WORKSHOP TICKETS ARE $30 EACH (tax and USPS shipping included).
All workshops start at 7PM and take place at 826 Seattle.
Click HERE for additional information.

Back by popular demand!

Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE LIKE I USED TO (AKA, The Personal Connection)
with Stewart Stern

SOLD OUT! Thank you!

Two workshops for the price of one!

Tuesday, Part 1: View the film GOING THROUGH SPLAT: THE LIFE AND WORK OF STEWART STERN, a documentary screened only once before in Seattle at SIFF. The film is directed by Jon Ward and features Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Dennis Hopper, and many other film luminaries. Q & A will follow, perhaps a warm-up exercise or two, and some words about the session the following night.

Wednesday, Part 2: Doing timed writing sessions, Stewart leads students through a personal hero's journey model of their own lives, to illustrate that who we are and what we write are intimately connected, and should be. Because many of these will be written from three points of view (the Writer, the Protagonist, the Antagonist), at least a rough idea of who these characters are and the main thrust and emotion of your story must have been arrived at prior to class. If there is time, the workshop will end with a guided meditation designed to deepen the visual and emotional connection between writer and her/his character. Bring pens and notebooks and comfortable clothes. Those with carpal tunnel condition or arthritis of the hands may bring laptops.

Tuesday, August 4 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR NOVEL WHILE COOKING CURRY
with Bharti Kirchner

How do you begin a novel? Do you think it out? Or, do you pull inspiration out of air as you cook a meal or go about your day? Why is the first page so important, after all? In this class, we'll answer these questions. We'll also look at examples from published novels. Using prompts and free-writing, allowing our mind to travel where it wants to, we'll compose a (hopefully, unbelievably good) first page of our own. Bring your favorite first sentence or first paragraph from a novel and be prepared to share with the class.

Tuesday, September 8 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS THAT WORK
with Nancy Pearl

Nancy will discuss what the function of a book review, how to construct a book review, how not to write a book review, what you can learn from a book review, and how a reader approaches a book review. We'll each write one or more book reviews in class and then critique them.

October (specific date to be determined) - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE LIKE YOU’VE BEEN BITTEN (BY WHAT?)
A HALLOWEEN WORKSHOP
with Elizabeth Kostova

In this session, we'll explore ways of conveying the eerie or gothic in serious fiction.  In other words, we'll experiment with what creeps us out as readers and writers - without the use of gore or cheap tricks.  Bring your sense of history, your sense of the unexplainable, your gift for description, and one little anecdote about something you find eerie yourself (for me it's that dark space a book leaves behind when you pull it off the shelf. . .). 

Tuesday, November 10 - 7PM
HOW TO WRITE LIKE YOUR FAVORITE WRITER
with David Schmader

There's a Buddhist proverb that gets at the heart of emulation: "Don't repeat what I did, seek what I sought." In this one-night class, David Schmader helps writers learn how to draw influence from the writers they love without the risk of becoming rip-off artists.