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Writing

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Remembering How: Beginning and Continuing Fiction

All Levels
Howard Ikemoto, an artist and teacher, writes, "When my daughter was about seven, she asked me what I did at work. I told her that I worked at the college, teaching people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'"
This class will help beginning and experienced fiction writers unforget. We'll air out all those excellent grown-up reasons why we can't, don't or shouldn't write (this will not take long), then we'll write to discover what we do remember. We'll explore ways to make it easier to begin and to continue writing, and we'll produce work to build on, or expand and deepen work in progress.
Instructor: Deirdra McAfee

6 Mondays - Full
September 15 – October 20
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Remembering How: Beginning and Continuing FictionMore Details
Tuition: $155 (members $140)

Price: $155.00

Seeing It Through: Shaping and Crafting Fiction

Intermediate
What I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, every stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pain, crack, delusion, held still and held together—radiant, everlasting.—Alice Munro
This class, the sequel to “Remembering How,” will help students see and capture that radiant reality. Assigned exercises will sharpen their perception as writers, and class sessions will help clarify what works and doesn’t work in stories. We’ll discuss how to make stories shapely and how to revise for revelation. We’ll improve or revive our grasp of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics, we’ll explore the nuts and bolts of submitting manuscripts—how to format them, where to send them, what to say in the cover letter, and what rejection really means—and we’ll offer useful and professional feedback on each other’s work
Prerequisite: “Remembering How,” or instructor’s permission
Instructor: Deirdra McAfee

6 Mondays
October 27 – December 1
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Seeing It Through: Shaping and Crafting FictionMore Details
Tuition: $155 (members $140)

Price: $155.00

The Creative Spark

All Levels
Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes about el duende--“the goblin wind” within us which can breathe our creative spark into creative fire. The ember may be a poem, a story, a confession, a play. It may not even know what it is, or wants to be--but it's there. So we'll experiment. The goal of this creative writing class is to fan your ideas and inspirations into flame. We'll use timed writing, dream journals, guided imagery, Active Imagination, and anything else we can think of to get in touch with the stories you want or need to tell--and those needing or wanting you to tell them. Come with an open mind. Be honest and brave. You will come away from this class not only a better writer, but also a clearer thinker.
Instructor: Douglas Jones

6 Tuesdays - Full
September 16 – October 21
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

The Creative SparkMore Details
Tuition: $155 (members $140)

Price: $155.00

Writing Monologues

All Levels
A monologue is one person talking: to himself or herself, to another character or to the audience. Like a play, a monologue can tell its own truth and have its own arc. In this creative writing workshop, we'll start with the personal -- because that's where the energy is. We'll read two of the instructor's monologues, to help learn to move from what is personal towards the creation of other characters. And then we will begin to create characters. They might be based on people we know, or they might be entirely fictional. What is of the utmost importance is that they ring true. Some interest in life on the planet is required.
Instructor: Douglas Jones

Saturday, November 22
10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Writing MonologuesMore Details
Tuition: $100 (members $85)

Price: $100.00

American Theatre Dysfunctional Family - NEW!

All Levels
Dysfunctional Families in American Theatre
Why do America's greatest playwrights--Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, August Wilson, Lillian Hellman, etc.--write so many plays about dysfunctional families? As the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Ed Sobel puts it, “When people write about families that tend to be just functional, there's not much drama in it.” In this creative writing workshop, we'll look at some dysfunctional theatrical families, talk about the roles and coping mechanisms adopted by the members of such families and write some scenes and monologues based on this understanding of characters' backgrounds. No particular knowledge of theatre (or dysfunction) is required.
Instructor: Douglas Jones

Saturday, November 15
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

American Theatre Dysfunctional Family - NEW!More Details
Tuition: $100 (members $85)

Price: $100.00

Fiction Workshop

Intermediate/Advanced
Fiction workshop is a fiction writing course in which students devise, write, and workshop short stories. We will focus critical attention on aspects of narrative including story, plot, structure, character, and dialogue within professionally published pieces as well as student works. Workshops are geared toward creating stronger writing, and toward the end of students coming away with a greater sense of how to evaluate their own works.
Instructor: James Fueglein

8 Thursdays
October 2 – November 20
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Fiction WorkshopMore Details
Tuition: $175 (members $160)

Price: $175.00

Poetry Workshop

All Levels
Students will write and critique poems, study form, read essays about poetry, and study the work of other poets. In short, we will participate in a lively conversation on craft, attempt new forms, and revise poems that already mean a lot to us. The workshop is open to beginners as well as to those who are stuck, or who are open to receiving constructive feedback from a vigorous community of readers. Class is limited to 8 students.
Instructor: Leslie Shiel

8 Wednesdays - Full
October 1 – November 19
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Poetry WorkshopMore Details
Tuition: $175 (members $160)

Price: $175.00

Recasting the Past: a Poetry Workshop

All Levels
How can poetry engage the larger world and imaginatively mirror what happens there? In this class, we will explore how language and poetic craft translate and illuminate personal, historical and cultural events. We’ll read from assorted works, including Nicole Cooley’s The Afflicted Girls, a poetry collection dealing with the 17th-c. Salem witchcraft trials, while working on our own poems. We will discuss the role of research and revision and offer one another helpful feedback about works-in-progress. (Cooley’s book is available in paperback. $13 from Amazon.com.)
Instructor: Catherine MacDonald

8 Mondays
October 6 – November 24
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Recasting the Past: a Poetry WorkshopMore Details
Tuition: $175 (members $160)

Price: $175.00

Poetry and Online Publication - NEW!

All Levels
It’s a tough time to be a burgeoning poet. This poetry workshop will focus on limiting the trials and tribulations (and trial and error) of publishing in an increasingly heterogeneous literary universe. Each class will involve critique of student poems and discussion of a few online journals that occupy either a particular space in the contemporary poetry universe or address certain themes/call for specific forms. Poems written during the course of the class will be developed from research into online journals and the individual poet’s desire to either match suggestions for work to a publication or find a publication matching that student’s poetic aesthetic and conceits (usually a mix of both is in operation). How can we tell if a particular journal or review is the kind of place we'd like our work to find a home? This class will leave you with a better understanding of how to sort through publishing opportunities on the internet - the good, the bad and the right ones for you.
Instructor: Cynthia Lotze

4 Tuesdays
November 11 – December 2
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Poetry and Online Publication - NEW!More Details
Tuition: $155 (members $140)

Price: $155.00

Question Authority - NEW!

All Levels
This 2 ½-hour crash course in investigative interview techniques (as opposed to job interviews) will cover everything from arranging meetings with experts, to crafting questions, getting people to open up and "painting" your subjects on the page. The only tools necessary are paper, pen and an enthusiasm to write. All levels welcome.
Instructor: Nicole Anderson Ellis

Saturday, September 13
10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Question Authority - NEW!More Details
Tuition: $100 (members $85)

Price: $100.00