley • John M. Hill Jeff Kosseff • Howard Lavine • Jim McAndrew Ann McLaughlin • E. Ethelbert Miller • Joram Piatigorsky
Poet Lore is the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the United States. We publish it semi-annually, and submissions are accepted year-round. Subscription and submission information is available at poetlore.com.
Bill Reynolds • Wilson W. Wyatt, Jr.
Honorary Board Kate Blackwell • Dana Gioia • Jim & Kate Lehrer Alice McDermott • Ellen McLaughlin • Howard Norman
Supported in part by:
Book Gallery TWC’s book gallery carries an extensive collection of literary magazines and books on craft. 4508 Walsh Street Bethesda, MD 20815
The Writer’s Center also gratefully acknowledges the support we receive from: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The TauFoundation, The Omega Foundation, and The Bydale Foundation.
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View online at www.writer.org/guide
DIRECTOR’S NOTE I strongly believe that writing is an act of courage. – Ta-Nehisi Coates1
Photo by Mignonette Dooley
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hat thing you are writing is awesome.
Never in the history of the world have human beings written as much as we do today.2 If somehow this magazine has ended up in your hands, and you are reading these very words, you too, are interested in how 26 characters combine to form the ideas and stories that have defined our humanity and moved our civilizations forward. 3 In The Atlantic, National Book Award-winner Ta-Nehisi Coates dissected his writing and creative process. “I always consider the entire process about failure,” he said, “and I think that’s the reason why more people don’t write.” Writing is a struggle, a constant fight against the thoughts in your head, the stories you want to tell, the argument 1
you wish to make, and the capacity for which you can translate all of that onto paper. 4 Writing takes time. It takes practice. It takes a constant working and reworking of words and sentences and punctuation. The hope, Coates continues, is about reaching that breakthrough, where those words and sentences are as powerful as you need them to be. Too often, writing is a solitary act5—one person banging their head against a wall or staring out into the woods, searching endlessly for that perfect metaphor, that perfect adjective. The Writer’s Center breaks down those walls and provides occasions for individuals at all skill levels to find support in a community of writers, whether by participating in a workshop, finding a writing group, or attending a reading (See pages 16, 20). We actively create opportunities to become engaged literary citizens.
organization’s history. We celebrate the Center’s 40th Anniversary this year, and we are excited that journalist Chris Matthews and National Book Award-winner Alice McDermott will help mark the occasion through special events this summer (page 17). Now is a time to reflect on our past accomplishments, but also a time to look forward. I am excited to grow the organization in smart and sustainable ways, to build our impact across larger and diverse audiences, to bring our services to places where they haven’t been before or grow our programs in places where the voices are too often ignored—whether it is a senior center, a military hospital, or an ESL classroom. Because all of us have a voice. All of us have a story. All of us are fighting the struggle, searching for our breakthrough, and that thing you are writing is awesome. Joe Callahan, Executive Director
I took over as the Executive Director of The Writer’s Center in early January6 at a dynamic time in the
“Advice on Writing from Ta-Nehisi Coates,” The Atlantic. August 5, 2015.
This is based entirely off of pure speculation and no scientific study has gone into the making of this statement. But, we sure do text, tweet, Facebook, and Yelp! a lot.
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Though, some may argue that a certain candidate for President of the United States, who is known for “having the best words,” isn’t necessarily helping.
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I have a great idea for a novel. That novel, though, is not writing itself.
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See Thoreau, Henry David
We probably haven’t met yet. But please, swing by soon. I’d love to hear about what you’re working on and your experience at The Writer’s Center. If we have met, and you are reading this—it’s great to talk to you again.
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Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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Forming Community A Few Thoughts on the Writing Workshop By Lia Purpura Listening
Setting an Ethos
O
ne of my close friends, a theology professor, is also a deacon at a church in Baltimore. He wrote a beautiful and powerful homily after the shootings in San Bernardino, in essence about not being ashamed to pray at such times (there had been a lot of talk about how prayer wasn’t enough and so on). I could have read his homily online where he posts them all, and I started to, but I stopped half-way through and knew I’d go to his church that Sunday to hear him speak it. I’m not Catholic, and not a churchgoer, but I wanted to hear his words in communion with others. Somehow I sensed that these words in particular needed to be received in the presence of others, breathing together, concentrating and feeling as one. Communal listening (and listening toward repair of some sort in this case) was consequential. This is all to say that we might consider the workshop to be a place where the public nature of our words allows us to perceive those words very differently. We might consider the gathering together itself as a creative act that, in one way or another, will change the way we hear our own work. Practically, then, I like to spend time helping writers read their work aloud in effective ways.
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An early and important gesture (for the group’s leader) is the laying out of some rules for how to behave/live in a community. This step is often skipped (in favor of informality I think), but I’ve found that students across the board (undergraduate and graduate, at summer conferences and in weekend workshops) are deeply grateful for even the most basic parameters that assert a tone of rigor and respect and set some procedures for interacting and commenting.
These rules and rituals also assure students that I, as their leader, will uphold these basics. In pretty much any class in which I’ve dispensed with these rules, or thought them superfluous, I’ve regretted it. And once the rules/parameters are there (written and handed out), it’s a great help to be able to point to them if something needs correcting, rather than having to call someone out for bad behavior.
Ground rules for basic/decent/procedural behavior might include: Listening to others attentively Asking neutral questions—and not questions veiled as criticism— so: “what effects were you after with the pace of that last stanza?” as opposed to: “why is that last stanza so long?” Not activating cliques or exclusively pairing up with pals in class Attempting to participate even if shy Actively drawing out others if you’re not reticent
View online at www.writer.org/guide
Habits of Daily Practice To create a community that’s full of trust and exploration and where students feel free to learn from each other, it’s important for everyone to engage in the habits of daily practice and to share the results of journal exercises (or some exercise) in class. Key to sharing prepared or impromptu stuff is the frame students are taught to apply to such exercises: these writings are not up for judgment. I don’t care if they’re good or bad. Instead, the writer’s angle on the exercise, his/her interpretation, point of entry, language choices, as-yet-unrealized intriguing moments, length, mimicry of another poet, transposition
of the exercise—all these ways of interpreting are to be presented as approaches, possibilities, “takes” on ways of seeing. The routine of sharing daily practices begins to build the habit of sketching, the habit of freely attempting, and then, writing daily becomes a less precious act and, I hope, an act that students get interested in for the purposes of discovery, rather than for the purposes of producing “good” work.
Fostering Literary Alliances Finally, a workshop, as a community, can at its best, live and thrive and continue far beyond the borders of the classroom. Though I’ve had students meet in
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ia Purpura’s extensive teaching experience ranges from M.F.A. programs to writers conferences to nonacademic workshops, including roles as Writer in Residence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and instructor at the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, WA. Purpura has also served as visiting writer at prestigious programs throughout the country, including the University of Iowa, Columbia University, and the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference.
my workshop and later get married (rare, but really fun), my goal is to advance strong literary friendships by showing students how they can work with each other without my instigations. A strong set of literary entrusteds (or even one right individual) will be sustaining in important ways when the general group energy of the workshop comes to an end. Throughout my workshops, I try to point out ways student x might be interested in student y’s approach or suggest a and b should share their latest poems with each other, which can often help students connect in ways they might be too shy to try otherwise.
Purpura will give a reading at The Writer’s Center on Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. Photo by Alan Kolo
Purpura is the author of three collections of essays, one collection of translations, and four collections of poems, most recently, It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful. Her poems and essays appear in Agni Magazine, Ecotone, Field, The Georgia Review, Orion, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Ploughshares, and The Southern Review, as well as in various anthologies. She is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, a Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, three Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, and multiple residencies and fellowships at the MacDowell Colony. Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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Getting Acquainted with Joe Callahan By Vanessa Mallory Kotz built environment we have here. It’s about taking what we have—a good place—and turning it into a really great place.” Board of Directors Chair Sally Mott Freeman couldn’t be more thrilled to have him aboard. “Joe is a fast-rising star in the Washington nonprofit community and has a strong background in and appreciation for world-class writing and literature,” she said. “He is the ideal leader to shape the future of this unique and wellloved literary jewel.”
J
oe Callahan began his tenure as executive director of The Writer’s Center on the frosty first Monday in January 2016. From the moment he walked through the double glass doors, Callahan’s dynamic energy began to take hold—and it was infectious. One of his first action items was an email asking, “Do we do happy hours around here?” Wasting no time, Callahan spent his first two weeks meeting with members of the staff and Board of Directors individually, learning the ins and outs of the Center’s operations and getting to know the people behind the organization. He reached out to workshop leaders and members as well, chatting with them at a series of informal happy hours (!) at Vino Volo and Petworth Citizen.
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Callahan soon recognized the Center’s strength comes from its community. “We have a group of passionate writers that take courses, a group of passionate writers that teach courses, and a staff that really wants to help the organization grow and become a truly inspirational and creative place,” he said. “We have a wonderful location that is near the Metro and can be a home for all of these people.” From the cost of toner to determining technology needs to the event planning process, no stone has been left unturned. “Through close study,” Callahan explained, “we’ll be able to harness the skill sets of everyone involved in this really amazing community to improve the quality of the courses we’re offering, our events, and the
Prior to coming to The Writer’s Center, Callahan served five years as the executive director of 826DC, the youngest chapter in the 826 national network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers. He grew the organization to serve nearly 5,000 students per year, increased the organizational budget nearly 800%, and won the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Art Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education (2014). “One of the things I did at 826DC was work with students (ages 6 to 18) to help them develop their creative and expository writing skills, and then we worked with teachers to inspire their students to write,” Callahan said. “I feel we have an obligation as literary citizens to promote, empower, train, and educate individuals interested in pursuing these sorts of creative endeavors.”
View online at www.writer.org/guide
Left: Photo by Mignonette Dooley; Above: Instructor Aaron Hamburger and Callahan mingle at Petworth Citizen; Founder/Executive Director of Imagination Stage Bonnie Fogel, Callahan, and Board Member Naomi Collins pose at Vino Volo, photos by Vanessa Mallory Kotz
Callahan also has worked as a writing professor at both American University and The George Washington University. Beyond teaching, he has worked and consulted for a wide range of nonprofit organizations, including public policy institutions and museums. “My career has basically been spent teaching writing, working in writing organizations, and doing my own learning through writing,” he said. “The Writer’s Center seemed like a place that combined all those passions and interests. I found that exciting as a leadership opportunity to take on an organization with such a storied history.” Poet Kyle Dargan, associate professor of literature and director of creative writing at American University, has known Callahan for years. “Joe has a great understanding of opportunity, which is invaluable in the arts sector…
from the workshops that led to the White House Poetry Symposium to my current attempt to bring some Cave Canem (voices of African American poetry) programming to D.C., he always assesses the value and impact first.” He added, “If the value is there, Joe finds a way to efficiently marshal the resources at hand or find other partners. I save my best ideas for Joe. It doesn’t hurt that he is a decent and affable man as well.” This affable man is not afraid to get his hands dirty. “For the first four years at 826, I was the janitor,” he said. That roll-up-yoursleeves, start-up mentality is a great fit for the Center where, due to its tiny staff, everyone wears multiple hats. From fixing the sound equipment at the winter art opening to scouting out more elegant serving platters for receptions, he fits right in. Callahan earned a B.A. in international affairs from The George Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
Washington University and an M.A. in writing with a focus in nonfiction from Johns Hopkins University. He also has a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. He looks to who he calls “literary citizens” for inspiration: “Someone like Neil Gaiman, a fantastic writer and storyteller, but also who is amazingly generous and supportive of the literary community and the communities who have the highest need,” he said. “I love what Dave Eggers does with his foundations and 826. Those people use their fame, for lack of a better word, their celebrity, and their influence to support and develop young writers.” Although he has had his fair share of celebrity associations, Callahan also has a deep respect for less glamorous literary pur-
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suits—like poetry. “You’re never going to get rich being a poet; you have to do it because you love it, because you love the artistry around it.” In particular, he is moved by the raw emotion of a literary witness, such as the way Jamaal May addresses gun violence through his poem “The Gun Joke” and how Daniel Johnson’s “In the Absence of Sparrows”
Callahan is also a voracious reader of fiction, “though having a two-year-old makes it a little harder to do that as much. I’ve read The Little Blue Truck probably 100 times and I could probably recite it for you,” he said. A devoted fan of Kurt Vonnegut, he revealed, “Vonnegut made me realize I could do anything with
Callahan addresses attendees of the Ekphrasis art opening and poetry reading, photo by Mignonette Dooley
mourns his best friend, photojournalist James Foley, who was executed in Syria in 2014 by the terrorist group ISIS. Speaking of poetry, the new director has strong feelings about the importance of Poet Lore to the Center. “Our mission is to cultivate the creation, presentation, and dissemination of literary works. Poet Lore is our publication, Poet Lore is our presentation,” he said. “We get to produce and support the publication of the oldest poetry journal in the country. It is an amazing asset, and I’m so happy it’s a part of The Writer’s Center.”
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words, from simple texts to crazy muddled ideas of religion, science, and storytelling.” He added: “He was the first author I ever read that made me say, ‘I want to write like that. I want to do that.’ In a world where I was reading classics, which are still some of my favorite books, it wasn’t until I picked up Slaughterhouse-Five as a teenager that I said, ‘this is what writing can do,’ versus what writing ‘has done.’” This love of reading naturally led to a desire to contribute to the literary world. “As long as I can remember, I’ve loved to write. It was always something
I did. I had journals as a kid, I wrote my own stories,” he said. “I had always thought I would go into some sort of profession where that was truly the focal point,” he added. “I wrote for my college newspaper, but then, in a fit of confusion, I decided that maybe I wanted to be a lawyer or go into a foreign service. I left writing in a way that kind of saddened me.” After further exploring some of these alternatives, Callahan decided to follow his heart and went back to his original plan. While working at Johns Hopkins University’s American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, he took advantage of the university employment benefit of taking classes. “In the process of trying to figure out what it is I wanted to study, I could have gone to business school or gotten another degree in International Studies Affairs, but I wanted to do something I loved. I chose writing, and I was able to really learn and hone my work.” On earning his master’s, he said, “I was able to work with some really great people like Bob Wilson, who’s the editor of the American Scholar and was my thesis advisor, so I had a really great experience and that fundamentally changed the trajectory of my life.” Good-natured and open-minded, Callahan is also decisive and meticulous. He might be found straightening paintings in the Reading Room or championing the cleanup effort in the front office.
View online at www.writer.org/guide
“My leadership style is very fitting to my personality,” he said, “which, according to Myers Briggs, is ENTJ (“The Commander”). It usually means I am the charismatic super villain (Magneto, Tywin Lannister, etc.) so in short, I have a forceful personality and can be stubborn. I’ll fight to the end if I feel like I’m right.” In meetings, Callahan’s words tumble out in a rush of ideas and enthusiasm. Beyond the daily grind of office work or “getting through” the next season, he talks about a vision for five, ten years down the road. “For me, the first year will be about investing time, resources, and talents into a thoughtful and meaningful visioning and strategic planning process,” he said. “As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we can look back and see all these amazing successes. But as we think about the next 40 years, how do we build an organization that celebrates our history but also adapts to the dynamic changes happening in the literary and nonprofit
world? And how do we provide all the resources and programming for a writer trying to navigate those changes?” Callahan strives to make The Writer’s Center a place that helps writers in their creative endeavors
on every level. “I’m inspired by our workshop participants,” he said. “They are constantly working at their craft and fighting to find any way to do it. I’m just inspired by people who do what they love unapologetically.”
April 29 through May 29 Athol Fugard’s A Lesson from Aloes directed by Laura Giannarelli
July 8 through August 7 An original adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic love story, The Lady with the Little Dog directed by Stephanie Mumford
For additional information call 301-816-1023 or visit www.QuotidanTheatre.org Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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(ek-fre-ses): a poem inspired by a work of art or vice versa
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his year, The Writer’s Center embarked on an unprecedented effort in its 40-year-history to spark a dialogue between writers and artists. In Ekphrasis, a collaboration with The Students of the Corcoran Arts Continuing Education at George Washington University, an exhibition of new paintings and poetry was born. Through an exciting exchange of ideas, poets (both instructors and workshop participants) from the Center were paired with advanced painters from the Corcoran to create work influenced and inspired by each other. The resulting exhibition is co-organized by Corcoran painting instruc-
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tor Mira Hecht and the Center’s marketing and communications manager, Vanessa Mallory Kotz, and made possible through the generous support of Joram and Lona Piatigorsky. It will remain on view this spring.
Eckert, Anne C. Fisher, Aurie Hall, James Hambuechen, Leslie Harris, Yumiko Hirokawa, Tatiane S. Hofstadler, Sabiha Iqbal, Lois Kampinsky, Shaun Murphy, Denise Paolella, and Lona Piatigorsky.
Below are just a few examples of the more than 25 works included in the show through 18 partnerships between poets and painters. An exhibition catalogue is available for purchase on site, at the front desk.
Poets
Painters Fran Beard, Cheryl Bearss, Terry Birkel, Page Carter, Arleen Cheston, Paul Cunningham, Jean
Julie Bingham, Hank Dahlstrom, Rocky Delaplaine, Melanie Figg, Nan Fry, Sara Gama, Renee Gherity, E. Laura Golberg, Ian Golub, Paul Jolly, Ted Kowalsky, Pamela Murray Winters, Anton Piatigorsky, Ann Quinn, Maritza Rivera, Robin Talbert, and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios.
View online at www.writer.org/guide
Photos by Greg Stanley
the letter o by Joanne Rocky Delaplaine O: Your birth month, the full October moon, orange, rising behind oaks. O: the fifteenth letter, shown by Phoenicians with a dot in the middle, as if eyes. O: the mind waking. O slashed: the mind oscillating, just before sleep. O: on Oahu, hula dancers contain the sun. O: the primordial sound Om as it begins in the back of the mouth. O: reading, in high school, The Story of O, a woman who loses, reduces, subtracts herself to zero. O: my fear of such oblivion. O with circumflex: my father’s face when I didn’t say, Sorry. O: abbreviations; old, ocean, Ohio, order, or. O: Ouroboros snake ends where she begins. O: a love cry, a grief cry, a word meaning these two are one. O with umlaut: your saxophone, hitting high E. O: the shape of your matted head pushing out of me. O: my os mirroring. O: your lips just before you took your first breath. O: what I called out when I rocked you and our eyes were Phoenecian—O’s looking into O’s: O daughter, O snow goose, oh-no-gnome, my only O.
Plea for calm waters by Leslie harris
the abyss by Renee Gherity I look forward to seeing you my friend, you with stark black hair and one soft pink tuft, who writes of gods and demons that danced across tectonic plates which pushed and pulled between good and evil, and of their descendants who danced on the slippery gloss of marble tiles and the rough grab of alley tar,
borders
a bloodline of movement back and forth to avoid the crevice suck of nothingness.
by Fran Beard Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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a Boy
The World In Between
by Robin Talbert
by Sabiha Iqbal
She saw the phone as it slid, unnoticed, from the woman’s slanted coat pocket, onto the floor of the train. She got up to retrieve and return it, then paused, as a young black boy reached over and picked it up. She hesitated.
He was twelve, perhaps. Grey hoodie, backpack loaded down. Slightly nervous, on his way home later than his mother expected.
She watched as he gently tapped the woman’s shoulder and handed her the phone.
Dark at five-thirty on the day another grand jury failed to indict a police officer who killed an unarmed black man.
To the Undergarment of the Guitarist Who Ended Our Interview by Pamela Murray Winters You were tight a cotton/lycra blend I can only guess from a respectable distance
and I cannot remember, for all I cogitate, if you had a fly but you were indisputably
probably fairly new possibly bought by his wife and did I say tight
small, a bikini really (if that sounds sufficiently manly) yet somehow not quite vulgar
a startling bluebird blue the color I bet he wished his eyes were
perhaps because it was England where they call you smalls or perhaps because you fit so well
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View online at www.writer.org/guide
Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue by Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios The jazz of the chainsaw wounds as the lop-limbed pines fold and tumble, their silvery needles pushing down against the air
Broken forest by Lois Kampinsky
bowing in genuflection. The light from the newly uncovered sun shyly illuminates my drive like a brief thought of unaccustomed love. Each year there are fewer pines, felled by rot, disease or age but I feel their loss much like the forever green of a lover’s back shored up against mine, the indent no longer sculptured on his pillow. I will get used to this brightness slashing an unfamiliar swath across my drive.
I might even bless it, but those tall shadows— how I will miss them!
by Dropping His Trousers, Basingstoke, Hants, UK, 1998 To the Undergarment by Denise Paoella
the personage who sported you in haste or boast or the interest of full disclosure in fact you performed admirably your duty to uphold and protect and I thank you, minor British rock star briefs, for what you revealed about how far one might go for a story Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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EVENTS
The Writer’s Center
open door readings EVENTS
On most Sundays at 2 p.m., join us at The Writer’s Center for a free reading with award-winning and emerging authors, followed by a book signing and reception.
May 1
Poet David Ebenbach reads from We Were the People Who Moved, his first book-length collection. He is joined by Kathy Flann, author of Get a Grip, and Jen Grow, who reads from her new collection of short stories, My Life as a Mermaid.
June 5
Novelist Richard Seldin reads from Below the Line in Beijing. He is joined by poets Herb Guggenheim, author of Strange Encounter at the Shakespeare Motel, and Luther Jett, author of Not Quite: Poems Written in Search of My Father.
June 12
David Ebenbach
Jen Grow
May 8
Experience the work of emerging poet Jay Deshpande as he reads from his debut book, Love the Stranger. Also reading her latest work is Linda Pastan, Pushcart Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of Maryland, who reads from her collection, Insomnia: Poems, and Jean Nordhaus, winner of the Ohio State University Press’s Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize, whose recent collection is Memos from the Broken World.
May 15
Poet Lia Purpura, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, reads from It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful. Read Purpura’s essay on community on page 6. She is joined by Jennifer Wallace, who reads from The Want Jennifer Wallace Fire, a collection of poems that offer a glimpse into the world of spirits all around us.
POETRY & PROSE OPEN MIC Don’t be shy! Share your latest poem, work of flash fiction, or other short piece. Sign-up begins at 1:30 p.m. The reading starts at 2 p.m. and is followed by a reception. MAY 22 • July 17 • AUGUST 14
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Dana Cann reads from his latest literary mystery, Ghosts of Bergen County. Joining him is Jay Greenfield, reading from Max’s Diamonds, a decades-spanning debut novel about a man forced to confront his moral culpability, the legacy of impossible loss, and the claims of his Jewish identity.
Dana Cann
June 19
A cutting-edge literary magazine right in our backyard, Potomac Review presents an exclusive reading of some of its most compelling work. Readers include Stephanie Allen, Julia Campbell Johnson, Howard Kaplan, and Katrina Norfleet.
Julia Johnson
June 26
Paula Whyman reads from her new collection of stories, You May See a Stranger, which explores the life of Miranda, who can be lascivious, sardonic, and maddeningly self-destructive, but, no matter what befalls her, she never loses her sharp wit or powers of observation as she Elizabeth Poliner navigates her life in Washington. Whyman is joined by novelist Elizabeth Poliner, author of As Close to Us as Breathing, described by Publisher’s Weekly as “an exquisitely written investigation of grief and atonement, and an elegy for a Jewish family bound together by tradition and tribe.”
July 10
Carol Jennings reads from her latest collection of poems, The Dead Spirits at the Piano, in which she communes with composers, poets, saints, friends, ex-lovers, and suicides through sonatas and symphonies and Greek ruins, among other exotic locales. She is joined by Tom Gannon, author of Food for a Journey, a poetry travelogue filled with “lights and darks, joys and concerns, laughter and the kinds of deep observations that give us the pleasure of seeing the world with a fresh perspective,” according to Broadway playwright Ken Ludwig.
View online at www.writer.org/guide
EVENTS
July 24
Fledgling Rag Issue 16 readers include Laura Shovan, Allison Joseph, Jon Tribble, Grace Cavalieri, Michael Gushue, and Clarinda Harriss. Poems in this issue include “Three Skinnys for Their Graves,”“151 in the Well,”“I need you,”“Regatta,” and “The Bloody Red Wheelbarrow.”
Laura Shovan
July 31
Join us for the annual reading by The Federal Poets, an organization dedicated to supporting local writers. Readers include Pam Coulter Blehert, Marjorie Sadin, and Mary Sesso.
August 7
Hear from writers who have participated in the Mariposa Writing Retreat. Readers include founder Maritza Rivera, Yvette Neisser Moreno, Cliff Lynn, Sue Scheid, Sid Gold, Cyd Fulton, and Michael Davis.
Chris Matthews: Thursday, May 5 Doors Open at 8 p.m. Program Starts at 9 p.m. Best known for his nightly talk show on MSNBC, “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” the journalist is also the author of six best-selling books. He will talk about his writing and journalistic career during an evening program and VIP reception. $25 nonmembers; $20 members; $100 VIP Martin Moran: Thursday, May 19 Doors Open at 7 p.m. Program Starts at 7:30 p.m. Martin Moran will read and perform selections from his just-released memoir All the Rage. Moran is an actor and writer who wrote and starred in his autobiographical solo show about his own childhood molestation, “The Tricky Part,” for which he won an Obie Award and received two Drama Desk Award nominations, and which he adapted into a memoir. Free Alice McDermott: Monday, June 6 Doors Open at 7 p.m. Program Starts at 7:30 p.m. Winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Alice McDermott has published seven novels. Her most recent effort, Someone, received five awards, including honors from Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times. McDermott has taught at The Writer’s Center and serves on the Honorary Board. $15 nonmembers; $10 members
August 21
Join editors, contributors, and staff from the Little Patuxent Review in celebrating the journal’s 10th Anniversary. Readers include Steven Leyva, Emily Rich, Jen Grow, and Desirée Magney. Emily Rich
Leesburg First Fridays May 6: POV Matters
Held in the lower level meeting room of Leesburg Town Hall, 25 West Market St. Leesburg, VA, tickets are $6 for nonmembers and $4 for members and Leesburg residents. Programs start at 7:30 p.m.
Robert Bausch offers his expertise on point of view, including how to select the appropriate point of view to tell your story and how to stick with it. Among the acclaimed novelist’s awardwinning titles are Almighty Me (released in film version as Bruce Almighty); A Hole in the Earth, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Washington Post Favorite Book of the Year, and Far as the Eye Can See, a New York Times Editor’s Choice. He teaches at Northern Virginia Community College. Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
June 3: Query Letters: They’re Not So Scary Laurie Miller shares advice for writing query letters that work. She is the author of young adult fiction and formerly worked as a marketer for an independent documentary company.
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EVENTS
40th Anniversary Speakers
ADVERTISEMENTS
The Writer’s Center
Need a place to meet, celebrate, or play? Our Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre, Jane Fox Reading Room, and gorgeously renovated classrooms are available for extremely fair prices. Consider The Writer’s Center for your next: • Film Screening • Concert • Play • Conference • Writing Group Meet-up • Book Launch Party • Study Group • Book Club
Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre Rehearsals (no access to the public) $65/hr Performances - $125/hr Pre- and Post-Performance - $80/hr The Writer’s Center Staff Time* - $25/hr
Jane Fox Reading Room Rehearsals (no access to the public) $35/hr Performances - $80/hr Pre- and Post-Performance - $25/hr The Writer’s Center Staff Time - $25/hr
Classrooms $15/hr (members) $20/hr (non-members) For details terms and conditions, visit www.writer.org/resources/ space-rentals Please contact judson.battaglia@ writer.org for availability inquiries and to book our space.
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View online at www.writer.org/guide
WORKSHOP GUIDELINES WORKSHOP GUIDELINES Learning to write is an ongoing process that requires time and practice. Our writing workshops are for everyone, from novices to seasoned writers looking to improve their skills, to published authors seeking refinement and feedback, to professionals with an eye on competition. Group settings encourage the writing process by teaching writers to prioritize and to help each other using many skills at once. From our workshops, participants can expect: • Guidance and encouragement from a published, working writer; • Instruction on technical aspects such as structure, diction and form; • Kind, honest, constructive feedback directed at individual work; • Peer readers/editors who act as “spotters” for sections of writing that need attention, and who become your community of working colleagues even after the workshop is completed; • Tips on how to keep writing and integrate this “habit of being” into your life; • Tactics for getting published; • Time to share work with other writers and read peers’ work, and • Help with addressing trouble areas and incorporating multiple, sometimes conflicting, ideas into a revision.
BEGINNER LEVEL We strongly suggest that newcomers start with a beginner-level workshop. They are structured to help you discover the fundamentals of creative writing, such as:
• Getting your ideas on the page; • Choosing a genre and the shape your material should take; • Learning the elements of poetry, playwriting, fiction, memoir, etc.; • Identifying your writing strengths and areas of opportunity and • Gaining beginning mastery of the basic tools of all writing, such as concise, accurate language, and learning how to tailor them to fit your style.
smaller groups with distinguished writers on a specific project or manuscript. Workshop leaders select participants from the pool of applicants; selection is competitive.
REGISTRATION Workshop registration is available online at www.writer.org, in person at The Writer’s Center, via mail, online or by phone at (301) 654-8664.
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
refund policy
These workshops will build on skills you developed in the beginner level, and are designed for writers who have: • Critiqued some published works; • Taken a beginner-level workshop; • Achieved some grace in using the tools of language and form and • Have projects in progress they want to develop further.
To receive a credit, you must notify TWC by e-mail ( judson.battaglia@ writer.org) within the drop period. • Full refunds are given only when TWC cancels a workshop. • Workshop participants who have enrolled in and paid for a workshop and choose to withdraw from it within the drop period (see below) will receive a full credit to their account that can be used within one year to pay for another workshop and/or a membership.
ADVANCED LEVEL Participants should have manuscripts that have been critiqued in workshops at the intermediate level and have been revised substantially. This level offers: • Focus on the final revision and completion of a specific work; • Fast-paced setting with higher expectations of participation and • Deep insight and feedback.
MASTER LEVEL Master classes are designed for writers who have taken several advanced workshops and have reworked a manuscript into what they believe is its final form. Master classes are unique opportunities to work in
Find Your Niche The Writer’s Center recognizes that all writers and styles are unique! Our staff can help you find the right course(s) for your level of experience, preferred genre and overall goals. Call us at (301) 654-8664.
Drop Period for Credit 5 or more sessions: 48 hours notice required before the second meeting 4 or fewer sessions: 48 hours notice required before the first meeting Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
19
SUMMER WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
The Writer’s Center
SCHEDULE
FICTION (PAGES 24–26)
LEADER
DATES
DAY
TIME
LEVEL
Flash Fiction
Lynn Stearns
5/25–6/29
W
10 a.m.–12 p.m.
ALL
The Extreme Novelist
Kathryn Johnson
5/25–7/13
W
7–9:30 p.m.
I/A
Beginning Fantasy Fiction
Brenda W. Clough
5/26–6/2
Th
7:30–9:30 PM
B
Fiction Workshop
Jennifer Buxton
5/26–7/21
Th
7–9:30 p.m.
B/I
Fiction I*
Con Lehane
6/1–7/6
W
12–3 p.m.
B
The Facts of Fiction
Robert Friedman
6/4–7/23
S
1:15–3:15 p.m.
ALL
Write Tight!
Alan Orloff
6/11
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
B
Elements of Fiction: Dialogue
Alan Orloff
6/11
S
2–4:30 p.m.
B
Conflict & Tension
Kathryn Johnson
6/18
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
Beginning Fantasy Fiction
Brenda W. Clough
6/22–6/29
W
7:30–9:30 p.m.
B
Write and Publish Short Stories
Amy Abrams
6/25
S
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
ALL
The Muddle in the Middle
Kathryn Johnson
6/25
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
Fiction I
Aaron Hamburger
6/28–8/16
T
7–9 p.m.
B
Short Story I
Susan Land
7/6–7/22
W/F
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
B
Fiction II*
Con Lehane
7/20–8/24
W
7–9:30 p.m.
I/A
Your First Novel
Kathryn Johnson
7/23–7/30
S
10 a.m.–1 p.m.
ALL
Writing the Popular Novel
Kathryn Johnson
8/3–8/31
W
7–9:30 p.m.
ALL
Making Characters Come Alive with Dialogue
Kathryn Johnson
8/13
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
Pacing Your Story
Kathryn Johnson
8/27
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
NONFICTION (PAGES 26–27)
LEADER
DATES
DAY
TIME
LEVEL
Travel Writing
Joyce Winslow
5/19–6/2
Th
1:30–3:30 p.m.
B
Nuts & Bolts of Publishing Nonfiction Articles
Ellen Ryan
5/24–6/28
T
7–9:30 p.m.
B/I
How to Break Into Travel Writing with a Story that Sells
Christine Koubek
5/25–6/8
W
7–9:30 p.m.
B/I
Creative Nonfiction
Pamela Toutant
5/26–6/16
Th
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
B/I
Advanced Travel Writing
Joyce Winslow
6/1–6/15
W
1:30–3:30 p.m.
A
Memoir and Personal Essay Summer Retreat
Cathy Alter
6/20–6/24
M-F
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
ALL
Telling and Writing Your Stories*
Solveig Eggerz
6/18–7/23
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
All in the Family: A Memoir Series
Nicole Miller
6/27–7/25
M
6–9 p.m.
ALL
Mastering the Short Essay*
Pamela Gerhardt
7/9–7/16
S
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
B/I
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View online at www.writer.org/guide
POETRY (PAGES 27–29)
LEADER
DATES
DAY TIME
LEVEL
Making It Whole: Poetry Chapbook Workshop
Anne Becker
5/21–7/16
S
10 a.m.–1 p.m.
A
Poetry I: An Introduction to Craft & Beauty
Melanie Figg
5/23–7/25
M
7–9:30 p.m.
B/I
Ekphrasis: Muses in Conversation
Sandra Beasly
5/29
Su
1–4 p.m.
ALL
Dark Matters
Cacayo Ballesteros
6/4–6/25
S
1:30–3:30 p.m.
ALL
Chapbook: A Poetry Workshop*
Lucian Mattison
6/7–6/28
T
7–9 p.m.
I/A
Getting Your Poetry Published
Michele Wolf
6/11
S
2–5 p.m.
ALL
Different Voices: Persona Poems
Nan Fry
7/23–8/27
S
10:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
I/A
Seeing the Blues in Poetry*
Bennie Herron
8/6–8/20
S
2:30–4 p.m.
ALL
Master Poetry Class
Stanley Plumly
8/9–8/18
T/Th
7–9:30 p.m.
M
MIXED GENRE (PAGES 29–30)
LEADER
DATES
DAY TIME
LEVEL
Getting Started: Creative Writing
Liz Rees
5/2–6/13
M
7–9:30 p.m.
B
How to Write a Lot
Kathryn Johnson
5/21
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
ALL
Moving Beyond Writer’s Block with Breath, Meditation, and Movement
Lucinda Marshall and Kim Thompson
6/5
Su
2–5 p.m.
ALL
Finding Your Online Voice
Stef Woods
6/8–6/29
W
7–9 p.m.
B
Yoga and Writing
Amy Abrams
6/18
S
10 a.m.–2 p.m.
ALL
Words and Wine: Use Your Senses to Improve Your Writing
Aaron Hamburger
7/26
T
6:30–8 p.m.
ALL
Getting Started: Creative Writing*
Patricia Gray
7/9–7/16
S
1–4 p.m.
B/I
Writing with Woolf
Nicole Miller
7/16
S
10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. ALL
The Mindful Writing Workshop
Aaron Hamburger
7/28–8/4
Th
7–9 p.m.
Minor Characters: A Major Ingredient in Fiction and Memoir
Nicole Miller
8/20
S
10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. ALL
PROFESSIONAL WRITING (PAGE 30–31)
LEADER
DATES
DAY
TIME
LEVEL
The Art of Storytelling for Business
Amy Abrams
6/4
S
12–4 p.m.
ALL
Write and Publish Articles for Magazines and Websites
Amy Abrams
6/11
S
12–5 p.m.
ALL
How to Write Grant Proposals
Cara Seitchek
7/9–7/23
S
1:30–4 p.m.
ALL
Write Like the News
Hank Wallace
8/25
Th
7–9 p.m.
ALL
B—beginner
I—intermediate
A—advanced
M—master
ALL—all levels —online class
* Indicates workshops held at one of our satellite locations. Please see descriptions for more information. Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
21
ALL
SCHEDULE
SUMMER WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
SUMMER WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
The Writer’s Center
SCHEDULE
STAGE AND SCREEN (PAGE 31)
LEADER
DATES
DAY TIME
LEVEL
Scripts Are All About Structure
John Weiskopf
6/11
S
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
ALL
Writing for Film & Television*
Khris Baxter
6/18
S
10 a.m.–4 p.m.
ALL
New Feature Films Break Screenplay Convention
John Weiskopf
7/9
S
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
ALL
How to Write and Produce Your Independent Film
John Weiskopf
7/30
S
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
ALL
Playwriting: Exposition
Richard Washer
8/11
Th
7:30–10 p.m.
B/I
Playwriting: Character
Richard Washer
8/20
S
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
B/I
ADULTS WRITE FOR CHILDREN (PAGE 31)
LEADER
DATES
DAY TIME
LEVEL
Creating Your Book for Children: Shape it, Submit it, See it in Print
Peter Mandel
6/13
M
7–9:30 p.m.
ALL
YA & MG Novel Workshop
Eva Langston
6/21–7/26
T
2–4:30 p.m.
B/I
A Real Bookstore
Independent, International, Intelligent Writer’s Center members now receive 10% off all purchases!
2814 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC (202) 965-5200 22
View online at www.writer.org/guide
ONLINE
LEADER
DATES
LEVEL
Age-Old & Radical: Approaches to the Sonnet
Erin M. Bertram
5/10–6/28
ALL
Describing the Truth: Approaches to the Lyric Essay
Erin M. Bertram
5/11–6/29
ALL
Small Rooms: Approaches to the Prose Poem
Erin M. Bertram
5/11–6/29
I
Introduction to the Short Story
Christopher Linforth
5/23–7/11
B/I
Establishing Your Online Presence
Bernadette Geyer
5/23–6/13
ALL
Advanced Short Story
Christopher Linforth
5/23–7/11
I/A
Plotting Your Novel
T. Greenwood
5/27–6/17
ALL
Creating Novel Characters
T. Greenwood
5/27–6/17
ALL
Poetry and the Personal Experience
Alexis Pope
6/6–7/25
ALL
4 Essays/Memoirs, 4 Weeks
Dave Singleton
6/7–6/28
ALL
Everyone’s a Critic: Getting Your Opinion Published
Brook Wilensky-Lanford
6/8–7/13
ALL
Beginning Creative Writing
Erin M. Bertram
6/13–8/1
B
Crafting Short Stories
Christopher Linforth
6/20–7/25
ALL
4 Essays/Memoirs, 4 Weeks
Dave Singleton
7/5–7/26
ALL
Poetry Writing 101
Erin M. Bertram
7/11–8/29
B
4 Essays/Memoirs, 4 Weeks
Dave Singleton
8/2–8/23
ALL
Intro to the Novel
T. Greenwood
8/5–9/23
ALL
B—beginner
I—intermediate
A—advanced
M—master
ALL—all levels —online class
* Indicates workshops held at one of our satellite locations. Please see descriptions for more information. Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
23
SCHEDULE
SUMMER WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
WORKSHOPS
The Writer’s Center
For more detailed class descriptions, please visit writer.org Note: TWC will be closed for Memorial Day and Independence Day.
Fiction Introduction to Christopher Linforth
the Short Story
Participants will read classic and contemporary short stories and develop their own theories and opinions on the constituent elements of the genre. Through a set of writing exercises, they will explore the craft of short fiction and establish a sound grasp of the essential building blocks: character, point of view, dialogue, setting, plot, structure, and theme. By the course’s end, each participant will have written, workshopped, and revised a complete story and have material for many others. 8 Weeks Online
N/A 5/23–7/11 Beginner/ Intermediate $360
workshops
Advanced
Short Story
Christopher Linforth This advanced class will attempt to answer two questions: Why did that story get published? And what does my fiction need to get there? Over eight weeks, participants will distinguish between familiar workshop-type stories and the ones that achieve publication. With writing prompts and in-depth critiques on sentence-level writing, as well as plot, character, and of point of view, participants will have a body of work almost ready--if not ready--to submit. 8 Weeks Online
N/A 5/23–7/11 Intermediate/Advanced $360
Flash Fiction Lynn Stearns For a fun-filled morning, join this class in writing flash fiction. Workshop sessions will consist of reading various forms of flash, studying the components of writing, responding to prompts, and critiquing work by participants. By the end of the workshop, each participant will have at least two polished pieces, a solid understanding of how to proceed with new work, and potential venues for submissions. Participants should bring 10 copies of a fiction piece to the first class. 6 Wednesdays Bethesda
10 a.m.–12 p.m. All Levels
5/25–6/29 $215
The Extreme Novelist Kathryn Johnson Writers who can’t seem to find the time, energy, or inspiration to begin their novel may find this popular course a big help. Designed to guide participants as they complete a rough draft in just eight weeks, this course will require participants to commit to an aggressive writing schedule as they learn the tricks pros use to create a productive working environment. Classes will include troubleshooting discussions, a brief lecture with handouts, in-class writing time, and the opportunity to submit portions of the work-in-progress to the instructor for individual
24
feedback. (Note: This is not a workshopping course. Further information will be sent to registered participants in advance of the first class.) 8 Wednesdays Bethesda
7–9:30 p.m. 5/25–7/13 Intermediate/Advanced $360
Beginning Fantasy Fiction Brenda W. Clough
Fiction I Con Lehane Participants will learn their voices as story writers in this workshop. By the end of the course, participants should have completed a story, possibly more than one; made significant progress on a novel; or come up with a draft of a story. Participants will also learn about the importance of substance and structure to a story, and develop the habits of a writer—to look at the world with a more careful eye, to listen more carefully, noticing what people say and also how they say it.
Vampires, zombies, and halflings with swords! Participants will build a world and write in it. The first session of this workshop will be devoted to the basics of fiction and story construction. In the second session, participants will do a start-up exercise to help get going on a possibly longer work.
6 Wednesdays Capitol Hill
2 Thursdays 7:30–9:30 PM Bethesda Beginner
5/26–6/2 $80
The Facts of Fiction
2 Wednesdays 7:30–9:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
6/22–6/29 $80
12–3 p.m. Beginner
6/1–7/6 $315
Robert Friedman
Open to both beginning and intermediate writers, this workshop focuses on participant work. Participants may finish something they are working on, or start on something new. Everyone will have the chance to have their work read and reviewed by the group. The instructor will also offer prompts and exercises for practice, along with weekly craft talks. Note: No meeting July 7.
This workshop is for writers who want to use real life characters and/or true events in their fiction. To explore the nexus between journalism and novel-writing, each participant will come to class with a “newsworthy” character or event she or he would like to “novelize.” As the writer researches and writes a factual article about the character or event, then creates a fictional piece putting the character or event in a central role, the class will discuss how journalistic principles may apply. They will also (hopefully) intuit a fictional “truth” as filtered through the writer’s research and imagination.
8 Thursdays Bethesda
8 Saturdays Bethesda
Fiction Workshop Jennifer Buxton
Plotting
7–9:30 p.m. 5/26–7/21 Beginner/ Intermediate $360
1:15–3:15 p.m. All Levels
6/4–7/23 $290
Write Tight!
Your Novel
T. Greenwood
Alan Orloff
Whether participants are planners or writers who fly by the seats of their pants, a novel still needs structure. In this workshop, participants will study the architecture of a novel and devise plans for plotting their novels.
In this workshop for beginning fiction writers, participants will learn how to excise excess prose and streamline their work. The class will cover concepts such as show, don’t tell, in late, out early, redundancy, pesky adverbs, and purple prose.
4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
5/27–6/17 $195
Creating
Novel Characters
1 Saturday 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
6/11 $50
T. Greenwood
Elements of Fiction: Dialogue
When writing a novel, a writer must know her primary characters inside and out. She needs to understand their desires, motivations, and frustrations, their histories and futures. This workshop will focus on the development of authentic characters. Participants will examine character as both autonomous and residing within the context of other novelistic elements, and take on the challenge of integrating these various elements into a cohesive whole. Participants will focus on the main character(s) in their novels-in-progress.
This workshop is for writers having trouble getting their dialogue to sparkle. Participants will learn how writing realistic-sounding dialogue has little to do with how people actually speak. They will learn how to use dialogue to advance the plot and reveal character, as well as how to effectively use tags, oblique dialogue, and subtext. The class will also discuss how to incorporate actions within conversations to make written scenes spring to life.
4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
5/27–6/17 $195
Alan Orloff
1 Saturday 2–4:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
View online at www.writer.org/guide
6/11 $50
WORKSHOPS Kathryn Johnson It’s often said that without conflict there is no story. It also holds true that strengthening the conflict in any type of fiction will bump up the tension and turn a limp, ordinary tale into an extraordinary adventure that will keep readers turning pages until the end. Whether participants choose to write literary fiction, mysteries, family sagas, thrillers, historical fiction, sci-fi, or fantasy, they will learn techniques for drawing readers into their tales through action, dialogue, setting details, and plot twists that make their work stand out from the crowd. 1 Saturday Bethesda
Crafting
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
6/18 $50
Short Stories
Christopher Linforth This workshop will examine the qualities of good writing and good storytelling. After a recap on the constituent elements of short fiction, participants will take a fresh look at contemporary and classic stories. Each week, everyone will write short pieces (longer, too) and offer feedback to fellow participants. By the course’s end, several stories will have been workshopped and revised with an eye toward publication. 6 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
6/20–7/25 $270
Write and Publish Short Stories Amy Abrams Participants will explore the art of fiction by writing short stories. In this seminar, they will master the arc of a main protagonist, choosing the best point of view, writing authentic dialogue, enhancing story through setting, and determining tone. This powerful dynamic, fused from the sum of all parts, is the essence of a winning short story and the essential toolset writers need for a successful novel. A former publishing executive, now a professional freelance writer with hundreds of fiction and nonfiction stories published, will teach the tricks of the publishing trade. Bring a laptop or paper/pencil. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–3 p.m. All Levels
6/25 $100
6/28–8/16 $270
Short Story I Susan Land This class will immerse participants in the devastating and redemptive power of short stories. Participants will read them, learn from them, and try their hand at writing one. Class will take place every Wednesday and Friday for three weeks. For the first half of the class, participants will use stories as models for in-class exercises. They will read exercises aloud and discuss how their own work could fit into a dramatic arc or how to enrich a character or setting. In the second half of the workshop, participants will share a draft of a story (less than 3,000 words) with the class. 3 Wed. & Fri. 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
7/6–7/22 $270
Most authors find the middles of their stories the hardest to write. Writers who fail to finish their books, sometimes giving up on them, report that they began losing their confidence and direction after the second or third chapter. Discover a helpful collection of prompts and tasks that will open up a wealth of fresh ideas to get stories moving toward a satisfying climax and resolution. 6/25 $50
Fiction I Aaron Hamburger Participants will learn the elements that make fiction writing dynamic and exciting. They will also get
Participants will concentrate on writing stories—those things with beginnings, middles, and ends that delve into the human spirit. Whether a participant’s bent is the short story or the novel, comedy or tragedy, mystery, suspense, adventure, “or to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before,” certain elements of story writing are universal. Participants will examine such craft elements as character, plot, point of view, voice, pacing, description, dialogue, and setting with an emphasis on the importance of substance and structure to a story. The basic format of the class will be a workshop, but the class will also include exercises and an occasional reading. Participants should have prior experience with fiction writing and preferably a work-in-progress piece. 7–9:30 p.m. 7/20–8/24 Intermediate/Advanced $270
Writing a novel involves a huge commitment of time and energy. But it doesn’t need to be a daunting experience. In this class, participants will learn how to generate a handful of plots from which to choose, how to effectively plan a book, and why basic fiction skills (such as point of view, dialogue, action and exposition, setting, and mood) are helpful. Participants will use this two-session course to select a concept for their novel, construct a flexible writing plan, and discover tricks for keeping the writing flowing and enjoyable. A great course for the beginning fiction writer or for the more experienced author who needs a quick brush-up on techniques and strategies. 2 Saturdays Bethesda
Kathryn Johnson Whether creating a mystery, family saga, fantasy, action-adventure tale, Western, science fiction, love story, historical novel, or a book based on personal experience—participants in this course will learn to understand the preferences of today’s readers and smooth their way toward a completed story that others will want to read. Even today’s award-winning literary authors (e.g., Jonathan Franzen, Donna Tartt, Haruki Murakami) borrow extensively from what we once thought of as elements of “commercial” fiction. Participants will learn how to shape a novel through tried-and-true techniques of best-selling authors. They’ll apply what they learn to a work-in-progress and receive one-on-one feedback from the instructor for scenes selected from their story. (Note: This is not a workshopping class. The emphasis will be on technique growth and application, not on critiquing each other’s work.) 5 Wednesdays Bethesda
7–9:30 p.m. All Levels
8/3–8/31 $225
to the Novel
T. Greenwood
Con Lehane
6 Wednesdays Capitol Hill
Writing the Popular Novel
Intro
Fiction II
Kathryn Johnson
Kathryn Johnson
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
7 Tuesdays 7–9 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
Your First Novel
The Muddle in the Middle
1 Saturday Bethesda
a chance to submit their new creations for a supportive and constructive class review. Come with pen and paper in hand and jump right in. Note: No meeting July 26.
10 a.m.–1 p.m. All Levels
7/23–7/30 $115
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
This workshop will clarify the process of writing a novel. It will focus on everything from generating ideas to developing characters to establishing point of view. Participants will discuss many elements of fiction (dialogue, scene, etc.), but the emphasis will be on discovering the writing process that works best for each writer. 8 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
8/5–9/23 $360
Making Characters Come Alive with Dialogue Kathryn Johnson Readers love dialogue. Writers should too! Dialogue brings characters to life, adds emotion and drama, invokes in a reader a sense of “being there,” and delivers necessary information in an organic way. This workshop--a lecture and practice class, accompanied by coffee and pastries--will benefit the beginner and advanced writer alike. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
8/13 $50
Pacing Your Story Kathryn Johnson When a short story, novella, or novel slows down and then stalls out readers lose interest and often fail to continue reading. Literary agents and acquiring editors for publishing firms are even more likely to put a story aside and send a canned rejection without ever seeing the wonderful writing that follows. Intensifying the pace of a scene, or entire story, is often an easy thing to do, but rarely understood by newer writers how to make this happen. Participants will learn how to create scenes that move quickly, engage the reader, and keep readers turning pages, regardless of the
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workshops
Conflict & Tension
WORKSHOPS genre. Participants will receive a tip sheet with dozens of suggestions they will be able to apply to their work-in-progress. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
Christine Koubek
8/27 $50
Nonfiction Describing
the Truth: Approaches to the Lyric Essay
Erin M. Bertram
workshops
Writers will familiarize themselves with the lyric essay, an imagery-driven style of creative nonfiction that Bernard Cooper claims requires “an alertness to detail, a quickening of the senses, a focusing of the literary lens … until one has magnified some small aspect of what it means to be human.” Each week, participants will read a handful of lyric essays by Joan Didion, Lauren Groff, Tom Romano, Matthew Gavin Frank, and Brian Doyle. Specifically, the class will consider how voice, imagery, analogy, and risk constellate to make lyric essays small but palpable works of literature. By the workshop’s end, writers can anticipate having a more rigorous appreciation of the lyric essay, as well as drafts of two lyric essays of their own. 8 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
5/11–6/29 $360
Travel Writing Joyce Winslow A professional national travel editor will teach participants how to get their article ideas to the top of an editor’s query pile. Part lecture, part inclass practice, participants will learn what turns a “nice idea” into a published piece. They will learn how to write a lead with a bang; what separates amateur description from professional, serviceable information; ways to organize seasonal versus evergreen destination pieces for specific demographic audiences; the words to avoid that spell legal trouble for a publication; ways to include history, geography, and social impact into a travel piece. Participants should bring notebooks and pens for in-class writing exercises. 3 Thursdays 1:30–3:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
5/19–6/2 $115
Participants will learn about various forms of travel writing, including news items, round-ups, reviews, and personal essays. The workshop will begin by examining work in major newspaper and magazine travel sections, as well as travel publications and websites—all with an eye on each outlet’s particular format. Participants will research at least one publication that fits their idea and geographic niche and draft a travel story based on that publication’s format and style. In addition, participants will look at where to find the best writer’s guidelines and how to use that information to write a pitch letter that best sells a story. 3 Wednesdays Bethesda
7–9:30 p.m. 5/25–6/8 Beginner/Intermediate $135
Creative Nonfiction Pamela Toutant Writers interested in the personal essay, memoir, or family history will find inspiration and the opportunity to workshop their work in a supportive and stimulating environment. Some time will be spent writing; most of the time will be spent workshopping participants’ work. Participants will finish the class with a roadmap for moving forward with writing projects. They will either polish pieces they have tucked away or create something fresh. 4 Thursdays Bethesda
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. 5/26–6/16 Beginner/Intermediate $195
Advanced Travel Writing Joyce Winslow This is a hands-on workshop for writing a query letter and article suitable for print publication. Students will receive practical, specific feedback in class for articles in progress. Students should have completed BeginningTravel Writing, have had journalistic articles published, or feel adept at feature writing to gain the most from this class. In the past, query letters done in class have resulted in real article assignments. Photography will be discussed, but not be the main thrust. 3 Wednesdays 1:30–3:30 p.m. Bethesda Advanced
Nuts & Bolts of Publishing Nonfiction Articles Ellen Ryan Participants will learn how professionals get their freelance articles published for pay. They will learn how to generate ideas, research properly, structure a story, and write about people and places with life and color. Participants will also gain insight on where to market; how to propose articles to editors, how to handle contracts and negotiations, and what to keep in mind for tax time—what to save and how to present it. 6 Tuesdays Bethesda
How to Break Into Travel Writing with a Story that Sells
7–9:30 p.m. 5/24–6/28 Beginner/Intermediate $270
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6/1–6/15 $115
Memoir and Personal Essay Summer Retreat Cathy Alter Ernest Hemingway famously said, “Write what you know.” Participants will have a unique opportunity to put this maxim to the test while learning from a best-selling author and essayist. In this week-long workshop, participants will learn the hallmarks of memoir writing, how to shape narratives, hone their unique voices, and reflect on the past through the present lens. Through daily readings and exercises, participants will learn the basics of telling their true stories in such ways that will both
The Writer’s Center enliven and illuminate their pasts for both writer and reader. 1 Monday-Friday 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Bethesda All Levels
4
6/20–6/24 $500
Essays/Memoirs, 4 Weeks
Dave Singleton Whether participants have family stories they’d like to record for posterity or moments in their lives they want to capture for publication, they’ll learn new strategies for effective. Armed with practical tools and supportive feedback from the instructor and fellow writers, participants will learn to organize disparate memories and thoughts. The workshop leader will post weekly lessons to the online platform every Tuesday, including assignments and individual feedback on participant work. 4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
6/7–6/28 $195
4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
7/5–7/26 $195
4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
8/2–8/23 $195
Everyone’s
a Critic: Getting Your Opinion Published
Brook Wilensky-Lanford It’s time for writers to reclaim the word “critic.” As Oscar Wilde wrote, “the critic too is an artist.” And joining the conversation about contemporary politics and culture is one of the best ways for writers to see their work published! Participants will learn to write the classic book review, op-ed, opinion piece, and personal-critical essay. They will develop a “beat,” complete at least two critical pieces, and learn how to submit pieces for publication 6 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
6/8–7/13 $270
Telling and Writing Your Stories Solveig Eggerz Participants will discover personal stories and learn how to develop them for the pleasure of others. To help discover the shape and significance of these stories, participants will apply pre-writing activities such as visualization, mapping, and telling before they generate writing. Participants can expect to complete several strong drafts for stories, which can either stand alone or serve as chapters in a memoir. 6 Saturdays Capitol Hill
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
6/18–7/23 $270
All in the Family: A Memoir Series Nicole Miller This workshop will be dedicated to writing about family. Participants will study excerpts from memoirs by authors such as Richard Hoffman, Michael Ondaatje, Vivian Gornick, and Mary Karr; work on creating three-dimensional portraits of people close to them; and transform memories into viable scenes. The workshop will also focus on the question of re-
View online at www.writer.org/guide
WORKSHOPS vealing vs. withholding, and where delving deeper is necessary. Each participant will have the opportunity to workshop one piece or chapter with a focus on a family member or incident. Note: No meeting July 4. 6–9 p.m. All Levels
6/27–7/25 $215
Pamela Gerhardt This workshop is for writers curious as to how to craft short but thought-provoking essays that appear in places such as The New York Times “Modern Love” column. In a fun and relaxed setting, participants will learn the tools to create short, publishable narrative essays--narrative arc, plot, theme, character development, catchy beginnings, and endings--in five pages or less. They will read and discuss sample published essays; write their own; receive helpful feedback from the instructor and other participants; and learn to edit their own work with a specific audience in mind. 10 a.m.–3 p.m. 7/9–7/16 Beginner/Intermediate $195
Age-Old
& Radical: Approaches to the Sonnet
Erin M. Bertram Writers will explore the many possibilities of the sonnet, a 13th-century poetic form that, according to Marilyn Hacker, “contemporary poets have reexamined and ‘made new’ with heterodox content and language at once demotic and experimental.” Each week, participants will read traditional and radical approaches to this surprisingly expansive form, including work by William Shakespeare, John Donne, Adrienne Rich, Lam Thi My Da, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and Natasha Trethewey. Specifically, the class will consider how sonnets can stand strong both on their own and in sequence, even in sonnet “crowns,” thanks to speaker, diction, tone, imagery, and risk. Writers can anticipate gaining a more rigorous appreciation of the sonnet, as well as a draft of four sonnets of their own. N/A–N/A All Levels
Anne Becker In this advanced and intensive workshop for writers ready to put together a chapbook (must have 30 pages of strong poetry), participants will explore how groups of poems can work together to create a focused and whole experience. During the first seven weeks, participants will read model chapbooks and consider various strategies of organization, prepare their chapbook manuscripts for group critique, revise their chapbooks, and have the final draft critiqued. The eighth meeting will consist of an hour-long private session with the instructor. Note: No class on June 25. 8 Saturdays 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Bethesda Advanced
Poetry
8 Weeks Online
N/A 5/11–6/29 Intermediate $360
Making It Whole: Poetry Chapbook Workshop
Mastering the Short Essay
2 Saturdays Capitol Hill
8 Weeks Online
5/10–6/28 $360
Small Rooms: Approaches to the Prose Poem Erin M. Bertram Writers will explore the many possibilities of the prose poem. “Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, Peter Johnson wrote, “...the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry.” Each week, participants will read a handful of prose poems by Anne Carson, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Wunderlich, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, and Charles Simic, each representing a unique approach to this compact and vivid style. Specifically, the class will consider how voice, imagery, analogy, and risk constellate to make prose poems compressed and evocative works of literature. Writers can
workshops
4 Mondays Bethesda
anticipate gaining a more rigorous appreciation of the prose poem, as well drafts of four prose poems of their own.
5/21–7/16 $430
Poetry I: An Introduction to Craft & Beauty Melanie Figg “I am amazed by the amount I learned!” is what participants say about this popular class. This workshop is for writers looking to explore the power of poetry with a focus on craft—each session will be devoted to one aspect (line, sound, imagery, form). Participants will also learn by close readings of great poems, writing a poem each week, through assignments, and lots of helpful, encouraging feedback from the instructor. Each participant will also have the option to get a poem workshopped by the class. This workshop will use The Poet’s Companion as a text; so please bring a copy to the first class. Note: No meeting May 30 or July 4. 8 Mondays Bethesda
7–9:30 p.m. 5/23–7/25 Beginner/Intermediate $360
Ekphrasis: Muses in Conversation Sandra Beasley People say that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but William Carlos Williams captured Breughel the Elder’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus with just 56 words. Participants will look at great examples of ekphrasis, focusing on how a poem can engage a work of visual art, as well as the narrative elements—the artist and the cultural moment—that shape the inspiring work. Class time will include guided readings, a generative exercise using images of classical and contemporary art, and the opportunity to bring a poem from home for in-class critique. 1 Sunday Bethesda
1–4 p.m. All Levels
5/29 $50
Dark Matters Cacayo Ballesteros This workshop will explore the relationship between death, suffering, and love as a creative force in
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
27
WORKSHOPS artistic expression that seeks to reflect simply, but deeply, the essence of existence itself. Poet Federico García Lorca applies the Andalusian term Duende to refer to this dark life force as the one aid that “drives home the nail of artistic truth,” and that, when channeled just right, “announces the endless baptism of freshly created things.” Though Duende can manifest itself in many artistic forms, participants in this workshop will look at examples in dance, instrumental and vocal performance, fiction, poetry, and the visual arts. Participants will be asked to generate responses through the literary arts including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or hybrids of these genres. Attendees can expect to leave the workshop with “seed” texts for new work and the opportunity to heavily revise one piece for display during The Writer’s Center’s event on Duende to be held in the fall. 4 Saturdays Bethesda
1:30–3:30 p.m. All Levels
6/4–6/25 $135
Poetry
workshops
and the Personal Experience
men Gimenez Smith, and Eileen Myles. There will be weekly prompts and guidelines, as well as freedom to create in the form of the participant’s choice. The class will think about how structure informs the work-—how life, theory, and experience go beyond genre. Participants will develop a series of poems or a long poem (whole or in parts) and begin to notice how form and structure are beautiful, especially when not noticeable. 8 Weeks Online
Poetry is more than a genre. Participants will work on poetry in a form of their choice. They will read other poets and writers whose interests and life meet in their writing, such as Maggie Nelson, Jenny Boully, Kristin Prevallet, Audre Lorde, Car-
6/6–7/25 $360
Chapbook: A Poetry Workshop Lucian Mattison This workshop will focus on creating a small collection of poems (10–15 pages) in which writers identify a core idea for a collection, dust off older poems, and generate new, exciting material. Workshop participants will leave with a small collection of tethered poems and a more informed approach to reviving older material. 4 Tuesdays Capitol Hill
Alexis Pope
N/A All Levels
7–9 p.m. 6/7–6/28 Intermediate/ Advanced $135
Getting Your Poetry Published Michele Wolf Whether participants have yet to submit their first poem to a literary journal or are ready to offer a
The Writer’s Center publisher a book-length manuscript, this intensive one-day workshop will give all writers advice on how to succeed. Participants will get tips on placing poems in print and online journals, learn why anthologies are such an appealing platform, how to publish chapbooks and books, the pros and cons of contests, the etiquette of poetry submission, how to develop a poetry network, and how to keep morale high while facing rejection in a highly competitive field. Magazine handouts will be provided. 1 Saturday Bethesda
Poetry
2–5 p.m. All Levels
6/11 $50
Writing 101
Erin M. Bertram Beginners will familiarize themselves with poetry, the oldest genre of creative writing and what Gregory Orr refers to as “the most highly patterned and complexly organized use of language known to humans.” Each week, participants will explore a different element of this emotionallycharged genre via guided free-writes, mindfulness exercises, assigned readings, writing activities, audio/visual content, and self-guided micro-field trips. Specifically, the class will consider how speaker, diction, tone, imagery, and risk work together to create pithy and meaningful poems. Writers can anticipate finishing the workshop with
An American-Bistro Restaurant Experience in Bethesda Writer’s Center members enjoy 10% off food 7003 Wisconsin Ave ● (301) 654-9860 persimmonrestaurant.com 28
View online at www.writer.org/guide
WORKSHOPS
8 Weeks N/A 7/11–8/29 Online Beginner $360
Different Voices: Persona Poems Nan Fry
Moving Beyond Writer’s Block with Breath, Meditation, and Movement
6 Mondays 7–9:30 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
Lucinda Marshall and Kim Thompson
5/2–6/13 $270
How to Write a Lot
Poets sometimes worry about “finding their voices.” Participants will take an indirect approach to this concern by writing poems in which the author speaks not as herself but in the voices of created characters. For inspiration, participants will read some examples from the Middle Ages to the present and then experiment with their own poems through in-class exercises and at-home assignments. While this is primarily a generative workshop, participants are welcome to critique each others’ work warmly and gently. Dramatists and fiction writers are also welcome. 6 Saturdays Bethesda
one personal memoir, one scene, one dialogue, and two original poems, and develop a greater understanding of their own writing interests. Note: No meeting May 30.
Kathryn Johnson Writers who think they don’t have the time, energy, or inspiration to write because of their hectic lifestyle will be proven wrong by this class! They’ll learn what Kathryn Johnson’s Extreme Novelists know about organizing their time, establishing a productive writing routine, and getting their stories written. They will adopt methods EN Grads (and many professional writers) use to complete their books in months instead of years and their short stories in mere weeks. (Ideal for writers who don’t have eight weeks to dedicate to the Extreme Novelist course.)
10:30 a.m.–1 p.m. 7/23–8/27 Intermediate/ Advanced $270
1 Saturday Bethesda
Seeing the Blues in Poetry
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. All Levels
5/21 $50
This workshop will introduce meditation, breathing, and gentle movement techniques that participants can use to get un-stuck and free space for their best writing. The class will look at techniques that address stress, mind clutter, posture, how energy and ideas move through bodies, and ways to unscramble thoughts. Please bring paper and pen and wear comfortable clothing suitable for gentle movement. 1 Sunday Bethesda
Stef Woods Participants will receive feedback from fellow classmates and the instructor in response to weekly assignments. Participants will find or refine their
Participants will go Southern into their emotions, constructing one to two poems that lay in the pocket of the blues tradition. The poem can be free-form, lyric, and/or prose. Participants will also listen to blues music—both contemporary and traditional. Remember, this is not a science but the emotion and derivatives are scientific. This workshop will help articulate the parallel between the musical form and the poetic blues tradition. 2:30–4 p.m. All Levels
8/6–8/20 $80
Master Poetry Class Stanley Plumly Poet Laureate of Maryland and long-time workshop instructor Stanley Plumly leads this master class designed for dedicated poets who want to continue to build their revision skills. The workshop will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays for two weeks. Admission by instructor’s permission. Please submit five poems to laura.spencer@writer. org by July 22. Please do not pay the workshop fee before your application is accepted. These poems do not have to be the same poems that will later be workshopped. 2 Tues. & Thurs. 7–9:30 p.m. Bethesda Master
8/9–8/18 $300
Mixed Genre Getting Started: Creative Writing Liz Rees Beginning writers will have the chance to explore three different genres: memoir writing, short fiction, and poetry. Each week, participants will receive a writing assignment and several readings, followed by a critique of their assignments. Participants will also learn about voice, point of view, dialogue, imagery, and sound. Participants will write
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
6/5 $50
Finding Your Online Voice
Bennie Herron
3 Saturdays Capitol Hill
2–5 p.m. All Levels
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workshops
a basic understanding of poetry, as well as drafts of four different poems of their own.
WORKSHOPS Getting Started: Creative Writing
online voices and personal brands on the right digital tools for them. 4 Wednesdays 7–9 p.m. Bethesda Beginner
Beginning
Patricia Gray
6/8–6/29 $115
Creative Writing
Erin M. Bertram
workshops
Beginners will familiarize themselves with the three main genres of creative writing: fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Each week, the class will explore a different element of one of these unique and exciting genres via guided free-writes, mindfulness exercises, assigned readings, writing activities, audio/visual content, and self-guided micro-field trips. Specifically, writers will consider how a combination of voice, character, action, dialogue, imagery, and risk work together to create meaningful pieces of writing. Participants can anticipate gaining a basic understanding of creative writing, have the beginnings of a flash fiction story, an ekphrastic poem, an elegy, and a personal essay to continue working on after the class is complete. 8 Weeks N/A 6/13–8/1 Online Beginner $360
Yoga and Writing Amy Abrams For participants seeking to spark their creativity and increase their confidence through yoga and writing, this step-by-step class will release their creative spirits. They’ll boost their writing skills and confidence by creating compelling components of fiction and nonfiction. They’ll also learn insider tips of the trade, including how to publish their work. Participants are expected to bring a beach towel or yoga mat, plus a laptop or paper/pencil. They should wear comfortable clothes. No yoga or writing experience required. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–2 p.m. All Levels
Aaron Hamburger Participants are invited to join food writer Aaron Hamburger at Vino Volo on Woodmont Avenue for a unique evening of tasting wine and learning how to maximize the power of taste, smell, sight, touch, and even sound in their writing. Drinking and writing seem to be a natural combination, at least in popular folklore, but the experience of tasting wine has much to teach writers about how to expand the creative powers of description. Participants will taste various wines, learn about the nuances of wine varieties, then practice translating this experience into vivid language. The goal is for this process to be one writers can then use to enliven description in the rest of their work, no matter the subject. The Writer’s Center is proud to partner with Vino Volo to offer two flights of complimentary wine to each participant. Must be 21 years or older. 6:30–8 p.m. All Levels
2 Saturdays Capitol Hill
7/26 $80
30
1–4 p.m. 7/9–7/16 Beginner/Intermediate $115
Virginia Woolf maintained that the writer’s job was to represent life and the experience of living, whether the medium was fiction or nonfiction. Out of the fearless, flowing fabric of observation and feeling, Woolf composed short stories, literary criticism, novels, biography, and memoir that altered the bounds of these genres. To her view, the tools for capturing “what we call life or spirit, truth or reality” evolved with language, social change, psychology, and perception. Many of her methods have yet to be surpassed. This one-day workshop will introduce writers to a number of Woolf’s lyrical shorter works and use her experiments in pointof-view, time, consciousness, and character to embolden participants in their own explorations of form. In-class exercises will be designed to inspire. All writers have something to gain be trying on voices, subjects, and musings they’ve never dared before. 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. 7/16 All Levels $115
The Mindful Writing Workshop Aaron Hamburger Participants will focus on mindfulness exercises to heighten writing skills as well as enrich their lives. It will begin with a discussion about the phenomenon of mindfulness and its intersection with creativity, considering how a mindful approach to creative writing enlivens the experience of both writer and reader. Then participants will try out a few different mindful creative writing exercises to generate some vivid new work on the spot. Participants should bring a pen and paper. 7–9 p.m. All Levels
1 Saturday Bethesda
10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. 8/20 All Levels $50
Professional Writing Establishing
Your Online
Bernadette Geyer
Nicole Miller
2 Thursdays Bethesda
the details: “illuminat[ing] that one scene, those few lines, that one pivotal moment ... the one memorable gesture” that sticks with the reader (E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel). Through a series of examples and exercises involving idiolect, setting, and point of view, this workshop will bring people at the margin of stories to the center in order to break “type,” broaden the vista, and enliven the context of the participants’ narrative worlds.
Presence
Writing with Woolf
1 Saturday Bethesda
6/18 $135
Words and Wine: Use Your Senses to Improve Your Writing
1 Tuesday Bethesda
Participants will explore writing fiction, poetry, and memoir. With a few fun exercises, they will circumvent the analytic brain and give imagination a chance to thrive. Participants will also receive tips on how to free up memories and experiences and use them as springboards for writing. Hallmarks of the workshop include interesting assignments, an opportunity to read writing to others, and positive, helpful feedback. This workshop will give participants an idea of which genre(s) suit them best. Participants should bring digital or print writing implements to the first meeting.
The Writer’s Center
7/28–8/4 $80
Minor Characters: A Major Ingredient in Fiction and Memoir Nicole Miller Minor characters play a crucial role in realism. They are the proletariat of the novel, the voices of democracy, the q and z of America’s alphabet soup. Minor characters force the writer to focus on
This workshop is for writers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who want to use the internet and social media to broaden their outreach (e.g., website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). Participants will receive feedback from fellow classmates and the instructor in response to weekly assignments. Participants will establish a basic online presence and have a good foundation of knowledge on which to build. 4 Weeks Online
N/A All Levels
5/23–6/13 $195
The Art of Storytelling for Business Amy Abrams Storytelling is increasingly recognized by businesses for its power of persuasion. Participants will learn to uncover and create the best stories for their businesses. They will identify and describe character(s), conflict, and resolution. Obtain insider tips from an award-winning author, journalist, editor, communications consultant, and former publishing executive. 1 Saturday Bethesda
12–4 p.m. All Levels
6/4 $80
Write and Publish Articles for Magazines and Websites Amy Abrams In this intensive workshop, participants will learn to write first-rate articles to get hired by editors not once, but again and again. They will finesse story angles, acquire professional interviewing techniques to obtain strong quotes, and hone their voices for a personal and recognizable style. Tricks of the publishing trade are taught by a former publishing executive, now a professional freelance writer with hundreds of articles published in national/regional magazines, newspapers, and websites, including The Wall Street Journal, Art in America, and Village Voice Media. Bring a laptop or paper/pencil. 1 Saturday Bethesda
View online at www.writer.org/guide
12–5 p.m. All Levels
6/11 $100
WORKSHOPS Cara Seitchek Participants will learn how to write proposals to request grants from funders. This workshop will cover how to research prospective funders, elements of a good proposal, and how to approach funders. Participants should come to class with a nonprofit or project in mind to use as the focus of their research and proposal. This class meets in-person for the first and third sessions, and online via email for the second class. 3 Saturdays Bethesda
1:30–4 p.m. All Levels
7/9–7/23 $135
Write Like the News Hank Wallace Participants will learn to lead with the future rather than with background, which is the most important of eight journalism skills that will transform their queries, proposals, and manuscripts. The others: write a readers’ language, be positive (to be both clear and upbeat), lay out logically, be consistent, be precise, be brief, and choose strong verbs. Highlights: master crisis communication, correct errors the correct way, choose between raw numbers and a ratio, and write around generic “he.” (Plus a Speak Like the News skill: avoid “uptalk?”) Participants will emulate the striking news examples seen in this workshop, and strengthen their writing voices with a lively, engaging news style. 1 Thursday Bethesda
7–9 p.m. All Levels
8/25 $50
Stage and Screen John Weiskopf Good screenplay structure integrates everything in a script, including secondary characters, subplot, dialogue, and the world of a screen story. It is essential that a screenwriter understand these integrated principals of structure to write good scripts. It is the difference between having a script read at a studio or seeing it sit on a shelf. In this intense course, participants will analyze two Academy Award-winning scripts with a focus on structure. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. All Levels
6/11 $115
Writing for Film & Television Khris Baxter These are exciting times to be a screenwriter— when new shows, new channels, and new and inventive ways of storytelling are introduced almost daily. This hands-on workshop will guide the beginning or intermediate screenwriter through the process of crafting a professionalgrade screenplay or TV pilot: idea, pitch, story, structure, scenes, and dialogue. The class will also examine proven methods for adapting fiction and narrative nonfiction to the big screen.
1 Saturday Glen Echo
10 a.m.–4 p.m. All Levels
6/18 $115
New Feature Films Break Screenplay Convention John Weiskopf In recent years, screenplays that break traditional script conventions are being bought and produced. In this intense and condensed course, participants will watch scenes, analyze and discuss films that “break the mold,” and see how they break the conventions. These films were made because the screenwriters, producers, and directors “thought outside the box.” Participants will look at script structure, antagonists, themes, and even cuttingedge styles of film making. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–5 p.m. All Levels
7/9 $115
How to Write and Produce Your Independent Film John Weiskopf Writing and producing an independent film takes years, but it can be done if you take the right steps. This course will cover the essential ingredients to writing and producing a low-budget, independent film. Participants will discuss both feature films and documentaries, exploring scripts, the target market, budgets, financing, networking, and important contacts. 1 Saturday Bethesda
Scripts Are All About Structure
1 Saturday Bethesda
Participants will discuss strategies for promoting and marketing their screenplays or pilots, and advancing their careers as screenwriters. Open to all levels and genres.
10 a.m.–5 p.m. All Levels
Adults Write for Children Creating Your Book for Children: Shape it, Submit it, See it in Print Peter Mandel Having a children’s book published in today’s tough market can seem like an impossible dream. But in reality, getting a book idea into shape and into print can hinge on just the right advice from a pro. For participants unsure whether to connect with an agent or artist or to consider self-publishing, this seminar with a nationally-known author will deliver the insider tips writers need to create a marketable first book. 1 Monday Bethesda
Eva Langston Through discussion, mini lessons, writing exercises, and peer feedback, participants will revise and revitalize a first draft, or push through a novel that has stalled halfway. Each week will focus on a different element of craft, including plot, character, point-of-view, dialogue, and summary vs. scene, with a special focus on YA and Middle Grade literature. Participants will be on their way to finishing or revising a first draft, and will learn next steps, including how to query agents and how to find resources related to writing and publishing books for kids and teens. 6 Tuesdays Bethesda
7/30 $115
Richard Washer Participants will consider various strategies for managing exposition by looking to examples in their historical contexts to better understand how to handle this in their own writing. 7:30–10 p.m. 8/11 Beginner/Intermediate $50
Playwriting: Character Richard Washer Characters set in motion a series of events and actions that become the engine of a play. Participants will look at strategies for exploring and developing characters in the early stages of writing their plays and discuss ways to assess the potential of characters to drive action in their stories. In order to better understand the instrument they have been writing for, participants will look at characters through the eyes of actors and directors seeking to interpret and portray a character. 1 Saturday Bethesda
10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. 8/20 Beginner/Intermediate $50
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
6/13 $50
YA & MG Novel Workshop
Playwriting: Exposition
1 Thursday Bethesda
7–9:30 p.m. All Levels
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2–4:30 p.m. 6/21–7/26 Beginner/Intermediate $270
workshops
How to Write Grant Proposals
You Asked, We Answered How to Navigate Online Workshops at The Writer’s Center By Sarah Katz
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he Writer’s Center offers more than 40 online creative writing workshops each year through Moodle, a cloud-based platform our instructors use to build collaborative learning communities. Our online workshops empower writers to generate new work, learn new skills and techniques, and workshop from the convenience of their home. Logging In
Log in using the username and password provided to you in an email from Program Manager Laura Spencer. This action will take you to the “homepage” where you’ll find your course listed. Once you click on a course, you’ll land on the course’s front page, which will contain a list of content—a Table of Contents, if you will. The content will be either divided into weeks and/or topics. Clicking on one of these will take you to the readings, assignments, and instructions for that particular week. While each instructor will order their class differently, all instructors use the same navigation tools to similar effect.
Discussion Threads
Our online workshops are forum-based, letting workshop leaders and participants communicate and critique through discussion threads. A discussion thread is a chronological chain of written ideas exchanged by two or more individuals (e.g. a discussion on someone’s Facebook timeline). Starting a discussion thread in an online workshop is similar. When you create a new discussion by clicking on “Add a new discussion,” you’re asked to enter a title for your subject and create your content.
What to Talk About
The content of your post may include reflections on the readings, discussion questions, responses to your classmates’ reflections, and assignments. You
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might also include page numbers, the titles of work you’re referencing or additional reading that relates to your discussion. As on Facebook, others can add their own posts to your original post and extend the thread. Still Need Help?
Feel free to communicate all issues with your workshop leader(s), or contact Program Manager Laura Spencer at laura.spencer@writer.org. What’s Being Offered This Season?
Go to page 23 for a complete listing of online summer workshops.
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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WORKSHOP LEADERS Amy Abrams is an award-winning author, journalist, communications consultant, editor, and former publishing executive at national magazines. She edits the Delmarva Review. Her work appears in The Wall Street Journal, NPR’s magazine, and Village Voice Media. More about her at: www.AmyAbramsWrite.com. Cathy Alter’s work appears in The Washington Post, Washingtonian, TheAtlantic. com, The New York Times, and O, The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of Virgin Territory, Up for Renewal, and CRUSH: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing, and the Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush. Khris Baxter is a screenwriter, producer, and the co-founder of Boundary Stone Films, which produces and finances a wide range of projects for film and TV. Baxter has taught screenwriting since 2004, most recently at The MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University and American University. He’s been a judge for the annual Virginia Screenwriting Competition since 2004.
LEADERS
sandra beasley is the author of Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox, 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize-winner; Theories of Falling; and Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a memoir. She lives in Washington, D.C., and teaches with the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program. Erin M. Bertram is a Ph.D. student and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The author of 11 chapbooks, including Memento Mori, and a 2015 Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems and lyric hybrid texts have appeared in Leveler, Diagram, So to Speak, H_NGM_N, Cream City Review, and Handsome. Jennifer Buxton earned an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Virginia. Her work appears in Epoch, Puerto del Sol, and Blue Penny Quarterly. She has taught writing in a variety of venues, including the University of Virginia, and the UVa Young Writers Workshop. Brenda W. Clough is a novelist, short story, and nonfiction writer. Her novels include How Like a God, The Doors of Death and Life, and Revise the World. She has been a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and has been teaching science fiction & fantasy workshops at The Writer’s Center for more than 10 years.
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Solveig Eggerz, a writer and storyteller, has a background in journalism as well as teaching writing to college students. Her debut novel is Seal Woman (Unbridled Books). Currently completing a novel set in WWII Iceland, she holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Catholic University. Melanie Figg has taught creative writing to adult learners, children, college students, and prisoners for more than 20 years. She’s won many awards for her work, including a 2014-15 grant from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County. She curates literary art tours in local galleries. Robert Friedman is the author of four published novels--The Surrounding Sea, Under a Dark Sun, Shadow of the Fathers and Caribbean Dreams. He was a reporter, columnist, city editor, Washington correspondent for The San Juan Star, and a correspondent in Puerto Rico for the New York Daily News. Nan Fry is the author of two books of poetry, Relearning the Dark and Say What I Am Called. Her work has appeared in numerous textbooks, journals, and anthologies. She received an EDPress award for excellence in educational journalism and taught at the Corcoran College of Art + Design for more than 20 years. Pamela Gerhardt is the author of Lucky That Way, a narrative memoir that won the American Society of Journalists and Authors 2014 Outstanding Book Prize. She has written more than 40 articles for The Washington Post and teaches creative nonfiction at The University of Maryland. Bernadette Geyer is a writer, editor, translator, and social media coach. She has helped small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors increase their outreach using social media. For her own consulting business, Geyer publishes a monthly newsletter and regularly blogs about social media marketing and website tips. More about her at: geyereditorial.com. Patricia Gray, author of Rupture: poems, formerly headed the Library of Congress’s Poetry and Literature Center. In the past two years, her poems appeared in Salamander, The MacGuffin, Mantis, Poet Lore, and The Louisville Review. In November she was a winner in the NaNoWriMo challenge. She has also published two articles on Splendid Wake-up blog and is currently working on a young-adult novella.
The Writer’s Center T. Greenwood is the award-winning author of 10 novels including Two Rivers, Bodies of Water, and Where I Lost Her. She teaches creative writing for San Diego Writer’s Ink, Grossmont College, and online for The Writer’s Center. Aaron Hamburger was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his story collection The View From Stalin’s Head. His novel Faith For Beginners was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. His writing appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, and Tin House. Virginia Hartman is the editor, with Barbara Esstman, of A More Perfect Union: Poems and Stories About the Modern Wedding (St. Martin’s). Her stories appear in The Hudson Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Iowa Woman, as well as Gravity Dancers: Even More Fiction by Washington Area Women (Paycock). She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University and has taught writing at American University, The George Washington University, and the Smithsonian Institution. Bennie Herron earned a B.A. in psychology at San Diego State University, and went on to earn his masters in social work from San Diego State. He has practiced schoolbased social work for the last eight years. He recently earned an M.F.A. in creative writing with an emphasis in contemporary poetry from National University. Kathryn Johnson’s 40+ popular novels (nominated for the Agatha Award, winner of the Heart of Excellence and Bookseller’s Best Awards), include Victorian thrillers (writing as Mary Hart Perry) and a suspense series, “Affairs of State.” Her most recent book—The Extreme Novelist—is based on her popular course at The Writer’s Center. Christine Koubek, M.F.A., is a travel writer, essayist, and author. Her work appears in The Washington Post, Coastal Living, Washingtonian, Budget Travel, and Porthole. She writes the “Get Away” column on midAtlantic travel for Bethesda and Arlington magazines and is a regular contributor for TripAdvisor subsidiaries CruiseCritic.com and FamilyVacationCritic.com. Eva Langston earned an M.F.A. at the University of New Orleans. Her fiction has been published widely, and she has led various writing workshops. Currently she is the Features Editor for Compose Journal, and
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WORKSHOP LEADERS in 2015, she was the San Miguel Artist in Residence for Fiction. The former middle and high school teacher now writes novels for young people. Con Lehane’s latest novel, Murder at the 42nd Street Library, was published by Thomas Dunne Books/Minotaur (April 2015). He’s published three novels featuring New York City Bartender Brian McNulty, and stories in small magazines over the years. He has a story in an upcoming issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. More about him at: www.conlehane.com. Christopher Linforth holds an M.F.A. from Virginia Tech. His debut short-story collection--When You Find Us We Will Be Gone--was released in 2014. He has published fiction and nonfiction in Gargoyle, Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, Notre Dame Review, and Denver Quarterly.
tion in The May Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Jill Paton Walsh and Sebastian Faulks. In 2014, she won the Dorothy Cappon Prize for the Essay. Miller earned a M.Phil in Victorian literature from Lincoln College, Oxford, a Ph.D. in English at University College, London, and an M.F.A. at Emerson College where she held a fellowship in creative writing. In addition to teaching at The Writer’s Center, Miller has also led workshops at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. and Grub Street in Boston. She has worked at The Oxford English Dictionary, in Harvard’s English Department, and has been named an emerging writer-in-residence at Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK. More about her at: www.inthesmallhours.com. Alan Orloff’s first novel, Diamonds for the Dead, was an Agatha Award Finalist. He also wrote Killer Routine and Deadly Campaign for Midnight Ink. Writing as Zak Allen,
Stanley Plumly has been Maryland’s Poet Laureate since 2009. A Maryland Distinguished University Professor since 1998, Plumly founded the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland, College Park. His 2007 collection of poems, Old Heart, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and The Paterson Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography (2008), was runner-up for the PEN/ Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Distinguished Biography. In 2010, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, W.W. Norton published his most recent book, The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Night with Keats, Wordsworth, and Lamb.
LEADERS
Peter Mandel is the author of 11 books for children published by Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Scholastic, Hyperion, and Henry Holt. Recent titles include Jackhammer Sam (Macmillan), Bun, Onion, Burger (Simon & Schuster), and Zoo Ah-Choooo (Holiday House). A regular contributor to The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Kids, and The Huffington Post, Mandel’s books have been featured in USA Today and Cosmopolitan and have been translated into Japanese, German, Chinese, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. More about him at: www.petermandel.net.
he’s published The Taste, First Time Killer, and Ride-Along. His latest is Running From the Past from Kindle Press. More about him at: www.alanorloff.com.
Lucian Mattison’s full-length collection, Peregrine Nation, won the 2014 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize from The Broadkill River Press. His poems appear or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Four Way Review, Hobart, Muzzle, and Nashville Review. His fiction will appear in Fiddleblack and Per Contra. He is an associate editor for Big Lucks. More about him at: lucianmattison.com. Lucinda Marshall is an award-winning artist, journalist, and poet. Her poetry has been published in Sediments, River Poets Journal, Stepping Stones Magazine, Poetica Magazine, and ISLE. She co-facilitates the Gaithersburg Teen Writing Club, and is a member of the Maryland Writers’ Association, and Women, Action, and the Media. Nicole Miller is a writer, editor, and teacher. She has published memoir in New Letters and Arts & Letters magazine and ficWorkshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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WORKSHOP LEADERS Alexis Pope is the author of That Which Comes After (Big Lucks Books, forthcoming) and Soft Threat (Coconut, 2014). Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in cream city review, Denver Quarterly, Poor Claudia, Prelude, and The Volta. Pope lives in Chicago with her daughter.
Life Executive Woman. Her travel writing appears in Vegetarian Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Newsday—most recently in Destination Maryland. Ryan is author of Innkeeping Unlimited: Practical, Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your B&B and Win Repeat Business.
Elizabeth Rees is the author of Every Root a Branch (2014), and four award-winning chapbooks, most recently, Tilting Gravity (2009). Her poems appear in Partisan Review, Kenyon Review, AGNI, Mid-American Review, and New England Review. She has taught at Harvard University, Boston College, the U.S. Naval Academy, Howard University, and in Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program. She has taught at The Writer’s Center since 1990. Additionally, she works as a “poet-in-the-schools” for the Maryland State Arts Council.
Cara Seitchek has written grant proposals for local, state, and national nonprofit organizations. In addition, she evaluates proposals for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, American Association of Museums, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She earned an M.A. in writing from The Johns Hopkins University.
Ellen Ryan has been an editor in Washington for two decades, including nearly 13 years as managing editor of The Washingtonian. Her freelance articles appear in Good Housekeeping, Outside, AARP The Magazine, The Washington Post, and Forbes
LEADERS
Celebrating
Dave Singleton is the author of two nonfiction books, The Mandates and Behind Every Great Woman, and the newly released memoir anthology CRUSH, Writers Reflect on Love, Longing and the Power of Their First Celebrity Crush (Harper Collins, April 2016). His honors include the Media Industry Award for Outstanding Exclusive Coverage, GLAAD Award for Outstanding Multimedia Journalism, and two NLGJA Excellence in Online Journalism awards. His work appears
The Writer’s Center in several print and online publications, including The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, the BBC, Washingtonian, Harper’s Bazaar, and OUT. More about him at: www. davesingleton.com. Lynn Stearns has enjoyed leading workshops at The Writer’s Center, BlackRock Center for the Arts, and Strathmore Hall. Her flash fiction appears in museums, county office buildings, bus stations, and numerous litmags including Flash!Point, Gravity Dancers, and Minimus. Kim Thompson is a movement teacher and language and story enthusiast. She helps individuals make small, simple changes that make a big difference in overall posture, range of motion, and coordination. She leads weekly classes and sees individual clients in Gaithersburg. She draws from some of the great movement teachers and researchers of our time, including: Moshe Feldenkrais, Jaimen McMilan, Noelle PerezChristiaens, David Berceli, Janet Hulme, and from the long, rich and varied tradition of Yoga. More about her at: www.ArtofMovingWell.com.
127 years of POET LORE
America’s original poetry journal, discovering new writers since 1889. poetlore.com Published by TheWriter’s Center, writer.org
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WORKSHOP LEADERS Pamela Toutant is a personal essayist and feature writer whose work appears in Salon, Redbook, Ms. Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Brainchild, Washingtonian Magazine, Applause Magazine, and Bethesda Magazine. She was selected as a 2004 finalist for the Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, was a 2006 Pushcart Prize nominee, and is a three-time Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow. Hank Wallace, a Columbia Law School graduate, was a government reporter for New Jersey’s Middletown Courier and Red Bank Daily Register, and the assistant director of law-school publishing for Matthew Bender. He wrote the FCC’s plain-language newsletter and newswriting tips for the Radio Television Digital News Association. More about him at: www.wsln.com.
Brook Wilensky-Lanford is the author of Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden (Grove Press, 2011), and editor of the online religion magazine Killing the Buddha. A graduate of Columbia University’s M.F.A. program in nonfiction, her essays and reviews appear in Salon, The New Republic, The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boston Globe. Joyce Winslow was Travel Editor of Redbook and Mademoiselle magazines, Senior Editor of AARP’s Modern Maturity, and has published dozens more travel stories in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post,
The Baltimore Sun, and Town and Country. Her fiction is included in The Best American Short Story collection. Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion, Conversations During Sleep, and The Keeper of the Light. Her poems appear in Poetry, The Hudson Review, North American Review, Antioch Review, and Boulevard. She serves as a contributing editor for Poet Lore. More about her at: www.michelewolf.com. Read her posts “Getting Your Poems Into Print With Michele Wolf” and “Poetry Readings: The Art of Creating a Poet-Audience Bond” on The Writer’s Center’s blog, First Person Plural. Stef Woods is a full-time instructor with the American Studies Program at American University. She specializes in social media, American popular culture, sexuality, health, branding, nonprofits, and activism. Woods writes about motherhood, sexual health, relationships, and breast cancer on her website, CityGirlBlogs.com.
LEADERS
Richard Washer was a founding member of Charter Theater and currently works with First Draft as a playwright and director. His plays have been produced in the Washington D.C. area and elsewhere. He holds a B.A. (University of Virginia) and an M.F.A. (American University).
John Weiskopf teaches screenwriting at American University in the graduate M.F.A. Film program. He earned an M.F.A. in film production from UCLA where he was later on UCLA’s extension faculty. He appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for a film he produced and directed. He has written 12 motion picture screenplays and has two scripts in development. Three of these scripts were optioned by studios. He has taught courses in screenwriting and film analysis at The Writer’s Center for two years.
leighmosley.com 202.276.3686 bookcovers readings events: stills/video
Walter Mosley
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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E. Ethelbert Miller: A Mentor for Social Change By Sarah Katz
Photo by John B. Parks
P
oet, memoirist, and essayist E. Ethelbert Miller relaxes into a brightly colored classroom chair wearing his signature purpleframed glasses and fedora. Having just come from his talk at American University about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s multiple award-winning memoir, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015), his mind turns toward the power of the arts to create “change for the better.” “I popularized the term ‘literary activist,’” says the author of 11 books and editor of 4 anthologies. “I’d say there are two key aspects to the literary activist: one is promotion of other writers; the other aspect is preservation. Every city has important literary history to preserve.” As a major figure in the D.C. community, Miller cares about a range of social issues, including gender equality and the pay gap, but he is especially passionate about how gentrification is changing his hometown. “My grandson will be born this month,” he says. “I started to think about the city, and what kind of a city he will grow up in. There’s a responsi-
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bility when you’re a parent. You have to explain what you’re witness to.” He pauses to carefully consider his words, “So right now, that’s what I need to write about, because these stories and voices need to be heard.”
to find himself locked out of his university computer and email account—Miller was met with an outpouring of support from the community, including Kojo Nmandi, host at WAMU radio (88.5 FM).
During the 1960s, the Black Arts Movement fueled Miller’s enthusiasm for literary and social activism, and also for writing as witness. “I probably wouldn’t be here as a writer if it wasn’t for the Black Arts and Black Power movement,” he says. “The writers associated with that movement, they inspired me to write. Years later, many of them would become good friends.” Those friends include James Baldwin, Elizabeth Alexander, Naomi S. Nye, Brenda Marie Osbey, and Afaa Michael Weaver.
Nmandi, who frequently had Miller as a guest on his show, told the The Washington Post last May, “He is a really iconic figure. He has spent the past four decades on a personal mission of promoting poetry and writing in Washington and around the country ... He is how a lot of poets get to know each other.”
In the ’70s, Miller founded and directed the Afro-American Studies Resource Center at Howard University, his alma mater, making him a vanguard of the black scholarship community in America. When he was suddenly laid off last April after 40 years of service—having received no notice of his termination, except
Joe Callahan, executive director of The Writer’s Center, concurs. “Ethelbert is an amazing poet and champion of literature. From serving as the long-time co-editor of Poet Lore to being a board member of The Writer’s Center, Ethelbert has not only made a lasting impact on our organization, but has also impacted a wide swath of organizations through his literary citizenship. There are many organizations in the D.C. area and beyond that would not be who they are today without Ethelbert.”
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Miller is well-known as an Last spring, Miller was inducted educator, having taught at various in the Washington D.C. Hall of colleges, including American UniFame for his “exemplary contriversity, George Mason University, butions” to the city, where his and others—although teaching work itself is a literal fixture: his isn’t really his thing. Laughing, he poetry has appeared on multiple says, “I’m pretty much concerned public art installations. “I feel with public very proud policy isof the fact that if I go A thin line—if there’s a line sues, changing our around the at all—separates poetry society for city, my work from public policy for E. the better ... is public,” Ethelbert Miller. But I never Miller says, really think and “because of myself my work is as being part of writing seminars. present ... I feel that my work is My contributions have been in accepted by the city, is part of the one-on-one mentoring, and not city.” so much in a writing workshop.” In addition to founding (and Carolyn Supinka, a writer, serving on the board of) the Huartist, co-founder of the Viator manities Council of Washington, journal, and program and marD.C., Miller has received national keting intern at National Arts and international recognition for Strategies is one of many young his work. In 1979, Mayor Marion people Miller has taken under Barry proclaimed September 28, his wing. “Ethelbert is one of 1979, to be E. Ethelbert Miller the most incredible mentors I’ve Day, and on May 21, 2001, E. ever worked with,” she said in an Ethelbert Miller Day was celemail. “Selfless, patient, endlessly ebrated in Jackson, Tennessee, dedicated to helping others find as well. Miller’s work has also their voice and take their work to been translated into more than the next level. When I first moved half a dozen languages, includto this city two years ago, I was ing Spanish, Portuguese, German, worried I wouldn’t find a creative Hungarian, Chinese, Farsi, Norcommunity where I would bewegian, Tamil, and Arabic. long, but meeting just one person “A lot [of my poems] have been would change all that. Ethelbert’s translated because of the Intermentorship has helped connect net,” Miller says. “I’ve also been me with my work, the history of fortunate to fly all over the world this city, and the tradition and and meet people and form relapurpose of poetry in such an tionships.... It’s good to travel to amazing way.” other countries because that’s the She added, “When you talk to future of literature. The translaEthelbert about a project or a tion of poetry is how we prevent wars. We can learn about a counContinued on page 41 try through its art.” Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
Publications and Awards E. Ethelbert Miller is the author of How We Sleep on the Nights We Don’t Make Love (Curbstone Press, 2004); Buddha Weeping in Winter (Red Dragonfly Press, 2001);Whispers, Secrets, and Promises (Black Classic Press, 1998); and First Light: New and Selected Poems (Black Classic Press, 1994). He is also the author of the two memoirs The 5th Inning (PM Press, 2009) and Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer (Black Classic Press, 2000) and the editor of several anthologies, including In Search of Color Everywhere (Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1994), which received the 1994 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Miller received a Columbia Merit Award in 1993 and was honored by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House in 2003. In 1996, Miller was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Emory & Henry College. His other honors include the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award given by Poets & Writers; the 1982 Mayor’s Arts Award for Literature in Washington, D.C.; the O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize; and a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
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Vino Volo Bethesda Row’s Got Heart Up Close with Alfred Vivino By Genevieve DeLeon How did you find yourself in the wine industry? Were you always a wine enthusiast?
Photo by Genevieve DeLeon
M
embership Manager Genevieve DeLeon recently sat down with Alfred Vivino (a man who knows a lot about wine) of Vino Volo Bethesda. As a partner organization, Vino Volo offers discounts to members of The Writer’s Center, and hosts member happy hours at the store, which offers a cozy environment perfect for intimate conversation—and writing workshops. In July, instructor Aaron Hamburger will again lead a workshop that focuses on food and wine writing—tasting included of course.
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My previous life was in laboratory science, and I’ve found that I’ve had two great passions: science and food. My father is from Calabria. His father came here before the family and built a house. After five or six years, the family settled with him. The house he built was the house my grandmother lived in until a year before she died. In that house was a wine cellar. Every several years, my grandmother would be there with my dad, his older sister, his brother-in-law (her husband from Sicily)—and she would say, “If I buy the grapes, will you guys make wine?” So she would go down to Paterson, New Jersey. There was a big farmers’ market down there, and they had wine grapes for sale in the fall. You could order them and have them shipped in from California or wherever. So, I’d make wine with my family. This was in the ’60s and ’70s. I was taking microbiology, and I would try to preach the microbiology of winemaking to them. They would just look at me like, “Please. Unload that barrel. We know how to do this.” I was there for muscle, not for…
Brains… Yeah! They had this recipe—and it was horrible. Not horrible, but they’d typically buy Zinfandel grapes and mix them with Muscat grapes. Mixing with Muscat yields a higher sugar content, which yields a higher alcohol content. One glass of this wine was equivalent to… You were gone . . . They got the max alcohol till the yeast died. They took a risk. Instead of inoculating with yeast, they used the wild yeast. If you get the wrong bacteria, it goes sour or becomes vinegar. But they were pretty lucky. There were two 50-gallon wood barrels and maybe two 25-gallon ones—so they’d make about 150 gallons of wine, which the family drank for the holidays. They were giving it away to everybody, you know. You’ve also been a wine broker. How did you come to work at Vino Volo? Fast forward. I joined a brokerage with three or four brokers. The way we worked, there were local importers from Baltimore, Kensington, the D.C. area, and we were the sales force for them. I worked
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the Montgomery County leg, so Vino Volo was an account of mine. I ended up talking with Mark [former Vino Volo store manager], which led to an interview. And now I’m here! I really love the place. They have a fantastic formula, and it’s a lot of fun. Have you continued to make wine? As recently as eight years ago, I made a friend in Leesburg who planted 10 acres of grapes. I would help him harvest in the fall. That first year, I said, “You got a lot of fruit hanging here still!” He did it as a hobby—he was basically just selling the grapes to cover the cost of having a vineyard and to have a good supply of wine. His deal with the winery was to sell them grapes and then to buy a number of cases back at a discounted price. He said, “Go head! Pick the rest.” So every year, he’d allow me to pick. I made four years of his wine.
Miller . . . continued from p. 39
piece of writing, he focuses both on the project and you. He has a gift for seeing things both in focus and from a broader perspective. He heads straight for the heart of your writing, and he helps you find it too. When you walk away from a meeting with Ethelbert, you feel free and full of curiosity, energy, and creativity for the rest of the day.” Miller’s influence is everywhere. He founded the Ascen-
Can you tell us more about Vino Volo’s approach? Part of what we do here is to educate the customer. Sometimes you’ll place the wine down on the table with the tasting notes, and you’ll get the sense this person doesn’t want to go past this [shows the Vino Volo taste graph]. The reaction can be anywhere from “Fine, thank you,” to “Oh, wow! Very cool,” and they start to read the notes and taste the wine. Beyond that, I can go on and tell them how the wine they taste is classified. For example, only wines that are from inside the Chianti wine region made with the approved recipe, can be called Chianti. Some wine drinkers know that Chianti is in Tuscany, but are unfamiliar with the term ‘Super Tuscan,’ which is an unofficial classification for wines that can come from anywhere in Tuscany, even inside the Chianti DOC, but are made differently, using a variety of
sion Poetry Reading Series, which ran for 26 years, and served as a commissioner for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities from 1997 to 2008. He is currently on the board for the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank; is board emeritus for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation; has his own TV show on UDCTV, The Scholars; maintains a blog called E-Notes; and writes a column for Capital Community News called “E on D.C.”
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
grapes and recipes. And, at that point, you’ll get people who lean in because they want to start a conversation. Vino Volo aims to share experience around wine, share knowledge, and build relationships. It’s about quality, too. If we come across something at the lower end of the price range, it has to have quality on the level of taste. People come in and they look at the affordable prices and worry they’re going to get the low-end wine they get at some other places. But our lowest end wines are all bright and brilliant—wines you’ll only find in specialty stores. It’s quite a puzzle to come up with the flights we offer, but that’s the fun of it, too. We write the descriptions in-house. That’s our toe-in to relate to people on other levels like art and music. It’s a matter of craftsmanship. People come back for that and the atmosphere. It’s a cool place.
And he shows no signs of slowing down. Miller recently launched a new radio show, On the Margin, with WPFW, and, has a new collection out from Willow Books, The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller. “I’m now like 65, and this is the most productive time for me,” he says.
Miller will read from his new book, The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller (Willow Books, 2016) on April 15.
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NOTES FROM THE SCENE
The Writer’s Center
Isabel Allende on The Writing Life By Amanda Stoltz Books are never finished, only abandoned. As writers, we want to know when the book we are working on should be finished, how many pages it should be, and how long it will take to edit. We want to tie a neat little bow around it and walk away. Allende never finishes her novels, only “abandons them” when there is nothing more to add. Photo by Lori Barra
I recommend lovers.
W
e arrived at Politics & Prose an hour early, only to find the place packed, including the floor. I spotted four fellow BCC High School graduates in the crowd who, like me, read The House of the Spirits in English class and were charmed by the thrilling family saga brimming with magical realism.
While small in stature, the author’s personality filled the room, offering five pieces of advice for aspiring writers: It’s never too late to start writing. Allende did not delve into creative writing until she was 40. What began as a letter to her father transformed into The House of the Spirits. The novel is based on her own family, a family so colorful she “hardly had to make up anything at all.”
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Write what will sit on you like a stone. When a man in the audience asked Allende how she found the strength to write Paula, a memoir about the loss of her daughter, she explained that it was the other way around—writing the memoir gave her strength. “Some of the most beautiful works of art are those that cannot avoid being created,” she said. Pay attention to the people around you. The idea for her most recent novel, The Japanese Lover, sprang out of a casual conversation. A friend mentioned that her Polish mother befriended a Japanese gardener. Allende’s imagination took flight: “They must have been lovers.” And with that, the seed was planted and grew into the beautiful book I am currently reading.
Allende is looking for a new one, preferably a younger man, she noted. Lovers are better than husbands because you don’t have to worry about things like laundry, she explained. Her quick wit is a reminder to keep a sense of humor. Seeing Allende was an absolute pleasure. Her novels always feature strong female characters, something I hope to emulate in my own writing. When a young man asked where she finds such strong women to write about, she said, without missing a beat, “I don’t know any weak women.” Isabel Allende is the author of 21 novels. She also runs the Isabel Allende Foundation, which helps women achieve social and economic justice both in California and her native Chile. For more about her, visit www.isabelallende.com.
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BOOK TALK D is for Dudley & Other Nature Tales
Cat Lady
Ron Chandler
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Mary Schmidt
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To the average tourist in Rome, Maria may seem to be an odd old woman who feeds feral cats. Yet things are rarely as they seem. When faced with an impossible end of life wish, Maria and her cats prove that to those who truly love, impossible is an illusion. Jaffalogue’s picks for best reads of 2015: BEST long narrative poem. gattaramaria.wordpress.com Stories for Birders and Other Observers
Kathryn Johnson ISBN: 978-0692420836
the loser as we pass through an existence none of us understand. Available on Amazon.com and Kindle Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico C. M. Mayo ISBN: 978-1571313041
Of Miraculous Air, Library Journal wrote, “With elegant prose and an artist’s eye for detail, C. M. Mayo may just have written one of the best books ever about Baja California. Highly recommended.” In paperback from Milkweed Editions and now on Kindle. CMMayo.com
Andrea Vojtko
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ISBN:978-1-59594-574-7
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Birders are among the keenest observers and five of the eleven short stories in this collection are inspired by imagination while birding or connecting with nature. The stories show the humor in human behavior with all of its incongruences and the humor in the esoteric interests that inexplicably consume so many of us. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble
$50 ($45 Members) Fall Issue Deadline:
Portraits
The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story
June 20th, 2016
Higgs Boson ISBN: 978-1508523840
Cheryl Somers Aubin ISBN: 978-0983833406
Cheryl Somers Aubin’s book, The Survivor Tree: Inspired by a True Story takes the reader on a journey of hope and healing by imaginatively describing the experiences, memories, and feelings of the 9/11 Survivor Tree. Illustrations by Sheila Harrington. Available on Amazon. All profits go to charity. www.thesurvivortree.com
Portraits, is a play that revives the Theatre of the Absurd in a modern setting. A dysfunctional law firm, an inconvenient death and a birthday surprise conspire to capture the divorce between action and language that we all experience as we muddle through life. Portraits forces us to confront the question we frequently ask ourselves - which of us is the winner and which of us is
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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ON THE SCENE
The Writer’s Center
EVENTS
Clockwise, from left to right: Program Manager Laura Spencer and Workshop Leader Dave Singleton mingle at our Meet the Director happy hour at Petworth Citizen’s Reading Room; Board Treasurer Margaret Meleney (right) at a membership happy hour at Vino Volo; Poets Mark Cugini and Danielle Evennou catch up at Petworth Citizen; Readers and atttendees gather at the O-Dark-Thirty journal launch of the Women Veterans Issue; publications from The Veterans Writing Project and authors featured in O-Dark-Thirty. Photos by Vanessa Mallory Kotz and James Ebersole
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EVENTS
ON THE SCENE
Clockwise from left to right: Terese Svoboda and Morowa Yejide at their February reading; Danuta E. Kosk Kosicka and Franklin Portugal show off their books; Guests enjoy the Ekphrais opening (2); Painter Yumiko Hirokawa and Poet Melanie Figg collaborated to create the work to the left, A Catharsis; Painter Jean Eckert and Poet Maritza Rivera pose in front of their collaboration for the Ekphrasis exhibition, Stained Glass; Exhibition opening photos by Mignonette Dooley
Workshop & Event Guide Summer 2016
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