Workshops

This Microfiction Workshop is intended for people interested in writing very short stories of a few lines, or two or three paragraphs. During the workshop, we will read and analyze a selection of microfictions by various authors and periods including…

This workshop aims for participants to find in their most personal stories a mode of writing that crosses different narrative streams, freely using the resources of different literary genres to build, within literature’s generous edifice, a room the size of…

Memoirs. Travelogues. Lyric Essays. Literary Journalism. Testimonios. No matter whether you are conducting an internal excavation or an external investigation, all forms of Creative Nonfiction are welcome in this workshop. Submit a manuscript of 8-10 pages, and together, we will…

There are too many brilliant books in the world that will never find an audience because they lacked marketing, publicity, and word of mouth. In today’s publishing landscape, authors are expected to have 19 jobs. We are supposed to be…

What does it take to make your memoir sing? It’s your story, after all. But the way you tell it can make the difference between getting a book deal or not. Senior vice president and publisher of HarperCollins imprint Harper…

Let’s write from a place that allows for the biggest hoop, the largest hope! Be a Voice for the Change you wish for! What we name and write (whether for or against) is what we create in the world. The…

When writing fiction and memoir, we often turn to plot devices to hook readers. But a great story is only possible with magnetic, fully developed and dynamic characters. This is true not only for the protagonist, but the entire cast.…

Some real-life experiences unfold as they do because they happened when they happened and where they happened. Any other time and place would have led to a different story. This workshop will help students solidly root their stories both in…

You’ve surveyed your journals, typed up reams of notes, and maybe even drafted a chapter (or twelve). Now what? In this workshop, we will explore one of the most critical components of memoir writing: giving it shape. Should you begin…

So you’ve signed up for a pitch session with a literary agent… How do you make the best use of those fifteen minutes?In this workshop, a literary agent who’s been on the receiving end of many, many pitches will share…

Writing a novel is a daunting task. From writer’s block to wrong turns and painted-in corners, there are many roadblocks an author can encounter without a solid, well-planned approach. In this workshop, acclaimed author Howard Shrier shares the methods that…

First we sang; then we spoke. In all the best writing, you can still hear the music. It is the essence that enlivens a string of words, the animus that lifts a sentence off the page and lodges it in…

You have one job in the first five pages of your book: Make the reader cancel their other plans and keep reading.In this high-energy, craft-focused workshop, bestselling author Jo Piazza breaks down what it really takes to hook a reader…

A script is not literature — it’s visual architecture. We use words to build images in the director’s, producer’s, and viewer’s minds, using as few words as possible. In this workshop, participants will discover how to transform the written word…

Building a Historical Novel with Real and Fictional Characters How do you construct a historical novel capable of transporting the reader to another era while also telling an exciting, human story? This workshop offers a practical guide to exploring one…

Every powerful narrative turns on a hinge.In this hands-on craft workshop, writers will focus on identifying and shaping the Pivotal Moment — the scene where identity shifts, understanding deepens, or the direction of a life changes. Many writers know what…

Most authors approach their book launch the same way — we build a to-do list, try to do everything, run out of time and money, and sometimes wonder why it didn’t work. The problem isn’t effort. It’s the absence of…

In this immersive craft workshop, bestselling author Jo Piazza will guide writers through one of the most powerful storytelling tools we have, using setting as a main character in a book. In this workshop, Jo will show you how to…

This interactive workshop is for aspiring and professional writers of all kinds. Beyond being the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE MAID series, Nita worked as an editor in the publishing industry for over twenty years in some…

What makes for a great essayist’s voice? How do you craft and shape nonfiction through an original and exciting style? This class will look at some of the master stylists of the genre: including John McPhee, Vivian Gornick, Hanif Abdurraqib,…

Vivian Gornick in THE SITUATION AND THE STORY says, “”In memoir, what happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is what the writer makes of what happened.”” The same is true when you’re writing fiction. Readers want…

In this class, we will discuss what to expect from your publisher when marketing your book — what a publisher does and doesn’t do for an author (and how to work with your publisher effectively). We’ll also discuss and look…

WildWriting is a unique process of Writing from Passionate Center: WildWriting combines following our inner-listening, with actively accessing and adding in the luscious, sensuous stuff we know, see, feel, hear, remember, (forget!), taste and imagine. It is ultra-learnable & incredibly…

Writing a novel or any book-length manuscript is a daunting task. Without the right tools and a well-considered approach, many writers fall short of the finish line, whether because they encounter writer’s block or lack a roadmap that can lead…

“A default sans serif font walks into a bar. The bartender says, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t serve your type here.’” We want more from our characters than that they are typos. On the other hand, we do need them to…

This workshop on Literary Journalism aims to bring participants closer to disseminating content related to literature, provide context about the publishing industry, the presence of literature in the media, the preparation of reviews, criticism, interviews, and coverage of events such…

Maybe you’re a committed fiction writer, or a nonfiction writer, and poetry was just ‘never your thing.’ It seemed too intimidating, too niche, too esoteric. Or maybe you’re curious about poetry, but have no idea where or how to start.…

Every sentence makes a choice about who is centered, who is invisible, and who is stereotyped — and those choices can either build or dissolve reader trust. Misused, outdated, or careless language can quietly signal contempt or indifference, alienating exactly…

You know you have a vital story to tell — one that would not only liberate you from its vice grip, but could be cathartic for readers as well. The problem: you fear your family would never forgive you for…

Some books have become so ubiquitous in our culture – WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING or THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN – that it’s easy to forget those were debut novels by writers no one had ever heard of. What makes…

Plot is often overlooked outside genre fiction, but the truth is, no matter how internal a story may be, it needs some kind of linked cause and effect to move it forward. That motor might be a very subtle interaction…

How do you find the right voice for a character? What characterizes “voice,” one that your readers can believe and feel is as true as if that fictional character were a real person from their everyday life? How can writers…

Many powerful literary voices emerge from experiences of instability, scarcity, and social complexity. Yet transforming lived difficulty into compelling narrative requires more than confession — it demands craft, distance, and structural awareness.This workshop explores how writers can transform personal experiences…

Writing Is Entrepreneurship is a workshop designed to provide writers with practical tools that allow them to approach their craft with strategic vision and turn their creative work into a sustainable activity.Starting from the premise that writing is not only…

How do you turn the raw material of the past — in all its messiness — into compelling narrative nonfiction? In this workshop we’ll strategize how to shape memory, backstory, and research into a piece of nonfiction. How do you…

The memoirs that get published (and read) are the ones that read like novels, with a dramatic arc, clear stakes, fully fleshed-out characters, and scenes that build on each other. In this workshop, we’ll look at all the components that…

What does self-publishing “look like” in 2027? Is it still considered “vanity publishing,” or is it a viable publishing option for authors? In this workshop, CEO of the Forbes-featured publishing house, TSPA The Self Publishing Agency, Megan Williams will dive…

Anyone who’s sat down to write about the past knows it’s a little like looking at a star: look at it dead on, and it disappears, but look just a little to the left or to the right of it…

Next to action, dialogue is the best way to reveal your characters’ personalities and intentions. Once they start speaking, we find out more about them and what they want, what they need and what they are willing to do to…

“You carry those groceries into the study, Freddy, honey, because…” is part of a quote from the play NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn, and accounts a moment when in the tech run before opening night, one of the actors dares…

Cities are more than settings. They carry the memory, conflict, transformation, and emotional histories of the people who inhabit them. In powerful fiction, place is not merely a backdrop: it becomes an active narrative force.This workshop explores techniques for transforming…

Participants will learn the fundamentals of the literary essay and practice these techniques using Aldous Huxley’s three axes of essayistic writing.

What if your memoir were to adopt an unconventional shape or form? What would that form be? How would your story best be manifested on the page? What if you were to write a personal essay without formal constraints? How…

As Eudora Welty once said, “I do not think you can transfer anything, as it is spoken, onto the page and have it come out at all convincingly. It has to be absolutely rewritten on the page from the way…

Join the longtime editor of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES for an inside look at everything that goes into making a short work of fiction sing. Through discussion, examining samples of successful short stories that appeared in the series, generative…

Around the year 1000, the Japanese woman poet Izumi Shikibu wrote this five-line tanka:Yes, the windblows terribly here –but moonlight also leaksbetween the roof planksof this ruined house.(translation by Jane Hirshfield)This poem reveals, in a flood of radiant night-wisdom, a…

Having written about two disasters (in THE LONELINESS OF ANGELS and WHAT STORM, WHAT THUNDER) whose scale of impact on the environment and humans within that environment combined the effects of natural disasters with man-made consequences, this is a workshop…

What makes a female character feel real, powerful, and impossible to forget? In this 90-minute fiction workshop, bestselling author Jo Piazza explores how to craft women on the page who are as messy, ambitious, contradictory, and compelling as they are…

The Short Story and Microfiction Workshop is intended for people interested in writing very short to extremely short fiction. These stories can be one, two, or three lines long, or one or two paragraphs. In the case of microfiction, the…

Writing a memoir set in childhood takes its author you on a wild ride back into the past. It’s the closest thing to time travel most authors will ever experience. As we cast our gazes backwards to transform personal history…

In this 90-minute workshop, HarperCollins Senior Editor Maddie Pillari guides writers of all levels through how to take a memoir idea and turn it into a clear, compelling, and market-ready book proposal. We’ll break down the essential elements of a…

Supercharge your social media presence in this hands-on, 3-hour intensive. Learn proven strategies to build your author brand, engage readers, and grow your following across platforms like X, Instagram, and more. From crafting viral posts to mastering algorithms and scheduling…

This drop-down-deep Poetry Craft class is a gamechanger — the deep craft and revision wisdom in this workshop will transform your relationship to editing your poetry. I’ll share my in-depth list of “Poetry Radars” to re-see, re-hear our work, to…

If you’re trying to get agents and publishers interested in your book, nothing is more important than your first page. Swamped by submissions, with fewer staff than ever to read them, most agents and editors won’t read more than a…

There is narrative that does not forward the plot so much as deepen it — deepen our sense of what’s going on, emotionally. I want to call it the score of the narrative. Like movie music, it ebbs and flows,…

Join acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros for Writing in My Pajamas, an inspiring Literary Spotlight drawn from more than 50 years of writing, publishing, and creative practice.In this session, Cisneros shares the wisdom, habits, and hard-earned lessons that shaped her life…

This workshop will focus on ways to elevate historical nonfiction into gripping, exciting storytelling. We’ll be focused on ways to shape a story so that it grabs a reader and draws them in without sacrificing accuracy or research. We’ll look…

A good memoir typically covers a discreet period of time in your life, for example the year you spent grieving for a loved one, the five years you devoted to caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s, or the decade you…

Writing a memoir that other people want to read means understanding who your reader is and what you believe about your life would be of interest or of help to others. A ten or twenty minute writing session will be…

Perhaps you’re a staunch fiction writer, or a nonfiction writer, and poetry was ‘never your thing’ — it seemed too intimidating, too niche, too esoteric. Or maybe you’re ‘poetry curious’ but have no idea where or how to begin. This…

Have you ever thought about utilizing photographs to spark your writing? Would you like to write fiction or memoir inspired by your own image archives, or from images that populate your imaginary? For my latest novel, VILLAGE WEAVERS, family pictures…

Cities are more than settings. They carry memory, conflict, transformation, and the emotional histories of the people who inhabit them. In powerful fiction, place is not simply a backdrop — it becomes an active narrative force.This workshop explores techniques for…

Many powerful literary voices have emerged from experiences of instability, scarcity, and social complexity. However, turning past hardship into a compelling narrative requires more than confession: it demands craft, detachment, and structural awareness.This workshop explores how writers can transform personal…

Most manuscripts are not rejected due to a lack of quality, but because of a presentation that fails to showcase their true value and publishing potential. In this session, you will gain rare insights into what a literary agent actually…

Put on a mask, open your eyes wide, and get ready to explore! In this workshop, we will meet Mamina and her botany apprentice, wander through a garden filled with stories, and discover that plants also have so much to…

A workshop for both readers and writers, aimed at introducing participants to the tools for reading a short novel and the characteristics that distinguish it from the short story and the full-length novel.

This is a workshop that will explore chance and accident as resources for writing poetry. We will experiment with short forms like haiku, with visual poetry and calligrams, and play with images as well as the sonic qualities of words.

Every year we invite students from middle schools, telesecundarias, and high schools in San Miguel de Allende to take part in three days of writing workshops, a short-story writing contest, and reading activities. The best stories written by the students…

Every year we invite students from middle schools, telesecundarias, and high schools in San Miguel de Allende to take part in three days of writing workshops, a short-story writing contest, and reading activities. The best stories written by the students…

Every year we invite students from middle schools, telesecundarias, and high schools in San Miguel de Allende to take part in three days of writing workshops, a short-story writing contest, and reading activities. The best stories written by the students…