the Writer's Center
workshop & event guide summer 2012
Heidi durrow
emily miller
Jody Bolz
Sunil Freeman
TWC Celebrates Its 35th Anniversary
Inside: The conclusion of the member profiles, all about writing and designing a book, BookTalk: Double Indemnity interviews, and the summer workshops and events.
&
the Writer's Center Workshop Event Guide
SUMMER 2012 Managing Editor Maureen A. Punte Contributing Editors Zachary Fernebok Sunil Freeman Contributing Writers Robert Bausch Caitlin Cushman Jason DeYoung Zachary Fernebok Nevin Martell Maureen A. Punte Art Taylor Copy Editors Bernadette Geyer Charles Jensen Laura Spencer Cover Photo Credits Timothi Jane Graham (Durrow) Patrice Gilbert (Miller) Samantha Guerry (Bolz) Genevieve DeLeon (Freeman) Contact Us p 301-654-8664 f 240-223-0458 Writer.org
[email protected] In the Workshop & Event Guide, The Writer’s Center’s triquarterly publication, you’ll find a list of all of our upcoming workshops and literary events, not to mention the occasional interview and craft feature.
Pick it up; pass it on.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
16 Fiction 18 Nonfiction 19 Memoir/Essay 20 Poetry 21 Stage & Screen 24 Songwriting 24 Mixed Genre 26 Younger Writers 27 Professional Development 28 Adults Write for Children 28 Online 29 McLean Workshops 30 Capitol Hill Workshops
DEPARTMENTS
Welcome About the Contributing Writers Director's Note How to Choose Your Workshop 13 TWC Workshops at a Glance 32 Events at The Writer's Center 35 Leesburg First Friday 36 Workshop Leaders 41 TWC Insider 42 Thank You 45 Registration 1 2 3 12
FEATURES 4
The Heart & Soul of TWC: A Profile of Sunil Freeman
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Write Your way to the End: A Profile of Emily Miller
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The Author Who Wrote from Her Life: A Profile of Heidi Durrow
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The Gift of Noticing: A Profile of Jody Bolz
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A Little Luck Never Hurts My Career as a Book Author
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A Million Little Details: The Career of a Book Designer
Writer.org
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BookTalk: Double Indemnity
WELCOME 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.
BOOKSTORE
The Bookstore carries one of the most extensive collections of literary magazines in the mid-Atlantic states.
Poet lore
Established in 1889, Poet Lore is the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the United States. We publish it twice a year, and submissions are accepted year-round. Subscription and submission information is available online at poetlore.com.
DIRECTIONS
The Writer’s Center is located at 4508 Walsh Street in Bethesda, Maryland, five blocks south of the Bethesda Metro stop. Walsh Street is located on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue. For more detailed directions, please visit Writer.org.
PARKING
Metered parking is across the street from our building. The meters are $1.00 per hour on weekdays and free on weekends.
other locations
Writer’s Center Staff
Annapolis Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts 801 Chase Street Annapolis, MD 21401 marylandhall.org
Executive Director Stewart Moss Assistant Director Sunil Freeman Program Manager Zachary Fernebok Development & Operations Manager Karen Callwood Office Manager Laura Spencer Managing Editor of Poet Lore Genevieve DeLeon
Arlington Arlington Cultural Affairs Building 3700 South Four Mile Run Drive Arlington, VA 22206 arlingtonarts.org Capitol Hill The Hill Center 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, D.C. 20003 hillcenterdc.org Glen Echo Glen Echo Park 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD 20812 glenechopark.org Leesburg Leesburg Town Hall 25 West Market Street Leesburg, VA 20176 leesburgva.com McLean McLean Community Center 1234 Ingleside Avenue McLean, VA 22101 mcleancenter.org For directions, visit Writer.org
WEBSITE
Our website is Writer.org. It provides complete descriptions of workshops, workshop leader biographies, interactive workshops, event listings, resources, Writer’s Center publications, and more.
Social networks You can find us on
& TWC’s Blog
Business & Operations Lindsey Gordon John Hamilton Jennifer Napolitano Rhea Smirlock
Contact Us p 301-654-8664 f 240-223-0458 Writer.org
[email protected]
Board of Directors Sally Mott Freeman Chair
Les Hatley Treasurer
Neal P. Gillen Vice Chair
Ken Ackerman Secretary
Margot Backas Sandra Beasley Naomi Collins Mark Cymrot Michael Febrey Patricia Harris John M. Hill James Mathews C.M. Mayo Jim McAndrew
Ann McLaughlin E. Ethelbert Miller Joram Piatigorsky Bill Reynolds Rose Solari Linda Sullivan Dulcie Taylor Mier Wolf Wilson W. Wyatt, Jr.
Honorary Board Kate Blackwell Dana Gioia Jim Lehrer Kate Lehrer
Alice McDermott Ellen McLaughlin Howard Norman
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Photos by: MATT BRIGGS (bausch); Kathryn Murphy (cushman); Ann Compton (deyoung); Clinton Brandhagen (fernebok); Danny Fowler (martell); charles jensen (punte); Tara Laskowski (taylor)
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Robert Bausch was educated at George Mason University, earning a B.A., an M.A., and an M.F.A., and he says he has been a writer all his life. He has taught at the University of Virginia, American University, George Mason University, The Johns Hopkins University, and Northern Virginia Community College. He has also been a director on the board of the Pen Faulkner Foundation. In 2009 he was awarded the John Dos Passos Prize in Literature. For more information, visit robertbausch.org. Caitlin Cushman is a writer/editor at Boston University. She holds a fiction B.F.A. from Emerson College and M.F.A. from American University. She spent seven years at TWC, at one time simultaneously teaching at AU, finishing her thesis, and working both as managing editor of Poet Lore and business and operations coordinator; she’s thrilled to have just one job right now. Her fiction has appeared in So to Speak and Amazing Graces, and she has written for First Person Plural. She loves Shirley Temples and Twain. Jason DeYoung is a former Writer’s Center staff member and Managing Editor of Poet Lore. His fiction has appeared most recently in The Los Angeles Review, The Fiddleback, New Orleans Review, and Harpur Palate. His fiction will also appear in the forthcoming 2012 edition of The Best American Mystery Stories. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Zachary Fernebok is a playwright, a company member of Infinite Stage Theatre Company and Flying V, and playwright-in-residence at American Ensemble Theatre. His plays have been performed at The National Portrait Gallery and the Otono Azul play festival in Argentina among others. His plays, The Pirate Laureate of Port Town and Navigating Turbulence, will be read and performed this summer with American Ensemble Theatre. He teaches at Writopia Lab.
Nevin Martell has been writing about food and culture for more than a decade and a half. His work has appeared in The Washington Post Express, DC Modern Luxury, Capitol File, Washington City Paper, Cheese Connoisseur, Restaurant Management, Men’s Health, and online at The Washington Post’s All You Can Eat blog. His books include Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, Standing Small: A Celebration of 30 Years of the LEGO Minifigure, Dave Matthews Band: Music for the People, and Beck: The Art of Mutation. You can find him online at nevinmartell.com. Maureen A. Punte is a web specialist at The Johns Hopkins University. She holds a B.S. in Visual Communications Design from Stevenson University and an M.A. in Publications Design from University of Baltimore. Having worked at The Writer’s Center as the art director, and as a freelance designer for seven years, she is now one of the managing principals and weekly blogger at the consulting group, Radar Collective (radar-collective.com). Art Taylor’s short fiction has appeared in several national magazines, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and North American Review; online at Fiction Weekly, Prick of the Spindle, and SmokeLong Quarterly; and in various regional publications. His story “A Voice from the Past” was an honorable mention for the 2010 Best American Mystery Stories anthology. His story “Rearview Mirror” won the 2011 Derringer Award for Best Novelette. He regularly reviews mysteries and thrillers for The Washington Post and contributes frequently to Mystery Scene, among other publications. For more information, visit arttaylorwriter.com.
The Writer’s Center is supported in part by:
The Writer’s Center gratefully acknowledges assistance received from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation. 2
photo by: Kyle Semmel
DIRECTOR’S NOTE Whenever I reflect on what it means to return to writing after months, or even years, of neglecting it while attending to the demands of career and family, I think of this line from the Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz’s poem “Capri”: “Early we receive a call, yet it remains incomprehensible, and only late do we discover how obedient we were.” Milosz is right: It’s difficult to escape forever from what abides most deeply within us. For all of us who take workshops and attend events at The Writer’s Center, returning to our love of the written word is a kind of homecoming, where others who share our passion are ready to greet us as if we were voyagers returning to port. But imagine a very different kind of homecoming, where soldiers battered psychologically and physically from military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, or any of the other countries in which the United States has been involved militarily in recent years, return to a home in which the joy and relief of what the ancient Greeks called nostos is made nearly impossible by the severity of their own wounds. Anger, anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks, and vertigo are just a few of the symptoms they experience. An article on “The Traumatized Brain” in a recent issue of Harvard Magazine states that as many as 20 percent of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may also have some degree of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For the past several weeks, The Writer’s Center has been honored to be part of a program at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that uses the arts to heal these soldiers and restore them to productive lives. As a participant at the recent national summit on “Arts in Healing for Warriors” observed, “Trauma comes through the senses, and art can heal through the senses.” The Writer’s Center’s role is to provide programmatic support for the National Endowment for the Arts’ critically acclaimed Operation Homecoming writing workshops that give soldiers who are being treated at Walter Reed a chance to write about their experience and regain control of their own narrative.
The ability to externalize their experience, in fact, is the beginning of therapeutic healing…and what they went through is often not easy for these soldiers to explore or express. As Ron Capps, who, along with Jim Mathews, is one of the workshop leaders and is himself a veteran of several conflicts, including Afghanistan, states in his book Writing War: A Guide to Telling Your Own Story: To begin with, we’re often writing about the most primal of emotions and urges. We might write about killing or fear, loneliness or hatred. There might be violence and brutality, or a grim determination in the face of unenviable odds. Sometimes there is shame. But there can also be moments of intense beauty and surprising gentleness. I’ve seen these moments of beauty and gentleness during the creative writing sessions I’ve attended, when soldiers have described the sun setting over the Hindu Kush after an exhausting day on patrol, or the pleasure they got from seeing a young boy in a tiny and remote village splash gleefully in a wading pool they’d just given his father. In all of their writing, whether of beauty or violence, these soldiers are paving the way to their own healing, and making a true homecoming all the more possible. It’s because of projects like this one, and also the many workshops and readings at The Writer’s Center that can play a profound role in the healing of whatever wounds each one of us may carry, that I believe so deeply in the work the Center does. And so I ask again that you help support the Center by contributing to our 35th Anniversary Annual Fund before our fiscal year ends on June 30th. If you’ve already given, I’m deeply grateful and hope you’ll make an additional contribution. Supporting the Center is a way, in Milosz’s words, to be ‘obedient’ to your own calling and to make stepping through the doors of The Writer’s Center a kind of homecoming for everyone. With all the best wishes for a wonderful spring and summer of writing,
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Though he wasn’t there at The Writer’s Center’s (TWC) founding, Sunil Freeman has been with the organization longer than any other staff member—26 years! He is often described as TWC’s “institutional memory.” Hard working, modest, and giving, Sunil is perhaps the quintessence of TWC. Sunil has lived most of his life in Maryland, but spent some years in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and India as a child. He graduated from University of Maryland, College Park, in 1978. While there, he majored in journalism and wrote for The Diamondback, the university’s newspaper. He started taking workshops at TWC in 1985 and was hired in 1986.
When I asked him how he found out about the Center, he said his Aunt Grace (who later became the Poet Laureate of South Carolina) gently encouraged him to take a workshop after reading some of his poems. Sunil found TWC through word-of-mouth and he started taking workshops, first with such legendary workshop leaders as Ann Darr and Rod Jellema, and then later with the wonderfully talented William O’Sullivan and Cathy Fink. Sunil says in The Writer’s Center he “found people who were serious about writing, but who didn’t take themselves too seriously.” Sunil’s publications include two books of poems, Surreal Freedom Blues (1999) and That Would Explain the Violinist (1993), and numerous poems, essays, and reviews in various literary journals. Sunil is currently TWC’s assistant director, in charge of off-site workshops at satellite venues and the Open Door Reading Series, which he calls the “celebration” of the hard work that goes on at TWC. He also oversees TWC’s special projects, such as the NEA-funded “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.” Over the years he has been the managing editor of Poet Lore, the bookstore manager, and the programs director. “But I was first hired to do phototypesetting of literary journals and books.” 4
Sunil says what he likes best about working at TWC is the interaction with the workshop leaders. “They are the heart and soul of TWC. They are such a talented, accomplished group of people and that’s a honor to work with them.” It’s hard to tease Sunil and TWC apart. While talking to him, you learn that an important part of his character is the sense of accomplishment he gets from helping lead this well-oiled organization. He is particularly proud of inviting Stanley Plumly and Robert Bausch to lead workshops. When I asked him what people don’t know about TWC, he said, “I think of just how much work goes on behind the scenes to make things run smoothly. I think an apt comparison is what you sometimes hear about musicians. There are very talented guitarists who make their playing look like it’s effortless, when in fact there’s a good deal of work that goes into it. There are a lot of conversations, emails, and thinking that take place behind the scenes [at TWC] to ensure that workshop participants, and those attending events, are able to focus on the writing.” ¶
Write Your Way to the End: A Profile of Emily Miller Robert Bausch
I was scheduled to teach a workshop in Aspen, Colorado. One of the manuscripts sent to me in the weeks before my flight was a brief chapter in a novel by Emily Miller. It was a scene in a car with a father and son. I think the story is told from the father’s point of view, but what is memorable from that scene is the excruciating awkwardness of the father, his sincere need to avoid conflict, set up against his son’s distant, disrespectful attitude. What the father says to his son engenders the kind of response he is getting—taken a certain way, and that is how the son takes it—but the father’s intentions are not at all what the son perceives them to be. It’s a car ride, mostly. Not much happens in the scene in terms of physical action. But the conflict in that scene is as gripping as any I’ve encountered in years. Once the workshop began, I took Emily aside and asked her, “What are you doing here?” I told her she could easily teach a workshop herself. She told me she’d been wrestling with this novel for a long, long time. She wanted to get response to it in a workshop setting. She thought it might help her get back on track and finish it. Emily, I could see, had no faith in what she was doing. I told her just to write her way to the end, to trust that prodigious talent and see what she’s got when she’s done with it. A few days after I got back from Aspen, I sent Emily an e-mail that said simply, “WYWTTE.” I had written that on a sheet of paper and taped it to my computer, and then I thought of her and decided to remind her of what I’d told her. What I got back was an e-mail that said, “It took me several hours to figure out what WYWTTE stands for.
I get it. And I will.” Of course what it stands for is “Write Your Way To The End.” Every day after that, when I sat down to work on my book, I’d e-mail Emily first. WYWTTE. That’s all. Over the rest of that fall, through the winter, and into the following summer, I’d ask Emily for a “status report.” She’d ask me how my work was going, so I’d send her a status report too. At one point I wrote to say, “I should probably quit sending you these e-mails; I’m probably getting to be a nuisance.” She wrote back and said, “No, don’t. It really is a help to me. And I think I’m helping you, too. Go team.” Emily finished her book. I’ll let her tell you what happened after that: I spent the next four months doing two or three big revisions. In January I decided it was where I wanted it to be. I was ready to look for an agent. From everything I’d heard in my writing life, I braced for months (if not more) of frustration and discouragement. To my great surprise, things happened very quickly. One of the agents I queried in the first batch asked me to suspend my search for 10 days while she read it. She promised she’d get back to me the coming Monday, which happened to be Valentine’s Day and, as promised, that Monday morning I got an e-mail from her saying she loved the book and wanted to try to sell it. The only change she wanted me to make was the title. (It was Gold. We changed it to After Augustus, which has since been changed again.) I was of course ecstatic. The very next week she sent it out to eight. A few came back right away with interest. I spoke to two editors on the phone on Tuesday, and ended up accepting a two-book deal from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Wednesday. A two-book deal. Emily Miller is now beginning work on that second novel. And I think when she gets going on it, she will remember to write her way to the end. ¶ 5
The Author Who Wrote from Her Life: A Profile of Heidi Durrow Zachary Fernebok Growing up in a racially divided town, Heidi Durrow would often describe herself as “black and white” to satisfy her curious community. Issues of race, class, and social injustice would later inspire her novel The Girl Who Fell from the Sky the first recipient of TWC’s McLaughlin-StearnsEsstman Prize, which awards the author of the best first novel published during a given calendar year. Your novel, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, was recently awarded with TWC’s first-ever First Novel Prize. Pardon the pun, but how did you fall into writing? I always wanted to be a writer. But also wanted to be financially secure because I grew up without a lot of money. I took jobs that allowed me to write for pay: Hallmark greeting card writer, journalist, lawyer. Ultimately, I realized that I wouldn’t feel fulfilled if I never gave novel writing a shot. I quit my job as a corporate attorney and started working on this book. It took a long time—12 years— to write it and get it published. It felt like a miracle when I found out I had won the Bellwether Prize and would finally see my book in print. Where did you get your inspiration for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky? The story is inspired by a real event in which a family died in a terrible tragedy and the girl survived. I became obsessed with the girl. I wanted to know what her survival 6
would look like and I set out to write a future for her, to give her a voice. I learned after some trial and error that the girl survivor had some relation to my own story. I went on from there, blending the initial idea with the touchstones of my own emotional experience. At The Writer’s Center, we provide writing workshops for all levels of writers. While you were writing your novel, did you workshop your progress? How did that feedback help your process? I did try to workshop some of what ended up becoming the novel. But I think I tried to workshop it too soon in one instance. In one summer intensive workshop, I got to share three chapters of the novel. It was there that I found a trusted reader who gave me great notes on other drafts. What’s the best advice you can give to our members working on creative pieces that also address issues of race, class, and social justice? I think the best advice is to be true to the story and characters first. The ideas and issues will be evident— but you want readers to connect with and empathize with the characters. If the readers can do that, they will certainly follow the vision that you are writing. ¶ Read about Heidi’s upcoming reading at TWC on page 34.
The Gift of Noticing: A Profile of Jody Bolz Caitlin Cushman Jody Bolz was three years old when she dictated a poem to her grandmother, a Russian Jew with limited English. The result was incomprehensible, but one thing became clear: Jody was a poet.
BREAKAGE Under skylights, they circle their subject—torso, head, and shattered limbs—in order to restore it. The broken body (male figure with an angel’s face) sprawls across three table-tops in satin curves chiseled in antiquity by hands like those they label “right” and “left,” then set aside. The marble’s rough as gravel where it ruptures at each wrist, reminding us the history of art, like history itself, is full of damage. I watch the experts bend over their work, eyes and fingers measuring the task, in which ruin is a factor to be overcome— time, the adversary, and repair conceivable.
High school soured poetry with its overanalysis and she flirted instead with fiction—anything to tell a story—until Cornell’s A.R. Ammons brought her back to poetry for life. He told her, “Poetry is really just paying attention, isn’t it?” It took her nearly two decades to fully unpack that sentiment, but she came away with an important assessment of the craft that consumed her: Poetry is a way of paying back the world for the gift of noticing. Having worked with Jody and experienced both the mentor and the editor, I’ve seen her talent for noticing, for paying attention, and the ways she’s chosen to thank the world for her gifts, leaving the rest of us richer for knowing her. My favorite part of working with Jody on Poet Lore was sharing in the detailed conversations between her and our poets. Yes, in a move seldom made by today’s beleaguered editors, Jody remains one of the few who take the time to write to her poets. The journal’s history (it is the nation’s oldest continuously published poetry journal) and reputation (beloved by those who know it) are draws to poets and readers—but Jody’s sensibility reveals the reason poets love Poet Lore. Jody came aboard with 24 years of teaching under her belt and a strong editing background. But beyond her talent for spotting printer errors and grammatical inconsistencies, Jody is a poet, and she and E. Ethelbert Miller (poet and literary activist) have kept Poet Lore a poet’s journal. Jody explains, “One of the things that I feel best about is engaging poets in a serious conversation about their work. It can salvage a poem.” And the attention does not go unremarked. Grateful poets speak of the time Jody took to deeply evaluate and consider their work. Someone was paying attention. And she loves the work. “The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve felt that poetry is essential,” Jody says. “Poets leave behind a record of humanness—what it’s like to be alive here and now—an intense connection with a stranger in another time and space.” That’s what she looks for when reading a poem, and when she writes her own: work that lasts and that changes your way of thinking. Her work as editor, poet, teacher, and lover of literature has always been about those new ways of thinking, especially the kind generated in collaboration. Whether between an artist and appreciator, an editor and writer, a teacher and student, or a poet and her subject, Jody Bolz embraces the opportunity that conversation provides—taking the time to pay attention in a preoccupied world. We’ve noticed. We’ll pay you back. ¶ Read about Poet Lore’s birthday reading on page 34.
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Nevin Martell Scoring a deal with a publishing house can sometimes seem impossible—at the very least fantastical— even if you’ve made it happen before. Even though I’ve written several books, I’m still surprised that any of them made it to the shelves. Happenstance and luck always seem to play a role. My first effort, Dave Matthews Band: Music for the People, came about when a writer friend managed to sell a similarly styled biography on Oasis. I kept badgering him over gin and tonics until he introduced me to his agent and walked me through the process. A short while later, I found myself cashing an advance check. Basically, I starred in a publishing fairytale. When that book sold well, the publisher called me to find out what music icon I wanted to tackle next. I narrowed down my options to this new little band called the Foo Fighters, and Beck, who was alt-rock’s golden child. Unfortunately, I chose the “Loser” singer. As I toiled away on my book, he proceeded to release increasingly experimental albums that sold progressively fewer copies. Meanwhile, the Foos became the biggest band in the world. Beck: The Art of Mutation sank like its namesake’s career and my publisher stopped calling. My career as a writer was stalled. More than half a decade passed and I couldn’t come up with an idea that would stick to the wall. I still had an agent, but only technically. The only time we communicated was when he emailed to ensure that my royalty checks for the DMB book were going to the right address. It wasn’t a bad relationship; it just wasn’t one that productively moved my career forward. 8
After more than a few false starts, I started asking myself a simple question: What did I love so much that I would want to spend a year researching it and writing about it? My epiphany came as I was reading an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. The quirky adventures of the boy and his tiger got me to thinking: What the hell ever happened to their creator, Bill Watterson? After some quick research (ie. Googling), I realized Watterson was a true enigma. I drew up a one-page proposal in the hopes that someone would pay me to uncover the mystery. I shared the concept with my agent, but he wasn’t interested. I was convinced it was a good idea, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get it off the ground without representation. Around that time, I happened to be talking to an editor at Continuum Publishing about their 331/3 series, which focuses on esoteric and forgotten albums. He passed on my idea to do a book on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, but I decided to send him my proposal for my dream project on Bill Watterson anyway. He liked it and asked for a quick chapter outline. Soon enough, he was sending me a contract for what became Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. Since my agent hadn’t been supportive of the idea, I decided to represent myself (with a little help from a friendly lawyer who looked over the paperwork). It all happened so fast that I had little time to consider my good fortune. Now I’m putting together a proposal for my next project and I’ve got my fingers crossed. It takes a great idea, persistence, and a lot of hard work to get a book deal. But a little luck never hurts. ¶
Maureen Punte If you’ve read a book and didn’t stumble over the text, or notice things like ragged paragraphs, widows, or rivers, you can thank the careful skill of the books’ designer for bringing it all together. As a book designer with over 35 titles to his credit, Jay Naughton has worn many hats: copy editor, photo manipulator, illustrator, production coordinator, marketing person, accountant, and business manager. Book design is something Naughton fell into. A selfproclaimed “software junkie,” he taught himself the latest programs—including a fad at the time, desktop publishing. Like others, Naughton was amazed that a person could produce print material at home. After learning the software, he started taking on side jobs designing things like menus and newsletters. He later worked as a writer for the National Lampoon website. When the company got a book deal, Naughton was asked if he could produce the book. Having worked at a nonprofit producing books, he felt he could try. Although he wasn’t actively marketing himself, this led to more work from the publisher and others. As for his design skills, Naughton says he just picked them up, “I’m not trained at all. Again, it’s just having an eye for what looks good and what doesn’t.” It’s a modest answer from someone who knows what makes for a strong book design, “If the typography and design draws too much attention to itself, you’re taking away from the fact that it’s a book someone should be reading, not a museum piece someone should be admiring.” At his height, Naughton was producing a new book every three weeks. This requires a detailed plan. After receiving information on the size of the book, the page count, and the word count, he would lay out four or five sample chapters for the client. For some projects, he was given a few days to sit and think about the layout. For others, he sat with the authors working out ideas on the spot. For Naughton, book design is a constant dialogue. The designer has to be open to what the author wants because ultimately it’s the author’s book. It’s also about being prepared for revisions because “final text” doesn’t necessarily
mean “final.” Naughton explains the trouble one small change can cause. “If [the author] changes one word there, boom, half of this paragraph’s on the next page. None of your pictures line up, your captions are gone.” In addition to his work on the National Lampoon books, Naughton worked on a series that included a biography of John Belushi. Belushi’s widow, Judith, a co-author on the book, had one layout request: make it look like Rolling Stone. Belushi had appeared in the magazine many times. This required some research on Naughton’s part. Knowing how the magazine was laid out, and more importantly what typeface they used, was crucial. He went through thousands of fonts on his computer. For each one Judith said it wasn’t right. He wound up buying the font. The book included pictures from Belushi’s life. Judith sent Naughton a trunk of scrapbooks, Polaroids, and notes. However, there were pictures Judith and co-author Tanner Colby wanted in the book that weren’t in the trunk. It was up to Naughton to track these down. This meant calling John’s old friends and Universal Studios for movie stills. Each item had to be cataloged, scanned, and cleaned up in Photoshop. As Naughton points out, “It’s a million little details,” so staying organized, both digitally and physically, is essential. All of this became Naughton’s job because, as he says, “If someone uses a snippet of something you have to know, it shouldn’t fall on the designer’s shoulders, but if I’m the only one who can do it I kind of have to.” When the recession hit, Naughton’s clients started going out of business and the book design projects went away. This hasn’t concerned Naughton in the least. As a designer and freelancer, he says you have to know what’s happening. Much like the Internet boom and rise of purchasing music online, Naughton sees the time of the e-reader as exciting, “I think you’re going to see more interactivity in books, stuff you can’t do on paper, to justify the cost of buying it on Kindle or iPad or Nook—little animations, photos, links, or sounds. Who knows? I’m diving into that now to see what happens.” As for the books that he designed, Naughton has been asked to send the materials so e-versions can be produced. ¶ 9
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taylor BookTalk:
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Photos by: Drew reilly (Abbott); kyle semmel (corrigan); Paddy Lehane (Lehane); Stan Barouh (robison)
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robison
James M. Cain’s first two novels—The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity—
earned both sharp notoriety and enduring acclaim for the author, a Baltimore native. Postman, first published in 1934, was a sensational bestseller, despite (or perhaps because of?) being banned in Boston, and the book famously inspired Albert Camus’ own first novel, The Stranger. Double Indemnity, serialized in 1936 and published as a novel in 1943, cemented the author’s reputation as one of the finest crime writers of his generation, a master alongside contemporaries Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Both books were adapted into now-classic film noirs, and a third novel, Mildred Pierce—was recently given fresh life as an award-winning HBO miniseries. →
This spring, Double Indemnity gets its own update with the East Coast premiere of a new stage adaptation running May 30–June 24 at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre. In conjunction with that production, The Writer’s Center will host a BookTalk event on Sunday, June 10, at 12:30 p.m., focused on Cain’s novels, the various film adaptations, and the local production. As a preview of that talk, the program’s moderator, fiction writer and critic Art Taylor, posed some quick questions of each of the panelists. Check out their responses below, and come join us on Sunday, June 10, for more of the discussion! Maureen Corrigan, Georgetown University professor and book critic for National Public Radio and The Washington Post Taylor: How well do Cain’s books hold up against today’s crime or noir novels? Having taught Cain in the college classroom, how have students’ responses surprised you in any way? Corrigan: Cain is still the crime noir master against whom all other writers must measure themselves. Fate, fall guys, femme fatales, and fast cars: Cain mixed them all up in a California cauldron steaming with sexuality and bad poetry. Yes, that’s right: “bad poetry.” The amazing thing about Cain is that he wasn’t a great literary stylist. Anyone who doubts this judgment should compare the ending of the novel Double Indemnity to Billy Wilder’s film version. Cain’s finale is infected by dopey symbols (“the moon,” that shark!) while Wilder’s ending is elegantly restrained by comparison. My students are sometimes surprised to find how wincingly bad Cain’s literary flourishes can be, but they revere Cain for the doomed mood of his stories and his ingenious “No Exit” plots. Cain’s novels are a product of The Great Depression. Given our ongoing Great Recession, Cain’s writing—particularly its focus on what desperate people will do for a buck—is more socially relevant than ever. Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of six novels, including most recently The End of Everything. Taylor: At a noir-themed evening sponsored by City Light Books a couple years ago, you commented that James M. Cain’s novels provided your first glimpse at adult love. What impact did Cain’s books have on you—both as a young reader coming of age and as a young writer entering the world of noir? Abbott: I grew up loving the famous film adaptations of Cain, their brooding sense of desire run amok. It made adult desire seem so overwhelming and dangerous. But
nothing prepared me for The Postman Always Rings Twice, which I first read in my early 20s. It felt like forbidden terrain. The way it’s structured—as a confession—made it feel like Frank, the narrator, was whispering a secret in my ear, an almost unbearable intimacy. It made me think of the power of noir fiction to let us into not just the unconscious of the book but also our own unconscious. It fueled everything I wrote after that. Con Lehane, Writer’s Center instructor and author of the Brian McNulty mystery novels, including most recently Death at the Old Hotel Taylor: To what degree do you look to past masters of crime fiction as mentors of sorts in crafting your own novels? Lehane: When I first began writing crime fiction, I was inspired by the California hard-boiled triumvirate—Hammett, Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. I didn’t directly model my writing on them; the influence was more subtle for me, possibly subconscious, but it was very much there. I didn’t come to the noir writers until after my first book was published—although I was well aware of some of the movies, particularly those made from Cain’s books. If I had come to them earlier, I wonder if I might have written a different book, because I do feel an affinity with noir writers—Cain, Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Derek Raymond, and others. Blake Robison, Producing Artistic Director, Round House Theatre Taylor: As part of its mission, Round House Theatre has mounted stage adaptations of many great works of literature—this season’s offerings already included Fahrenheit 451 and Pride & Prejudice. How does it change your approach when there’s already been a successful—even legendary—film adaptation of the book you’re adapting to the stage, as with the production of Double Indemnity ahead? Robison: It’s an interesting question with a double answer. When describing the adaptation to the public, we do take the famous film into account, since it’s a reference point for many people. In our creative work, however, we steer clear. This adaptation looks to the source material for inspiration—namely, the novel by James M. Cain—so that is our primary inspiration. The play has to work as a play first and foremost. There will be variances from the novel. Some characters won’t make the cut, scenes might be moved to different locations, and so forth. We want audiences to experience the story in a heightened, theatrical context. ¶
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HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR WORKSHOP WHO SHOULD TAKE WRITING WORKSHOPS?
Everyone should—from people who want to try out writing or would like help getting started, to those more experienced writers who want to learn more and get better. Learning to write is an on-going process that involves perfecting and using many skills at once, and even published writers benefit from editors and readers who help them refine their work. WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A WORKSHOP?
• Guidance and encouragement from a published, working writer • Instruction on technical aspects such as structure, diction, and form • Kind, honest, and constructive feedback directed at the work but never critical of the author • Peer readers/editors who act as “spotters” for sections of your writing that need attention, and who become your community of working colleagues even after your workshop is completed • Tips on how to keep writing and integrate this “habit of being” into your life • Tactics for getting published when ready EXPECTATIONS OF WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
• Attend every workshop session you possibly can • Share your own work • Comment on and share your ideas about your peers’ work • Complete workshop leader prompts or reading assignments • Complete the workshop response form at the end of the course If you’ve never been in a writing workshop before, regardless of the skill level you think you have in writing, we strongly encourage you to start with a beginner-level workshop. Here you’ll learn more about the environment of the workshop: how to give and receive helpful feedback, how to address problems with the work without criticizing the author, and how to incorporate multiple (and sometimes conflicting) ideas into your revision.
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
You can register for workshops at The Writer’s Center in person, through the mail, online at Writer.org, or by calling 301-654-8664.
refund policy
To receive a credit, you must notify twc by e-mail (
[email protected]) within the drop period. Please confirm receipt of the message if you do not hear back from twc within two business days. If twc cancels a workshop, participants who have already signed up and made payment will receive a full refund, or they can use their payment as a credit toward another workshop and/or a membership. 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 full credit (but not a cash refund) that can be used within one year to pay for another workshop and/or a membership. Workshop participants who have enrolled in and paid for a workshop and choose to withdraw from it after the drop period has ended will forfeit their full payment and will not receive any credit to be used to pay for another workshop and/or a membership. E xceptions may be made in the case of serious illness or other extenuating circumstances such as relocation out of the area; in such cases, a formal request in the form of a letter or an e-mail must be submitted to the Executive Director. No refunds or credits will be given for individual classes missed.
5 or More Workshop Sessions
Notice must be given at least 48 hours before the second meeting
4 or Fewer Workshop Sessions
Notice must be given at least 48 hours before the first meeting
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BEGINNER LEVEL
These workshops will help you discover what creative writing really entails, such as: • Getting your ideas on the page; • Figuring out which genre you should be working in and what shape your material should take; • Learning the elements of poetry, playwriting, fiction, memoir, etc.; • Identifying your writing strengths and areas of opportunity; • Gaining beginning mastery of the basic tools of all writing, such as concise, accurate language, and learning how to tailor their particular use in your work. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
These workshops will build on skills you developed in the beginner level, designed for writers who have: • Taken a beginner-level workshop; • Achieved some grace in using the tools of language and form; • Projects in progress that they want to develop further. In addition, you may read and discuss some published works. ADVANCED LEVEL
Participants should have manuscripts that have been critiqued in workshops on the intermediate level and have been revised substantially. Advanced courses: • Focus on the revision and completion of a specific work; • Run at a faster pace with higher expectations of participation; • Will reward the persistent writer with deep insight and feedback into their work. MASTER LEVEL
Master classes are designed for writers who have taken several advanced workshops and have reworked their manuscript into what they believe is its final form. Master classes are unique opportunities to work in smaller groups with distinguished writers on a specific project or manuscript. Workshop leaders select participants from the pool of applicants—selection is competitive. Of course, art is not a science. The Writer’s Center recognizes that individual writers of all experience levels need to find their own place in our program. If you’d like advice on which courses will be right for you, please call and speak with a member of our staff.
TWC WORKSHOPS AT A GLANCE WORKSHOP
LOCATION START
DAY
Short Fiction Workshop Freelance Writing/Publishing in the Digital Age The Narrative Poem: An Evolving Free-Form The Short Story Convictions: Writing an American Lyric Strengthening Your Prose Personal Essay Workshop Getting Started: April Publishing Today: All You Need to Know The Modernists Poets Writing Compelling Blog Posts Advanced Novel and Memoir Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop Beginning Digital Tools for Genealogists Genealogy for Publication Gyroscope of Form: Sestinas Past, Present, and Future Writing Talking Points Writing the Military Experience Writing Your Novel or Memoir The Art & Craft Screenwriting Fringe 101: Strategies for Self-Producing Screenwriting in One Lesson Writing Short and Long Memoirs Creating Great Articles for Web & Print Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Place in Memoir The Eye and I The Power of Revision: From Work-in-Progress to Finished Poem How (and How Not) to Write Dialogue Podcasting for Writers Getting Your Poems into Print Making a Book for Mom Advanced Creative Nonfiction Characterization in the Novel Introduction to Blogging
Online
4/1
Su
Bethesda
4/2
M
Bethesda
4/10
Bethesda
B—beginnger
I—intermediate
A—advanced
LEVEL
PAGE
I/A
29
EVENING
B
24
T
EVENING
ALL
20
4/10
T
EVENING
ALL
16
Bethesda
4/11
W
EVENING
ALL
20
Bethesda
4/11
W
EVENING
B/I
16
Bethesda
4/12
Th
EVENING
I
19
Bethesda
4/14
S
DAY
B
26
Annapolis
4/14
S
DAY
ALL
25
Online
4/17
T
ALL
28
Bethesda
4/17
T
EVENING
ALL
27
Bethesda
4/18
W
EVENING
A
16
Bethesda
4/19
Th
EVENING
I
16
Bethesda
4/21
S
DAY
B
24
Bethesda
4/21
S
DAY
I
24
Bethesda
4/22
Su
DAY
I/A
20
Bethesda
4/24
T
EVENING
B/I
27
Capitol Hill
4/24
T
EVENING
ALL
31
McLean
4/24
T
EVENING
ALL
29
Glen Echo
4/28
S
DAY
B/I
21
Bethesda
4/28
S
DAY
I/A
24
Bethesda
4/28
S
DAY
ALL
24
Bethesda
4/28
S
DAY
ALL
19
Bethesda
5/1
T
EVENING
ALL
18
Bethesda
5/1
T
EVENING
B
19
Online
5/1
T
B/I
29
Bethesda
5/2
W
EVENING
B/I
18
Bethesda
5/3
T
DAY
I
20
Bethesda
5/5
S
DAY
ALL
25
Bethesda
5/5
S
DAY
B
26
Bethesda
5/6
Su
DAY
ALL
21
Bethesda
5/6
Su
DAY
B
27
Bethesda
5/9
W
EVENING
I/A
19
Online
5/12
S
I/A
28
Bethesda
5/12
S
B
27
M—master
TIME
DAY
ALL—all levels
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TWC WORKSHOPS AT A GLANCE WORKSHOP
LOCATION START
DAY
TIME
LEVEL
PAGE
Introduction to Marketing Platforms
Bethesda
5/12
S
DAY
B
27
The Power of Revision: From Work-in-Progress to Finished Poem
Bethesda
5/12
S
DAY
I
20
Feature Film Screenwriting
Bethesda
5/14
M
EVENING
I/A
21
Writer Calisthenics
Bethesda
5/14
M
DAY
ALL
25
Close Readings in Contemporary Poetry
Capitol Hill
5/15
T
EVENING
ALL
31
Writing the Television Pilot
Bethesda
5/16
W
EVENING
B
21
First Fire: From Spark to Practice
Capitol Hill
5/17
Th
EVENING
ALL
30
Novel-in-Process
Bethesda
5/17
Th
EVENING
ALL
18
The Force of Poetry (Saturday)
Bethesda
5/19
S
DAY
ALL
20
Narrative Arc
Online
5/19
S
I/A
28
Telling It Slant: Meaning and Music in Translating
Bethesda
5/19
S
DAY
ALL
21
Write What You Don't Know
Bethesda
5/19
S
DAY
ALL
20
The Force of Poetry (Monday)
Bethesda
5/21
M
EVENING
ALL
20
Rewriting Your Screenplay: The Art of the Rewrite
Bethesda
5/24
Th
EVENING
I/A
21
Women's Fiction
Bethesda
5/24
Th
DAY
B/I
18
Crafting Time in Short and Long Form Writing
Bethesda
5/29
T
EVENING
I/A
17
Compounds of Fiction: Structure
Bethesda
6/2
S
DAY
I
17
Personal Essay Weekend Workshop
Arlington
6/2
S
DAY
B/I
19
The Set Piece
Bethesda
6/2
S
DAY
I
25
Writing and Publishing Prose Poems and Flash Fiction
Bethesda
6/2
S & Su
DAY
ALL
26
Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal
Bethesda
6/2
S
DAY
ALL
18
The Extreme Novelist 1
Bethesda
6/4
M
EVENING
I
17
Writing Staycation
Bethesda
6/4
M-F
DAY
ALL
25
Summer Poetry Calisthenics
Online
6/4
M
I/A
28
Classical Mythology and Me!
Bethesda
6/5
T
EVENING
I
25
The Extreme Novelist 2
Bethesda
6/6
W
EVENING
I/A
17
Compounds of Fiction: Scene
Bethesda
6/9
S
DAY
I
17
The Pleasures/Perils of Writing First Person POV
Bethesda
6/9
S
DAY
B/I
18
Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing
Bethesda
6/9
S
DAY
B/I
24
Writing as Healing
Bethesda
6/9
S
DAY
ALL
25
Writing the Narrative Poem
Annapolis
6/9
S
DAY
ALL
21
The "F" Word: Innovative Forms of Poetry
Online
6/11
M
I/A
28
Writing Longer Poems & Sequences
Online
6/11
M
I/A
29
Creative Writing: Getting Started
Bethesda
6/12
T
DAY
B
25
Getting Started: June
Bethesda
6/12
T
EVENING
B
26
Writing Crime Fiction
Capitol Hill
6/12
T
EVENING
ALL
31
14
TWC WORKSHOPS AT A GLANCE WORKSHOP
LOCATION START
DAY
TIME
LEVEL
PAGE
Advanced Fiction
Bethesda
6/14
Th
EVENING
A
17
Food Writing Master Class
Capitol Hill
6/14
Th
EVENING
I
31
Writing for the Middle Grade Reader
Bethesda
6/14
Th
DAY
ALL
28
Blogging Tips and Tricks
Bethesda
6/16
S
DAY
I
27
Compounds of Fiction: Conflict
Bethesda
6/16
S
DAY
I
17
How to Produce Your Own Play
Bethesda
6/16
S
DAY
ALL
24
Social Networking for Writers
Bethesda
6/16
S
DAY
I
28
Writing the Mystery Novel: Introduction
Bethesda
6/16
S
DAY
B
16
Compounds of Fiction: Detail
Bethesda
6/23
S
DAY
I
17
Writing a Documentary Treatment
Bethesda
6/23
S
DAY
B
21
Creative Writing for Teens
Bethesda
6/25
M
DAY
B
26
Writing the Dreaded College Application Essay
Bethesda
6/26
T
DAY
B
26
Compounds of Fiction: Time
Bethesda
6/30
S
DAY
I
17
How to Make a Living as a Copy Editor
McLean
6/30
S
DAY
ALL
29
Jumpstart Your Songwriting
Bethesda
6/30
S
DAY
I/A
24
The Novelist's Workshop
Online
6/30
S
I/A
29
Teen Creative Writing
Capitol Hill
6/30
S
DAY
ALL
31
Compounds of Fiction: Mood
Bethesda
7/7
S
DAY
I
17
Introduction to the Novel
Online
7/7
S
ALL
29
How (and How Not) to Write Dialogue
Capitol Hill
7/8
Su
DAY
ALL
30
Natural/Magical Writing (for ages 8–11)
Bethesda
7/9
M-F
DAY
B
26
Young Writers' Circle for Teens
Bethesda
7/9
M-F
DAY
B
27
Researching and Writing Neighborhood Profiles
Capitol Hill
7/10
T
EVENING
B
31
Conflict in Story
Annapolis
7/11
W
EVENING
B/I
16
Different Voices: Persona Poems
Bethesda
7/12
Th
DAY
ALL
20
Realism and Rhythm in Dialogue
Bethesda
7/12
Th
DAY
B/I
18
Chapter One: Writing for Teens and Tweens
Capitol Hill
7/16
M
DAY
B/I
31
Good Dialogue
Bethesda
7/17
T
EVENING
B/I
26
Artscape News (for ages 8–11)
Bethesda
7/24
T-F
DAY
B
26
Travel Writing Master Class
Capitol Hill
7/24
T
EVENING
I
31
Young Writers' Circle (for ages 8–11)
Bethesda
7/24
T-F
DAY
B
27
Compelling Narratives in Science Writing
Bethesda
8/4
S
DAY
B
18
Revision Making Fearless Choices
Bethesda
8/4
S
DAY
I/A
16
Developing the Characters in Your Life Stories
Bethesda
8/13
M-F
DAY
B/I
19
Writing the Memoir
Bethesda
8/13
M-F
DAY
ALL
19
B—beginnger
I—intermediate
A—advanced
M—master
ALL—all levels
15
WORKSHOPS Good Dialogue
Please note: TWC will be closed May 26 & 28 for Memorial Day and Wednesday, July 4, for Independence Day.
fiction The Short Story Workshop Leader: Dana Cann This workshop is for short story writers at any level. The focus is on participants’ work. Each writer will submit up to two stories for constructive critique. In addition, we’ll examine short story elements and techniques, using the latest Best American Short Stories anthology as our guide. We’ll review short story markets and strategies for submitting work. Any participant with a complete story is encouraged to bring 15 copies to the first session.
8 Tuesdays 7:30–10:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/10–5/29 All Levels
Advanced Novel and Memoir Workshop Leader: Barbara Esstman For serious writers with a book-length project and hopes of publication. Learn technical skills: character/scene development, language, dialogue, conflict, and plot. Discuss the psychological aspects: how to locate and stay with the emotional core of the story and keep going to the end. We’ll also touch on rewriting and the directions for getting an agent. Each writer will submit up to 35 double-spaced pages. Prerequisite: Previous workshops or permission of the instructor required.
8 Wednesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $405 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/18–6/6 Advanced
Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop Workshop Leader: Brenda W. Clough For people who want to write fantasy and science fiction. In this workshop we will pass around our manuscripts and read and critique them. Special attention will be paid to the tropes and needs of the genre. Plan to bring 10 copies of a manuscript (not more than 25 pages) to the first session.
8 Thursdays 7:30–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/19–6/7 Intermediate
Workshop Leader: Lynn Schwartz Good dialogue is a great tool for both fiction and nonfiction writers. Yet many writers avoid it. In this specialized workshop, we will demystify dialogue— exploring “real talk” versus written conversation, analyzing what characters should say and how they should say it, and identifying how speech creates action and propels the story forward. The appropriate use of tags, dialects, and direct and indirect dialogue will also be examined. Reading examples from plays, short stories, and novels will demonstrate the techniques discussed.
1 Tuesday 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/17 Beginner/Intermediate
Writing the Mystery Novel: Introduction Workshop Leader: Alan Orloff If you’ve always wanted to write a mystery novel but didn’t know where to start, this workshop is for you. We’ll discuss writing fundamentals (voice, character, plot, setting, etc.) and their application to the mystery. We’ll examine characteristics of the many subgenres and learn about mystery-specific conventions and pitfalls such as tstl (too-stupid-to-live) syndrome, macguffins, red herrings, killer twists, wacky sidekicks, and smooth clue dropping, Among others. Sessions will include instruction and writing exercises, with an emphasis on giving and receiving critiques of participants’ work.
6 Saturdays 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/16–7/21 Beginner
Revision Making Fearless Choices Workshop Leader: Jenny Moore You’ve written a draft and heard some feedback—now you have more work to do. Revision is essential to finishing a piece of fiction, and it’s all about making fearless choices in your work. The trouble is, how do you know which choices are right for the story you’re telling? This class will consider some of the challenges of the process, look at examples, and discuss a variety of approaches. We’ll also go through a set of exercises to help move your own revision process forward. Bring three copies of a short story or novel excerpt (for your eyes only), maximum 15 pages.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–1:00 P.M. 8/4 Fee: $75 Bethesda Intermediate/Advanced (Members receive a 13% discount)
Strengthening Your Prose
Conflict in Story
Workshop Leader: Graham Dunstan
Workshop Leader: Lynn Schwartz In a novel, short story, or memoir something has to happen to grab and hold reader interest and empathy. Conflict is an invaluable tool— it reveals character, creates obstacles, builds suspense and surprise, and offers an organic path to a satisfying resolution. Learn how to set up believable conflict, inner and outer, for the characters in your story.
If you’re new to prose writing and have a story to tell, this writing class is meant for you. We will explore both short fiction and nonfiction and hone skills that can help you create more powerful prose. Students will write and critique short prose assignments and read contemporary examples of short fiction and nonfiction. Join us to create your own voice and to study key elements of writing including conflict, character development, and style.
1 Wednesday 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Annapolis (Members receive a 13% discount)
8 Wednesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
16
7/11 Beginner/Intermediate
4/11–5/30 Beginner/Intermediate
WORKSHOPS compounds of Fiction
The Extreme Novelist 1 Workshop Leader: Kathryn Johnson This semester, 16 brave writers will accept a unique challenge, attempting to complete a full draft of a novel in eight weeks! Students meet as a group with professional writing coach Kathryn Johnson one evening a week and commit to an aggressive writing schedule. Kathryn prods, cajoles, and guides, while offering marketing tips. Yes, she has written books in eight weeks. You can too—if you commit to this boot camp for novelists.
8 Mondays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/4–7/30 Intermediate
One-day intermediate-level workshops. For more information, see page 23. Compounds of Fiction: Structure Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: time + plot = structure.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/2 Intermediate
Compounds of Fiction: Scene
The Extreme Novelist 2 Workshop Leader: Kathryn Johnson
Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: dialogue + character = scene.
In response to the many requests from graduates of The Extreme Novelist, Kathryn Johnson offers an advanced class that demands the same dedication and rigorous writing schedule. Emphasis will be placed on revision techniques, critiquing, writing pitches and queries to agents/editors, and analyzing the current publishing venues available to novelists today. Students must have completed (or nearly completed) a full draft of a novel.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
8 Wednesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: character + setting = conflict.
6/6–8/1 Intermediate/Advanced
Compounds of Fiction: Conflict 1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
No meeting 7/4
6/9 Intermediate
6/16 Intermediate
Advanced Fiction Workshop Leader: Elizabeth Poliner In this workshop students will read and discuss each others’ draft stories or novel excerpts. Discussions will focus on developing this work further and on elements of craft: point of view, character, plot, conflict, setting. Prerequisites: At least two previous workshops and/or journal publication.
8 Thursdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/14–8/2 Advanced
Compounds of Fiction: Detail Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: character + point of view = detail.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/23 Intermediate
Compounds of Fiction: Time
Crafting Time in Short and Long Form Writing
Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: plot + theme = time.
Workshop Leader: Alicia Oltuski
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
Most writers, novice or veteran, know the stories they are looking to tell, but the order in which they reveal characters, the pacing they choose, and their buildup to plot points often pose challenges to executing a story. This class will allow participants to develop a project of their choice (welcoming undertakings of any genre) and gain insight on techniques that will improve the texture of their work with a focus on the element of time. We will regard short texts for narrative craft tools and assign a few small writing exercises. Most importantly, a workshop component will let participants share their writing for advice and critique.
4 Tuesdays 5:00–7:00 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/29–6/19 Intermediate/Advanced
6/30 Intermediate
Compounds of Fiction: Mood Expanding on the Elements of Fiction series, here, we use the formula: setting + theme = mood.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/7 Intermediate
17
WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
Women’s Fiction Workshop Leader: Toby Devens This course answers the age-old question, “What do women really want?” ...in fiction, that is. We’ll talk about gender-specific differences in plot, level of action, and character development; discuss characters women relate to, what makes female readers (and agents/editors) wince, and what makes them (surprisingly) cheer. We’ll compare the formula novel to the break-out novel, the stand-alone to the series, and see what makes for success in each. Class exercises, peer and leader critiques of work-inprogress will offer practical guidance in shaping your project for publication. And we’ll take a look at the current market for women’s fiction.
4 Thursdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/24–6/14 Beginner/Intermediate
The Pleasures/Perils of Writing First Person POV
nonfiction The Eye and I Workshop Leader: Matthew Davis Contemporary creative nonfiction writing employs the use of the “I” and the “Eye.” The genre is instinctively both of the writer and the world the writer is situated in. In all forms and topics of creative nonfiction, a writer makes choices on how much of the “I” should go into a piece and how much “Eye.” Through small writing exercises and a larger essay, this workshop will get students to think about the balance between the “I” and the “Eye” in their own creative nonfiction.
6 Wednesdays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/2–6/6 Beginner/Intermediate
Workshop Leader: Toby Devens
Creating Great Articles for Web & Print
Having your narrator tell his own story creates an intimacy unparalleled by other points of view. But first person POV has drawbacks; its narrow vision holds the author and the reader to a single perspective. What happens to conflict/suspense when the action is seen from only one POV? How does the writer admit the reader to a larger universe? Learn techniques for finessing the limitations while preserving the emotional impact of first person. Class exercises that include writing the same scenes from varied viewpoints will illustrate the pitfalls and produce solutions for writing effectively in first person.
Workshop Leader: Lee Fleming
1 Saturday 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/9 Beginner/Intermediate
Turning an idea into a saleable article for web or print depends on understanding and using the techniques that support success. This class will explore the elements that all stories need in order to catch an editor’s attention. In-class discussion and exercises will guide students in choosing story angles, writing winning query e-mails and letters, interviewing, organizing material, and refining personal styles. The goal: To get your great ideas onto the web or into print.
6 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/1–6/5 All Levels
Realism and Rhythm in Dialogue
WRITING THE NONFICTION BOOK PROPOSAL
Workshop Leader: Toby Devens
Workshop Leader: Edward Ugel
People in novels don’t talk the way real people talk, but good writers make them sound as if they do. We’ll focus on creating believable dialogue that advances the story and emphasizes characters’ personalities; we’ll explore the rhythm of dialogue, how to avoid stilted exchanges and long monologues, how the pace of dialogue reflects tempo of plot, and when dialogue works better than narrative. We’ll cover internal monologues, dialect, and how stylized dialogue establishes an author’s unique identity. We’ll write/review our own passages and, reading aloud, hear how written dialogue reflects but doesn’t replicate spoken exchanges.
The beauty of a nonfiction book is that you can sell it before you write it. For many of us, the barrier to writing fiction is that you have to write the entire book before you have a clue if you can sell it. Thus, nonfiction is often the choice of first time writers. All you’ve got to do is write an excellent book proposal. But how on earth does one write a successful (read: sellable) book proposal? This workshop walks writers from all levels through every step necessary to write a great proposal.
4 Thursdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/12–8/2 Beginner/Intermediate
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–2:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/2 All Levels
Compelling Narratives in Science Writing
Novel-in-Process
Workshop Leader: David Taylor
Workshop Leader: Jenny Moore
This one-day workshop explores how to translate ideas in science to compelling narratives that engage general readers, with examples from leading publications. Focus will be on finding a narrative structure and drama from the subject and its characters.
For writers who have started work on a novel. As a group we will read and workshop excerpts from each person’s novel, and discuss issues of craft (including structure, point of view, and character development) from the novelist’s perspective. Bring 10 copies of your novel excerpt (no more than 30 double-spaced pages) to our first meeting, if possible.
8 Thursdays 7:00-9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
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5/17–7/5 All Levels
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
8/4 Beginner
WORKSHOPS
memoir/essay
Advanced Creative Nonfiction Workshop Leader: Tim Denevi
Personal Essay Workshop Workshop Leader: Sue Eisenfeld Examine, probe, and muse about life through moments and memories. Discover what makes personal essays sing; read examples of personal essays from magazines, newspapers, and literary journals; explore the writing process; and share and discuss your writing in a workshop setting. Students should be prepared to submit at least two manuscripts for critique during the course of this workshop. Those interested in publishing will undertake additional research to determine the best markets for their work. This course is geared toward those who have already dabbled in writing personal essays and who want to take their work to the next level.
6 Thursdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/12–5/17 Intermediate
Re-telling FAMily History/Memoir Workshop Leader: Judith McCombs Family history is full of stories—verifiable, likely, concealed, invented. Whether you are writing memoir, fiction, or poetry, you can give this material more scope—and more appeal to readers—by using the tools of imaginative writing. The essays/stories of Alice Munro’s multi-genre View from Castle Rock, which range from family history to re-created memoir, exemplify what can be done with shifting viewpoints, dialogue, characters, and plot evoked from fact, allusion, recurring themes, and images. Participants can bring in their own or exercise-suggested memoir, fiction, or poetry. Constructive, honest criticism will be encouraged.
6 Tuesdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/10–5/15 All Levels
Writing Short and Long Memoirs Workshop Leader: Susan Tiberghien This workshop will cover the elements of memoir writing, seen as a window into your life. There will be examples of contemporary memoir writers and guided writing exercises. You will work on your own short or long memoir.
1 Saturday 1:30–4:30 P.M. Fee: $75 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/28 All Levels
8 Wednesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/9–6/27 Intermediate/Advanced
Personal Essay Weekend Workshop Workshop Leader: Jenny Rough This workshop will explore the personal essay format. Bring 12 copies of an essay (600–1,200 words) to the first session and revise that essay after receiving feedback.
2 Saturdays 10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. Fee: $200 Arlington (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/2–6/9 Beginner/Intermediate
Writing the Memoir Workshop Leader: Thomas Larson Join Thomas Larson, author of The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative, for a workshop in memoir writing. We begin by discussing the significant differences between traditional autobiography and contemporary memoir. Next we explore memoir’s demanding questions: Where do I begin? What is my focus? How do I discover the emotional truth of my story? How do I write about the living? With numerous writing prompts, we look at the mainstays of the memoir form: truth-telling and self-disclosure; sudden versus long-ago memoir; good and bad therapeutic writing; and the importance of metaphor and myth in the personal life.
Monday–Friday (1 week) 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $225 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
8/13–8/17 All Levels
Developing the Characters in Your Life Stories Workshop Leader: Solveig Eggerz
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Workshop Leader: Tim Denevi In this class, we’ll chart an introduction to the genre along four lines: memoir, essay, literary journalism, and the hybrid. We’ll write short versions of each, conduct workshops, and read selections from various authors working within and beyond these categories. No previous experience with creative nonfiction is necessary.
8 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
In this class, we’ll read, compose, and critique various forms of creative nonfiction, including memoir, essay, travel writing, narrative journalism, and works of a more hybrid nature. Our structure will follow that of a graduate-level creative writing class; participants will turn in drafts of their own writing, and each week we’ll workshop up to three pieces. The goal is to craft and revise a finished product that might then be submitted to a magazine or literary journal.
Discover your stories with a special emphasis on developing characters. Using in-class writing, we will focus on a different aspect of story each day in this week-long class. Each session will connect to the next session, so that by the end of the week, you will have a good start on a longer work.
Monday–Friday (1 week) 10:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M. Fee: $225 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
8/13–8/17 Beginner/Intermediate
5/1–6/19 Beginner
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WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
poetry Convictions: Writing An AMErican Lyric Workshop Leader: Alison Palmer Do you believe strongly in something? Do you want to write it down in a way even more powerful than the customary, free verse poem? Does your “statement of purpose” warrant mass attention? Let’s explore the area of “American lyric” through Claudia Rankine’s book, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. Hers is a plea to herself as human, as poet, as sister, daughter, as well as a plea to the rest of us to help get her through the troubled mood of America today. An American lyric is very functional poetry, poetry put to work, poetry that works hard to express its writers’ emotional state and direction in this world.
5 Wednesdays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/11–5/9 All Levels
The Power of Revision: From Work-in-Progress to Finished poem Workshop Leader: Naomi Ayala We tend to look at our poems as either failures or successes. In fact, many of the poems we bring into this world come to teach us how to become better writers. In the complex interplay between original vision and evolving text, we sharpen skills and grow into our authentic “voice.” Our focus will be to bring poems to final draft form. You will participate in guided revisions and “workshop” poems in class.
8 Thursday 2:30–5:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/3–6/21 Intermediate
8 Saturdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/12–6/30 Intermediate
Write What you Don’t Know Workshop Leader: Christopher Goodrich Together, let’s destroy that static tenant: write what you know. Workshops will focus on freeing the imagination, leaving the self, creating empathy in our work and lives and exploring personas that, at first, seem to stray from who we are. Let’s have the courage, patience and bravado to open our writing to the 99% of the world that isn’t in our knowledge base and see what happens. By exploring who you are not, and experiencing what is foreign to you, you may end up learning something about yourself.
6 Saturdays 10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/19–6/23 All Levels
Gyroscope of Form: Sestinas Past, Present, and Future Workshop Leader: Sandra Beasley The sestina, with its patterning and repetition, is one of the most acrobatic and challenging of all for Where did it come from, what makes it work,
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why is it rising in popularity today? We will read sestinas from a range of eras, discuss where the form is heading, consider ways to honor the tradition in poems that are fresh, funny, and impassioned, culminating in an in-class writing exercise in the form.
1 Sunday 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/22 Intermediate/Advanced
Different Voices: Persona Poems Workshop Leader: Nan Fry If you’ve ever acted in a play, you know the pleasure of taking a vacation from your personality and trying on someone else’s. Poets can enjoy this too by writing persona poems in which the speaker is not the poet but a created character. Poets sometimes worry about finding their voices. In this workshop we’ll take an indirect approach to this concern by experimenting with different voices and points of view. For inspiration, we’ll read examples from the Middle Ages to the present and then experiment with our own poems through in-class exercises and at-home assignments.
6 Thursdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/12–8/16 All Levels
The Force of Poetry Workshop Leader: Elizabeth Rees Open to poets of all levels, this class will focus on workshopping poems, in-class writing exercises, and discussion of contemporary poems. Specific exercises will be given to free the imagination, and quiet the inner censor. We will explore formal considerations, stylistic choices, and those moments when the poem catches its own voice. Bring 15 copies of a poem you love.
8 Saturdays 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/19–7/14 All Levels
8 Mondays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/21–7/16 All Levels
No meeting 5/28
The Narrative Poem: An Evolving Free-Form Workshop Leader: Alison Palmer Narrative poetry is poetry with a plot, a story, a mix between novel and verse. These poems can be long or short, structured or fragmented, defined by characters, or obscured in personification. Most likely, you know the great epics of Homer—these are classic narratives. While this form is vital to understanding the narrative craft, modernization continues to update and innovate (Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse). We will explore various and differing facets of this often intimidating genre. The end goal is to create your own interpretation of a narrative poem, as we will focus on contemporary examples that will inspire you.
5 Tuesdays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/10–5/8 All Levels
WORKSHOPS Writing the Narrative Poem
Writing a Documentary Treatment
Workshop Leader: Sue Ellen Thompson
Workshop Leader: David Taylor
There’s more to a good narrative poem than telling a story in lines rather than paragraphs. In this workshop we will examine the distinction between lyric and narrative poetry and look at some contemporary narrative poems to see what makes them succeed or flounder. We’ll draft a brief narrative in prose and then turn it into a poem, paying particular attention to the techniques that good poets use to lift their words above the level of simple, straightforward storytelling.
This workshop focuses on a key to making any documentary: the visual treatment. Come with an idea for a short film. You’ll learn principles of visualizing key scenes, honing in on character, and finding a workable structure, based on discussion of a sample treatment and choices in developing your own.
1 Saturday 1:00–4:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Annapolis (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/9 All Levels
6/23 Beginner
Feature Film Screenwriting Workshop Leader: Jonathan Eig
Getting Your Poems Into Print Workshop Leader: Michele Wolf Whether you have yet to submit your first poem to a literary journal or are ready to offer a publisher a book-length manuscript, this intensive one-day workshop will give you advice on how to succeed. Get tips on placing poems in journals and anthologies, publishing chapbooks and books, the pros and cons of contests, the etiquette of poetry submission, how to develop your poetry network, and how to keep your morale high while facing rejection in a highly competitive field. Magazine handouts will be provided.
1 Sunday 2:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/6 All Levels
8 Mondays 7:30–10:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/14–7/9 Intermediate/Advanced
No meeting 5/28
Workshop Leader: Michael Kang
Workshop Leader: Nancy Naomi Carlson Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, considered all translation “Utopian,” which is to say impossible. Still, because the world’s greatest literature originates from a multitude of languages, translation remains a necessity. This panel of poets, translating from such languages as Altaic, Creole, French, Polish, Russian, and Spanish, will discuss alternative approaches to finding one’s way into a text to be translated, as well as different strategies for rendering the impossible more possible.
1 Saturday 12:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
This workshop is designed for the writer who wants to complete a feature screenplay. It can be an original or a rewrite. The participant should have an idea for a screenplay at the first meeting, and should have a basic understanding of formatting, structure, and dialogue. We will go into these topics in greater detail as we workshop sequences from participants’ scripts. Most of the workshop time is devoted to reading and evaluating works-in-progress. Some time is given over to discussions of screenwriting techniques and concepts.
Writing The Television Pilot
Telling It Slant: Meaning and Music in Translating
5/19 All Levels
With hundreds of television channels to choose from, the demand for original content is at an all-time high. This workshop is designed to hone the craft of dramatic writing for an original television pilot as well as guide participants through the more pragmatic ins-and-outs of navigating the TV business. Participants will develop an original idea for a television show from pitch to shooting script. The workshop will also cover the dramatic structural differences between television shows and feature films.
8 Wednesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/16–7/11 Beginner
No meeting 7/4
stage & screen The Art & Craft of Screenwriting Workshop Leader: Khris Baxter We will examine the fundamental components for crafting and writing the feature-length screenplay: premise; story; structure; the dramatic scene; and dialogue. We’ll look at multiple techniques for getting started and strategies for writing a first draft.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–4:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Glen Echo (Members receive a 13% discount)
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/28 Beginner/Intermediate
Rewriting Your Screenplay: The Art of the Rewrite Workshop Leader: Lyn Vaus In the business of filmmaking, often the most important aspect of screenwriting is the ability to rewrite. Workshop participants will learn how to refine their scripts on their own and by incorporating the feedback of others. A completed or nearly completed first draft is required.
8 Thursdays 7:30–10:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/24–7/12 Intermediate/Advanced
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Need Space? ReNt OuRS The Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre, Jane Fox Reading Room, and classrooms are available weekdays from 10:00 A.M.–6:00 P.M., when not occupied by The Writer’s Center workshops. Those rooms are also available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings; and Saturday and Sunday afternoons, when workshops and events are not being held. Occasionally rooms are available for one-time rentals on weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. Please contact The Writer’s Center for availability inquiries—
[email protected] or 301-654-8664.
Rent the Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre: Film Screenings Intimate Concerts Theatre Productions Conferences
Rent the Jane Fox Reading Room: Events/Parties Business Meetings Staged Readings Receptions
Rent a Classroom: Quiet Personal Writing Small Writing Groups Study Groups Book Clubs
Allan B. Lefcowitz Theatre
Jane Fox Reading Room
Classrooms**
Rehearsals no access to the public $65/hr Performances $125/hr Pre- and Post-Performance $80/hr TWC Staff Time* $25/hr
Rehearsals no access to the public $35/hr Performances 2-hr minimum $80/hr Pre- and Post-Performance $35/hr TWC Staff Time $25/hr
$15/hr (members) $25/hr (non-members)
Security Deposits (Refundable two weeks after the end of the show): $500
** To rent a classroom for auditions and rehearsals please contact TWC to make these special arrangements.
*Staff Time: When space is rented outside our normal business hours, we charge a $25/hr staff fee to keep a TWC staff person available to maintain the building. This fee is not, however, charged to the renter as a hire fee. TWC staff members are not working for the renter. The renter needs to hire independently from TWC all necessary staff needed for set up and to operate sound and light equipment. The entire amount of the theatre or reading room rent is due upon signing the rental contract. No space is reserved until the contract is signed and the deposits are made. Once the contract is signed, the group/tenant is responsible for the total financial commitment agreed upon. Rent is due seven business days before the day of the event.
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The Compounds of Fiction workshop series
In this follow up to last season’s Elements of Fiction series, the combination of the elements (plot, setting, theme, character, point of view, and dialogue) have been combined to create the advanced compounds of fiction. Six brand new one-day workshops will be conducted this summer by more of TWC’s most well-known and brand new workshop leaders. Each seminarstyle class will have a detailed focus on how to strengthen and utilize each compound of fiction to the fullest—through example, lecture, and hands-on exercises. No previous writing or workshop experience required…just a passion for storytelling! We’re not saying writing is a science, but we hope to hear you say “Eureka! I’ve got it!”
Pricing* One Workshop: $60 ($52.20 members)—register online
Three Workshops: $150 ($130.50 members)—call to register
All Six Workshops: $280 ($243.60 members)—call to register All Elements of Fiction workshops will be held in Bethesda. *To take advantage of the package deals, please call in your registration at 301-654-8664.
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WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
Fringe 101: Strategies for Self-Producing Workshop Leader: Seamus Sullivan The Capital Fringe Festival is one of the most popular and innovative venues for new plays in D.C. It can also be a daunting introduction to the stressful process of self-producing. This workshop will tell you what to prepare for and how to ensure a rewarding process when writing and producing a show for Fringe or any festival, from the actual writing to the application to the fast and furious guerrilla strike that is tech.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. 4/28 Fee: $40 Bethesda Intermediate/Advanced (Members receive a 13% discount)
Screenwriting in One Lesson Workshop Leader: Jeffrey Rubin If you want to know how to turn your movie idea into a full-fledged screenplay then this intensive, 1-day workshop is for you. Topics include: elements of successful screen stories, building the three-act structure, creating compelling characters, writing great dialogue, visual storytelling, formatting basics, and more. Students will be encouraged to discuss their own script ideas and works in progress.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/28 All Levels
Workshop Leader: Martin Blank Want to put on your own play? Or learn to be more effective with a theater producing your work? With developments like the Capital Fringe Festival and other outlets in the D.C. area, there are more opportunities than ever to get your plays in front of an audience. How to Produce Your Own Play will focus step-by-step on exactly how to produce your play with a budget as low as a few hundred dollars, to as large as several thousand. By putting on the producer’s hat even for just a one day workshop, you’ll discover how to make your play more attractive to other theaters, or easier to produce yourself.
6/16 All Levels
songwriting Jumpstart Your Songwriting Workshop Leader: Cathy Fink Keep your songwriting going this summer with a batch of new ideas on finding topics to write about, writing methods, daily writing exercises and fine tuning your songs. We will explore the intersection of art and play, songwriting devices and ways to think both inside and outside of the box. Note: Bring a new song to share.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–4:00 P.M. 6/30 Fee: $100 Bethesda Intermediate/Advanced (Members receive a 13% discount)
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Beginning Digital Tools for Genealogists Workshop Leader: Angela Render Learn how to use the Internet for quality research. Learn the difference between primary and secondary sources, and avoid totally useless sources. Learn how to save material electronically. Learn what sort of records exist online: from census records to land records, rare books to satellite imagery.
1 Saturday 12:00–2:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/21 Beginner
Genealogy for Publication Workshop Leader: Angela Render This two-hour workshop continues to demystify technology for genealogists. In this fun class we’ll look at how to use digital tools to organize and present your research for publication. We’ll delve into the anatomy of what makes a printed reference valuable and how to lay out your data for POD publication. Learn how to make your book available for purchase from Amazon, and other book sellers.
1 Saturday 3:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
How To Produce Your Own Play
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
mixed genre
4/21 Intermediate
Freelance Writing/ Publishing in the Digital Age Workshop Leader: Jordan Michael Smith Freelance writing before the Internet was a completely different art. Payments are plummeting, as print journalism experiences an unprecedented crisis and web publications cannot replicate their advertising rates. Yet the proliferation of blogs and online publications offer many opportunities for the freelance writer. This course will help you take advantage of them. This course will NOT focus on improving attendees’ writing—what it will do is get their writing published. Beginning with blogs, the course will survey the full roster of online publications, from self-designed e-zines to large newspapers and journals.
6 Mondays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/2–5/7 Beginner
Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing Workshop Leader: Diana M. Martin Is self-publishing right for you? More people are choosing self-publishing via on-line and print presses to get their writing out to the public. Explore the wide variety of publishing opportunities in this growing industry, the costs, and marketing. Open to those considering selfpublishing and those who have already gone this route.
1 Saturday 1:30–4:00 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/9 Beginner/Intermediate
WORKSHOPS Creative Writing: Getting Started
Writing Staycation
Workshop Leader: Laura Fargas
Workshop Leader: Zahara Heckscher
If you have always wanted to write but haven’t known how to begin, this is the workshop for you! We will explore journals, short stories, poems (and prose poems), and memoirs in order to “jump start” your writing. Exercises done in the workshop will focus on transforming a creative idea into actual words on a page. Goals: loosening up, generating new material, and enjoying the excitement of writing.
Do you dream of participating in a writing retreat, but can’t get out of town? This workshop, a non-residential week-long retreat at The Writer’s Center, is for you. Join us for an intensive, supportive, exhilarating, focused week of writing. Each day begins with a short reading and brief discussion. Then tons of time for working on your own writing–whether it is poetry, a novel, or nonfiction work in your brain, or a manuscript that needs some final polish. Optional lunch speakers, afternoon walks, and group shares.
8 Tuesdays 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/12–7/31 Beginner
The Set Piece Workshop Leader: Matthew Davis Like in movies, the set piece in literature is key, and it is one of the most important skills and techniques a writer can learn. Without knowing how to sustain an engaging set piece, whether in memoir, reportage, or fiction, a writer’s work will often melt into abstraction. It also won’t be as entertaining. This is a workshop for both writers of fiction and nonfiction, as we explore both what makes a good set piece in literature and how to write one.
1 Saturday 12:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/2 Intermediate
Writing as Healing
6/4–6/8 All Levels
How (and How Not) To Write Dialogue Workshop Leader: C.M. Mayo One of the most powerfully vivid ways to show character, relationship, conflict and/or mood is through the use of dialogue. For both beginning and advanced fiction and nonfiction writers, this workshop focuses on the use and misuse of dialogue, with a series of mini-lectures interspersed with brief exercises. The goal is that, by the end of the workshop, your dialogue will be of notably higher quality.
1 Saturday 1:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/5 All Levels
Classical Mythology and Me!
Workshop Leader: Ann McLaughlin Writing is a useful way to possess difficult experiences; it can help people objectify them and heal. This workshop will deal with stories and novel beginnings about personal or imagined experiences that members want to examine and better understand. We will work on character, plot and, as always, the telling detail. Everyone will have two opportunities to submit manuscripts for discussion by the group. We will also discuss one published work by a well-known writer. Open to beginners as well as those with manuscripts they have already begun.
6 Saturdays 10:00 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
Monday–Friday (1 week) 10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/9–7/14 All Levels
Publishing Today: All You Need to Know Workshop Leader: Laura Oliver
Workshop Leader: Carolyn Clark Improve your knowledge of (mostly Classical) mythology and enhance your own writing through discovery of a personal connection to myth. Craft and share your own work (whatever the genre); read and critique additional selections from poetry, fiction, essays, even film. Become comfortably conversant with wide-ranging sources (primary and secondary, ancient, and Internet/global) but narrow enough to discover which myths are for you!
4 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $195 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/5–6/26 Intermediate
Writer Calisthenics Workshop Leader: Alicia Oltuski
Learn how to negotiate the selective world of publishing in this dynamic and interactive workshop. Acquire the skills you need to write a cover letter, a query letter, and a book proposal. Learn how to identify publishers and agents most likely to want your work and how to prepare your short story, essay, article, novel, or nonfiction book for submission. Whether you are interested in approaching a major house, an independent, a boutique publisher, magazine, literary review, or you are ready to self-publish, acquire the information you need to achieve your goal.
A uniquely tailored approach, this course is ideal for writers or aspiring writers who don’t find as much time as they would like to devote to writing. The group will be given several writing exercises to be completed during weekly class time, and the option of sharing work for critique. Exercises will be catered to the goals of participants, honing specific aspects of craft with an eye toward fine-tuning individuals’ skill set. At the end of sessions, the class will discuss and the instructor will customize new exercises for following weeks. The curriculum will allow participants to improve on craft, expand launched projects, and spark ideas.
1 Saturday 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Annapolis (Members receive a 13% discount)
8 Mondays 3:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/14 All Levels
5/14–7/9 All Levels
No meeting 5/28
25
WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
Podcasting for Writers Workshop Leader: C.M. Mayo Audio podcasts, online digital files, not only serve as an important promotional tool for writers, but they can be storytelling vehicles themselves, whether as stand-alone works or complements to text. This workshop provides an introduction and overview of podcasting for writers, from basic concepts to nuts-and-bolts tips. The goal is that, by the end of the workshop, you will be able to go home and use your iPhone or digital recorder and computer to generate and then post a simple podcast online.
1 Saturday 10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/5 Beginner
Do poets and fiction writers speak the same language? Can one draw the line between prose poems and flash fiction, or does it matter? In this workshop we’ll read and write in both forms, both genres, finding (or not finding) distinctions between each. We’ll generate work from prompts and respond to drafts, created inside and outside of class, emphasizing compression, concision, detail and image, resonance and depth. Advice on publishing will also be offered, particularly with regard to manuscript preparation and self-presentation, markets, and venues.
6/2–6/3 All Levels
Getting Started If you have always wanted to write but haven’t known how to begin, this is the workshop for you! We will explore journals, short stories, poems (and prose poems), and memoirs in order to “jump start” your writing. Exercises done in the workshop will focus on transforming a creative idea into actual words on a page. Goals: loosening up, generating new material, and enjoying the excitement of writing.
Getting Started: June Workshop Leader: Elizabeth Poliner 8 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
Workshop Leader: Susan Land We’ll look at several common application prompts, brainstorm, free write, revise, revise, and revise. Rather than letting 500 words hang over you the whole summer, get something down and make it something that shines.
2 Tuesdays 12:30–3:00 P.M. Fee: $100 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/14–6/2 Beginner
Teens who would like to write creatively are given instruction and experience with different genres through fun and thought-provoking exercises and a workshop format. After reading and discussing exemplars from published authors, participants will have an opportunity to write poetry, narrative, nonfiction, and to pursue projects of individual interest. They will also receive individual feedback from the instructor and have an opportunity to provide feedback on their peers’ writing, as well.
8 Mondays 12:00–2:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/25–8/13 Beginner
Artscape News (for ages 8–11) Workshop Leader: Adele (Steiner) Brown Participants will publish a summer edition of Artscape News! They will write short stories, poetry, interviews, the latest sports and fashion news, horoscopes, and travel guides. Sessions will be “hands-on,” and we will examine the role of “play” in creative writing as well as the importance of organization and structure in report writing. Time will be time set aside in each session for comments and revision of work, and students will have a “press release” reading for family and friends at the conclusion of the workshop. There are no texts required for the workshops, but students will need paper and pencils.
8 Tuesday–Friday (2 weeks) 10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/24–8/3 Beginner
Natural/Magical Writing (for ages 8–11) Workshop Leader: Adele (Steiner) Brown
6/12–7/31 Beginner
Using Hogwart’s style, we’ll research and journal our experiences with folklore, myth, and magic. Our observations, character sketches, and interesting happenings with magic folk, animals and their homes will be the inspiration for our collections of stories, essays, and poem. Bring a notebook and pens/pencils for your imaginings, and we’ll have a fairy feast and goblin gobbling complete with reading for family and friends during our last workshop together.
10 Monday–Friday (2 weeks) 10:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
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6/26–7/3 Beginner
Workshop Leader: Sarah Mahoney
Workshop Leaders: Nancy Naomi Carlson and Kirk Nesset
Getting Started: April Workshop Leader: Elizabeth Rees 8 Saturdays 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
Writing the Dreaded College Application Essay
Creative Writing for Teens
Writing and Publishing Prose Poems and Flash Fiction
Saturday & Sunday 12:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $200 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
younger writers
7/9–7/20 Beginner
WORKSHOPS Young Writers’ Circle (for ages 8–11)
Introduction to Marketing Platforms
Workshop Leader: Adele (Steiner) Brown
Workshop Leader: Angela Render
Participants will use nature writings as their inspiration and experiment with poetry, prose, and drama, and have an opportunity to share new ideas for writing forms and techniques. The workshop is an opportunity for young writers to deepen their understanding of how various types of writing work and what makes them and their use of language powerful. Participants will share finished work for appreciation and helpful comments from their peers, and a reading of their collected works for family and friends will conclude the series of workshops.
Getting published is hard, especially for a first-time author. Publishers want you to come with a platform and this workshop will discuss what a platform is and when to start building it. It will also give a brief overview of the tools available to writers for building a platform on the web, and discuss Internet privacy and copyright. Participants will brainstorm what types of Internet media might be right for them to use.
8 Tuesday–Friday (2 weeks) 12:30–3:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/24–8/3 Beginner
Workshop Leader: Angela Render
Workshop Leader: Adele (Steiner) Brown Participants will use nature writings as their inspiration and experiment with poetry, prose, and drama, and have an opportunity to share new ideas for writing forms and techniques. The workshop is an opportunity for young writers to deepen their understanding of how various types of writing work and what makes them and their use of language powerful. Participants will share finished work for appreciation and helpful comments from their peers, and a reading of their collected works for family and friends will conclude the series of workshops.
7/9–7/20 Beginner
Workshop Leaders: Zahara Heckscher and Debra Farkas A workshop for moms, dads, or guardians to make short books with their young children, ages 5–8, in advance of Mother’s Day.
5/6 Beginner
professional develoPMent Writing Talking Points Workshop Leader: Arthur Besner Talking points help organize and focus your main thoughts so you will deliver information concisely and effectively. They serve as a guide and easy way to stay on track when you prepare or deliver information to an internal or external audience. Talking points also can establish the foundation for writing pamphlets, press releases, newsletters, opinion pieces, reports, and speeches.
1 Tuesday 7:00–10:00 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
This introductory class explains what a blog is and what it can do for a writer. It will cover several blogging software options, the basics on how to set up a blog and choose a domain name, how to post, and how to insert images. Participants will get a feel for what sort of content should be included in a post, how to organize their content, how to invite comment, and how to promote themselves on other people’s blogs. Participants will brainstorm topic ideas for participants’ own blogs.
1 Saturday 12:00–2:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/12 Beginner
Blogging Tips and Tricks Workshop Leader: Angela Render
Making a Book for Mom
1 Sunday 2:00–4:30 P.M. Fee: $60 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/12 Beginner
Introduction to Blogging
Young Writers’ Circle for Teens
Monday–Friday (2 weeks) 12:30–2:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
1 Saturday 3:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/24 Beginner/Intermediate
An intermediate level workshop that is best suited for people who are already blogging and want to take their blogs to the next level. Students will learn techniques to improve their posts and their exposure. Basic graphics editing, search engine optimization (seo), and ways to come up with sustainable topics to write about will be discussed.
1 Saturday 12:00–2:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/16 Intermediate
Writing Compelling Blog Posts Workshop Leader: Patrick Ross What brings you back to your favorite authors? Is it the cover art, font selection, or marketing campaigns? Or is it the writing? Blogs succeed when the writer has a defined voice and brings value and pleasure to the reader; in other words, it’s no different than any other form of writing. In this class we will workshop each other’s blog posts each week, with an emphasis on voice and theme. By the end of the class, students will be writing blog posts that stand out in the crowded field of writing blogs. This class is meant for those who already have blogs as well as those considering launching one.
6 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/17–5/22 All Levels
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WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
Social Networking for Writers
The Modernist Poets
Workshop Leader: Angela Render
Workshop Leader: Charles Jensen
Does the world of social media make you want to head for a cave? Do you think the world’s all gone to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks? Learn to navigate the social surf online and in person as you learn how to approach social networking online and off. Familiarity with blogging or taking Introduction to Blogging first recommended.
Modernism began around 1911, and with its rise American poets embraced free verse, creating along the way a variety of rules and guidelines still in use today. This workshop will study the major poets of the movement (Pound, Eliot, Moore, Williams, Stevens, Brooks, etc.) and discuss their poems and essays using our online message board.
1 Saturday 3:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $50 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
8 Tuesdays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/16 Intermediate
adults write for children Writing for the Middle Grade Reader Workshop Leader: Judith Tabler Middle graders (children ages 8–12) can be a terrific audience for your creative skills. This age group devours both nonfiction and fiction. We will look at middle grade literature (classic and current), but most class time will be spent discussing participants’ writings. We will explore protagonists, plot, conflict, action, humor, dialogue, villains, secondary characters, good beginnings, strong middles, and great endings. Beginners welcome. Bring a favorite middle grade book or article to the first class.
6 Thursdays 10:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Bethesda (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/14–7/19 All Levels
Online Online workshops are conducted at onlinetwc.org/ workshop/—feel free to check out our sample workshop. One simple location with the freedom to participate at any time of the day, TWC’s online workshops are perfect for busy writers like you!
Summer Poetry Calisthenics Workshop Leader: Charles Jensen Each week, students will be given a prompt and be asked to generate a poem within 24 hours of receiving it. Students will receive constructive feedback from the rest of the workshop over the course of the next six days. On the seventh day, students will revise the poem. On the eighth day, a new prompt will be received and the cycle will begin again. By the end of summer, students will be limber, flexible, and strong in their ability to generate new work and revise it effectively.
10 Mondays Fee: $340 Online (Members receive a 13% discount
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6/4–8/6 Intermediate/Advanced
4/17–6/5 All Levels
The “F” Word: Innovative Forms of Poetry Workshop Leader: Charles Jensen When we approach writing poems, we should distinguish between “pattern” (repetition) and “form” (shape). We’ll encourage each other to consider form broadly and workshop our poems in progress while reading examples of surprising and innovative takes on form (indexes, lists, prose poems, etc.) from contemporary poets. You’ll come away with all the tools you need to structure your work creatively and effectively. A familiarity with traditional forms (however slight) is especially helpful for this workshop.
6 Mondays Fee: $200 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/11–7/16 Intermediate/Advanced
Narrative Arc Workshop Leader: Alicia Oltuski In fiction and nonfiction, one of the most crucial elements of any piece is the degree to which it accomplishes forward motion over time. Depending on the subject and style, this mobility may be subtle or stark; gradual or sudden, yet it represents a component that virtually every successful piece of writing comprises. This class is open to writers working on (or seeking to work on) fiction or nonfiction and will hone narrative change, character development, and storylines, important to all genres.
6 Saturdays Fee: $200 Online (Members receive a 13% discount))
6/28–8/2 Intermediate/Advanced
Characterization in the Novel Workshop Leader: T. Greenwood When writing a novel, we must know our primary characters inside and out. We need to understand their desires, motivations, and frustrations, their histories and their futures. This workshop will focus on the development of authentic characters. We will examine character as both autonomous and residing within the context of the other novelistic elements, and we will discuss the challenge of creating and integrating these various elements into a cohesive and credible whole. Participants will explore the main character(s) in their novels-in-progress.
8 Saturdays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/12–6/30 Intermediate/Advanced
WORKSHOPS Introduction to the Novel
The Novelist’s Workshop
Workshop Leader: T. Greenwood
Workshop Leader: Jenny Moore
So, you have always wanted to write a novel but didn’t know where to start. This workshop will help you understand the process of writing a novel so you can get started putting pen to paper. We will focus on everything from generating ideas to developing characters to establishing point of view. We will touch on many elements of fiction (dialogue, scene, etc.), but the emphasis will be on discovering the writing process that works best for you.
Struggling with your novel and ready for some feedback? Bring your work into the virtual classroom. In this online workshop we’ll critique excerpts from each participant’s novel, looking at craft challenges and targeting areas to work on. Weekly writing exercises will sharpen your technique and help shape your revision process.
8 Saturdays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/7–8/25 All Levels
Short Fiction Workshop Workshop Leader: Dave Housley An online workshop for intermediate or advanced short-fiction writers. Students will draft two stories, and several shorter pieces written to prompts. We’ll read a variety of fiction from literary magazines or collections. Ideally, students will leave this course with a better understanding of the current fiction landscape and will hone and expand their writing skills.
8 Sundays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/1–5/20 Intermediate/Advanced
Writing Longer Poems & Sequences Workshop Leader: Charles Jensen If you’ve never written past the edge of your page, this workshop will be a great experiment for you. Using techniques of collage, montage, and sequencing, we will build long poems or works that elapse over several smaller pieces. For inspiration, we’ll read poets who work with these techniques to get a better understanding of our creative options while pushing ourselves to cross boundaries, take chances, and explore what lies beyond the page break.
10 Mondays Fee: $340 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/11–8/13 Intermediate/Advanced
8 Saturdays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/30–8/18 Intermediate/Advanced
mclean workshops The Writer’s Center is pleased to join in partnership with the McLean Community Center (MCC), to offer workshops at their location at 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, VA. The MCC is handling registrations for these workshops. Current Writer’s Center members who register for a workshop at the MCC will pay the full rate and receive the 13% member discount as a refund. For more information about the MCC, visit mcleancenter.org.
Writing Your Novel or Memoir Workshop Leader: Barbara Esstman Working from 20 pages of your own writing, learn character and scene development, dialogue, tone, language, point of view, plot, and focus— the essential directions for writing your book and not getting lost in the process. Also, tips on how to publish.
6 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: See MCC Web site McLean (Members receive a 13% discount)
4/24–5/29 All Levels
How to Make a Living as a Copy Editor Workshop Leader: Bernadette Geyer
Place in Memoir Workshop Leader: Matthew Davis In every personal story there is the backdrop—the country, the town, the nature reserve, the home, the room—where much of the vital action occurs. The impact of this place can be quite deep on the story being told. This workshop will focus on place in memoir, as students explore how to effectively use the physical location the story is set in. The goal is to get students to think of the location as another character in their story, a “person” who can further illuminate the main character of the writer.
8 Tuesdays Fee: $270 Online (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/1–6/19 Beginner/Intermediate
Whether you are drawn to the corporate world or a freelancer’s life, this workshop will cover what you need to know to pursue a career as a copy editor. You will learn how a copy editor differs from a proofreader, how to build experience now to make a career switch later, key tips every copy editor should know, and the steps you’ll need to take if you want to work on a freelance basis.
1 Saturday 1:30–4:00 P.M. Fee: $60 McLean (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/30 All Levels
To find workshops listed exclusively online, or to sign up for The Writer Center’s weekly or monthly e-newsletter, visit Writer.org. 29
WORKSHOPS
register at writer.org
Capitol hill workshops The Writer’s Center is offering a variety of workshops at The Hill Center (921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, D.C.). To register for these workshops visit the The Hill Center’s website: hillcenterdc.org. To view Hill Center workshops listed exclusively online, visit www.writer.org/capitolhill.
How (and How Not) To Write Dialogue
First Fire: From Spark to Practice
Workshop Leader: C.M. Mayo
Workshop Leader: Naomi Ayala
One of the most powerfully vivid ways to show character, relationship, conflict and/or mood is through the use of dialogue. For both beginning and advanced fiction and nonfiction writers, this workshop focuses on the use and misuse of dialogue, with a series of mini-lectures interspersed with brief exercises. The goal is that, by the end of the workshop, your dialogue will be of notably higher quality.
1 Sunday 2:00–5:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
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7/8 All Levels
This workshop is structured to include a zillion activities that will have your creative mind spinning in new directions, helping you find new ways to respond to what excites you, and motivating you to renew and/ or establish your commitment to a writing practice. From snake-flow and ritual poems to collaging work, to using research and dictionary prompts as well as exercises developed by the instructor over the course of 25 years of teaching, you will feel positively challenged as you gain insight into your creative process and expand your breadth.
6 Thursdays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $215 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
5/17–6/21 All Levels
WORKSHOPS The Writer’s Center is pleased to announce that it has received a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts allowing us to offer four tuition-free workshops for veterans and active duty military. One of these is being offered this summer at the Hill Center:
Writing the Military Experience Workshop Leader: Ron Capps
Travel Writing Master Class Workshop Leader: L. Peat O’Neil For travel writers who maintain a blog. Also suitable for writers active in another field, including fiction, who want to explore nonfiction and travel journalism. Class covers content for today’s travel articles, blog writing, and publication trends. Exercises to improve structure, pace, mood, and style for travel feature writing. We’ll work on developing writer’s voice, selecting historical and factual information, and tightening existing draft article or travel journal notes. Participants bring a draft article (up to 2500 words) to class.
A seminar and workshop designed for veterans, service members, and military family members and taught by a combat veteran. Using examples written by veterans we study craft elements including scene, setting, dialogue, point of view, and narrative structure. Participants’ writing in fiction, nonfiction (including memoir), or poetry is shared among the group.
1 Tuesday 6:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
6 Tuesdays FREE for Military Veterans
Writing Crime Fiction
7:00–9:30 P.M. Capitol Hill
4/24–5/9 All Levels
Researching and Writing Neighborhood Profiles Workshop Leader: David Taylor D.C. has a wealth of hidden neighborhood stories. This course helps resi-
Workshop Leader: Con Lehane This workshop is for writers of crime fiction in all its manifestations— from the village cozy to darkest noir, from suspense to intrigue to the page-turner action thriller. We’ll cover the essential aspects of fiction writing that apply to all genres: compelling openings, exciting action, characters readers care about, seamless plots, stories that endure.
dents to research and write profiles akin to those produced in the 1930s by the Federal Writers’ Project. The workshop will explore research, interviews, reporting, and outreach, guided by a published author/filmmaker. We’ll use examples and exercises; includes a session on how to share profiles interactively. Students can choose topics guided by the instructor.
8 Tuesdays 7:00–9:30 P.M. Fee: $360 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
6 Tuesdays 7:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $270 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
Workshop Leader: Kenneth Carroll
7/10–8/14 Beginner
Chapter One: Writing for Teens and Tweens Workshop Leader: Pamela Ehrenberg You’ve got: an idea, a manuscript, or part of a manuscript. You’d like: friendly but critical eyes to help you shape, polish, and submit your work. You’ll find: a safe, encouraging space to ask questions (middle grade or ya? agent or not?) and resources to help you see your project through to completion. Participants will be invited to submit 20 pages before the first meeting—but if that sounds scary, please come anyway and bring whatever you’ve got. Your newest cheering section looks forward to having you join us!
2 Mondays 2:00–4:30 P.M. Fee: $100 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
7/16–7/23 Beginner/Intermediate
Food Writing Master Class Workshop Leader: L. Peat O’Neil Refine and finish your culinary memoir or feature article. This class focuses on advanced feature writing style, self-editing, recipe construction, interviewing techniques, and publication options. Exercises include evaluating story ideas, structuring a culinary article, and requirements for recipes. Participants bring a draft of a food memoir, essay, or article with related recipes to work on during class.
1 Thursday 6:00–9:00 P.M. Fee: $75 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/14 Intermediate
7/24 Intermediate
6/12–7/31 All Levels
Teen Creative Writing This workshop, for writers who want to improve their poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, consists of fun and engaging interactive exercises. Participants will discuss writing basics and will work individually with the instructor and in workshop readings to improve their approach to writing. Participants will have the opportunity to read their work to the class during our last workshop. This workshop works for passionate young writers and for students looking for inspiration and technique to get their creative writing juices flowing.
6 Saturdays 1:00–3:30 P.M. Fee: $270 Capitol Hill (Members receive a 13% discount)
6/30–8/4 All Levels
Close Readings in Contemporary Poetry Workshop Leader: Jean Nordhaus Close readings of recent books by three contemporary poets will examine how the poems are made and explore how poets manage to find and transform the matter of our ordinary world. This is not a writing class, although there will be suggestions given for generating new material and opportunity for airing of poems and meditations that arise in response (or opposition) to the poems discussed in class. The books to be discussed in these sessions are: Robert Bly, Talking into the Ear of a Donkey; Stephen Dunn, Here and Now; Linda Pastan, Traveling Light. Participants should read Linda Pastan’s collection before the first class.
6 Tuesdays Fee: $215 (13% Discount for Members)
6:30–8:30 P.M. Capitol Hill
5/15–6/19 All Levels
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EVENTS AT THE WRITER'S CENTER We host more than 50 events annually, including Sunday Open Door readings and theatre productions in our historic black box theatre. If you would like more information about these events—including interviews, videos, and audio—please visit our website www.writer.org/events or our blog, First Person Plural.
open door readings
SUN, APR 15, 2:00 P.M.
Jenni B. Baker
Editor-in-Chief of The Found Poetry Review, Jenni B. Baker, reads from some of her found poems, adaptations of existing texts. She is joined by a recent contributor of Big Lucks.
SUN, APR 22, 5:00 P.M.
Richard Peabody
SUN, APR 1, 2:00 P.M.
The Writer’s Center features authors recently published in The Pedestal Magazine. Readers are John Amen, Cortney Bledsoe, Alan Britt, Nathan Leslie, Lyn Lifshin, Jen Michalski, and Richard Peabody.
SUN, APR 29, 2:00 P.M.
SUN, MAY 6, 2:00 P.M.
Carolyn Parkhurst
Amy Stolls
Authors Amy Stolls (The Ninth Wife) and Carolyn Parkhurst (The Nobodies Album) read from their work, discuss the craft of writing while trying to avoid phrases as dull as “the craft of writing,” and grill each other on issues ranging from the value of writers’ groups to the challenges of writing during childbirth. They probably won’t discuss which friend once compared Carolyn’s work to the music of Phil Collins or why Amy swapped dresses with someone else halfway through Carolyn’s wedding. Following the reading a reception will be held to launch a series of seasonal art openings displaying new exhibits of visual art curated by The Yellow Barn.
SUN, MAY 13, 2:00 P.M. Patricia McArdle
Yvette Neisser Moreno
Co-translators Yvette Neisser Moreno and Patricia Bejarano Fisher join Venezuelan poet Maria Teresa Ogliastri in a bi-lingual reading of Ogliastri’s South Pole/Polo Sur. They are joined by author Patricia McArdle, who reads from her debut novel, Farishta.
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Clara Changxin Fang
Liliana Hernandez
Local poets who attended Smith College between 1948 and 2002 will read from a short selection of poems. Authors include: Andrée Betancourt, Clara Changxin Fang, Marilyn Heilprin, Liliana Hernandez, Barbara Lefcowitz, Nancy Meneely, Chloe Yelena Miller, Eileen Ivey Sirota, Ellen Dore Watson, Anne Harding Woodworth, and Kate Young.
Mother’s Day Poetry and Prose Open Mic. Sign up for readers starts at 1:30 P.M.
photos by: the writer’s center (mcardle); Yvette Neisser Moreno (moreno); Katherine Michaud (baker); Dean Evangelista (peabody); Lei Liao (Changxin Fang); courtesy of liliana hernandez (hernandez); Marion Ettlinger (parkhurst); James Calder (stolls); Mike Deslauriers (Brodeur); Chris Tanseer (Deulen); Jackie Ogg (ogg); Louis Staudt (Staudt); Peter Dressel (mali); Kettering personal collection (Kettering); Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Horton); Rachel Eliza Griffiths (herd); Lynn Thomas (kronenberg); Lois Mcbride (mcbride); Stephen Walker (brafman); reggie chalonas (nicholas); Charlene Smith (smith)
EVENTS AT THE WRITER'S CENTER Sun, May 20, 2:00 P.M.
SUN, JUN 24, 2:00 P.M.
This Open Door Reading is to be announced.
Sun, May 27, 2:00 P.M.
Randall Horton
Brendan Ogg
Kathleen Henderson Staudt
Poetry reading featuring authors published by Finishing Line Press. Friends of Brendan Ogg will read from Summer Becomes Absurd, his posthumously published collection of poems. They will be joined by v Henderson Staudt, who reads from Waving Back: Poems of Mothering Life, and Margaret Ingraham, author of Proper Words for Birds.
Niki Herd
Reading by four local poets. Melanie Henderson (Elegies for New York Avenue); Niki Herd (The Language of Shedding Skin); Randall Horton (The Definition of Place); and Joseph Ross (Meeting Bone Man).
SUN, JUL 1, 2:00 P.M.
SUN, JUL 15, 2:00 P.M. Multi-award winning journalist and author Charlene Smith is best known as Nelson Mandela’s biographer. South-African born and an American citizen, Smith has a Charlene Smith close and respectful friendship with Mandela and gives you a unique insight into a great man and what we can learn from him. She reads from her new book, Mandela and America.
SUN, JUL 22, 2:00 P.M. The Goethe Institut presents Time Shadows, a program featuring poems inspired by music by German, Chinese, and American poets.
SUN, JUL 29, 2:00 P.M. Sun, Jun 3, 5:00 P.M. Reading by MarieElizabeth Mali, author of Steady My Gaze, and poets published in Villanelles, an anthology edited by Mali and Annie Finch. Readers from the Marie-Elizabeth Mali anthology include Mali, Ned Balbo, Charles Fort, Claudia Gary, Tad Richards, Barbara J. Orton, and Davi Walders.
Poetry and Prose Open Mic. Sign-up for readers begins at 1:30 p.m. Judith Kronenberg
Greg McBride
Poetry reading featuring Judith Kronenberg, who reads from Shimmer, and Greg McBride, author of Porthole.
SUN, JUL 8, 2:00 P.M.
Sun, Jun 17, 2:00 P.M.
Gimbiya Kettering
Father’s Day Poetry and Prose Open Mic, including a reading by featured reader,Gimbiya Kettering, winner of The Undiscovered Voices competition. Sign-up for readers starts at 1:30 P.M.
Michelle Brafman
George Nicholas
Reading by authors published in Confessions: Truth or Fiction? an anthology of fiction and creative nonfiction. Readers include: Michelle Brafman, Herta B. Feely, Susan McCallum-Smith, George Nicholas, Jyotsna Sreenivasan, and Tim Wendel. 33
EVENTS AT THE WRITER'S CENTER
SPECIAL EVENTS
ANGLES OF ASCENT TUES, APR 10, 7:30 P.M. The Writer’s Center and Politics & Prose launch a poetry series at TWC with a reading by poets Kyle Dargan, Gregory Pardlo, and A.B. Spellman. This is the first in what will Gregory Pardlo become a series of special poetry programs presented in partnership by The Writer’s Center and Politics & Prose. General Admission: $5. (Free for Members and students).
first novel prize winner reading THURS, April 12, 7:00 p.m. Heidi Durrow reads from The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, which has been selected as the first winner of Heidi Durrow The Writer’s Center’s McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize. Read a profile of Heidi on page 6.
Landon HIGH SCHOOL READING THURS, APR 19, 6:30 P.M. Meet the next generation of writers as we host a reading and award ceremony featuring winners of Landon School’s writing competitions. 34
Dancing at Lughnasa Apr 20–May 20 This moving tale of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936 has been called the most elegant and rueful memory play since The Glass Menagerie. For reservations or additional details please visit quotidiantheatre.org or call 301-816-1023.
Sandra Beasley/ Glen Finland FRI, APR 20, 7:30 P.M.
Glen Finland
We’re pleased to host a reading as part of the Bethesda Literary Festival. Glen Finland reads from Next Stop and Sandra Beasley reads from Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life.
ANNAPOLIS BOOK FESTIVAL SAT, APR 21 The Writer’s Center will host two panels: one on the current landscape of publishing, and the other addressing the question “Can Creative Writing Be Taught?” For additional details please visit keyschool.org/ community/annapolis-book-festival
Poet Lore Birthday Reading SAT, APR 21, 2:00 P.M. Join us to celebrate Poet Lore’s 123rd birthday—and National Poetry Month—with readings by John Bargowski and Mary-Sherman Willis, featured in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue, as well as champagne and cake! Read a profile on one of Poet Lore’s editors, Jody Bolz, on page 7.
THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK REVIEW SUN, APR 22, 2:00 P.M. Author and president of the Washington Independent Review of Books, David Stewart, joins award-winning Washington Post book reviewer Dennis Drabelle and National Book Critics Circle board member Mark Athitakis to discuss the past, present, and future of the book review. Moderated by Mia Cortez of the Montgomery Gazette.
TWC Open House SAT, MAY 19, 12:00–3:00 P.M. Join Writer’s Center staff, workshop leaders, and board members at our open house. We’ll have a light reception, an opportunity to learn about upcoming workshops and events, and a raffle drawing.
Publish now! SAT, JUNE 23 10:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M. The Writer's Center presents Publish Now! From Manuscript to Book and eBook in the New World of Publishing. Visit our writer.org, for updates.
Afterplay and A Little Trick Jul 20–Aug 19, 2012 Brian Friel imagines a small cafe in 1920s Moscow where Sonya, Uncle Vanya’s niece, is the only customer until the arrival of Andrey, brother of the Three Sisters. Afterplay provides a touching coda for two of Chekhov’s most enduring characters. (Directed by Jack Sbarbori) Chekhov’s short story A Little Trick is transformed into a succinct memory play where the narrator tells of the young lady who might have been the love of his life. (Directed by Stephanie Mumford) For reservations or additional details please visit quotidiantheatre.org or call 301-816-1023.
photos by: Thomas Sayers Ellis (pardlo); Timothi Jane Graham (Durrow); mary noble ours (Finland); Emma Norman (plumly); Tara Laskowski (taylor)
EVENTS AT TWC / LEESBURG FIRST FRIDAY
35 th anniversary reading series Each event: Members/Students (with a valid ID) $10; Non-members $15 BookTalk: Members/Students/Round House Subscribers $10; Non-members $15 Poets Stanley Plumly and Joshua Weiner
BOOKTALK: DOUBLE INDEMNITY
FRI, MAY 25, 7:30 P.M.
SUN, JUN 10, 12:30 P.M.
Maryland’s Poet Laureate and long-time Writer’s Center workshop leader Stanley Plumly reads with Joshua Weiner. Plumly will read from his new collection, Orphan Hours. He is author of several collections of poetry and prose, including Posthumous Keats, Old Heart, and Argument & Song: Sources & Silences in Poetry. Weiner is author of the poetry collections The World’s Stanley Plumly Room and From the Book of Giants and is editor of At The Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn.
First published in serial form in 1936, James Cain’s Double Indemnity is the inspiration for Billy Wilder’s classic 1944 film of the same name. In this special panel presentation moderated by fiction writer and critic Art Taylor, mystery novelists Megan Abbott and Con Lehane join National Public Radio book reviewer Maureen Corrigan and Round House Theatre’s Producing Art Taylor Artistic Director Blake Robison to discuss why the book remains one of the defining classics of the hardboiled genre. Participants are encouraged to attend Round House’s production of the play May 30–June 24. Read Art Taylor’s article on BookTalk on page 10.
Read Joshua Weiner’s interview with Stanley Plumly at: tinyurl.com/plumlyinterview
leesburg first friday Leesburg Town Hall (Lower Level Meeting Room) 25 W. Market Street Leesburg, VA 20176 $4 TWC members and residents of Leesburg $6 General admission To read more about these events visit www.writer.org/leesburg
Elizabeth Letts: Craft-related Topic TBD May 4, 7:30-9:30 P.M. Elizabeth Letts is the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation, the true story of a plowhorse bound for the slaughteryard who went on to become one of the top show horses in the world. She’s also the award-winning author of two novels for adults, Family Planning and Quality of Care, and one children’s book, The Butter Man.
Laura Oliver: Setting June 1, 7:30-9:30 P.M. Laura Oliver, M.F.A., is the author of The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers. Her essays and short stories appear in numerous regional and national periodicals such as The Washington Post, Country Living, and Glimmer Train. She has taught creative writing at the University of Maryland and currently teaches writing at St. John’s College. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her work has won numerous awards, including a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction. Her M.F.A. is in creative writing and literature from Bennington College, and she has completed nonfiction workshops at The University of Iowa.
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WORKSHOP LEADERS Naomi Ayala is the author of two books of poetry; Wild Animals on the Moon (1997) and This Side of Early (2009). Distinguishing herself as a poet who writes in two languages, her most recent work in Spanish appears in Al Pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas Hispanos de Washington, D.C. (2010). Khris Baxter is a screenwriter, producer, and script consultant. He teaches screenwriting, at Gettysburg College and at the low-residency M.F.A. at Queens University of Charlotte, NC. His body of work includes many optioned screenplays and one produced film. He is a member of the Virginia Film Office where he is a judge for the annual screenwriting competition. He is also the founder of Baxter Baker & Associates (baxterbaker.com). Sandra Beasley is the author of I Was the Jukebox, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize (2010). Her first collection, Theories of Falling, won the New Issues Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and in The Best American Poetry 2010. Her memoir, Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, was published in 2011. Arthur Besner has more than 30 years experience at the U.S. Department of Education, where, among other things, he wrote speeches— delivered by the assistant secretary for Civil Rights and the Department Secretary—that were given to national education, civil rights, and legal organizations. He also designed and delivered an ongoing training course, “Writing Memoranda and Reports,” for Department employees. He teaches at Montgomery College. Martin Blank has written 10 plays that have been produced in the U.S. and abroad. He has directed dozens of readings and workshops to develop new plays in Washington, D.C. and New York City, as well as written, produced, or directed, over 100 professional productions. He has served as artistic associate for the American Jewish Theatre and American Place Theatre, New York City, as well as literary manager, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and founding artistic director, Theater J. He attended the University of Maryland and the Yale School of Drama.
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Adele Steiner Brown B.A. and M.F.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing (Poetry) (University of Maryland); an instructor with Montgomery College and Maryland State Arts Council; host of Café Muse; and author of Refracted Love, Freshwater Pearls, The Moon Lighting, and Look Ma, “Hands” on Poetry. Her work has appeared in WordWrights!, Maryland Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Lucid Stone, Smartish Pace, and So to Speak. Dana Cann, M.A., has stories appearing in The Sun, The Gettysburg Review, Bethesda Magazine, Fifth Wednesday Journal, The Florida Review, and Blackbird, among other journals. He’s received a Pushcart nomination and fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Ron Capps is the founder and director of The Veterans Writing Project. His writing and commentary appear regularly in Time and Foreign Policy, and have been featured in The American Interest, Monday Developments, and Health Affairs, on Pacifica Radio, the BBC World Service, and NPR’s All Things Considered. As a soldier and foreign service officer, Ron served in Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur. He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University’s M.A. in Writing Program. Nancy Naomi Carlson, Ph.D., is an associate editor for Tupelo Press. She has published two award-winning chapbooks, one collection of poetry, and a book of translations. Awarded a Maryland Arts Council grant for poetry, her work has appeared in print over 225 times, including AGNI, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and is forthcoming in The Georgia Review. Kenneth Carroll is a native Washingtonian. His writings appear in numerous publications, including, Stanford University Education Journal, Penguin’s African American Textbook, and Turn the Page: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth. He has worked as an educator in the D.C. public schools for the past 20 years, where he has used literature and writing to reach youth and to engage students in learning and leadership opportunities. As the former director of DC WritersCorps, he created the country’s first Youth Poetry Slam League, which was honored by the President’s Commission for the Arts and the Humanities in 1999.
Carolyn Clark is a teacher-scholar with a lifelong passion for classics, archaeology and writing. Having earned two degrees in the “Ivies” and a Ph.D. in Classics at The Johns Hopkins University, she now teaches Latin, French, and some ancient Greek. Her muse is currently helping her to complete a chapbook of mythical poems. Brenda W. Clough is a novelist, short story, and nonfiction writer. Her recent e-books are Revise the World and Speak to Our Desires. 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. She has been teaching science fiction & fantasy workshops at The Writer’s Center for over 10 years. Matthew Davis’ first book, When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale, was published in 2010. His work has won several awards, including ones from the Atlantic and The Best American Travel Writing series. He received an M.F.A. in Nonfiction from The University of Iowa and was a Fulbright Scholar to Syria and Jordan in 2010–2011. Tim Denevi has recently published creative nonfiction in Arts & Letters, Hawai’i Review, and Hobart. He currently teaches in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Maryland. He received his M.F.A. from the nonfiction workshop at The University of Iowa. Toby Devens is the author of a novel, My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet) and a book of poetry, Mercy, Lord, My Husband’s in the Kitchen. Her short fiction, articles, and poetry have appeared in New York Magazine, Parents, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, and McCall’s, among numerous publications. A former senior editor at Harcourt Brace publishers and New York Editor for Where magazine, she has a B.A. and an M.A. in Literature. Graham Dunstan is a fiction and memoir writer who has won numerous awards for his writing, including a Larry Neal Fiction Award for the District of Columbia, and fiction awards from Anchorage Daily News and Lullwater Review. He earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he also taught composition. Graham has been published in The Phoenix, The Signal, Lullwater Review, We Alaskans, Creative Loafing, Anchorage Weekly, and on PlanetOut.
WORKSHOP LEADERS SOLVEIG EGGERZ is the author of the award-winning novel Seal Woman. Her writing has appeared in The Northern Virginia Review, Palo Alto Review, Lincoln Review, Midstream, Issues, The Journal of the Baltimore Writers’ Alliance, The Christian Century, and Open Windows: An Anthology. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a focus on medieval English, German, and Scandinavian works. Pamela Ehrenberg is the author of two novels for young people, Tillmon County Fire (2009) and Ethan, Suspended (2007). A former junior high teacher and an AmeriCorps alumna, she is currently a higher education consultant and mom to two small children, as well as a member of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C., and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. JONATHAN EIG has been teaching screenwriting workshops in the Washington, D.C., area for the past 20 years. He is a winner of The Austin Film Festival Heart of Film Screenplay Competition and a CINE Golden Eagle. He currently teaches screenwriting and film history at Montgomery College, Takoma Park, and leads a film series at the AFI Silver Theatre. Sue Eisenfeld’s essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Gettysburg Review, Potomac Review, The Washington Post, The Washingtonian, Under the Sun, Ars Medica, Virginia Living, Blue Ridge Country, Frederick Magazine, and other publications. Her essays have been twice listed as notable essays of the year in The Best American Essays (2009 and 2010). She was awarded the 2010 Goldfarb Family Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and she holds an M.A. in writing from The Johns Hopkins University, where she also serves as a student advisor. Barbara Esstman, M.F.A., is a National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts fellow, and a Redbook fiction award winner, among other distinctions. Her novels, The Other Anna and Night Ride Home, are in numerous foreign editions. Both were adapted for television by Hallmark Productions. She co-edited an anthology, A More Perfect Union: Poems and Stories About the Modern Wedding, and has taught extensively in universities.
Laura Fargas has published both fiction and poetry, most recently An Animal of the Sixth Day. She has taught at American University and in the Goddard College M.F.A. Program. Debra Farkas began classroom teaching in 1991 with Teach for America, and has since worked as an elementary bilingual/bicultural teacher, with two of those years as an art specialist. She has shown her own art over the years; has co-written and produced the play, L’an: Four Jewish Perspectives on Israel and Palestine; and led numerous workshops. Her specialty is putting children at ease, and helping them connect their own experiences to a larger, complex world. Cathy Fink is a prolific songwriter with two GRAMMY awards, 11 GRAMMY nominations, and 50
awards from the Washington Area Music Association in bluegrass, folk, and children’s music. She shares all her awards and recordings with Marcy Marxer. Cathy and Marcy maintain an active tour schedule as children’s/family performers and folk/roots/country/ swing artists. Cathy’s song “Names,” about the AIDS Memorial Quilt, was recorded by over 20 artists in several countries. For more about Cathy, visit cathymarcy.com. Lee Fleming has been writing, editing, and teaching for more than two decades. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, City Paper, The Washingtonian, as well as other national newspapers, magazines, and websites. A former senior editor at Museum & Arts and Garden Design magazines, and managing editor/editor-in-chief of Landscape Architecture, Fleming has received a number of fellowships and awards for journalism and fiction. Nan Fry, Ph.D. (Yale University), is the author of two books of poetry: Relearning the Dark and Say What I Am Called. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and textbooks. She received an EdPress Award for excellence in educational journalism and taught at the Corcoran College of Art + Design for over 20 years. Bernadette Geyer is a freelance writer and copy editor with more than 15 years of experience in business marketing and public relations. Her articles, book reviews, and poems have appeared in WRITER’S Journal, Freelance Writer’s Report, World Energy Review, The Montserrat Review, The Los Angeles
Review, and elsewhere. She received a 2010 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County and published a chapbook of poetry, What Remains. Christopher Goodrich teaches English and play directing at the Academy of Musical Theatre, Northwood High School, in Silver Spring. He has also taught at New York University and Frostburg State University. His poems have appeared in Margie, Hotel Amerika, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, Sycamore Review, Cimarron Review, Cider Press Review, and The Worcester Review, among others. He has been featured on Verse Daily and NPR. He is the recipient of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize and holds an M.F.A. from New England College. A chapbook, By Reaching, was published in 2007. His first book, Nevertheless, Hello, was published in 2009. T. Greenwood is the author of six novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and, most recently, the Maryland State Arts Council. Two Rivers was named Best General Fiction Book at the San Diego Book Awards last year. Four of her novels have been BookSense76/IndieBound picks; This Glittering World is a January 2011 selection. She teaches creative writing at both the Univeristy of California, San Diego’s Extension Program and at The Ink Spot. She and her husband, Patrick, live in San Diego, CA, with their two daughters. She is also an aspiring photographer. Zahara Heckscher, M.A., is the co-author of the book How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas. She has also written numerous articles that have appeared in books and the online travel magazine TransitionsAbroad.com, where she serves as contributing editor. Heckscher teaches professional writing at University of Maryland at College Park. She is a breast cancer survivor who prefers to be known as a “cancer thriver.” She blogs at cancerthriver.blogspot.com. Dave Housley’s second collection of short fiction, If I Knew the Way, I Would Take You Home, will be published in 2012. His first collection, Ryan Seacrest is Famous, was published in 2007. His work has appeared or is coming soon in The Collagist, Hobart, Mid-American Review, Nerve, Quarterly West, the anthology Best of the Web 2010, and some other places. He’s one of the editors at Barrelhouse magazine. He keeps his virtual stuff at davehousley.com.
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WORKSHOP LEADERS Charles Jensen is the author of The Nanopedia Quick-Reference Pocket Lexicon of Contemporary American Culture and The First Risk, which was a finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award. His previous chapbooks include Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award, and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon. A past recipient of an Artist’s Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, his poetry has appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, Field, The Journal, New England Review, and Prairie Schooner. He holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from Arizona State University and is the founding editor of the online poetry magazine LOCUSPOINT. Kathryn Johnson has published 41 novels with major U.S. and international publishers. She is an inspiring speaker at national writers’ conferences and the founder of Write by You, Writebyyou.com, a professional mentoring service for fiction writers who seek support in reaching their publication goals. Her most recent critically-acclaimed novel is The Gentleman Poet: A Novel of Love, Danger, and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Michael Kang is an independent filmmaker currently recovering from a three-year stint in Hollywood. He has taught screenwriting workshops through The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, The Poet’s Theater, and InDuLoop. He is currently teaching Broadcast & Film Writing at Towson University. His film The Motel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently available on DVD through Palm Pictures. Michael has received numerous awards for his work, including the Humanitas Prize, NEA Artist’s Residency Grant at The MacDowell Colony, and the Geri Ashur Award in screenwriting through the New York Foundation for the Arts. Susan Land, M.A. (The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars), Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction (Stanford University), has received three Maryland Council on the Arts Fellowships and a Woman in the Arts award from Montgomery County. She has taught for The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Passion for Learning, Spidersmart and for many schools and colleges. Her work has recently appeared in Bethesda Magazine, Enhanced Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women, Like Whatever: The Insider’s Guide to Raising Teens, Potomac Review, Niche Magazine, and is forthcoming in The Roanoke Review and the anthology He Said, She Wrote.
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Thomas Larson is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” as well as The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative, which is in its third printing. He holds workshops on memoir writing and delivers multimedia presentations on music, the craft of writing, and the “author” in the digital age throughout the United States. Con Lehane, a former bartender, union organizer, college professor, and labor journalist, holds an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia University. He is the author of the forthcoming Murder at the 42nd Street Library, as well as three detective novels featuring New York City bartender Brian McNulty: Beware the Solitary Drinker, What Goes Around Comes Around, and Death at the Old Hotel. You can find out more about him on his website conlehane.com. SARAH MAHONEY has been teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools for over 10 years. She has spent most of that time teaching creative writing, and is currently at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. She is also working on her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. DIANA M. MARTIN has an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and is currently an adjunct professor at Montgomery College. Martin also has an extensive background in association, nonprofit, and corporation marketing. As a freelance writer for over 20 years, she has contributed to national and international publications. She shares a new business, Alex’s Art Loft, with her son which promotes creativity, independence, and support for people with disabilities. C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book of 2009. She is also the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles Through Baja California, the Other Mexico, a travel memoir of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula; and Sky over El Nido, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction. She is the editor of a collection of Mexican literature in translation, Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit cmmayo.com. Judith McCombs, M.A. The University of Chicago; three poetry books, Against Nature: Wilderness Poems, Sisters and Other Selves, and The Habit of Fire: Poems Selected & New; two chapbooks, one
of visual/verbal art. She has received Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize, Potomac Review, and MD and MI Arts Council awards. Her poems appear in CALYX, Hunger Mountain, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry, Prairie Schooner; short fictions in Kansas Quarterly, Nimrod. She is a Word Works editor, arranges the Kensington Row Bookshop poetry readings, and is writing a family history sequence that in 2009 was given the Maryland State Arts Council’s major award. Ann McLaughlin, Ph.D., has given workshops in the novel, short story, and journal writing at The Writer’s Center for the past 25 years and is on the board. She has published six novels: Lightning in July, The Balancing Pole, Sunset at Rosalie, Maiden Voyage, The House on Q Street, and Leaving Bayberry House. She has had 11 fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, one at Yaddo, and one at Laverny, Switzerland. Jenny Moore is a novelist whose writing has appeared in literary journals, online, and in Boston City Hall. She’s now writing her second novel and was recently awarded an artist residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Jenny has taught writing and provided manuscript consulting at Grub Street, Inc., as well as other venues. She works as an editor for literary, cultural, and financial publications, and has an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from The New School. Kirk Nesset is author of four books, including Alphabet of the World (translations), and has received the Drue Heinz Prize and a Pushcart. He teaches at Allegheny College, and serves as writer-in-residence at Black Forest Writing Seminars (Germany). Jean Nordhaus’ books of poetry include INNOCENCE, The Porcelain Apes of Moses Mendelssohn, My Life in Hiding, and Bracelet of Lies. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, Poetry, The Best American Poetry 2000, and many other journals and anthologies. She has served as coordinator of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s poetry programs and as president of Washington Writers’ Publishing House. L. Peat O’Neil wrote for The Washington Post for 17 years. Her freelance writing has been published in newspapers, magazines, websites, trade journals, and literary reviews. She has taught writing at numerous educational centers, including The George Washington University, Smithsonian
WORKSHOP LEADERS Resident Associates, Georgetown University, and the USDA Graduate School. She currently teaches writing online for University of California, Los Angeles. O’Neil is also an advisor on social media content management. She is the author of Travel Writing: See the World-Sell the Story, published in five languages, and Pyrenees Pilgrimage, about her solo walk across France. Blog: peatoneil.wordpress.com Laura Oliver, M.F.A., is the author of The Story Within. Her essays and short stories appear in numerous regional and national periodicals such as The Washington Post, Country Living, and Glimmer Train. She has taught creative writing at the University of Maryland and currently teaches writing at St. John’s College. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her work has won numerous distinctions, including a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction. Her M.F.A. is from Bennington College. More information is available at thestorywithin.com. Alicia Oltuski’s first book, Precious Objects, was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming on NPR’s Berlin Stories, in the Financial Times, W magazine, The Faster Times, The Bulletin in Philadelphia, and other publications. She holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University, where she received a David Berg Foundation Fellowship, and an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught writing at the University of the Arts, and was a reader at The Paris Review. Interviews with her have appeared on Marketplace, Ireland’s Newstalk Radio, Vox Tablet, and elsewhere. Alan Orloff is the author of Diamonds for the Dead (2010), an Agatha Award finalist for Best First Novel. He also writes the Last Laff Mystery series (Killer Routine (2011) and Deadly Campaign (2012)). He has served as treasurer for the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (M.W.A.) and is a member of International Thriller Writers (I.T.W.). For more info, visit alanorloff.com. Alison Palmer received an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis where she was nominated for the 2007 and 2008 AWP Journals Project. A graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Creative Writing, she was awarded the Emma Howell Memorial Poetry Prize. Palmer has a poem
forthcoming in Used Cat, and was recently published in The Laurel Review, Cannibal, and FIELD. She has been selected as one of the top 50 poets for Best New Poets 2010. Elizabeth Poliner (M.F.A., J.D.), fiction writer and poet, is the author of Mutual Life & Casualty, a novel-in-stories and Sudden Fog, a poetry chapbook. Her stories have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Other Voices, Ascent, and others, with several Pushcart nominations. Her poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Seneca Review, and others. A recipient of seven individual artist grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts, she has also been awarded scholarships to the Bread Loaf and Sewanee conferences and fellowships to Yaddo and VCCA. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Hollins University. Elizabeth Rees, M.A., has taught at several leading colleges, including Harvard University, the U.S. Naval Academy, Howard University, and in The Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program. She works as a “poet-in-the-schools” for the Maryland State Arts Council. She has published over 250 poems in journals such as Partisan Review, The Kenyon Review, Agni, and North American Review, among others. She has four award-winning chapbooks, most recently, Tilting Gravity, winner of Codhill Press’ 2009 contest. Angela Render has designed and maintained websites since 1994 and is the founder and owner of Thunderpaw Internet Presence Management (Thunderpaw.com). Her published work includes: Forged By Lightning: A Novel of Hannibal and Scipio, Marketing for Writers: A Practical Workbook, a column for WRITERS’ Journal, and ghost blogging. In addition to her classes at The Writer’s Center, she teaches at-risk middle-school girls and has been a guest speaker at numerous local conferences. Patrick Ross has won awards as a journalist, creative writer, and blogger. He has been a professional writer for nearly 25 years, and has been published in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, The New Republic, U.S. News & World Report, and literary journals including Barely South Review and Shaking Like a Mountain. His blog The Artist’s Road was named a Top Ten Blog for Writing for 2011–2012, and he first began blogging in 1994, before the label “blog” existed. He is pursuing an M.F.A. in Writing with the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His website
is patrick-ross.com. Jenny Rough is a lawyer-turned-writer. She’s written articles and essays for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, AARP The Magazine, USA WEEKEND, More, Yoga Journal, and Writer’s Digest, among other publications. She blogs about fertility for Mothering. com, and she’s the Green Scene columnist for the Washington Examiner. Her radio commentaries have appeared on WAMU in Washington, D.C. Jeffrey Rubin is a Virginia-based screenwriter/producer who has won top prizes at the Vail Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, and elsewhere. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Juilliard Drama Division, and holds an M.A. in Film and Theatre from NYC’s Hunter College. Lynn Schwartz’s plays have been performed in Atlanta and NYC, including the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. Her stories have appeared in literary journals, and she has authored numerous lifestyle features. She founded the Temple Bar Literary Reading Series in NYC and received an Individual Artist Award in Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council. She is a graduate of The City College of New York, Columbia University, and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. She teaches fiction at St. John’s College. Jordan Michael Smith is a contributing editor at Salon. He has written for dozens of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Boston Globe. Seamus Sullivan is a playwright who has written for the Capital Fringe Festival twice and acted in it twice, too. His plays have appeared as part of the Source Festival, Rorschach Theatre’s Myth Appropriation Series, Bethesda Play-in-a-Day, and Arena Stage’s downstairs series. Judith Tabler writes books on animals and has received awards from the Dog Writer’s Association of America. She has written for DOG FANCY, Bark, Kennel Review, AKC Gazette, Middleburg Life, and the National Geographic Society’s education department. Judith holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and teaches at a local university.
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WORKSHOP LEADERS David Taylor is an award-winning author and filmmaker. His book about the Federal Writers’ Project, titled Soul of a People, was named among Best Books of 2009. He wrote and co-produced the companion Smithsonian documentary Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, which received a CINE Golden Eagle, Best of D.C. Peer awards, and a Writer’s Guild Award nomination. Sue Ellen Thompson is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Golden Hour (2006), and the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. Her work has been included in the Best American Poetry series, read on NPR by Garrison Keillor, and featured in U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s nationally-syndicated newspaper column. She taught at Wesleyan University, Middlebury College, State University of New York at Binghamton, and Central Connecticut State University before moving to the Eastern Shore in 2006. She was awarded the 2010 Maryland Author Prize from the Maryland Library Association.
Susan Tiberghien, an American-born writer living in Switzerland, has published three memoirs, Looking for Gold, Circling to the Center, and Footsteps, A European Album, and most recently a best selling writing book, One Year to A Writing Life, along with numerous narrative essays in journals and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic. She teaches and lectures at graduate programs, C.G. Jung Centers, and at writers’ conferences both in the United States and in Europe, where she directs the Geneva Writers’ Group and Conferences. Her website is susantiberghien.com. Edward Ugel is an author, sales and marketing expert, freelance writer, and speaker. His first critically acclaimed book, Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions, was released in the fall of 2007. Warner Brothers and Tobey Maguire optioned the rights and a TV project is currently under development. Edward’s second critically acclaimed book, I’m With Fatty: Losing Fifty Pounds in Fifty Miserable Weeks, was released in the fall of 2010. A feature film based upon Fatty and a half-hour sitcom based upon his writing are under development.
Lyn Vaus, a longtime screenwriter and industry professional, is best known for his award-winning Miramax romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland. He began his career as a story editor for a production company in Hollywood, where he oversaw the script for New Line’s hit science fiction film The Lawnmower Man. He has had numerous screenplays of his own optioned, and in some cases produced by, among others, Imax, Fineline, SenArt, and Miramax. Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion (selected by Denise Duhamel, Hilary Tham Capital Collection), Conversations During Sleep (Anhinga Prize for Poetry), and The Keeper of Light (Painted Bride Quarterly Poetry Chapbook Series). Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, North American Review, Antioch Review, Boulevard, and numerous other literary journals and anthologies. She is a contributing editor for Poet Lore. ¶
General Membership ($50)
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TWC INSIDER TWC INSIDER—Published work & Awards Daniel Gutstein’s book, Bloodcoal & Honey, was published by Washington Writers Publishing House in November 2011. Charles Jensen’s book, The Nanopedia Quick-Reference Pocket Lexicon of Contemporary American Culture, was published by CreateSpace in January. James Mathew’s short story, “Blondes to the Rescue,” was published in the online journal FreightTrain in January. Alice McDermott’s short story, “Someone,” was in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker.
Laura Oliver’s book, The Story Within, was published in November 2011 by Penguin. The Writer named the book as one of “Ten of This Year’s Terrific Writing Books” in the December 2011 issue. Work by Ken Ackerman, Kate Blackwell, Nan Fry, E. Ethelbert Miller, Richard Peabody, and Sue Ellen Thompson was published in the most recent issue of The Delmarva Review. Fiction by Caitlin Cushman, Jennifer L. Napolitano, and Kim Roberts is in Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women published by Paycock Press in January.
Share your news with The Writer’s Center community! To be included in TWC Insider, e-mail your news along with a high-resolution image of your book cover or author photo and photo credit to
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THANK YOU
July 1, 2011–February 28, 2012
TWC Endowment Fund
anton chekov circle—$500 +
Eagle Bank John Freeman & Sally Mott Freeman John Hill
Anonymous The Michael & Eleanor A. Pinkert Family Foundation Valentine Craig Timothy Crawford Patricia M. Davis Anthony Dobranski
THE NEXT CHAPTER SOCIETY Lisa Lipinski Ann McLaughlin
Virginia M. Grandison Erika Horton Kathryn Kolar William Reynolds & Nancy M. Lincoln Linda S. Sullivan Clinton A. Vince
Walt Whitman Circle—$10,000 + PDP Foundation John Freeman & Mrs. Sally Mott Freeman Neal Gillen
langston hughes circle—$2,500 + Christian Mixter & Linna Barnes Ann McLaughlin
zora neale hurston circle—$1,000 + Anonymous The Bydale Foundation Kenneth Ackerman Margot Backas Mark Cymrot Sandor Slager & Patricia Harris
John Hill Jeffrey Smith Ed Torrero Marcia Wagner Wilson W. Wyatt
emily dickinson circle—$250 + Anonymous Fannie Mae Stone Soup Foundation Robert Blair Sandra Bracken Phillip J. Budahn Nathan Cardon Robert A. Carpenter Deborah Darr John J. Gaudet Phil D. Harvey Judith L. Jones Lizbeth B. Kulick James & Kate Lehrer
Gloria Logan Perry Maiden David Metz Phillip G. Nelson Jean Nordhaus Heddy Reid Shelly Rockwell Elizabeth Stein Jonathan Stillerman Trudy Todd Craig Tregillus Ernst Volgenau Robert Wise
founder’s circle—$100 + Christine Abi Najm • Kaya Adams • Dr. Sami AlBanna • Karren Alenier • Willie Alexander • Thomas Alfano • Leslie Allen • Susan Cooke Anastasi • Frederick R. Andeerson • Beth Anderson • Susan Angell • Gabriel M. Antuna • Laura Aram • Nancy P. Arbuthnot • Barri Armitage • Cherie E. Ashcroft • B. K. Atrostic • Naomi Ayala • Judith Babbitts • John Babcock • Lynn Bailets • Kenneth Bailey • Paige Baldwin • James Ball • Michael Ballard • Ann Barnet • Robin Baron • Melanie Batchelor • S. M. Bates • Robert Bausch • Sarah W. Beacom • James Beane • Catherine C. Beckley • Edward Belfar • Barbara Belmont • Thomas Benjey • Michelle M Berberet • Stephen Berer • Bruce Berger • Martin Bernstein • Edward Berry • Emily Best • Anita Bigger • Julia Bilek • Sanford L. Billet • Sarah Birnbach • Rimantas J. Blekaitis • Larry Blossom • Dillard Boland • Kathy Borrus • Lauren Boston • Sharlie W. Bouic • Dale Hanson Bourke • Jean Bower • L. Bowles • Ellen R. Braaf • Mark Bradley • Dr. Elaine Brent • Shirley J. Brewer • David Bristol • Tiffani Brock • Vikki Brooks • Betsy Broughton • Dr. Laura Brown • Jamie Brown • Barbara B. Brown • Judith Bryant • Ralph Bryant • Laura Brylawski-Miller • Julie Buchanan • Elizabeth Burke • Tom Burke • Harold Burman • Malve S. Burns • Florence D. Burt • John Butler • Dorothy Butler-Landes • Jo A. Buxton • Chris X. Byrd • Susan Byrnes • Dr. Evelyn Caballero • Dr. Ilhan Cagri • Dr. June Cai • Edward Calhoon • Carolyn Calix • Karen Callwood • Alina E. Camacho • Teresa Camacho-Hull • Douglas Canter • Alicia Carbaugh • Nancy N. Carlson • Mary Carpenter • Jay Carr • William Carrington • Anne C. Carson • Wanda Cartwright • Margaret Cary • Ruth A. Castillo • Brandon Caudill • Grace Cavalieri • Randy Cepuch • Frank Cervarich • Ira Chaleff • Patricia E. Chapla • Christine B. Clardy • David P. Clarke • Charles Clement • Alexandra Coburn • Jennifer Cockburn • John Coker • Gary Coley • Dr. Naomi F. Collins • Winston Colon-Moran • Mary Compton • Thomas Connelly • Denise Conner • William Cook • Sarah Cosgrove Gaumond • John R. Countryman • Donna Lewis Cowan • Mildred R. Crary • Henry Crawford • Carol Creed • Eleanor Crose • Nicole Crowley • Elizabeth Crowley • Sylvia Csiffary • Caitlin Cushman • Richard Cys • Henrietta Dahlstrom • Kerry Dale • Karla Daly • Carla Danziger • Kimberly Davidson • Lucille Lang Day • Dr. Andrew Dayton • Jenet L. Dechary • Dimple Dhabalia • Justine Diamond • Debra Diamond • Elizabeth Dickinson • Dr. John
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Where Do You Write? A small team of local writers plans to create an ideal space for writing, right here in DC—with a launch date in the spring of 2012. Many cities now have writing rooms of the kind we envision—quiet spaces equipped with Wi-Fi, well-designed workstations, and ergonomic desk chairs (and a little comfortable furniture for sitting and contemplating). Among the benefits: • The absence of ringing phones and doorbells. • The presence of other writers. Even writers with great writing space at home are discovering that motivation is highly contagious. (Isn’t that why so many of us prefer to do our sit-ups at the gym?)
Advertise in •
Locked storage for laptops, books,
The Workshop & Event Guide and papers between work sessions. You
don’t get that at coffee shops or libraries. • No extra charge for printing, pens, paper, or coffee.
tes g/adra r o . r e t i ww.wr visit w o learn more t
Please go to www.writersroomdc.com if this idea appeals to you. We need your feedback, and we’re offering a free week in exchange.
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