JULY 2023 WORKSHOPS
Riverteeth and Heartwood: Finding the Right Images for Your Personal Essay
|
INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Spears
TIME: Saturday, July 15, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, July 9. After Monday, July 9: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Every tree has its heartwood, a core of supporting wood. On its exterior, each tree reveals hardened knots, formed as the tree trunk grows and swallows small branches. These gnarls grow stronger as every new layer of trunk is added. Eventually, they are as hard as ironwood. When trees that line a river or lake begin to die, their woody mass, including the heartwood, falls away, and only these gnarls remain. Water washes and polishes the burls so that they come to resemble teeth, riverteeth. Essayist David James Duncan has suggested that our significant memories are like these riverteeth. That is, while our years and experience accumulate, what remains in our memories are “shocks” of joy or grief, empathy, honesty, terror, deep longing —years after other memories have dropped away. In this workshop, you will spend some time along the edges of your experiences to examine theriverteeth, exploring the images and remembering the sometimes unexpected particulars. Youwill have a chance to work with one or several of these moments, and examine its relationship to your heartwood—core elements of your personality and perspectives. Come join with fellow writers as we hew into new materials via the riverteeth. With new images and details in mind, you will begin organizing and drafting a personal essay that will polish those riverteeth into gems, to reflect your heartwood. |
Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash
|
Command the Room
|
INSTRUCTOR: Marlena “Zen Ase” Johns
TIME: Sunday, July 16, 3:00–6:00 p.m. PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Tuesday, July 11. After Tuesday, July 11: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Unlike many others, this workshop covers skills that can enhance both creative and professional endeavors. As writers we want to hone our skills, but we sometimes forget that open mics, book readings, interviews or even meeting with potential agents or editors at conferences can be influenced and improved by taking our copy and our presence to the next level. Through interactive activities, before and after models, role play, and engaging discussions, you will discover the key elements of commanding a room with confidence and charisma. You will learn how to engage your audience, and leave a lasting impression. Whether you are a seasoned writer/presenter or just starting out, this workshop will equip you with the tools and techniques you need to elevate your influence and power in any setting. |
Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen on Unsplash
|
Renew Your Love for Writing: Writing About Place
|
INSTRUCTOR: Kendra Preston Leonard, Ph.D.
TIME: Sunday, July 22, 9:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, July 17. After Monday, July 17: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Online via Zoom LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 Have you ever wanted to write about the stories from your hometown or another specific place you’ve been to or lived in? The history of that Art Deco building and the people who lived in it, or maybe how your city coped during World War I? Maybe you want to dig into local history to add detail to a story you’ve already begun, or want to make sure your characters are using the right kinds of slang. In this workshop, we’ll investigate tools and techniques for writing about local history, whether from a non-fiction, fiction, or poetic point of view. You’ll learn how to use free online resources to find information from newspapers, census records, and other documents, as well as small museums, local historical societies, and other places. We’ll talk about creating characters that are in keeping with their localities, including how they speak, interact with others, and participate in local customs. This workshop is open to all writers, writing about any place. |
Photo by Kevin Hernandez on Unsplash
|
Writing Faith and Doubt
|
INSTRUCTOR: Catherine Vance
TIME: Two Sundays, July 23, 30, 3:00–6:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $85 for members, $100 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Tuesday, July 18. After Tuesday, July 18: $100 for members, $115 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 To paraphrase Oprah, “What is one thing you know for sure?” And on the other hand, what keeps you up at night, wondering what to believe or what is true? We all have struggles with faith and doubt. Answers and insights can come from our religious or spiritual traditions. They can come from literature and poetry too, or from our own thoughts and intuition. Maybe that’s the hardest thing of all, to have a knowingness that originates from within. This course welcomes perspectives from all over the map. We will be writing our spiritual inquiry, our exploration, our desire to clarify just what makes up our North Star, and/or our journey toward peace with the unknown. Join us for some existential meaning-making and journaling. Participants are asked to bring a small piece of text to share (again, it can be from the Bible or the Qur’an, from a favorite novel, poem or song…maybe it’s a quote from your mom) that either serves as a compass or is burning a question in your brain. We will look at some short passages from spiritual thinkers, respond to some prompts, talk about possible projects, and hopefully connect on the path and help light the way for one another. Catherine Vance has taught for Writespace since 2019. She is a trained interfaith chaplain who is completing her ministry studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis and her first novel, The Mountains Under Her Feet, has just been released. |
Photo by Billy Pasco on Unsplash
|
Read Like a Writer
|
INSTRUCTOR: Patrick Stockwell
TIME: Saturday, July 29, 10:00 a.m – 12:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, July 24. After Monday, July 24: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 In order to write well, it is important for a writer to understand why the best examples of the form are so successful. What is it that keeps the reader connected to the characters? What makes the world of the story feel so richly inhabited? Out of what materials is this beautiful piece of writing made? How do we learn to “see” the architecture of a story so that we can learn to emulate it in our own work? In this one day class, prize-winning author Patrick Stockwell will lead a focused examination of of a chapter of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Topic TBD. Students will receive a PDF copy of the story upon registration and will need to read closely before class meets so that we can get right to our analysis. |
Photo by Ishaq Robin on Unsplash
|
Pressing into the Dark: Writing Poetry that Heals
|
INSTRUCTOR: Sarah Gajkowski-Hill
TIME: Saturday, July 29, 1:00–4:00 p.m. CST PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, July 24. After Monday, July 24: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here. LOCATION: Writespace, 1717 Michigan St, Houston, TX 77006 (map) LEVEL: All Levels CAP: 15 It is more important than ever, post-pandemic and in a sometimes bleak and tragic world, to write in order to heal ourselves – of anxieties, of illness, of pain. Only by confronting our darkest moments can we come out the other side. Sarah Gajkowski-Hill will lead a workshop that unabashedly confronts the darkness in our own lives and moves us through suffering, resulting in beautiful, honest poetry. We will look at some of history’s most unflinching dark works of literature and use the established stages of grief as a compass. Together, we will read, write, share, and triumph over darkness. Sarah is the author of The Job Poems, based on the Biblical Job. She is also anthologized in Connoisseurs of Suffering: Poetry on the Journey to Meaning. |
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash
|
READ ME:
- Registration closes 24 hours before start time or when workshop fills. No walk-ins, please.
- Please read our workshop policies before registering.
- Can't attend without a scholarship? Apply here.