Spring 2012 Courses

Spring 2012 Writing Institute Courses

Fiction
- 11-Week Courses
- Short-Session Workshop
- Intensive
Nonfiction
- 11-Week Courses
Performance Arts
- 11-Week Courses
- Intensive
Word and Image
- 11-Week Courses
The Writing Process
- 11-Week Courses
- Intensive
Writing for Today's Market
- 11-Week Courses
- Short-Session Workshops
- Intensive
The Writing Institute Classes in New York City
Held in the New York Botanical Garden Midtown Education Center, located just two blocks from Grand Central Terminal

Fiction: 11-Week Courses

Novel Writing Workshop

Instructors: Patricia Dunn and Jimin Han
Thursdays, 12 – 2 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Are you in the middle of a first draft? Second, third, or when-will-this-be-over 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 (MFA, Sarah Lawrence College) was managing editor of America's most popular Muslim online magazine Muslim Wakeup!, with over 200,000 monthly readers, from 2003-2008. Her fiction has appeared in Global City Review, Salon.com, Women's eNews, The Christian Science Monitor, The 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. She blogs on the writing life at shewritesbutwhy.blogspot.com. Her essay "Love at Third Sight" will appear in the anthology "Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women," published by Soft Skull Press on Valentine's Day 2012. Her novel, Rebels by Accident, is currently under submission.

Jimin Han (BA, Cornell University; MFA, Sarah Lawrence College). Her nonfiction and fiction can be found in The Nuyorasian Anthology, Global City Review, The Asian American Pacific Journal, on NPR, KoreanAmericanStory.org, and EssentialMom.com, among others.

Advanced Novel Workshop

Instructors: Patricia Dunn and Jimin Han
Fridays, 10 a.m. – noon
February 17 – April 27
11 Sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

For those who are revising a completed manuscript or close to completing a first draft. Students should be familiar with the craft of the novel and be prepared to read and discuss their work and the work of their classmates in terms of language, story, dialogue, theme, character development, dramatic arc, plot, structure, setting, and other craft issues that are essential for a successful novel. This course will give you the opportunity to prepare your novel for the marketplace.
If you would like to be considered for this workshop, please submit a writing sample of your manuscript (up to 20 pp) by e-mail to cce@sarahlawrence.edu.

The Fiction Writer's Essential Selves

Instructor: Steven Schnur
Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

We write in white heat, easy fluency, or with paralytic torpor, then reconsider our efforts and revise, rewrite, or begin anew, and finally bring the hard-won wisdom gleaned from this solitary struggle to the workshop table, allowing it to inform our response to the work of others. Each of the fiction writer's essential selves—inventor, refiner, assessor—is critical to the ultimate success of the enterprise. By engendering a sense of audience and offering supportive, constructive criticism that focuses on richness of language, originality of thought, succinctness, and narrative cohesion, this workshop fosters each of the fiction writer's vital personae, enabling participants to quickly identify their strengths while providing the tools necessary to address their weaknesses. Through weekly presentations of work in progress, students hone both their writing skills and their critical faculties as they respond to each other's stories.

Steven Schnur (BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, 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).

Works-In-Progress: Writing and Revising the Young Adult Novel

Instructor: Wendy Townsend
Mondays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 13 – April 23
11 Sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

This workshop is for writers who have a young adult or middle-grade novel in progress. Writers will generate three to 10 pages of new work every week and will receive supportive feedback from the group during in-class discussions of their stories. Reading each other's work in advance of our classes and giving the work our careful attention will enable us to go deeper. Since we will be working with works-in-progress, we will not focus on the copy-editing of final manuscripts, but will focus instead on core issues such as character development (Do we care if the protagonist succeeds?), structure (Where does the story really begin? Where is the thread broken?), and tension (push the conflict, amp the yearning—make us turn the page).

As nuts-and-bolts elements of craft emerge in our discussion, like strengthening imagery (lose the adverbs, "show, don't tell") and quickening the pace (replace exposition and description with dialogue and action), readings or brief exercises may be suggested. Our workshop goals are to keep you moving forward in your novel and to help you learn techniques for revising what you've already written.

Wendy Townsend (BS, Empire State College; MFA, Vermont College) has taught workshops for children's writing at Empire State College for the last six years. In 2008, she published her first young adult novel, Lizard Love, which received a Booklist Starred Review. She also co-authored and illustrated Iguanas: A Guide to Their Biology and Captive Care in 1993. Her second novel, The Sundown Rule, released in March of 2011, has received a Bulletin starred review and has been named one of the Kirkus top-10 children's book of the year. Her third novel, Blue Iguana, has been accepted for publication. She is also a regular contributor to Reptiles magazine.

Fiction: Short-Session Workshop

NEW! Writing for Children: From Where We Dream

Instructor: Wendy Townsend
Mondays, 2 – 4 p.m.
March 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23
5 sessions; Tuition: $285
Register online»

Joan Didion said, “The picture in your mind tells you what’s going on in the story … it tells you, you don’t tell it.”

Of stories, some say they’ve already been written; that is, they live inside us and we only need to write them down. In this course on writing for children, we’re going to practice writing what we see in our mind’s eye and also what we feel about it. Some writers call this writing “in the zone”; others say they are writing “with the muse.” Robert Olen Butler calls it writing “from where you dream.”

The writing prompts we will have at the beginning of each class are set up so that you can write either from your own memories or from the point of view of your story’s character. They’re a great way to get you up and running with the beginnings of a story, or with a new scene, or to revise one that’s not working. Writers will read their work aloud and receive group feedback. Rather than criticize, we will support and elicit each writer’s vision through an ongoing discussion about elements of craft, including creating tension, going from general to specific by shaping scenes, making our characters more authentic, and making our readers want to read the whole story.

Whether you want to tell a story but aren’t sure where to begin, or you already have a story written—whether it’s a picture book or young adult novel—our goal is for each writer to see his or her story more clearly and to generate a satisfying work-in-progress.

Fiction: Intensive

Introduction to Fiction Intensive

Instructors: Patricia Dunn and Jimin Han
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4
2 sessions; Tuition: $225
Register online»

There are two things 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.

Nonfiction: 11-Week Courses

NEW! Nonfiction from the Heart

Instructor: Sally Koslow
Fridays, 2 – 4 p.m.
February 17 – April 27
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

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 work. There will be special emphasis on structure, word choice, learning to self-edit, developing personal style, and how to benefit from group give-and-take. The instructor will also guide students toward how to publish. Admission is by permission of the instructor and is open to talented novices, as well as published writers. Please submit a writing sample to cce@sarahlawrence.edu with “Nonfiction from the Heart” in the subject line.

Sally Koslow, former editor-in-chief of McCall’s and Lifetime magazines, is the author of three novels: Little Pink Slips; The Late, Lamented Molly Marx; and With Friends Like These. In June, she will publish Slouching Toward Adulthood: Observations from the Not-So-Empty Nest, her first nonfiction book. Sally’s fiction has been translated into a dozen languages, and her articles and essays appear frequently in venues including More; Real Simple; O, The Oprah Magazine; Ladies’ Home Journal; Good Housekeeping; Reader’s Digest; WowoWow.com; and The Huffington Post. She has previously taught at the Writing Institute of Sarah Lawrence College and is an independent writing coach. At www.sallykoslow.com, you will find samples of her work. She invites you to follow her on Twitter @sallykoslow.

The Art of the Memoir

Instructor: Joelle Sander
Mondays, 10 a.m. – noon
February 13 – April 23
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

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; and learning to use particulars rather than generalities. Students will be asked to write every other week, 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.

Students interested in taking this class must get prior approval from the instructor before registering. New students and those who have not attended this class for a minimum of two years must submit a writing sample to: joelle.sander@gm.slc.edu.

Joelle Sander (BA, Sarah Lawrence College; MA, New York University) was the associate director of the Center for Continuing Education for 20 years. She taught for many years in the Center’s BA program. Her own books include Before Their Time: Four Generations of Teenage Mothers, which won the Janus Korchak Award for best adult book about children (1991 and 1992) and The Family (co-written with Joan Berg Victor), as well as numerous professional articles and chapters in the field of adolescent fathers and mothers, and adolescent pregnancy. She has written many articles for magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Parents Magazine, and Parenting.

Getting Personal: Workshop for Personal Essayists

Instructor: Steven Schnur
Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 15 – April 25
11 Sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

If there is a broader canvas than the personal essay, it is life itself in all its infinite particularity. Fiction writers may be constrained by little more than their imaginations, but their creativity must hew to the conventions of storytelling; that is to plot and character. The personal essayist enjoys a freer hand. The constraints are fewer, the subjects limitless, the form as elastic as one’s focus. Every instance of human consciousness possesses the potential heft to sustain an essay; all that is required is voice (that subtle song of the self) and an instinct for the dramatic. But danger lurks in a “too personal” presentation, one that lacks a sense of audience or sufficient animating energy. In this workshop students will present brief weekly essays impelled by whatever fragment of emotion, thought, or observation captures their imagination, seeking in the process to convey richly, succinctly, and dramatically what it means to be human.

NEW! From Life to Art: A Memoir Workshop

Instructor: Alexandra Soiseth
Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

The exclusive concern of this class will be how best to tell the stories from your life. Through the study and practice of craft—character development, dialogue, setting, pacing, theme, language, and structure—you will transform your lived experiences into art. This is the heart of memoir. In a supportive and non-competitive environment you will work on existing projects and/or begin new ones with the intention of finding the right path to and through your stories.

Alexandra Soiseth (SLC 2000 –) (BA, University of Saskatchewan; BAA, Ryerson University; MFA, Sarah Lawrence College) is the associate director of the MFA writing program at Sarah Lawrence. She has taught writing to a variety of students, including high school students, seniors, and men and women in prison. She is the recipient of a Canada Arts Council grant and an Ontario Arts Council grant, and is the former managing editor of and communications director for Global City Review, a New York City-based literary magazine. Her work has appeared on babycenter.com, literarymama.com, and in McGill Street Magazine, The Ryersonian, and on the radio program LifeRattle, among others. Her memoir, Choosing You, was published in 2008 by Seal Press.

Performance Arts: 11-Week Courses

NEW! Playwriting

Instructor: Matthew Davis
Thursdays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Playwriting is an exciting class for participants with no prior experience and also for those with experience. If you’ve ever daydreamed or imagined “what if,” you already have a great start! Playwriting techniques will be taught through discussions and in-class exercises, with suggested play readings as the course progresses. The course will range from how to develop the idea of a play to how to execute rewrites of a draft. Works-in-progress will be read aloud in class and developed, as plays are not really plays until they are spoken. By the end of class everyone will have a solid grasp of many playwriting techniques and be on the journey of writing a play.

Matthew Ethan Davis holds a BFA and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and an MA in Deaf Education from Hunter College. Davis is currently the writer-in-residence for Ticket 2 Eternity Productions, a new company that was formed to support his work, producing 18 of his one-acts last year and a full-length this year as the company’s first main-stage production. He has also had productions all over the city for many years and has experience with every level “from page to stage.” He is an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College, teaching “Introduction to Playwriting” and “Script Analysis” for the past seven years.

An Introduction to Screenwriting

Instructor: Rona Mark
Wednesdays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 15 – April 25
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Learn the basics of writing for the screen in this introductory workshop. Through targeted writing exercises and group feedback sessions, students will learn the basics of screenplay structure, format, and style. The workshop will also focus on developing character, dialogue, and visual writing. In addition to their exercises, students will develop and write the first act (or 30 pages) of their own feature-length screenplay and can repeat the course until the script is finished. All genres and experience levels welcome.

Rona Mark’s (BA, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; MFA, Columbia University) thesis film, Finbar Lebowitz, which she wrote and directed, was a recipient of the HBO Producers’ Development award and the Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Comedy. Finbar was also a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards in 2001 and played on Cinemax, HBO, the IFC Channel, and the Sundance Channel. Her first feature film, Strange Girls, won “Best of Fest” at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008 and was released on DVD in July 2011. Her second feature, The Crab, is on the festival circuit, having already screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival, International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Stockholm International Film Festival, Little Rock Film Festival and Seattle True Independent Film Festival. She is currently in production on her third feature, Objects Attack, and teaches screenwriting and film production at Sarah Lawrence College.

NEW! Speaking the Self: Writing for Solo Performance

Instructor: Pamela Sneed
Mondays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 13 – April 23
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

This course is designed for novice to experienced writers and anyone who has an interest in mining personal experiences for the stage. In this class, we will learn how to take the personal story and shape it into a monologue for the stage. We will examine the many different forms of the personal monologue; autobiographical narrative; character-driven, topical, reality-based docu-monologues; and the poetic series. In addition, we will explore staging, trends such as direct action, ritual, audience participation, and possible uses of new media. Emphasis will be placed on students finding their individual styles and voices with the goal of creating fully realized solo shows. Looking at form, structure, and content, we will survey and study the field of solo performance from John Leguizamo to Anna Deaveare Smith, Spalding Gray, Guillermo Gomez Pena, and Lisa Kron, learning how one can take the personal journey and shape it into an important theatrical event.

Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet and actress. She has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Out, Bomb, VIBE, and on the cover of New York Magazine. She is author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, published by Henry Holt in April 1998, and KONG and Other Works, published by Vintage Entity Press in 2009. Sneed has performed original works for sold-out houses at Lincoln Center; P.S. 122; Ex-Teresa in Mexico City; the ICA in London; the CCA in Glasgow, Scotland; the Green Room in Manchester, England; and BAM Cafe. She has headlined the New Work Now Festival at Joe’s Pub/Public Theater. Sneed is a guest artist at Sarah Lawrence for the 2011-12 year, teaching “Writing for Solo Performance.” She is an adjunct associate professor of speech, communication, and theater at Long Island University, and a visiting professor in the Core Seminar department. Her work is included in The 100 Best African American Poems, edited by Nikki Giovanni.

Performance Arts: Intensive

NEW! Page to Stage: Performance Poetry Workshop

Instructor: Pamela Sneed
Friday, 4 – 7 p.m. and
Saturday, 1 – 5 p.m.
March 9 and 10
2 sessions; Tuition: $175
Register online»

In this two-day intensive designed for burgeoning and established poets, we will create and explore poetry for the stage, working with memory, history, and current events. Students will learn to create poetry from the physical as well as the intellectual body. We will explore and experiment with poetic forms such as the list and narrative poems, and will also survey some contemporary spoken-word masters. The workshop will culminate in finished works for the stage.

Word and Image: 11-Week Courses

NEW! Micro-Ekphrasis: A Picture is Worth 250 Words (And Often Less)

Instructor: Steve Lewis
Thursdays, 2 – 4 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Ekphrastic works are writings that typically inhabit, confront, reveal, and/or speak to paintings, photographs, or statues. In this unique workshop, novice and experienced writers alike will work toward the creation of short “subtextual” narratives, built on the confluence of image and suggestion that can—and will—blossom into literary experiences much larger than the art itself. This represents a rare opportunity for writers to focus intensively on the bones of artful writing. There will be lots of in-class exercises, take-home triggers, and rich ongoing conversations about the way less can be more. And more.

Steve Lewis is a mentor at Empire State College and a longtime freelance writer whose publication credits include The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Christian Science Monitor, and a biblically long list of parenting magazines. His more recent books are Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, The ABCs of Real Family Values, The Complete Guide for the Anxious Groom, Fear and Loathing in Boca Raton: A Hippies’ Guide to the Second Sixties, and a collection of poems, A Month on a Barrier Island. A microfiction collaboration with photographer Norman Seider is due out in the spring 2012.

NEW! Introduction to Text and Image: Make It New Poetry Workshop

Instructor: Elaine Sexton
Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
February 14 – April 24
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Nothing is safe from poetry! In this workshop, we will take a close look at some of the sources that have inspired great poetry and the texts that have inspired great works of art. Each week we’ll mine both fields (art and poetry) for inspiration. You will be asked to examine the work pioneered by such innovators as Anne Carson, Joe Brainard, and John Ashbery in poetry and Glenn Ligon, Jenny Holzer, Louise Bourgeois, and numerous other artists whose work includes words. You will be encouraged to experiment with new source material and, in doing so, physically, graphically, and conceptually recast your ideas for poems in new ways, just as these artists and writers have done with found text, photographs, cartoons, slave narratives, fictional characters, and “truisms.” We will test established conventions and attempt to shape new ones. Weekly handouts and assignments will offer a framework to jump-start new poems and encourage experimentation. The workshop will include presentations, instruction, and roundtable critiques.

“The artist is always beginning,” Ezra Pound once wrote. “Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.” Without question, students in this class will discover something they didn’t know they knew and invent something they didn’t know they could. This class will occasionally be team-taught with a visual artist who will join the conversation, introduce the basics of visual literacy, and offer feedback on student works-in-progress. For those interested and able to take part in a field trip, there will be a curated visit to a gallery or book arts center in the city.

Elaine Sexton (BA, University of New Hampshire; MFA, Sarah Lawrence College) is the author of two books of poetry, Sleuth (2003) and Causeway (2008), both with New Issues (Western Michigan University). Her poems, reviews, essays, and text/image pieces have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Art in America, Poetry, O, The Oprah Magazine, Poetry Daily, Pleiades, and the Women’s Review of Books. She serves as curator and board member of Q Avenue Press.

The Writing Process: 11-Week Courses

NEW! Writing About Families

Instructor: Marek Fuchs
Mondays, 4 – 6 p.m.
February 13 – April 23
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

There is nothing trickier than writing a narrative—fiction or nonfiction—about a family. That’s because the story of a family (any family) has no natural story line. It’s circular. People come, go, are born and die. How do you superimpose a narrative structure on a family story so that you have more than a collection of aunts, uncles, and words? Too many writers see attempts at writing family stories snap off or fizzle, but that need not happen. This course looks at how to write family stories that move and sing.

Marek Fuchs (BA, Drew University) is currently a guest professor of nonfiction at Sarah Lawrence College and a guest lecturer of journalism at Manhattan College. He wrote the “County Lines” column for The New York Times for six years and is a daily contributor to TheStreet.com, with his articles and videos syndicated on Yahoo! Finance. Fuchs published A Cold-Blooded Business in 2009, a book called “riveting” by Kirkus Reviews. He cofounded Better Business Through Writing, a business editing firm, and was serving as the editor-in-chief of Fertilmind.net, a financial Web site, when the site won two consecutive “Best of the Web” awards from Forbes Magazine. Fuchs has also won multiple awards, including the Silver Award in 2007 from the League of American Communications Professionals, and was named the best journalism critic in the nation by Talking Biz Web site. When not writing or teaching, Fuchs serves as a firefighter in Hastings, New York.

NEW! Profiles

Instructor: Marek Fuchs
Fridays, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
February 17 – April 27
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
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Capturing the essence of a person (in either fiction or nonfiction) is easier said than done. How do the details of a person’s life add up to the larger truth of who they are? Or aren’t? There are no cookbook formulas, but this class will concentrate on proven methods, prime examples, and trapdoors best avoided. We’ll cover topics ranging from profile subject selection to interviews (good for nonfiction and fiction alike) to mining mannerisms and speech for defining physical and psychological details, as well as weaving every last bit of it into a finished profile.

Writing from the Chaos of Our Lives

Instructor: Alexandra Soiseth
Fridays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 17 – April 27
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Vivian Gornick calls the life you have lived The Situation, but for her, it’s The Story that counts. The Story is what we, as writers, make out of the chaos of our lives. The Story is how we interpret our experiences and make sense of it all. In a supportive and non-competitive environment, we will explore YOUR story. We will help you find a way to tease it out from your day-to-day life—in essence, help you learn to see the world as a writer. We will then help you tell that story by exploring the craft of writing, through exercises, both in class and at home, as well as through a close reading of your work and published memoirs, personal essays, and short fiction.

NEW! Narrative Writing: Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Instructor: Marian Thurm
Thursdays, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
February 16 – April 26
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

This workshop is designed for students who have begun work on a short story or piece of creative nonfiction. All narrative—fiction or nonfiction— shares central elements: plot, characters, and point of view, along with narrative drive, which propels the story forward. And all narrative presents similar challenges for writers as they begin to construct their story, as they work toward completion, and as they revise. This course will invite students to work on one or more genres of their choice as they address these concerns common to all writing. We will focus on ways to bring your characters to life, narrative flow, setting, and methods of revision. As is fitting for a workshop, most of the class time will be devoted to the analysis and critiquing of student manuscripts. There will also be in-class and take-home writing prompts intended to stimulate the imagination and give students the opportunity to work on various elements essential to effective storytelling.

Marian Thurm (BA, Vassar College; MA, Creative Writing, Brown University) is the author of three short-story collections and six novels. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Redbook, Ms., Michigan Quarterly Review, Boston Review, and many other magazines, and have been included in Best American Short Stories and numerous other anthologies. She has taught creative writing at Barnard, Columbia, and Yale.

The Writing Process: Intensive

NEW! Write Now!

Instructor: Alexandra Soiseth
Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. – noon
April 14, 21, 28
3 sessions; Tuition: $200
Register online»

This short course is for those of you who have put off your own creative work long enough. Maybe you’ve thought for awhile that you wanted to write but couldn’t imagine having the time, or the space, to take the stories in your head and put them on paper. Or maybe you wrote a little in college but haven’t tried it again since. There are any number of roads that could lead you to this class. But once you arrive, you will spend your time writing and reading and exploring the craft of storytelling. At the end of these three sessions, you will have begun the amazing and exhilarating work of committing your stories to paper.

Writing for Today's Market: 11-Week Courses

NEW! Writing for Digital Media: Strategies for Developing Your Online Presence

Instructor: Tessa Smith McGovern
Thursdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
March 1 – May 17
No Class April 19
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

The options for writers today can be overwhelming. In this class we will explore how writers can navigate the digital media maze, focus on their strengths, and build their platform in a way that meets their goals. We’ll consider blogs versus Web sites, learn how each writer can make the best use of social media, and develop and execute our own long-term Facebook and Twitter strategies.

To get the words flowing, we’ll read classic stories that still work in today’s digital world, and do some writing exercises of our own.

There are no prerequisites for this class, but writers should have some knowledge of, and be willing to explore, social media sites such as Facebook. Please come ready to produce new writing, and offer and receive productive critiques.

Tessa Smith McGovern is a short-story writer whose many publication credits include the Connecticut Review and the English Arts Council at the Southbank Centre, London. She is founder and editor of eChook Digital Publishing, which publishes short-story collections on multiple platforms: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Nook, and Kindle, as well as original Web-based stories at echook.com. The stories, memoirs, fiction, and essays have been read by thousands of readers in 100 countries. eChook has over 11 million impressions on Facebook and 1,000+ Twitter followers.

NEW! Writing to the Market: How to Create Nonfiction That Sells

Instructor: Yona Zeldis McDonough
Wednesdays, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
February 15 – April 25
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Publishers of books, magazines, and e-zines know the score: nonfiction still sells. In this course, we explore the various types of nonfiction that are being published in today’s competitive marketplace: feature story, interview/Q & A, review/criticism, travel/regional writing, niche writing, memoir, and personal essay. Students will be asked to read assigned examples of each and, by analyzing what we have read, gain insight into how these pieces work and why they are successful. Written assignments will be keyed to the particular topic, and completed work will be read aloud and critiqued in class. There will also be classes in style, voice, revision, and the business of being a writer; the latter will cover such topics as breaking in, finding new markets, writing a pitch letter, and obtaining clips.

Yona Zeldis McDonough (BA, Vassar College; MA, Art History, Columbia University) is the author of three novels and the editor of two essay collections. Her articles and essays have appeared in Bride’s; Cosmopolitan; Harper’s Bazaar; Metropolitan Home; O, The Oprah Magazine; Redbook; Modern Bride; Salon; Lilith; Stella; The Village Voice; The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine. She has taught nonfiction at New York University and the Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

Writing for Today's Market: Short-Session Workshops

NEW! How to Get Published in Today’s Market

Instructor: Cynthia Manson
Tuesdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 28 and March 6, 13, 20, 27
5 sessions; Tuition: $285
Register online»

So you’ve written the Great American Novel, workshopped it, revised it, poured your heart and soul into it, and you feel it’s ready to send out into the world. Now what do you do? Time to find an agent and get it published, that’s what!

This class is intended to help serious writers navigate the world of publishing in today’s dynamic, changing marketplace. We will discuss how to find the right agent for your work, how to successfully submit it, whether commercial or literary, and how to write effective pitch letters and queries with an emphasis on the all-important “hook.” We will examine the different publishing options available in a shifting business environment: traditional legacy publishing, small presses, packagers, self-publishing, and the emergent possibilities of e-book publishing. Also, what do you do when you get a deal? There will be information on contracts, negotiations, the production process, marketing, promotion, and distribution.

As part of this course, we will read and critique each other’s query letters that include “the pitch” and the respective synopses that accompany the cover letter. At the end of the course, the instructor invites participants to submit the first chapter of their work to her.

Cynthia Manson is a well-known and respected literary agent with a small, successful list of published authors. She graduated from Scripps College for Women with a BA in English Literature and Fine Arts. She also attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course where she was inspired by Sterling Lord and his associates. Two years later she joined the Sterling Lord Literary Agency. Mason has worked in both magazine and book publishing including Putnam, Bertelsmann and Scientific American. Currently she is launching an e-book line for Advertising Age Magazine as well as representing authors in a variety of genres.

NEW! Writing for Digital Media: An Introduction

Instructor: Tessa Smith McGovern
Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
February 29 – March 28
5 sessions; Tuition: $285
Register online»

In this class we’ll explore the multiple platform options for writers today, both paid and free, from iPhones to tablets to Web-based writing, and the differences between long-form and short-form writing. Short creative writing, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and essay have developed into distinct forms with their own specific demands. People are reading anywhere and everywhere, and distractions are rife. How can writers produce work that captures readers’ attention from the first sentence and holds it till the last?

To get the words flowing, we’ll read classic stories that still work in today’s digital world, and do some writing exercises of our own. We’ll consider best practices on Facebook and Twitter, and how each writer can make the best use of social media.

There are no prerequisites for this class, but writers should come ready to embrace new ideas, produce new writing, and offer and receive productive critiques.

Writing for Today's Market: Intensive

NEW! Writing for Digital Media: Twitter Intensive

Instructor: Tessa Smith McGovern
Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
February 18
One Session; Tuition: $75
Register online»

Margaret Atwood, Stephen Fry, Bill Simmons, and Oprah Winfrey are all doing it. There are 50 million people on Twitter, and many of them are writing and publishing folk. Writers send out sample chapters, get writing tips, and find agents and publishers, all on this new, haiku-like platform.

This single, three-hour workshop is designed for writers who’d like to start tweeting. By the end of it, you will have opened an account, written your profile designed to attract followers, followed other relevant tweeters, linked your account to your Facebook page (if you have one), learned how to compose tweets and grow your platform, and sent your first tweet.

The Writing Institute Classes in New York City

We are pleased to offer several courses in New York City this Spring! Classes are held in the New York Botanical Garden Midtown Education Center, located just two blocks from Grand Central Terminal at 20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) on the third floor of the historic building that is home to The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, founded in 1785.

Narrative Writing: Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Instructor: Marian Thurm
Mondays, 6 – 8 p.m.
February 13 – April 23
11 sessions; Tuition: $575
Register online»

Nature Writing

Instructor: William Logan
Thursdays, 5 – 7 p.m.
April 5 – May 24
8 sessions; Tuition: $420
Register online» (Registration for this course is being handled directly by the New York Botanical Garden)

This new course is co-sponsored by the Writing Institute and New York Botanical Garden.

In this workshop-based course, students will be encouraged to further explore their relationship with nature. Through selected readings, weekly writing exercises and discussions, students will craft their own stories, poems and essays about or inspired by the natural world. The course will explore the many ways nature can serve as a rich inspiration for both novice and experienced writers. No prior writing or botanical experience required.

William Logan earned his BA from Columbia University and his MA from Stanford University. Logan is the current president and founder of Urban Arborists, Inc., and his publication credits include The Tool Book, Oak: The Frame of Civilization, and Air: The Restless Shaper of the World (forthcoming), among others. Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth served as the basis for Dirt! The Movie, which appeared at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was featured on PBS’s “Independent Lens.” Logan also teaches courses in arboriculture for the School of Professional Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and urban tree care to incoming foresters for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.