| too
WORD-for-WORDS
A monthly newsletter with news for the WWW Community, writing wisdom,
prompts, and information on upcoming events.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The passion for writing starts young
|
Often throughout the year our phone rings and the question that comes is this: do you offer creative writing programs for children or teens?
It always strikes a poignant chord in me. I remember so well being a young writer who spun my stories and essays on a cardboard crate set up like a desk at the back of a dimly lit coat closet. I wrote in school, of course, for English class. I wrote articles for the school newspaper. But the real writing I felt called to do - the pouring out of heart and soul and fantasy onto green composition notebooks, with no thought of grades, rubrics, or deadlines - I did in secret, at the back of a closet.
How touching, then, to be reminded even today, with kids' lives so crowded ......CONTINUED
Founder/Director
Westport Writers' Workshop
|
Introducing ...
Summer Creative Writing Workshops for
Ages 8-18
We are thrilled to bring Writopia Lab to the Westport Writers' Workshop Now Registering
| |
CLICK HERE
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT
SUMMER CREATIVE WRITING FOR AGES 8-18
|
News of Our Writers
| |
We are pleased to announce the debut of MOMOIRS: The Umbilical Cord Stops Here. This collaboration between one of Linda Howard Urbach's writing workshops and the Theatre Artists Workshop will be performed Mother's Day weekend, May 11 and 12, 8 p.m. and May 13, 3 p.m. Linda teaches several WWW workshops including Finishing Your Novel.
Congratulations to WWW writer Randi Olin. Her short story "The Toy Man" will be published in the fall issue of Weston Magazine. Randi is a regular participant in Jessica Bram's The Examined Life workshop.
 We are very proud to know Randye Kaye, whose memoir Ben Behind His Voices was nominated for a 2011 Listen-UP award by Publishers Weekly, and described as "one of the best of the best" in the Read by Author Category. Randye wrote the book in Jessica Bram's Memoir Writing: Telling Our Stories workshops. She will be a featured speaker at this year's NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) National Convention, being held in Seattle, WA, June 27-30.
WWW workshop leader Valerie Seiling Jacobs shared wonderful news with us. Her essay "Packing for the Ineffable," originally published on the NY Times Op-Ed page, was selected for inclusion in Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers --a well respected text put out by Bedford/St. Martin's and used in many college classes. She also recently headed a panel at the University of Iowa's "Examined Life" conference, a collaboration between writers and physicians and caregivers. Since becoming one of our workshop leaders, Val has gone on to become a teaching fellow at Columbia University where she is also working on an MFA. This summer Val will return to WWW to lead a Writing About Your Life workshop.
Keep the good news coming. If you've been published or have a success to report, please let us know.
|
"Since taking Marcelle's How to Get Published Brown Bag, I have had two pieces accepted for publication. I can't understand why everyone doesn't take this workshop!"
~Randi Olin
"GET PUBLISHED"
Brown Bag
4 Mondays 12-1:30 pm
Begins tomorrow May 7
Space still available.
 Are you ready to publish your essays, short stories, and/or poetry? Bring lunch and join us in a supportive atmosphere to discuss publishing opportunities, the submission process, and action plans to get published.
In this interactive, goal-oriented series led by Marcelle Soviero, participants will will be held accountable for submitting work to new markets on a consistent basis with the goal of publication. Participants will also obtain up-to-date information regarding new opportunities, upcoming deadlines, contests, conferences, and new online and print markets.
The series will also cover topics such as
- how to use market databases, blogs and email newsletters to find new opportunities
- how to create a submissions binder and a submissions tracker
- how to write cover letters and brief bios.
4 Mondays (bi-weekly) May 7, 14, 21, June 4
12 noon - 1:30 p.m.
$195 or $170 for WWW Members
Or anyone enrolled in a Spring or Summer WWW workshop series
"The How to Get Published Brown Bag workshop was an invaluable resource for those of us new to the publishing process... .I now have essays out to multiple publishers and a blog that's drawing hundreds of views and revenue! I wouldn't have done any of this without Marcelle and her direction.
~Kathleen Nash
For more information or to register CLICK HERE
|
|
|
May's Featured Workshop:
CRAFTING HISTORICAL FICTION
with Steven Otfinoski, MFA
Saturday, May 19
|
Historical fiction can be one of the most exciting -- and challenging -- genres in which to write.. Whether you're writing a novel that takes place in Elizabethan England or a short story about America's Wild West or the Roaring 20's, you must create a completely convincing world of another time and place. At the same time, you must people that world with real characters with whom the reader can fully identify.
In this workshop, led by author, teacher, and playwright Steven Oltfinoski, participants will learn how to produce a work of historical fiction that will appeal to a wide and enthusiastic audience.
Saturday, May 19
10am - 2pm
$125
 Steven Otfinoski holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University and has taught creative writing at the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Yale University and Stratford Continuing Ed. His short stories have appeared in various publications and his novel Throne of The Third Heaven won an honorable mention in the first Fairfield Book Prize competition in 2011. He is currently working on a historical novel about the explorer Meriwether Lewis.
|
|
| |
ARE YOU READY TO...
Write your memoir?
Finish your novel?
Earn income as a writer?
Get published?
Whatever your writing goals are, make this the summer you achieve them.
Registration for Summer Workshops begins May 21.
Summer Session: June 11-August 3
Workshops fill quickly. Register early.
Make sure to sign up for our mailing list to receive an announcement when workshops open for registration.
|
One space still available!
2012 Writers' Retreat June 20-30, 2012 Collobrieres, France
| |
Join us for a most inspiring experience - our next Writers' Retreat in the South of France.
Joined by workshop leaders Jessica Bram and Suzanne Hoover, you and 6 other writers will will enjoy 10 days of quiet, uninterrupted writing time in a supportive atmosphere, against the breathtaking landscape of Collobrieres, a small medieval village in the South of France.
 | | The terrace at the workshop |
 | | The village house where workshops will be held |
Registration is limited to 7 participants.
ONLY ONE SPACE LEFT
To register call (203)227-3250 or email info@westportwritersworkshop.com.
|
Well Said
| |
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
~Rainer Maria Rilke
|
|
Upcoming Workshops | |
STARTING THIS MONDAY: 4 Mondays (bi-weekly), May 7, 14, 21, June 4, noon to 1:30 pm "GET PUBLISHED" BROWN BAG with Marcelle Soviero. $195 ($170 for WWW members).
See what's coming Saturdays this spring:
NEW Saturday, May 19, 9 am to noon, CRAFTING HISTORICAL FICTION with Steven Otfinoski. $125. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required. Call for details.
NEW Saturday, June 2, 9 am to 1 pm, HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR eBOOK with Marcelle Soviero. $195 if paid by May 15; $225 after May 16.
NEW Saturday, June 9, 9am to 1 pm, EARN INCOME AS A FREELANCE WRITER: YES. YOU CAN! with Ellen Ullman. $155 if paid by May 15, $175 after May 15.
Saturday, July 14, 10 am to 4 pm, SCREENWRITING IMMERSION with GiGi New. $175 if registered by May 31, $195 after May 31.
For more information or to register see
individual links above or go to www.westportwritersworkshop.com or call (203)227-3250. |
|
|
|
Westport Writers' Workshop
3 Sylvan Road South
Westport, CT 06880
203-227-3250
|
|
| Please feel free to forward this newsletter WORD-for-WORDS to your friends and fellow writers. Visit our website to sign up for newsletters. You can also read past archived issues here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
