Join Our
Mailing List
Helping writers interact with other writers, improve their craft, and realize their goals.
WORKSHOPS
Spring into Poetry
A ZOOM link will be emailed the day before this workshop.
Saturday, May 22
Workshop: 10:00 am -- NOON (EST)
FREE
Stretching Your Legs on the Haiku Path: A Haiku Workshop for Writers
With Jennifer Hambrick
Continuing our spring writing theme, we are pleased to offer another exciting workshop. Haiku is more than 5 – 7 – 5; in fact, there are many different types of haiku. The beauty of writing haiku is learning to capture a moment, idea, or feeling in the most succinct way possible. This workshop is for poets and writers who want to learn more about the power of haiku.
Maybe you’ve kept a journal for years. Or you’ve penned countless articles as a professional journalist. Or you’ve authored short stories, novels, or books of free verse poetry. Whatever your writing background may be, it will serve you well for the unique – and uniquely satisfying – challenges of writing haiku.
Learning how to write haiku can, in turn, expand the repertoire of skills you can bring to other types of writing. In this workshop, we will learn the proper anatomy of haiku by reading and critiquing published English-language leading poets working in the genre. We’ll also bring our writerly sensibilities to bear in writing haiku of our own, in accordance with the standard of English-language haiku established by the world’s foremost haiku publications and organizations.
Deadline to register: May 19.
To register, email programs@wswriters.org
Jennifer Hambrick is a multi-Pushcart Prize nominee, an award-winning poet, cultural journalist, broadcaster, and workshop facilitator. She is the author of the poetry collections Joyride (Red Moon Press); In the High Weeds, winner of the 2020 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Prize from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies; and Unscathed (NightBallet Press). Hundreds of her articles, free verse poems, and haiku are published in journals and anthologies around the world, and her haiku and poems in related genres have received numerous awards, including from the Haiku Society of America and Tokyo’s NHK World TV, and in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational. For information, visit her website at jenniferhambrick.com.
Heading 2
Registration for this workshop is closed.
Member $10 per Workshop
Non-Member $15 per Workshop
Find & Replace -- Editing Secrets
Saturday, April 17
Workshop: 10:00 -- NOON (EST)
Find & Replace -- Editing Secrets
With Kris Spisak
Just like any other piece of the writing process, editing is a craft to be learned. So often the best of stories are held back not by the author’s creativity, but by the common typos, cliché phrasings, and writing that doesn’t hook the reader as much as it could. How can an opening go beyond what readers have seen before? How can a writer think past smiles, nods, and glances? How can a simple interaction come alive? In this workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to closely examine the subtleties of language that might be weakening their stories, brainstorm how to empower writing samples, and utilize a “cheat sheet” to bring their writing to the next level using Kris’s favorite editing technique.
Deadline to register: April 15.
Each workshop is $10 per member and $15 per nonmember.
Kris Spisak (kris-spisak.com) wrote her first book, Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused (Career Press, 2017), with a goal to help writers of all kinds sharpen their craft and empower their communications. Her “Words You Should Know” podcast and “Grammartopia” events follow the same mission, as does her second book, The Novel Editing Workbook: 105 Tricks and Tips for Revising Your Fiction Manuscript (Davro Press, 2020). Her third book, dedicated to personal storytelling, is The Family Story Workbook: 105 Prompts & Pointers for Writing Your History (Davro Press, 2020). A former college writing instructor, having taught at institutions including the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, Kris is now an active speaker, workshop leader, and fiction editor.
Spring into Spring Writers' Workshops via Zoom:
Each workshop is $10 per member and $15 per nonmember.
A ZOOM link will be emailed the day before each workshop.
Saturday, April 10
Workshop: 1:00 pm -- 3:00 pm (EST)
The Logic of Longing:
The Four Conflicting Forces Motivating Your Character
With David Corbett
David Corbett will present The Logic of Longing: The Four Conflicting Forces Motivating Your Character. He will lead participants on an exploration of the four conflicting motivational forces at the heart of every character - lack, yearning, resistance and desire. Corbett is the author of six novels and contributing editor of Writer's Digest magazine.
Deadline to register: April 8.
Please note that this is an afternoon workshop.
David Corbett (davidcorbett.com) is the author of six novels including The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday. He’s a contributing editor of Writer's Digest magazine and regular contributor to the writers’ blog Writer Unboxed. His writing guide, The Art of Character, has been deemed “a writer’s bible.” His novels have been nominated for Anthony and Barry awards, the Macavity Award, the Edgar® Award, and selected for the 2010 Spinetingler Award. He teaches and gives seminars and workshops at conferences throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Registration for this workshop is closed.
MEMBERSHIP
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
General Information Request Form: