At the heart of the conference are small, intimate workshops designed for talented
writers looking to take their craft to the next level. Our workshop faculty includes
some of the best in the industry.
Each workshop is capped at 12-13 participants. You will meet with the same group every
day of the conference, fostering strong relationships and gaining deeper insights
into each other’s work.
For July 9-13, 2025, workshop sessions will consist of five morning meetings held
over five days.
Workshop Schedule:
Day 1 – 11AM-1PM (2 hours)
Day 2 – 10AM-1PM (3 hours)
Day 3 - 10AM-1PM (3 hours)
Day 4 - 10AM-1PM (3 hours)
Day 5 - 10AM-1PM (3 hours)
Of course, workshop participants also have access to all afternoon and evening programming.
This includes all lectures, readings and panels with our guests and faculty.
2025 Workshops
Matthew Klam - Moving Past Doubt - A Workshop for Creative Writers (fiction/nonfiction): Doris Lessing said, “Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always
impossible.”
The right workshop will help you start, and persevere, and reignite the spark when
you’ve lost your way. A good workshop is affirming and stimulating. For five days
we’ll gather together to write and read and discuss essays, chapters of memoirs, long
and short fiction, and whatever else inspires us. We’ll explore writing that is confessional,
disruptive, funny, intimate, and intense. We’ll spend the rest of our time carefully
reading and examining your writing in a helpful, constructive manner. Your creative
side demands time and energy to develop a story, and that creative part is somewhat
mysterious and powerful, and in our discussions we’ll debunk some of the mystery,
as we engage the part that creates, that fills the page with words, that doesn't look
back or edit or second guess.
Frederic Tuten - The Short Story: I love fiction of all kinds. I have no belief in the hierarchy of fiction. For me,
there is only good or poor writing, interesting or uninteresting work. Every writer
has, because they want to be writers, a genuine spark. The point is how to bring that
spark into a flame I will read and edit your work carefully and as constructively
as possible and try to bring to fruition the intent of your writing. I expect you
to treat your fellow-writers’ work with the same consideration. Of course, I know
that we will have lively, passionate and helpful discussions and that we will all
come out the better writers for it. So much for procedure, the rest is the unknown,
mysterious chemistry of the workshop. In particular, our workshop will concentrate
on short stories—flash or long exposure. I shall be sending you a reading list of
a variety of stories, some of which we shall consider in class. But the focus is,
finally, and always your work.
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi - Confronting taboo (novels): Confronting taboo is a fundamental aspect of powerful storytelling and an invitation
to write our bravest, most honest work; but doing so requires us to engage those parts
of ourselves and our characters that make us uneasy, restless, and fearful. In this
week long craft workshop, you will be guided through readings, exercises, and small
group discussions designed to help you navigate the discomfort that taboo elicits
when you are sitting before the page. The goal of the seminar is to expand the limits
of your thinking and your craft and to develop the courage to ask: Who am I? And,
What do I truly want to say? PDFs of readings will be provided in advance.
Matthew Klam - Moving Past Doubt - A Workshop for Creative Writers (fiction/nonfiction): Doris Lessing said, “Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always
impossible.”
The right workshop will help you start, and persevere, and reignite the spark when
you’ve lost your way. A good workshop is affirming and stimulating. For five days
we’ll gather together to write and read and discuss essays, chapters of memoirs, long
and short fiction, and whatever else inspires us. We’ll explore writing that is confessional,
disruptive, funny, intimate, and intense. We’ll spend the rest of our time carefully
reading and examining your writing in a helpful, constructive manner. Your creative
side demands time and energy to develop a story, and that creative part is somewhat
mysterious and powerful, and in our discussions we’ll debunk some of the mystery,
as we engage the part that creates, that fills the page with words, that doesn't look
back or edit or second guess.
Chloé Cooper Jones - Memoir: TBA
Billy Collins - Poetry: Our gathering will be focused largely on the poems you bring to the table for discussion.
I have found that a truly fine poem is apt to leave us speechless, so to encourage
lively discussion, it’s best to bring in poems that you find problematic, unsatisfying,
and, maybe for those reasons and others, unfinished. Poems, of course, may be approached
from many angles. One angle I am fond of involves dusting off the ancient distinction
between form and content so that we see content as the poem’s interest in the world (i.e. its subject) and form as the poem’s interest in itself. In most successful poems, a happy balance exists
between the two; in most unsatisfying poems, one (usually content) is grossly favored
over the other. My overall hope is that you will discover in our meetings ways to
make your poems more interesting and have a good time while you’re at it.
Carmen Gimenez - A Different Way to Move: Poetic Play: This workshop invites poets to write new poems through guided experimentation and
structured play. We will read poets who push traditional boundaries while remaining
accessible and resonant like Stephane Mallarmé, Douglas Kearney, Charles Simic, and
Layli Long Soldier. Using these poets as teachers, we will develop practices to energize
our craft through exercises that add strategies for generating new work. Our aim is
low-stakes exploration rather than finished product. The impulse to play is a way
into discovery. Our goal is to create an environment where risk-taking feels natural.
Kekla Magoon - Middle Grade/YA - What's Your Perspective? - The Sneaky Truth to Mastering
Voice and Character: The key to mastering voice is to fully immerse yourself in your character's viewpoint
and learn to observe the world from within their skin. Via discussion, exercises,
and interactive prompts, we will explore craft techniques for grounding your story
in the point-of-view character's perspective, thus deepening the expression of that
character on the page.
Lesléa Newman - Read it Again! The Art of Writing Picture Books: What makes a picture book so compelling that young readers want to hear the same story
again and again and again? Whether you are writing prose or verse, fiction or nonfiction,
humorous or serious, realistic or fantasy, you already have many tools at your disposal
to make your writing the best it can be. As Elsa Gidlow said, “Writers are not special
people. Every person is a special writer.” Each of us will practice drawing from our
unique memories, imagination, and observation skills to craft our own unique stories.
We will discuss aspects of writing such as character, setting, action, conflict, and
theme to further develop our skills. Each session will be a combination of discussion,
in-class writing exercises, and manuscript critiques. Writers of all levels are welcome.
Bring something to write with, something to write on, an open mind and an open heart.
