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- Please read our workshop policies before registering.
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April Workshops
Exploring Science and Magic in Fiction: The Empirical, Arcane, & Amalgum
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NSTRUCTOR: AP Hawkins
TIME: Wednesday, April 2, 6-9 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Thursday, March 27. After Thursday, March 27: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map). LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Creativity knows no bounds when it comes to science and magic in fiction. Science fiction and fantasy authors use magic and technology to build unbelievable worlds and superhuman characters, or even to make a point about society or human nature. Whether use as a set dressing or plot device, “hard” or soft”, the empirical and the arcane are generally considered to be separate and distinct. Science is not magic, and vice versa. But the growing sci-fantasy genre wields an amalgam of science and magic to great effect, its authors stretching their creativity further than ever before. After all, according to Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Join science fiction and fantasy author A.P. Hawkins for a three-hour course dedicated to celebrating the magic and technology of science fiction and fantasy. Learn about the various ways authors use magic and technology in fiction, build your TBR, and participate in class exercises that will inspire your own creativity. A.P. Hawkins is a biologist turned speculative fiction author and editor based in Houston, Texas. Her short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact and The Librarian anthology series from Air and Nothingness Press. A.P. is a co-host of Writers Lunch, a weekly online writing workshop, and a co-founder of Tomeworks, an editing collective dedicated to helping genre authors build better books. When she’s not writing or editing, A.P. enjoys gaming, crafting, and spending time outdoors. For updates on her writing and other endeavors, you can follow A.P. on social media (@ahawkwrites) or visit her website, aphawkinsauthor.com. |
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Writing from the Power of the Senses: Foodies
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INSTRUCTOR: Andreana Binder
TIME: Saturday, April 5, 9:30 am - 12:30 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, March 30. After Sunday, March 30: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map) LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Creative non-fiction centered but not exclusively so. In this workshop we will use the five senses with a theme centered around a variety of flavors to sample and write about, like citrus and cooking herbs like thyme and rosemary. The writing prompts will be food focused. Feeling stuck on an existing project? Feeling writer's block, or that you would love to write more, but you don’t know where to begin? In this workshop, we will explore writing with exercises inspired by one or more of the five senses: taste, scent, touch, sight, and sound. We’ll experiment with prompts based on fragrance, as well as visual and auditory prompts, to generate ideas for both new and ongoing projects. We’ll also explore how the senses are deeply linked with memory—for example, how scent can bring us back to a specific place, moment, or feeling—and how writing with the five senses helps us create concrete details that engage readers. Writers of all levels are welcome. All you need to bring is a willingness to enjoy your writing experience and your favorite writing tools (paper and pen or laptop). Andreana Binder is a corporate writer by trade, with a love for the arts and education. Andreana has taught courses in Composition & Rhetoric, Technical Communications, Early American Literature, as well as Creative Writing at Lone Star College and Houston Community College. Binder has a bachelor’s in Poetry from the University of Houston and a Masters in Creative Writing-Poetry from Antioch University. As a graduate student, Andreana was co-creator and editor for The Sylvan Echo Online Literary Journal. . Despite having studied poetry, Andreana cannot resist writing nonfiction essays and dabbling in short fiction. Her poetry has been published in Temenos and Fawlt Magazine, as well as creative nonfiction essays in Pebble Lake Review and N/A Lit Journal. |
Photo by Adam Bartoszewicz on Unsplash
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Heroes of Memoir
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INSTRUCTOR: Zen Ase
TIME: Saturday April 5, 9:30 am -12:30 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, March 31. After Sunday, March 31: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online Zoom LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Every good story needs a hero, and a memoir is no different! Whether you're writing about a mentor, a loved one, or even yourself, learn how to capture the heroic characteristics of a person in a realistic way with instructor Zen Ase. After attending this workshop, you'll have the craft skills you need to create compelling characters in your memoir that truly resonate with readers. Zen Ase spent her adult life married, raising twin sons, and teaching high school in the inner city. Teacher of the Year for AHS in 2011-2012 and 2017-2018, a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction and a University of Chicago Distinguished Educator, Zen changed her lifeand began a healing journey. That journey led her back to poetry, journaling, and becoming a spoken word artist. By 2020, she had performed at over 50 venues, hosted, and organized over 50 live music, comedy and poetry shows including Laughz and Lyrics. Ase became the Houston organizer for 100,000 Poets for Change, and was honored with a Congressional Award for activism. Her poetry and prose can be found in over a dozen anthologies and magazines including, “ Let’s Talk about Being Human,” “Selfhood,” “Restless,” “Five 2 One magazine”, “Caravel”, and “Switchback”. |
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Spirituality and Life Goals for Writers
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INSTRUCTOR: Nishta Mehra
TIME: Saturday, April 5, 1-4 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, March 30. After Sunday, March 30: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map). LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Writers are sewn from the same cloth as everyone else, but the ties that bind are more visible. The stitches show. Join Writespace for the workshop Spirituality and Life Goals for Writers to see how authors can use their life experience to benefit their writing--and how their writing can benefit their life goals. With concrete examples and historical context, join author Nishta Mehra for a workshop that will prove illuminating in more ways than one. Nishta Mehra was raised among a tight-knit network of Indian immigrants in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the proud graduate of St. Mary's Episcopal School and holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Rice University and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. An English teacher with over a decade of experience in middle and high school classrooms, she lives with her wife, Jill, and their child, Shiv, in Houston. She is a fan of bourbon and old-school Tex-Mex (though not necessarily together) and makes a very fine buttermilk biscuit. Mehra is the author of the exceptional memoir Brown White Black. |
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Imagery & Metaphor for Poets
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INSTRUCTOR: Melissa Huckabay
TIME: Saturday, April 5, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, March 30. After Sunday, March 30: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map) LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Relaying the world to the reader is a must for poets, and there's nothing like being stuck searching for a word to frustrate a budding poet. Fear not! We have the tools and tips to push through and come out the other side with ideas overlowing out of our mouthes. Join Melissa Huckabay on a wide-ranging journey through poetic history and all the way to the tip of your pen. Melissa McEver Huckabay is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, an adjunct college instructor, and an experienced writer in a wide range of fields.. She also has taught English Language Arts and creative writing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Melissa’s creative work has appeared in SWWIM, Thimble, Poetry South, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and elsewhere, and her short fiction has won the Spider’s Web Flash Fiction Prize from Spider Road Press. She was a 2023 Contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. |
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Building a Greater Narrative for Poetry
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INSTRUCTOR: Miranda Ramirez
TIME: Wednesday, April 9, 6-9 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Thursday, January 3. After Thursday, January 3: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Zoom LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 Poems may seem like little jewels of words, each unique and individual. So how do you build a poetry collection or chapbook when they all glitter with their own special something? Join us at this workshop to explore how to build rhythm and character to keep a reader engaged and give your poems the best context possible. With literary examples and generative time for arranging your poems, Building a Greater Narrative will give you tools to craft the best symphony your poems are capable of. Miranda Ramírez is a multidisciplinary artist and writer born in Houston, Texas. She’s the founder and director of Defunkt Press, and co-organizer of the Houston Poetry and Arts Festival. Her work has been featured in Atticus Review, Cowboy Jamboree, Puro Chicanx: Writers of the 21st Century, and St. Lucy Books’ compendium Double Feature. |
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Villains of Memoir
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INSTRUCTOR: Zen Ase
TIME: Saturday April 12, 9:30 am -12:30 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, April 6. After Sunday, April 6: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online Zoom LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 A villian has the ability to add depth, conflict, and tension to any story, even a memoir. However, when writing about negative characteristics of a real person, you need to be careful in your depiction. Learn how to face down these characters and depict them realistically and with heart with instructor Zen Ase. After this workshop, you'll have the craft skills you need to create compelling and realistic villians in your memoir. Zen Ase spent her adult life married, raising twin sons, and teaching high school in the inner city. Teacher of the Year for AHS in 2011-2012 and 2017-2018, a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction and a University of Chicago Distinguished Educator, Zen changed her lifeand began a healing journey. That journey led her back to poetry, journaling, and becoming a spoken word artist. By 2020, she had performed at over 50 venues, hosted, and organized over 50 live music, comedy and poetry shows including Laughz and Lyrics. Ase became the Houston organizer for 100,000 Poets for Change, and was honored with a Congressional Award for activism. Her poetry and prose can be found in over a dozen anthologies and magazines including, “ Let’s Talk about Being Human,” “Selfhood,” “Restless,” “Five 2 One magazine”, “Caravel”, and “Switchback”. |
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Why the Middle of Your Novel Sags
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INSTRUCTOR: Sean Morrissey Carroll
TIME: Wednesday, April 23, 6-9 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Thursday, April 17. After Thursday, April 17: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Zoom LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 When drafting a novel two things are exciting: Where you Start and Where it Ends. But what about how to get there? Join us at this workshop to explore how to perk up the center of your novel and keep readers reading! With examples from literature and proven strategies based on outlining, reverse outlining, and plot beats--as well as an in-depth look at interweaving A, B, and C plots--this workshop will put you on track to stay excited about the journey of your novel from page one to the last period. Sean Morrissey Carroll is an author in Houston, Texas, programming coordinator for Writespace Writing Center, and co-host of Writers Lunch. He’s been a bookseller, photography teacher, butcher, cartoonist, waiter, art critic, crepemaker, vintage fashion grader and sign painter. Published in Art in America, Artforum.com, Bullshit Literary, Defunkt Magazine, Houston Press, and Gulf Coast magazine, Sean’s story “Future Floods of Houston” was nominated for a PEN/Dau Award. |
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Using Primary Resources for Memoir & Non-fiction
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INSTRUCTOR: Alexandra Drake
TIME: Saturday, April 26, 9:30 am-12:30 pm CST/CDT PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, April 20. After Sunday, April 20: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map). LEVEL: All levels CAP: 15 When diving into memoir or a non-fiction project, getting the details right is essential, and primary sources are an excellent resource for doing just that. These original documents provide first-hand info about events, people, and places, and they are just what any writer needs to flesh out their non-fiction work. In this three-hour workshop, join Alexandra Drake to learn about accessing primary sources, as well as how to use them accurately and effectively to make your non-fiction work sing. Alexandra Drake is a project assistant at William J. Hill Texas Artisans & Artists Archive with the Bayou Bend Collection of MFAH Houston. She has worked as a librarian for over a decade, joining the Houston Public Library in November 2015. Drake is a native Houstonian and a wearer of many hats, both literally and professionally. She graduated from the University of Houston in 2007 with a BA in English and earned her MLS from the University of North Texas in 2012. An avid sewist and crafter, she draws inspiration from all things vintage. Usually she’s a fan of nonfiction, with the occasional crossover into feminist and historical fiction, plus some dystopian novels and horror. A former creator of scavenger hunts and purveyor of rock n’ roll memorabilia, she is delighted to add Writespace instructor to her developing list of character-building careers. |
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