Gateway to Memoir III (starting at $199)

In this 6-week workshop we will build on the foundation and skills developed during Gateway to Memoir I & II. You do not have to have participated in I & II to enroll in III, but you should have completed at least two full essays/chapters of your project for this workshop to be most beneficial to you.
Week 1 - Real-time Revisions
Week 2 - Sharpening Your Writing Voice
Week 3 - Book Proposal Basics

Weeks 4-6 will be reserved for workshopping.

Minda Honey’s essays have appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads.

Her debut memoir, THE HEARTBREAK YEARS is a hilarious and intimate portrait of a Black woman finding who she is and who she wants to be, one bad date at a time.

Free Write: What We Leave Out

Free Write: What We Leave Out. Often the most effective moment in art is in the pause, the blank space, what is left unsaid. In this free write, we’ll explore impactful ways to leave out, such as line breaks, use of white space, limited dialogue, and more. There will be a brief pre-reading ahead of time, if possible.

Rebecca writes the difficult, the heart-full, the guidebooks for survivors. Her work includes a full length poetry collection, Tangled by Blood, a collection-length poem, Safe Handling, and a forthcoming collection of flash essays. Her work offers social commentary on surviving sexual assault., combining visual art, literary craft, and empowerment coaching.

Stories with two endings: short fiction from life (starting at $79)

In her poem "Nothing twice", the poet Wislawa Szymborska says:

Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.

This is true, but not in fiction!! This workshop will help fiction writers construct a plot by asking surprising, hilarious questions about choices they made at certain times in their lives. We will reflect on how those choices caused the string of events that followed. E. M. Forster famously wrote in this book Aspects of the Novel, that, like a story, "a plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality." In fiction, we can always "take two" and keep the "bloopers" for memory. Participants will engage in a series of interactive exercises that will help craft very short, entertaining, stories about "things that could have gone a different way."

Carmen Bugan, George Orwell Prize Fellow, published her sixth collection of poems, Tristia, earlier this year. She is an award-winning author of 10 books that include memoir, essays, and criticism. Her work has been translated into several languages, gathered international praise, and has been widely anthologized. Carmen's memoir, Burying the Typewriter, was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and she has been featured on NPR, , ABC, PRI and the BBC.

Experimental Writing (starting at $45)

From formatting crime fiction as mortuary reports to including interview transcripts in memoir or using images instead of words, experimental writing can be anything. At its best, it truly is a creative experiment — not a rehashing of techniques that used-to-be avant garde but are no longer. How do you know if this ever-evolving genre is for you? And how do you write it? We'll start by talking about what experimental writing is — and isn't — then look at present-day examples from writers who are truly pushing the edge of craft. Sessions will then focus on generating new experimental prose, poetry, and what lies between, with final sessions culminating in an honest and positive workshopping of one another's art with actionable feedback for students moving forward.

Terena Elizabeth Bell's short story collection, Tell Me What You See, was named a “best book of the century” by New York Society Library. Fiction has won grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and Kentucky Center for the Arts. Her writing has appeared in more than 100 publications.

Featured Author/Open Mic with Judith Prest

Judith Prest is a poet, photographer, mixed media artist and creativity coach. She has published 37poetry books: 3 by small presses -After and Geography of Loss (Finishing Line Press, 2019, 2021) and Grafted Tree (Kelsay Books, 2023), and 4 self-published (Spirit Wind Books) – Ordinary Miracles, August 20254, Elemental Connections, 2016, Late Day Light, 2011 and Sailing on Spirit Wind, 1998.Saili.

Her poems have been published in Misfits, Rockvale Review, Mad Poet's Review, Chronogram, Akros Review, Earth's Daughters, Up the River, Fredericksburg Literature and Art Review, Upstream, Waxing and Waning, and in 17 anthologies. She is a member of IWWG, Hudson Valley Writers Guild, IEATA, Foothills Arts Council and is a Poetry Partner with the Institute for Poetic Medicine.

Essential Patterns--Poetic Forms (starting at $99)

The rondeau, villanelle, sestina, and triolet are among the fixed poetic forms whose structure is based on repetition. The poems have a lovely musical quality and the expressions that surface again and again stay with the reader. The trick is to come up with the perfect lines that form the essential pattern of the poem. In this two-part intensive workshop, we will read aloud, and even attempt to memorize example poems, as a group, from a carefully curated list. We will hear the poems "off the page" and allow the form to become part of our "inner ear." We will then participate in generative writing exercises, where we learn to listen to the important expressions and phrases that guide our own lives, and turn them into exquisite formal poems.

Carmen Bugan, George Orwell Prize Fellow, published her sixth collection of poems, Tristia, earlier this year. She is an award-winning author of 10 books that include memoir, essays, and criticism. Her work has been translated into several languages, gathered international praise, and has been widely anthologized. Carmen's memoir, Burying the Typewriter, was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and she has been featured on NPR, , ABC, PRI and the BBC.

Embodied Editing (starting at $79)

Embodied Editing pushes the revision practice beyond the norm of academics, highlighting the connection between the body and art. This approach helps surpass traditional boundaries of language, acting as an invitation to explore story and narrative in relationship to the body’s visceral response, creating a deep conversation between work and heart.

We’ll explore editing in two sessions. Please bring work that you wish to revise, along with highlighters and/or markers to the event. Dress in comfortable clothing to allow yourself to move freely as part of the revision process.

Rebecca Evans writes the heart-full guidebooks for survivors. She teaches high school teens in the Juvie system and co-hosts Radio Boise’s Writer to Writer show. She’s a disabled veteran, an avid gardener, and lives with four Newfoundlands and her sons.

Her poems and essays have appeared in Brevity, Narratively, The Rumpus, Hypertext Magazine, and more. Her books include Tangled by Blood (Moon Tide Press, 2023) and Safe Handling (Moon Tide Press, 2024).

Dream Poems (starting at $79)

How often do you remember your dreams? If you remember (or record) your dreams, how often is there a recurring symbol or motif that you’d like to explore in your writing? How do we blend “the real world” and “the dream world,” or the tangible and the surreal (or spiritual) in our poems?

We will read and discuss poems by Marwa Helal, Ada Limón, Li-Young Lee, John Skoyles, and others as inspiration for our own work. Participants will be encouraged to keep a dream journal between Sessions I and II.

Session I will include a short craft lecture, reading & discussion of exemplar poems, and free writing from prompts. Session II will consist of a brief review, continue with readings and generative exercises, and will conclude with an opportunity to share our drafts with each other.

You are welcome to sign up for one or both sessions.

Angela Siew is a multilingual poet with an MFA from Emerson College. She has received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and the City of Boston. Her chapbook, "Coming Home," was awarded a 2025 Connecticut Artist Fellowship Grant and is available from Cut Bank: https://angelasiew.com/books/

Inside the Edit: Navigating Process, Partnerships, and Publishing Routes

In the world of writing, editing is an essential step that transforms initial drafts into polished, compelling narratives. This presentation explores the critical role of editing in the publishing journey, highlighting importance in enhancing clarity, coherence, and impact. Attendees will only learn about the various types of editing, but the dynamics of the editor-writer relationship and how timelines and expectations vary depending on your chosen publishing route.

Born and raised in Northern Ireland, Debbie Anderson joined the FriesenPress publishing team in 2012 after a career in the financial services industry. As a Publishing Consultant, she has helped hundreds of authors start their publishing journey and fully realize their literary aspirations.

Free Write: Using Questions to Pressure Narrative

Free Write: Using Questions to Pressure Narrative. Description: Many writers question their art to uncover what they are trying to answer through their writing. In this free write, we’ll explore creative angles through the use of interrogation and inquiry both as an artist and within our art.

Rebecca writes the difficult, the heart-full, the guidebooks for survivors. Her work includes a full length poetry collection, Tangled by Blood, a collection-length poem, Safe Handling, and a forthcoming collection of flash essays. Her work offers social commentary on surviving sexual assault., combining visual art, literary craft, and empowerment coaching.

World Building for Any Novel (starting at $129)

A character’s world greatly impacts how that character responds to the obstacles they face and ultimately shapes who that character becomes. This mini-course will discuss the techniques necessary to create and/or strengthen works with complicated and layered worlds and timelines. This course is for any project with large worlds, whether that be science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, intergenerational novels, or a mystery novel, or if you simply want to understand how to incorporate diverse characters and perspectives. We will explore how to keep your readers engaged in such layered storylines. Considering writers such as Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Margaret Atwood, we will be inspired to write stories that immerse readers in worlds that illuminate today’s conversations. We will spend four weeks learning world-building techniques, developing the character of multiple protagonists, incorporating diverse characters and world settings, and keeping track of your world’s details/rules. The final two weeks will be spent generating materials or making plans for revisions using your new tools. Start a novel, strengthen one already begun, or even finish a short story during our exploration of world-building techniques.

Melissa Michal is of Seneca, Welsh, and English descent and is a fiction writer and essayist. Melissa has work appearing in the SFRA and other spaces. Her story collection, Living Along the Borderlines, was a finalist for the Louise Meriwether first book prize and she writes Indigenous futurism novels.