The Writing Process

The End Is in the Beginning

Instructor: Alexandra Soiseth
Fridays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 29 – May 9, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550
Registration is full; we are no longer accepting registration for this class.

A great idea overtakes us — in a dream, in the shower, riding the subway, driving the kids to school. We write and write and write, but can’t seem to find our way to the ending. In this class, we will focus on overcoming the stumbling blocks to finishing a personal essay, a short story, a novel, or a memoir. In a supportive and noncompetitive environment, we will focus on concrete tasks that will pull you through to the end of the story. And once you’re there, we’ll go to the next step: revision.

Alexandra Soiseth (SLC 2000 –) (B.A., University of Saskatchewan; B.A.A., Ryerson Polytechnic University; M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) is the assistant director of the M.F.A. writing program at Sarah Lawrence and has taught creative writing at the College’s Summer Writer’s Workshop for High School Students. She is the former managing editor and communications director for Global City Review, a New York City-based literary magazine, and her work has appeared on babycenter.com and in McGill Street Magazine, The Ryersonian, and LifeRattle among others. Her memoir, Choosing You, will be published in May 2008 by Seal Press.

Nonfiction Workshops

Finding Your Voice/Creating Convincing Dialogue

Instructor: Sarah Goodyear
Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
February 27 – May 7, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 | Register Online»

Whether you’re writing memoir or fiction, establishing a compelling and convincing voice is vital. In this class, we will use a variety of writing assignments to create convincing dialogue and understand how language gives a distinctive shape to our stories. We will pay close attention to word choice and the use of idiom and slang in dialogue. We’ll also talk about how interviewing, conversation, and even eavesdropping can inform the identities a writer creates.

Sarah Goodyear (B.A., University of California at Berkeley) has worked as a journalist for nearly two decades, writing and editing for publications including the Village Voice, Time Out New York, Rolling Stone, and Ms. magazine. Her first novel, View from a Burning Bridge, was published in 2007 by Red Hen Press.

Writing Food Memoir

Instructor: Carol Durst-Wertheim
Tuesdays, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
February 26 – May 6, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550
COURSE CANCELED

Foods we share, family recipes, ritual meals, and holidays offer images ripe for description. In this class, we will explore the relationship between food and memory, and between food and story. We will use our senses to stimulate powerful prose, and we will explore a range of responses to the univeral food and eating experience.

Carol Durst-Wertheim has worked professionally in many capacities in the food industry, taught at universities and culinary schools, owned a catering business, written a cookbook, consulted on food and community action projects, and recently completed her doctorate on women working in the food industry.

Homeward Bound: Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Instructor: Steve Lewis
Wednesdays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 27 – May 7, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 |
This workshop is full; we are no longer accepting registration

The home is the wellspring for almost all meaningful narrative. In this engaging creative nonfiction workshop, novice and experienced writers alike will develop family-related narratives that are honest, present, and resonant. Whether the home is a tent, a cave, a trailer, a house, a homeless shelter, or a mansion, we will shine light on the inhabitants and their stories. We will begin by dispensing with the ridiculous Tolstoy quote from Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” All families, in their joy and their sorrow, have unique stories to tell. Find the voice to tell yours.

Steve Lewis is a mentor at Empire State College and a longtime freelance writer whose publication credits include The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Modern Maturity, and a biblically long list of parenting magazines. (He has seven kids.) His recent books are Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, The ABCs of Real Family Values, and The Complete Guide for the Anxious Groom. Fear and Loathing of Boca Raton: A Hippie’s Guide to the Second Sixties is due out this fall. A collection of poems, A Month on a Barrier Island, is scheduled for publication in January 2008.

Magazine Features: Writing from the Heart

Instructor: Sally Koslow
Tuesdays, 10:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
February 26 – May 6, 2008
11 Sessions; Tuition: $550 |
This workshop is full; we are no longer accepting registration

Whether you want to write essays, vignettes that may grow into a memoir, or human interest articles for potential publication, this course will help you polish your nonfiction. We will place special emphasis on structure, word choice, learning to self-edit, developing personal style, and benefiting from group give-and-take. Admission is by permission of the instructor and is open to talented novices as well as published writers. Please submit a writing sample (five pages suggested) to Nadeen Thomas, nthomas@sarahlawrence.edu.

Sally Koslow, the former editor-inchief of McCall’s and Lifetime magazines, has published more than 100 essays, articles, and profiles in mass market publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine; The New York Observer; More; Reader’s Digest; Health; Good Housekeeping; Ladies’ Home Journal; Fitness; Diversions; Harper’s Bazaar; Redbook; Glamour; Woman’s Day; and many others. Her first novel, Little Pink Slips, was published by Putnam in May.

The Art of the Memoir

Instructor: Joelle Sander
Fridays, 10 a.m. – noon
February 29 – May 9, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 |
This workshop is full; we are no longer accepting registration

Many people have personal experiences they would like to write about. Converting these experiences into art, however, requires honing critical skills: the conveyance of insight into one’s experience so that a piece isn’t merely anecdotal; writing effectively using fresh, clear language; learning how to organize a work; finding an appropriate narrator’s voice; developing characters and dialogue; learning to use particulars rather than generalities. Students will be asked to write weekly, to read their work out loud, and to offer constructive comments about the work of other students. Readings by other writers will also be assigned. New students and those who have not attended this class for a minimum of two years must submit a writing sample to: jsander@sarahlawrence.edu.

Joelle Sander (SLC 1989 –) (B.A., Sarah Lawrence College; M.A., New York University) is the associate director of the Center for Continuing Education and teaches in the Center’s B.A. program. Her own books include Before Their Time: Four Generations of Teenage Mothers and The Family (coedited with Joan Berg Victor), as well as numerous professional articles and chapters in the field of adolescent fathers, mothers, and adolescent pregnancy. She has written many articles for magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Parents Magazine, and Parenting.

Fiction Workshops

Introduction to Fiction Writing

Instructor: Patricia Dunn
Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
March 1 – May 10, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550
COURSE CANCELED

There are two things that most writers need and crave: time and space. In this class, we give ourselves the gift of time. In the nurturing space here at Sarah Lawrence College, we find and begin to write the stories we live every day. Using our histories, our memories, and our senses as launching pads, we will begin to transform the ordinariness of our lives into extraordinary fiction. This class is for those who want to write but don’t yet believe they have anything to say, as well as for those who want to write but need the time and space to do it.

Patricia Dunn (M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) has been contributing editor of Muslim Wakeup!, America’s most popular Muslim online magazine, with over 200,000 monthly readers, since 2003. Her fiction has appeared in Global City Review and her nonfiction work in Salon.com, Women’s eNews, The Christian Science Monitor, Village Voice, The Nation, and L.A. Weekly, among other publications. Her work is anthologized in Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, Kent State University Press, 2007.

Writing for Children and Young Adults

Instructor: Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Mondays, 10 a.m. – noon
February 25 – May 5, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 | Register Online»

In this class, we will focus on the key elements of creating stories for children and adolescents. Whether exploring the picture book, journeying into fiction or nonfiction for the older reader, or branching into young adult literature, we will pay particular attention to creating worlds through texts that evoke imagery and inspire our readers’ imaginations and emotions. The class will include discussion of the submission and publication process and is intended for anyone who has ever wanted to write and publish a book for young people.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli (B.A., Sarah Lawrence College) is the author of more than 50 books for children, including the best-selling series for emergent readers, Biscuit. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Washington Irving Award, the Garden State Award, and several American Library Association awards.

Fiction Writing

(Intermediate/Advanced Level)

Instructor: Steven Schnur
Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 28 – May 8, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 | Register Online»

Through the writing of fiction, we discover essential truths about ourselves and others. Students will begin by writing brief sketches and move toward the creation of fully realized stories, learning to enhance compelling narrative with vivid characterization. Optional weekly assignments will explore the many facets of the fiction writer’s craft. Class critiques will pay particular attention to richness of language, originality of thought, succinctness, and narrative cohesion.

Steven Schnur (B.A., Sarah Lawrence College; M.A., Graduate Center, City University of New York) has published numerous books for adults and children, including Days of Awe, Sanctuary, Father’s Day, The Koufax Dilemma, The Shadow Children (winner of the Sidney Taylor Award for outstanding juvenile fiction), and The Tie Man’s Miracle: A Chanukah Tale (which aired as a PBS animated special in 2005).

Novel Writing Workshop

Instructors: Patricia Dunn and Jimin Han
Fridays, noon – 2 p.m.
February 29 – May 9, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 | Register Online»

Are you in the middle of a first draft? Second, third, or when-will-this-beover draft? Or are you just starting to think about writing a novel? Wherever you are in the process of writing an extended piece of fiction, this is a course that will challenge and support you. Along with group feedback, you and your work will receive a great deal of one-on-one attention from the instructors.

Patricia Dunn (M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) has been contributing editor of Muslim Wakeup!, America’s most popular Muslim online magazine, with over 200,000 monthly readers, since 2003. Her fiction has appeared in Global City Review and her nonfiction work in Salon.com, Women’s eNews, The Christian Science Monitor, Village Voice, The Nation, and L.A. Weekly, among other publications. Her work is anthologized in Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, Kent State University Press, 2007.

Jimin Han (B.A., Cornell University; M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) has published nonfiction and fiction in The NuyorAsian Anthology, Global City Review, The Asian American Pacific Journal, and EssentialMom.com. She has completed her first novel, Meeda’s Gate, and is at work on her second.

Mapping Short Fiction

Instructor: LaShonda Barnett
Wednesdays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 27 – May 7, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550
COURSE CANCELED

Finding your way through the process of writing a compelling and well-crafted story while obeying the rules of brevity is a challenge. Like cartographers constantly re-examining the role of aesthetics and expression during mapmaking, students in this workshop will produce writing exercises, edit, rewrite, and receive constructive class feedback and strategies for maintaining motivation. We will emphasize fiction fundamentals such as plot, structure, character, and dialogue. On the journey, we will discuss prose styles and craft issues of the genre as we read works by authors representing Afghanistan, Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, and the U.S.A. (The length limit for pieces submitted for sharing/critique will be 3,000 words.)

LaShonda Barnett is the author of two story collections: Callaloo (New Victoria, 1999), the 2000 recipient of Standards Best of the Small Presses Award, and Broken Shoes for Walking (forthcoming). Additionally, her fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. She has received the College Language Association’s Margaret Walker Award for Short Fiction and was the 2004 recipient of the New York Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Individual Artist Grant for Short Fiction. LaShonda is a former history faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College who is interested in the creative-intellectual processes of black artists, especially musicians and writers. Her current book, I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters on Their Craft, will be published this year by Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Poetry

Advanced Poetry Workshop:
Special Focus: The Chapbook

Instructor: Elaine Sexton
Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
February 26 – May 6, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550 | Register Online»

In this course — part seminar and part workshop — we will critique a wide range of contemporary chapbooks, consider the history of the form, and review the latest publishing opportunities. Students should be prepared to begin the semester with at least 10 poems to serve as a foundation for a chapbook collection. Through writing assignments, you will learn to employ and exercise new strategies in your poems, then use those skills in critiquing the work of others in the context of developing a small collection. At least one guest author of a chapbook will be featured.

Elaine Sexton (B.A., University of New Hampshire; M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) is the author of two collections of poems: Sleuth (2003) and Causeway (forthcoming in 2008), both from New Issues (Western Michigan University). Her poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in numerous journals including American Poetry Review, ARTnews, Poetry, New Letters, and The Writer’s Chronicle (AWP). She established the Web site: chapbookfinder.com and founded the collective and chapbook series: 7 Carmine.

What Makes a Poem?

Instructor: Alexis Sullivan
Fridays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 29 – May 9, 2008
11 sessions; Tuition: $550
COURSE CANCELED

What makes a poem? How do we, as writers, use the material of our lives— memories, personal experiences, images, dreams, overheard conversations—to create poetry? In this class, we will focus on poetry as a process, from the birth of a poem as an idea to its final draft. Using revision, we will discover the heart of our material. We will begin to shape and craft that material, taking the poem and ourselves through many transformations. Through these revisions, we will find the form and voice that make the poem uniquely ours. We will read each other’s work, as well as the work of published poets, and we will finish the semester as better poets than we began.

Alexis Sullivan (B.A., Reed College; forthcoming M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College) was selected to read at the 2007 Sarah Lawrence Poetry Festival. Alexis also teaches for the Right to Write program which brings poetry workshops into prisons. Her poetry is lyrical and associative. She is particularly interested in elegy. She is currently working on her first collection of poems.