Coming Soon
Stay tuned to this page as we plan for 2022.
WEEKDAY WORKSHOPS
The information below is for our 2020 conference, which was cancelled due to Covid-19. We will be updating for 2021 in the coming months!
The Writefest weekday workshops run from 9:30 AM -12:30 PM during the week leading up to the weekend festival, Monday, May 4th - Thursday, May 7th. They will be held in beautiful artists' studios at Sawyer Yards.
To register, please click on the registration buttons below, then select either a Full Pass or Workshop Only Pass. You will be prompted to select your preferred workshop when you fill out payment information.
To register, please click on the registration buttons below, then select either a Full Pass or Workshop Only Pass. You will be prompted to select your preferred workshop when you fill out payment information.
Personal Essay
Taught by Addie Tsai
In this workshop, we’ll talk through and navigate some of the more prickly aspects of creative nonfiction, personal essay, and memoir, such as balancing narrative and personal reflection, the ethics of writing about others, a construction of a singular point of view, and how much one reveals about one’s self and inner world. Participants will receive feedback on their work, both from the instructor and the other participants, and we’ll read short excerpts from personal essay and creative nonfiction works that vary in craft strategies, subject matter, and style. The class will also make use of the Surrealist Movement’s automatic writing exercises in order to generate material. It would be helpful if participants bring with them short excerpts of previous work, but if not, an idea of a project they would like to use as a jumping off point for the week.
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An East Side Houston native, Thom is the author of the forthcoming story collection PICTURES OF THE SHARK: STORIES (Texas Review Press) and the novel GHOST HORSE (Gival Press). His short stories and non-fiction have appeared in The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Ploughshares, and many other magazines and anthologies. He has received National Endowment for the Arts, Wallace Stegner, and MacDowell Colony fellowships for his fiction. His first book, Ghost Horse, won the Gival Press Novel Award and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize in Writing. He currently teaches in the Stanford Online Writing Studio and at Emerson College, Boston.
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Memoir
Taught by Rachel Starnes
Dive into the world of memoir, starting with a brief overview of how the genre has grown over time and what it means to tell true personal stories in an age of reality TV and curated social media narratives. We’ll explore what a narrative persona is in nonfiction and how to define your own “line in the sand” when it comes to truth. In-class writing exercises will explore various ways to access and explore memories. This class aims to provide new tools and perspectives for writers of all stages, from those just getting their feet wet to those already immersed in a draft.
Please note: workshop participants have the option to submit up to 10 pages (2500 words) in advance for detailed written feedback, but this is not required for participation.
Please note: workshop participants have the option to submit up to 10 pages (2500 words) in advance for detailed written feedback, but this is not required for participation.
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Rachel Starnes received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from California State University, Fresno and her BA from the University of Texas. Her essays have appeared in The Colorado Review, Front Porch Journal, and O Magazine. Born in Austin, Texas, she has lived in Scotland, Texas, Saudi Arabia, Florida, California, and Nevada, and is currently on the move again with her husband, two sons, and a puppy.
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Literary Fiction
Taught by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Explore the basics of crafting fiction with a focus on both the line level and the big picture. We’ll talk character, plot, imagery, and prose, with in-class writing exercises focusing on all the elements of well-rounded story creation. Students will have the opportunity to receive critiques on excerpts of their work. The class will also collaborate on a shared world that, by week’s end, will be populated with memorable places, unforgettable characters, and strange events. This workshop will be open-minded when it comes to speculative and experimental elements within literary fiction.
Submission guidelines: Prepare to submit between 3,000 and 6,000 words of writing before the start of class.
Submission guidelines: Prepare to submit between 3,000 and 6,000 words of writing before the start of class.
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Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's fiction and poetry has appeared in over 50 publications such as LeVar Burton Reads, Fairy Tale Review, and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror as well as in six languages. She has been a finalist for the Nebula Award and won the Grand Prize in the SyFy Channel's Battle the Beast contest; SyFy made and released an animated short of her short story "Party Tricks," set in the world of The Magicians. She is the curator of the Art & Words Show in Fort Worth, Texas where she lives with three cats: Gamora, Don Quixote, and Gimli.
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Speculative Fiction
Taught by Christian McKay Heidicker
The number one goal of a workshop is to electrify the author's fingertips so that they cannot wait to get back to writing. That's why I encourage workshop attendees to begin by shining a light on everything that works about a story. Only after the author is confident in their strengths do we pinpoint the problem areas and apply iron-clad techniques to encourage them to catch up with the rest. We'll utilize story circles for plot problems, apply poetic techniques for description, plunge the human soul for resonant character arcs, and exterminate cliches while gently pruning resonant tropes. With patience and humility and a great deal of reinforcement, the reader will get lost not only in the author's words but in their world. I encourage attendees to submit no more than 3,000 words. If those words are *perfect,* we'll discuss where the story is headed next.
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Christian McKay Heidicker reads and writes and drinks tea. Between his demon-hunting cat and his fiddling, red-headed fiancée, he feels completely protected from evil spirits. Christian is the author of the Newbery Honor-winning Scary Stories for Young Foxes, Cure for the Common Universe and Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Poetry
Taught by Carrie Fountain
This workshop will take writers of all experience levels through a number of useful, reusable writing exercises that focus on elements of craft, such as image, specificity, metaphor, and diction. After day two, participants will leave workshop with an early draft of something they'll complete and share with the workshop on day three for a useful, structured feedback session. We'll do lots of low stakes writing together, discuss strong poems, and practice sustainable writing exercises that one can take with for everyday use. In this way, the workshop is as much about creating strong work as it is about creating a rewarding writing practice.
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Carrie Fountain is a poet and novelist, and serves as the 2019 Texas Poet Laureate. She is the author of two poetry collections, Instant Winner and Burn Lake, winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series Award, and the YA novel I’m Not Missing. Her first children’s book, The Poem Forest (Candlewick Press, 2020) tells the story of American poet W.S. Merwin and the palm forest he grew from scratch on the island of Maui. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Poetry, and The New Yorker, among many others. She is the host of KUT’s This Is Just to Say, a radio show and podcast where she has intimate conversations on the writing life with other poets and writers. Fountain is writer-in-residence at St. Edward’s University, and lives in Austin, TX.
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