Summer Classes
Writing:
- Adults Only: Four Great Novels
- Beginner’s Poetry Workshop
- Beginnings and Endings
- Creative Non-Fiction
- Fiction 101 Workshop
- Fiction Workshop
- Flash Fiction
- Flying Off the Page: Short Fiction and Film
- Poetry Workshop
- Tearing the Dream: Reading as Writers
- The Creative Spark
- Writing Scenes and Monologues
Adults Only: Four Great Novels
All Levels
Although literary masterpieces were written by and for adults, most of us encounter them only in school because literature is supposed to be Educational. When we are at last mature enough to grasp and appreciate literature’s complexity and humanity, we may find it hard to articulate just what we love, and harder still to choose what’s worth reading. Whether you read fiction all the time or haven’t done so since it was an assignment, here is an opportunity to read as an adult, to learn what literature really means, to think for yourself about the good and the great, and to plunge into reading and discussion with confidence.
Tuition: $150 ($135 members)
Sections:
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Deirdra McAfee
6 Mondays
June 2 – July 7
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Beginner’s Poetry Workshop
Beginner
Students will critique their poems in a workshop format. We will also discuss poetic traditions, contemporary trends, and forms. The course will provide a nurturing forum that will appreciate and enhance authors’ strengths, voice, vision, and objectives as emerging poets.
Tuition: $170 ($155 members)
Sections:
-
Darren Morris
8 Thursdays
June 12 – August 7
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Beginnings and Endings
All Levels
Stories don’t arrive in order. Most writers get pieces—a middle here, a chunk of exposition or description there, openings that don’t open, and endings that don’t end. This class will help you knit together the fragments and find out how your story wants to tell itself. We will learn how to jack up stories’ language and tension to make them begin irresistibly. We will discover how the first page foretells the story and suggests shapely and suitable conclusions.
Tuition: $100 ($85 members)
Sections:
-
Deirdra McAfee
5 Days
June 2 – June 6
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Creative Non-Fiction
All Levels
Whether it’s The Perfect Storm, Into Thin Air, or the latest cover stories from Newsweek and Time, successful nonfiction combines the best of fiction (dramatic plot, conflict, and complex characters) with the best of journalism (neutrality, reliable facts, and applicability to our own lives). This class will introduce you to the nuts and bolts of researching and writing non-fiction; everything from interview techniques to polishing your personal prose style. Students will also prepare and review work for publication.
Tuition: $170 ($155 members)
Sections:
-
Nicole Anderson Ellis
8 Wednesdays
June 11 – July 30
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Fiction 101 Workshop
All Levels
Using a balance of lecture, exercise, and feedback on work from the instructor and classmates, this course gives students a firm grounding in all the basics of fiction writing. In 8 weeks students will: Cover the basics of fiction (i.e. - plot, character, etc) via in-class lectures and writing exercises; write one short story/chapter; present work for critique. The class is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals
Tuition: $170 ($155 members)
Sections:
-
Lee Bloxom
8 Thursdays
June 12 – August 7
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
No Class July 3
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.
Tuition: $170 ($155 members)
Sections:
-
James Fueglein
8 Tuesdays
June 10 – July 29
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Flash Fiction
All Levels
How tight can you tell it? Can you really get a whole story into a paragraph or a page? There’s an art to the very short story and also a craft. Learn more about both. Pow! Bam! Sign up!
Tuition: $100 ($85 members)
Sections:
-
Deirdra McAfee
5 Days
June 9 – June 13
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Flying Off the Page: Short Fiction and Film
All Levels
There are two Academy Awards for writing--Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. That’s because adaptation is itself an art. In this class we’ll read some short stories, and watch the movies they inspired. We’ll begin with a short adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” and work our way towards more ambitious films like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds--based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier. We’ll discuss whether adding a love interest raises the stakes or muddies the plot, and why some stories are better because they’re short. Finally, students will select short stories and write their own film treatments--detailing how they would adapt a story into a screenplay. You will come away from this class with a new or refreshed appreciation for the craft of writing fiction and film.
Tuition: $135 ($120 members)
Sections:
-
Douglas Jones
4 Tuesdays
August 5 – August 26
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
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.
Tuition: $150 ($135 members)
Sections:
-
Leslie Shiel
6 Wednesdays
June 11 – July 16
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Tearing the Dream: Reading as Writers
All Levels
To those who want to write, writers are indeed singular people, the authors and heroes of a real dream, the dream of writing, and of another dream, the dream on the pages, the book we read. The writers we admire delight and challenge us. They can also daunt and discourage us as we attempt our own work. Yet wide reading makes us better writers. This class will approach reading from the perspective of craft as well as art. We’ll read a selection of short pieces closely and thoughtfully and work on exercises that arise from that reading. As we take literature apart and learn how it works, our enjoyment of it will increase. So will our range as writers.
Tuition: $150 ($135 members)
Sections:
-
Deirdra McAfee
6 Mondays
July 21 – August 25
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
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.
Tuition: $150 ($135 members)
Sections:
-
Douglas Jones
5 Tuesdays
July 1 – July 29
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Writing Scenes and Monologues
All Levels
The reality of playwriting is largely nuts and bolts-- knowing how to write scenes and monologues. Can a play consist of a single scene? Read Edward Albee’s Zoo Story. Can a play consist of a single monologue? Read Spalding Gray or Anna Deveare Smith. But when it comes right down to it, most plays combine scenes and monologues. This class teaches and experiments with writing scenes and monologues. Hemingway’s technique was to write one good sentence, and then to follow it with another good sentence. Anne Lamott’s father told his son to write his last-minute report on birds one at a time--“bird by bird.” This class will approach the craft of playwriting similarly: one scene or monologue at a time.
Tuition: $150 ($135 members)
Sections:
-
Douglas Jones
5 Days
June 2 – June 6
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Adult Summer Classes
The 2008 adult class schedule is now posted!
Artventure
Check out the Summer Artventure class schedule!
Parent + Student Guidelines (PDF)
