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WORKSHOPS
Three-In-A-Row Writers' Workshops
All workshops will be held via Zoom. January workshops are free to Winston-Salem Writers’ members and $25/workshop for non-members. To register for the workshop(s), email programs@wswriters.org and indicate which workshop(s) you will attend. To join or renew membership, go to www.wswriters.org/membership. Participation for each workshop is limited to the first 40 registrants.
Turning Fact into Fiction
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Workshop: 10:00am-NOON (EST)
Presented by Whitney Scharer
Historical novels based on real people or real events abound but incorporating historical events and figures into a narrative can be complicated and confusing. Writers wonder: how much research do I have to do? How can I successfully write about a place and time that feels utterly different from my own life? What are the rules for fictionalizing the life of a real person? The truth is that there’s no one right way to write fiction about the past, but there are tools and guidelines you can use to be comfortable with your choices. In this interactive talk, we’ll discuss the purpose of historical fiction, look at some examples of successful projects, discuss research techniques, and more.
Cost:
Members: Free with $36 annual membership
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to register and pay: January 13, 2022
To register, email programs@wswriters.org
To join or renew membership, go to wswriters.org/membership
Non-members can pay for this workshop below:
Whitney Scharer holds a BA in English Literature from Wesleyan University and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Her short fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications including Vogue, The Telegraph, The Tatler, and Bellevue Literary Review. Her first novel, The Age of Light, was a Boston Globe and IndieNext bestseller and named one of the best books of 2019 by Parade, Glamour Magazine, Real Simple, Refinery 29, Booklist and Yahoo. Whitney is the recipient of a 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Fellowship in Fiction. She lives with her husband and daughter in Arlington, MA, where she is at work on her second novel.
Mining Your Life Story for Memoir and Fiction
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Workshop: 10:00am-NOON (EST)
Presented by Kris Spisak
No matter who you are, you have stories to tell, and some of these stories are made to be captured on the page. Whether you’ve always wanted to write your life story but just haven’t quite known where to start, or whether you’ve been curious about how you could transform your own experiences into a fictionalized narrative, this workshop is crafted to enable you to dive in. It is designed for anyone ready to mine their memories to create something powerful, just for themselves or for greater audiences.
Cost:
Members: Free with $36 annual membership
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to register and pay: January 20, 2021
To register, email programs@wswriters.org
To join or renew membership, go to wswriters.org/membership
Non-members can pay for this workshop below:
Kris Spisak (kris-spisak.com) is the author of Get a Grip on Your Grammar (Career Press, 2017), The Novel Editing Workbook (Davro Press, 2020), The Family Story Workbook (Davro Press, 2020), and the novel The Baba Yaga Mask (Wyatt-MacKenzie, 2022). In addition to her books, her “Words You Should Know” podcast, Grammartopia® events, and Story Stop Tour programs are also designed to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Kris is an active speaker, workshop leader, and fiction editor, and she also serves on the advisory board of James River Writers.
Member $10 per Workshop
Non-Member $15 per Workshop
Find & Replace -- Editing Secrets
Word Painting: The Fine Art of Writing Descriptively
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Workshop: 10:00am-NOON (EST)
Presented by Rebecca McClanahan
Whether we write poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, we can benefit from increasing our descriptive powers. Based on her book Word Painting: The Fine Art of Writing Descriptively, this multi-genre workshop focuses on creating “word pictures” that fully engage the reader and help to shape effective literary works in all forms.
Cost:
Members: Free with $36 annual membership
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to register and pay: January 27, 2021
To register, email programs@wswriters.org
To join or renew membership, go to wswriters.org/membership
Non-members can pay for this workshop below:
Rebecca McClanahan’s eleventh book is In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, and in anthologies published by Simon & Schuster, Beacon, Norton, and Bedford/St. Martin. Her book Word Painting, which has sold more than 50,000 copies, is used as a text in numerous writing programs. Recipient of two Pushcart prizes and the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction, McClanahan teaches in the MFA programs of Rainier Writing Workshop and Queens University.
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Winston-Salem Writers Fall Workshop
Ernest Hemingway and His Enduring Influence
Presented by Professor Mark Dudley
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Workshop: 10:00 am - NOON (EST)
According to Scribner Books: "Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the twentieth century." No declarative sentence could be any truer. Unless, of course, it's a declarative sentence crafted by Ernest Hemingway. But just what is/was the so-called "Hemingway Style?” This workshop seeks to answer that question and others as we look to dispel the myths and to explore the continued relevance and influence of Ernest Hemingway, writer.
Workshop participants are encouraged to read two Hemingway short stories (“Cat in the Rain” and “Big Two-Hearted River, Part One) which you’ll receive once registered. You’ll also receive a Zoom link the day before the workshop.
Cost:
Members: Free if $36 annual membership paid by September 9
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to register: September 9, 2021
To register, email programs@wswriters.org
To join or renew membership, go to wswriters.org/membership
Non-members can pay for this workshop below:
REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP IS CLOSED
Marc Dudley is a Professor of English and Africana Studies at North Carolina State University, with specializations in 20th Century American and African American literature(s). He has spoken widely on such authors as Ernest Hemingway, Charles Chesnutt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Baldwin. He appeared as a guest expert in Hemingway, a three-part, six-hour PBS documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. His work has been featured in the Hemingway Review, in the collections Teaching Hemingway and Race (Kent State University Press, 2018) and the New Hemingway Studies (Cambridge University Press 2020) and is the author of Hemingway, Race, and Art: Bloodlines and the Color Line (Kent State University Press, 2012) and, most recently, Understanding James Baldwin (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2019).
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