Southampton Writers Conference

Karen E. Bender  -  Re-Visioning Your Work: Anne Lamott talks about stories evolving like Polaroid pictures, coming clear over time. I believe that revision is the key to making a story stronger. This workshop will be a revision lab, with the task of identifying both what is working and strong in a manuscript and ideas--through creating urgency, cutting, developing--to make a story stronger and more effective. (July 10-14)

Alexander Chee - Revisions and Resurrections: This fiction workshop will be focused primarily on work that you’ve abandoned and yet feel drawn back to working on, or work that has taken many years and is still unfinished. We will look at how to cast new life into seemingly dead or unresolvable novels and stories, and students will leave with a tool kit of options they can use going forward when it happens again. We will do writing prompts to investigate what might have gone wrong, or what was lost, or what is blocked, and encourage each other as we pursue answers, new pages, renewal and real endings.  (July 10-14)

Ursula Hegi  - Novel Writing:  We’ll write a novel together, generating new material in our workshop, in small groups, and in solitude. We always have an immediate audience. We’ll talk about taking risks, about possible storylines that hold conflict, and we choose one story together. We’ll develop characters who impact this story. As we write from inside their skin, we’ll explore significant memories, secrets, prejudices. Leaps of imagination—gender, age—will open up points of view. You’ll write authentic dialogue, imagined conversations, compression and expansion of time, significant details, descriptions, revision, research, and other aspects of the writing craft. As our characters see themselves through the eyes of other characters, our story deepens and changes.  (July 10-21)

Matthew Klam  - Fiction & Nonfiction:  Most writers need multiple drafts, and when the work succeeds it does so because the author is entangled, involved, a little obsessed. Creative writing, both fiction and nonfiction, uses all sorts of techniques and tools, uses the intimacy and intensity of great memoir, the confessional power of a first person essay, the disruptive surprise of humor. It uses lists, stretches of pure dialogue, and plenty of straight up reportage through experience, inheritance, and/or hard won observation. The best writing can and should come right at us, should defy our expectations. It can be structured in a classical or experimental way, or mix of approaches to fit the subject.

 We'll look at examples of the form by fiction writers and non fiction writers like Mary Karr, Adam Haslett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jon Krakauer, Mary Gaitskill and John Jeremiah Sullivan, among others. We'll examine their structure in the way a carpenter might study a beautiful house. We'll look at short stories, half page essays, longform journalism, chapters of books, comics by Allison Bechdel, sections of plays, and whatever else inspires us. How is it that some writers are able to create real character development and tension in a few lines or pages? We'll talk about that too. In this class we'll write, read and discuss, while also workshopping your pieces-in-progress in a helpful, constructive manner.   (July 17-21)

Melissa Bank   - Write Your Head Off: In this workshop, you’ll actually be writing in class, and, however impossible or scary that may sound, it will be great—hard work, but really fun. In as much as you’ll be writing about your own life, this is a memoir workshop, but we’re not going to concern ourselves with the rules or rigors of that genre.  In fact, we’re going to behave as if there aren’t any rules at all.  As such, the class should be just as useful for writers of fiction. Basically, it'll go like this: I’ll give you a prompt, a suggestion meant to spark something or get you started; you’ll write for a short time; and you’ll share your work with the class (or not).  Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to help you identify what’s unique and exciting in your work, as well as what may be getting in your way. If everything works the way it’s supposed to be, you’ll leave Southampton with a fistful of stories started, and the will and inspiration to do the writing you’re meant to do.  (July 10-14)

Matthew Klam  - Fiction & Nonfiction:  Most writers need multiple drafts, and when the work succeeds it does so because the author is entangled, involved, a little obsessed. Creative writing, both fiction and nonfiction, uses all sorts of techniques and tools, uses the intimacy and intensity of great memoir, the confessional power of a first person essay, the disruptive surprise of humor. It uses lists, stretches of pure dialogue, and plenty of straight up reportage through experience, inheritance, and/or hard won observation. The best writing can and should come right at us, should defy our expectations. It can be structured in a classical or experimental way, or mix of approaches to fit the subject.

 We'll look at examples of the form by fiction writers and non fiction writers like Mary Karr, Adam Haslett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jon Krakauer, Mary Gaitskill and John Jeremiah Sullivan, among others. We'll examine their structure in the way a carpenter might study a beautiful house. We'll look at short stories, half page essays, longform journalism, chapters of books, comics by Allison Bechdel, sections of plays, and whatever else inspires us. How is it that some writers are able to create real character development and tension in a few lines or pages? We'll talk about that too. In this class we'll write, read and discuss, while also workshopping your pieces-in-progress in a helpful, constructive manner.   (July 17-21)

Roger Rosenblatt - Memoir: Good memoirs are usually made up of five components - description, emotion, information, thought, and fantasy, or dreams. In this workshop you will write pieces from prompts engaging each of these components. And I’ll take advantage of the days between classes to ask you to write a few things without prompts, as well. In class we’ll talk about all your pieces, and how they might fit in the larger scheme of your memoir. (July 10-21)

Frederic Tuten   - Memoir:  The dullest life can be made to seem exciting. The most exciting life can be made to seem banal: it’s all in the writing. What makes a memoir interesting to anyone other than its author? A good question. Let’s find out in class.

 Above all, the memoirs I love most come from the heart. And go right to the heart of the reader.

 Over the course of our intense workshop days, I shall be giving you recommendations for reading and selections from works to be read in advance of the class.

I would like to read no more than twenty pages of work from each of you, circulated in advance to the class.

There shall be some exercises.

The most important thing is that we all bring intensity and honesty to the work and to our discussions of each other’s work.  (July 17-21) 

Jericho Brown   - Entering the Tradition:  This workshop has as its foremost feature the writing and critiquing of poems by students.  Students will make use of poetic terms and learn more about the work of major American poets as we engender in one another new ideas about writing.  As there is a profound relationship between reading poetry and writing it, we will read, discuss, and even recite the work of several poets whose example might lead us to a further honing of our craft. We will read each other’s work, giving and receiving the kind of feedback that binds any community of poets.  (July 17-21)

Billy Collins - Poetic Hydraulics: Simple as it may sound, this workshop will focus on the poem's transit from its beginning, through its middle to the end--so not to leave anything out. We will observe how a poem launches itself, how it finds reasons to continue to flow, and how it finally discovers a place to settle at the end. We will also examine a number of verbal maneuvers that can brighten a poem and even liberate it from itself, much to everyone's surprise and delight! In the right hands, of course.  (July 10-21)

Dawn Lundy Martin  -  Risk and the Art of Poetry: In this generative workshop the focus is on writing new poems that push the boundaries of what you already know about the poem, what you already believe the poem to be. Using constraints and prompts developed by me, workshop participants will write a new poem every day and bring that poem into workshop for discussion. Risk is a key factor in any compelling art form; and, as the impetus for this workshop, it is the injection that pushes us outside of our comfort zones and into new discoveries about what’s possible in our own poetry. (July 10-14)

 

(July 10-14)

Dan Yaccarino - From Inspiration to Publication: The Essentials of A Picture Book: A picture book isn’t just drawings depicting text, but images and words uniquely intertwined to create a story. This presentation teaches the fundamentals of picture books, from format, character development to basic storytelling.    (July 10-14)

Susan Tan - Writing Chapter Books and Middle Grade Novels: TBA  (July 10-14)

Donna Freitas - I Hear Voices! Making the Voice of Your Protagonist Leap from the Page:  YA novels are often very voice-y. We need to grab our readers immediately, and a strong protagonist's voice can make the immediate connection that will keep readers turning pages. From novels like the award-winning Feed by MT Anderson, The Boy Book by E. Lockhart, and Marcelo and the Real World by Francisco Stork and so many others, a strong voice not only shapes your character but it can bring the entire story--and plot--to life. In this workshop we will work on strengthening the voice of our protagonists, and seeing how that process can help to fine tune a narrative arc and our prose with it! (July 10-14)

TBA    (July 17-21)

Alan Kingsberg - TV Writing Summer Intensive: Create a pilot script for an original TV series. Learn how to build the writing portfolio that can get you an agent and a job. Working from the ground up, students begin by creating a series concept that has both a powerful emotional core and a story engine that can sustain multiple seasons. Next, students create stories for their pilot episode and then move on to writing scenes with dialogue – all in a constructive, supportive workshop atmosphere.

 The class covers both half-hour comedies and one-hour dramas and is designed to mimic a professional writers’ room. It is open to beginning and experienced writers.

 In addition, the class will watch, deconstruct and discuss a wide variety of TV shows in order to better understand how a successful episode is built. All the basics of TV writing are covered as well as strategies for breaking into the TV writing business.

Participants are expected to write and develop their stories during non-class hours so they can advance their work each day. Writers are welcome to attend solo or with a writing partner.  (July 10-21)

Melissa Bank   - Write Your Head Off:  In this workshop, you’ll actually be writing in class, and, however impossible or scary that may sound, it will be great—hard work, but really fun. In as much as you’ll be writing about your own life, this is a memoir workshop, but we’re not going to concern ourselves with the rules or rigors of that genre.  In fact, we’re going to behave as if there aren’t any rules at all.  As such, the class should be just as useful for writers of fiction. Basically, it'll go like this: I’ll give you a prompt, a suggestion meant to spark something or get you started; you’ll write for a short time; and you’ll share your work with the class (or not).  Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to help you identify what’s unique and exciting in your work, as well as what may be getting in your way. If everything works the way it’s supposed to be, you’ll leave Southampton with a fistful of stories started, and the will and inspiration to do the writing you’re meant to do.  (July 10-14)

Matthew Klam  - Fiction & Nonfiction:  Most writers need multiple drafts, and when the work succeeds it does so because the author is entangled, involved, a little obsessed. Creative writing, both fiction and nonfiction, uses all sorts of techniques and tools, uses the intimacy and intensity of great memoir, the confessional power of a first person essay, the disruptive surprise of humor. It uses lists, stretches of pure dialogue, and plenty of straight up reportage through experience, inheritance, and/or hard won observation. The best writing can and should come right at us, should defy our expectations. It can be structured in a classical or experimental way, or mix of approaches to fit the subject.

 We'll look at examples of the form by fiction writers and non fiction writers like Mary Karr, Adam Haslett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jon Krakauer, Mary Gaitskill and John Jeremiah Sullivan, among others. We'll examine their structure in the way a carpenter might study a beautiful house. We'll look at short stories, half page essays, longform journalism, chapters of books, comics by Allison Bechdel, sections of plays, and whatever else inspires us. How is it that some writers are able to create real character development and tension in a few lines or pages? We'll talk about that too. In this class we'll write, read and discuss, while also workshopping your pieces-in-progress in a helpful, constructive manner.   (July 17-21)

  Dawn Lundy Martin  -  Risk and the Art of Poetry:  In this generative workshop the focus is on writing new poems that push the boundaries of what you already know about the poem, what you already believe the poem to be. Using constraints and prompts developed by me, workshop participants will write a new poem every day and bring that poem into workshop for discussion. Risk is a key factor in any compelling art form; and, as the impetus for this workshop, it is the injection that pushes us outside of our comfort zones and into new discoveries about what’s possible in our own poetry. (July 10-14)