Weekday Workshops
Thank you to our workshop instructors and attendees! We look forward to our 2020 Workshops.
The Writefest weekday workshops run from 9:30 AM -12:30 PM during the week leading up to the Writefest weekend festival, Monday, May 27th - Thursday, May 30th. They will be held in beautiful artists' studios at Sawyer Yards.
Each workshop focuses on a specific genre, and in all workshops, students will have the opportunity to have their writing critiqued by classmates and the workshop leader. Instructors will reach out to students with specific submission requirements two weeks before the start of the workshop.
To register for a workshop, please visit our registration page and select either a Full Event pass or Workshop Only pass. You will be prompted to select your chosen workshop at checkout.
We will also be offering afternoon bonus sessions to all workshop attendees! Click here to learn more about the sessions we're offering.
All workshop attendees are also invited to share their work at our Weekly Workshop Open Mic, held Thursday, May 30th, at Bohemo's (708 Telephone Rd, 77023).
The Writefest weekday workshops run from 9:30 AM -12:30 PM during the week leading up to the Writefest weekend festival, Monday, May 27th - Thursday, May 30th. They will be held in beautiful artists' studios at Sawyer Yards.
Each workshop focuses on a specific genre, and in all workshops, students will have the opportunity to have their writing critiqued by classmates and the workshop leader. Instructors will reach out to students with specific submission requirements two weeks before the start of the workshop.
To register for a workshop, please visit our registration page and select either a Full Event pass or Workshop Only pass. You will be prompted to select your chosen workshop at checkout.
We will also be offering afternoon bonus sessions to all workshop attendees! Click here to learn more about the sessions we're offering.
All workshop attendees are also invited to share their work at our Weekly Workshop Open Mic, held Thursday, May 30th, at Bohemo's (708 Telephone Rd, 77023).
Flash Fiction
Taught by Kathryn Kulpa
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What is flash fiction? It is not simply vignette, or a long story cut short, but its own unique genre that walks the border between poetry and prose.
This generative workshop will focus on creating new flash fiction pieces. Bring a notebook and come ready to write! We will play with prompts, experiment with style and voice, and find the structure that gives each story its perfect form. The workshop will include close reading of published works that exemplify all the different things flash can be, from 50-word gems to experimental works that push the boundaries of text and image. At the end of the week, we should all have written at least four new stories, plus revisions. I hope that each writer will leave feeling energized, ready to continue the practice of writing flash fiction, and encouraged to explore the many publishing opportunities available for these shortest of stories. |
Kathryn Kulpa is the author of Girls on Film, a flash fiction collection, and Pleasant Drugs, a short story collection. She serves as flash fiction editor at Cleaver magazine and has been a visiting writer at Wheaton College. Her work appears in Smokelong Quarterly, 100 Word Story, Pidgeonholes, and many other journals and anthologies.
Short Stories
Taught by Kirk Wilson
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What is a “short story” anyway? In this class, we’ll examine the building blocks of short fiction from voice to word choice, to dialog and description. We’ll answer some of the fundamental questions of writing story, discuss techniques for revision, and explore the final stages of submitting to journals and small presses. This workshop will include a mix of craft lectures, opportunities to generate new work, and open discussion of your work (a story of up to ten pages) in a supportive workshop setting
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Kirk Wilson is a 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow whose work in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies. Recently shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize, he is the recipient of the New Millennium Award for Nonfiction, a Pushcart nominee, and a finalist for the Crazyhorse Nonfiction Prize, the Machigonne Fiction Award, the Wordstock Short Fiction Competition (selected by Aimee Bender), and the Fabulist Fiction Prize from Omnidawn Publishing (selected by Lily Hoang). A chapbook of his poems, The Early Word, was published by Burning Deck press. His true crime classic Unsolved has been published in six editions in the US and UK.
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Taught by Tex Thompson
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Speculative fiction is full of limitless possibilities: all you have to do is write a story that takes place outside the world as we know it. If only it were that simple! But whether you’re constructing a fantasy realm, inventing an alternate past, or postulating a post-apocalyptic future, some principles of good story-crafting are universal – and you can start applying them right away. Come learn the secrets of crafting innovative, believable, dynamic other-worlds that your readers will want to explore for years to come.
This course includes:
Writers of all levels are welcome. Come ready to share some of your work in progress! |
Arianne "Tex" Thompson was once described as "an explosion of 52 enthusiastic kittens latching onto everything at once." In addition to writing the 'Children of the Drought' epic fantasy Western series, Tex is the founder and 'chief instigator' for WORD - Writers Organizations 'Round Dallas. When she's not leading the charge at home in Dallas, Tex brings her particular brand of 'red-penthusiasm' to conferences, conventions, and workshops all over the country - as an egregiously enthusiastic, endlessly energetic one-woman stampede.
Literary Fiction
Taught by Thomas McNeely
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"Literary Fiction" is what you make of it; it's a term for writing that aims to depict something true about life. In this craft-based workshop, we will blend critique of your short fiction or novel excerpts, discussion of published stories, and in-class exercises, with the aim of discovering your voice and articulating your truth in fiction.
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A native of Houston, Texas, Thomas McNeely has received fellowships for his writing from the MacDowell Colony, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford University, and the Dobie Paisano Program at the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught fiction writing at Stanford University, Emerson College, The University of New Hampshire, Inprint Houston, and Writespace. His short stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Epoch, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Mystery Stories and New Stories from the South; his stories have been short-listed for the O. Henry, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize. Ghost Horse, his first novel, received the Gival Press Novel Award, was a finalist for the Lascaux Prize in Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. He currently teaches at Emerson College, Boston, and the Stanford Online Writing Workshop, and is at work on a collection of linked stories set in Houston.
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Taught by Donna M. Johnson
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REGISTRATION CLOSED Please email us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list. This workshop will use class instruction, writing prompts and friendly critique sessions to deepen the definition of personal narrative. Writers will be introduced to the elements of story as they apply to memoir, including time, character and voice. We will also explore threading outside resources and information through the work to create parallel narratives that expand our stories beyond the personal. Our focus will be on creating what Stephen Church termed a “narrative of thought,” in which the writer leads with curiosity over confession. Class takeaways will include knowledge of the fundamental elements of memoir, developing complex characters, use of the reflective voice, and approaches for mining experience for meaning. REGISTRATION CLOSED Please email us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list. |
Donna M. Johnson is the author of Holy Ghost Girl, a critically acclaimed memoir deemed “enthralling” by the New York Times and “compulsively readable” by Texas Monthly. Oprah named the book to her Memoirs We Love list. Holy Ghost Girl won the Mayborn Creative Nonfiction Prize and took top honors at the Books for a Better Life Awards in Manhattan. Donna has written for Huffington Post, The Rumpus, Shambhala Sun, Psychology Today, and other publications. Donna is a Ragdale Fellow and recently received a fellowship at the Lucas Artists’ Residency. She is currently at work on a personal narrative that combines investigative journalism with memoir.
