June 18th, 2012

Grub Street News

Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday from the staff with unexpected goosebumps at Grub Street's World Headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this email in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Final Week to Sign Up For a Multi-Week Summer Workshop

Accomplish something great this summer. Summer term classes are starting very soon, and there are still some spots in a bunch of our classes. Don't miss out! To see the full list of summer offerings (and to search for the ideal class for you), go to http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=402.

• Fiction II: Structure Focus ***New!***
  
• Writing for Children ***New!***
• Writing the Short Screenplay ***New!***
• Novel in Progress
• Prose Studio
• Screenwriting II: 10 Weeks, 10 Scenes
• Creative Non-Fiction II
• Jumpstart Your Writing
  
• Fiction I
• How to Write a Lot
• Reading Like a Writer
• And more on our website

It's Your Book. Take it Seriously.

Are you ready for intensive, personalized feedback on your writing? Whether you're looking for one great editor to critique your entire book, have a short story you're trying to polish before you send it off to literary magazines, or need the equivalent of a personal trainer for your writing life, Grub's comprehensive consultation services might be exactly what you're looking for. Check out the full description of our affordable, customizable offerings and get started today.

Read Your Work At Grub

Do you want a chance to read your work out loud? Join the Grub Street Reading Series this Thursday, June 21st at Grub Street for a fun open mic event where you can practice the art of reading to an audience. This event is open to the public, and limited to 10 readers. Sign-up begins at 6:45pm. Readings will run from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. This is a great opportunity for any members interested in sharing their work and connecting with other writers. For more information or to join the reading series mailing list, please email sean@grubstreet.org.

What Do Pizza and Social Media Have In Common?

Question: What do pizza and social media have in common? If you answered "Grub Street," you're correct! Mark your calendars for two great events taking place in the same week in July: First, join us on Tuesday, July 17th anytime after 5pm for Dough For Writers: An All-Out Pizza Eating Extravaganza, at Flatbread Company in Davis Square. Watch as the Grub community attempts to set a world record for Most Pizza Eaten In a Single Evening (because, hey: proceeds from each pie benefit Grub Street!) We’ll be holding bowling contests and raffles all night for great prizes, including free classes and books. Parties of 10 or more can reserve tables or bowling lanes, so grab some friends and enjoy a great night for a great cause. Then, after a day to recuperate from all those pies, join us on Thursday, July 19th from 6:30 - 7:45pm at the Brattle Theater as Susan Orlean, staff writer for The New Yorker, tells you everything you need to know about social media. Immediately following her lecture, Susan will sign copies of her latest book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and introduce a screening of the classic Rin Tin Tin film, Clash of the Wolves. Must purchase film tickets at the Brattle. For more information about the film screening, please visit The Brattle’s website at brattlefilm.org. Reserve your free spot for Susan Orlean's lecture today. 

Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan, Sean and Lauren

Grub Events

In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do.

SEMINAR: Tuesday, June 19th, 6:30-9:30pm, Writing Suspense: You Know It When You Feel It
Instructor: Hallie Ephron
Sorry, this class is sold out. Please click here to be put on a waiting list.

SEMINAR: Tuesday, June 19th, 6:00pm-9:00pm Brilliant Openings: How to Hook Readers from Word One
Instructor: Steve Almond
SOLD OUT. Click here to be put on a waiting list.

OPEN MIC: Thursday, June 21st, 7:00 - 8:00pm, Grub Street Reading Series
Do you want a chance to read your work out loud? Join the new Grub Street Reading Series for an open mic event where you can practice the art of reading to an audience. This event is open to the public, and limited to 10 readers. Sign-up begins at 6:45pm. Readings will run from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. This is a great opportunity for any members interested in sharing their work and connecting with other writers. For more information or to join the reading series mailing list, please email sean@grubstreet.org.
FREE, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 23rd, 10:00am-5:00pm, The Art of Flashbacks
Have you been told that flashbacks kill a narrative? Do have a story that cries out for using them nonetheless? This seminar will help you decide which flashbacks are useful to you and which are not, how to make your reader hungry for a transition back in time and how to handle those transitions, where to position flashbacks, and how to make them the fully developed and immediate scenes that they need to be. The class will contain lecture, examples, and writing exercises. Bring your notebook with two flashbacks that you're having trouble with.
Instructor: Michelle Hoover
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 23rd, 9:30am-4:30pm, Intro to Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
Writing flash pieces (for this workshop, under 1,000 words) can be a great way to boost your creativity. This class will help you see the possibilities of this short form through a series of in-class writings—appropriate for both fiction and nonfiction writers—as well as discussion of published pieces. We'll also look at some potential markets for manuscripts of these lengths. By the end of the day, you'll have several good narrative starts and perhaps one or two more fully conceived pieces. Come prepared to write a lot and share some of your work with others for on-the-spot feedback.
Instructor: Amy Marcott
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 23rd, 10:00am-5:00pm, Jumpstart Your Writing: Creative Non-Fiction Focus
This one-day weekend version of one of our most popular courses has a very clear mission: spend the day writing. Through a series of fun directed writing exercises, we will explore the terrain of creative non-fiction (no five-paragraph essays here!) and some poetry: mining for material, constructing characters and settings, shaping vivid dialogue, understanding point of view, exploring the many forms of non-fiction today, and finding your voice. We will discuss the process of writing and the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class. We will read and discuss some short published non-fiction pieces and poems in regards to craft, then write exercises inspired by the texts. A supportive and generative experience for both new and practicing writers.
Instructor: Judah Leblang
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

LUNCHTIME WRITING: Wednesday, June 27th, 12:30-1:15pm, Brown Bag Lunch Series
Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to Grub Street for a Brown Bag Writing Workshop – a series recently profiled in the Boston Globe. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors. Best of all, you’ll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day...and beyond. No need to RSVP-- just come!
Instructor: Nadine Johnstone
Free, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 30th, 10:30am-5:30pm, Memoir: Creating Scenes
In this one-day class, we will focus on nailing down the key scenes of your story: What are they? How should each one be structured? And (most importantly) what is the best way to connect them to build a compelling narrative? Class time will include writing exercises and multiple chances to share your work. Participants will leave with fresh vision and enthusiasm for their memoir projects, along with a clear sense of how to move forward.
Instructor: Trish Ryan
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 30th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Writing Magical Realism
“When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found that he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.” So begins Franz Kafka’s famous novella, The Metamorphosis, which is yes, about a man turning into a giant insect, but is also about a alienation and familial obligation – themes that are more familiar to us. Incorporating the abnormal into your fiction can be a wonderful way to expand the rules of an imaginary world, but how do writers do this without completely jumping into the realm of fantasy? By studying the masters of magical realism – like Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino and Toni Morrison, among others – we will learn how they believably envelope the strange without sacrificing story or alienating their readers. We will then take what we’ve learned and work on exercises that stretch our imagination and help us find a way to seamlessly blend the strange with the real.
Instructor: Shuchi Saraswat
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 30th, 10:30am-5:30pm, Workshop That Pitch Letter!
A one-day intensive to workshop your pitch letters (aka query or cover letters). Your pitch letters could be for novels, nonfiction books, or articles or essays, and could be aimed at agents or editors. For approximately the first third of the seminar, we'll quickly review the basics of what every good pitch letter should include, and look at a few exemplary letters, and do a couple mock critiques. Then, we'll devote roughly the second 2/3 of the seminar to workshopping letters that you bring in. Depending on how many students are in the class, each student gets at least 20 minutes minimum of airtime where we critique your pitch letters on the spot and suggest ways to improve them. Please bring 11 copies of your pitch letter to class.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEKEND WORKHOP: Saturday, June 30th, 10:30am-5:30pm, From Poems to Book: Shaping the Poetry Manuscript
Do you have a pile of poems you’re trying to shape into a collection or chapbook? Have you ordered and reordered your poems but still failed to find your way to a structured manuscript you feel ready to submit to publishers? Come join a group of poets who are at the same stage as you as we develop strategies for envisioning and ordering your book manuscript. In this hands-on class we’ll read articles, examine published books, and engage in exercises and workshop activities that will help you begin to think of your manuscript as a whole. We’ll also discuss opportunities, from book contests to publishers, for submitting your book or chapbook.
Instructor: Rebecca Morgan Frank
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.

WEEK-LONG INTENSIVE: Monday-Thursday, 11:00am-2:00pm from July 9-12th, Playwriting Intensive
In this interactive playwriting boot camp, you will write the core material for a new play. Topics include plot, conflict, catharsis, things audiences love, basic playwriting rules and trends, professional skills, and what to do with your finished draft. Develop your own unique playwriting voice through prompts and exercises. Hear your brand new pages read aloud and receive feedback. Read excerpts from classic and contemporary plays that highlight master techniques for creating compelling structure, dialogue, action and character development. Come with an idea in mind or discover your play as you write it.
Grub students can get an exclusive discount on Final Draft screenwriting software. Please email rowan@grubstreet.org for information.
Instructor: Nina Louise Morrison
$205/$185 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, July 11th, 6:00-9:00pm, Writing Crossword Puzzles
Crossword puzzle writers always get asked the same three questions: Do you write the clues first? Do you know Will Shortz? And how much money do you get paid? Brendan Emmett Quigley, the sixth-most published constructor for The New York Times, answers these and more in a one-night seminar. Topics include: brief history, the rules of American crossword construction, how to be a better solver, and more.
Instructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, July 11th, 6:30-9:30pm, Jumpstart Your Poetry
Do you want to experiment with writing poetry? Are you looking to get back to those poems you wrote a while ago? Are you in a rut with your writing and in need of a jumpstart to find a fresh approach? Or are you a prose writer who needs to cross train by flexing some poetry muscles? Poets of all levels are welcome in this one-night workshop in which we'll experiment with various poetry games, collaborations, and exercises. You'll leave with some drafts of poems and with a toolbox of writing exercises to help you keep writing on your own. Be prepared to write, collaborate, and have fun.
Instructor: Rebecca Morgan Frank
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, July 11th, 6:30-9:30pm, Provoking Thought: Selling and Writing a Nonfiction Book of Ideas
There's a burgeoning market for books of ideas, such as science, medical, architecture, culture, technology, and political nonfiction. Fortunately, they're much easier to sell than fiction or memoirs. All you need is a great idea--and a great proposal. In this seminar, you'll learn everything you need to know to market your idea book to a publisher. You'll learn about the state of the nonfiction publishing industry, what editors are looking for, what readers are looking for, how to find the best agent for your project, and how to craft a winning proposal. We'll analyze successful and failed books of ideas published in the past few years (especially science books), giving special attention to the different styles of Malcolm Gladwell (author of Outliers) and Steven Pinker (author of Blank Slate). You'll also learn what to expect when you do sell your book--and the challenges you'll face when you must actually get the research and writing done by a deadline. We'll also discuss how ebooks are changing the industry and opening new opportunities for unpublished nonfiction authors. Please read the first few pages of chapter 1 of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and Steven Pinker's Blank Slate, both available for free on Amazon.
Instructor: Ogi Ogas
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, July 11th, 6:00-9:00pm, From Facts to Fiction
This is a primer for journalists and memoir writers who want to fictionalize their experiences. Perhaps you are a journalist with an expertise that could inform a short story; maybe your memoir would hurt too many people, and you feel you should write it as a novel; maybe you’re just sick of writing about yourself. In this one-night seminar, we'll talk about how your ability to create factual narratives can help you make up stories. We'll also talk about the ways in which your background might hold you back. How much of your real experience do you have to change? How do readers’ expectations for fiction differ from their expectations for nonfiction? What is an epiphany, and do you really need one? What is a persona narrator? Bring these questions and more to the seminar. We'll answer them together by doing exercises and discussing examples.
Instructor: Michelle Seaton
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, July 11th, 6:30-9:30pm, Creating Complex Characters
Stories often begin with a character the writer loves-- or loves to hate. But characters who come to life on the page are full of contradictions, neither wholly good nor entirely evil. How do we infuse our characters with the complexity that will make them believable? Through a combination of exercises and discussion of published work, this seminar will help you to create characters whose human contradictions make them vivid and memorable. You may come to class with a character already in mind, or you may start to create one through in-class exercises.
Instructor: Lisa Borders
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.

Be sure to check out our website for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.

Spreading the Love

Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Bonus points and undying gratitude for submitting your event info in the same format as the events below. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but cannot be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.

--SEMINAR: Monday, June 18, 7 PM, Shaping the Life that Matters: An Evening with Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris is the acclaimed author of The Cloister Walk, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks and A Writer's Life, and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, all national bestsellers and New York Times Notable Books of the Year.  A major spiritual writer of our day, Norris grounds individual faith, spirituality and experience within community and daily life. "One of the most eloquent yet earthbound spiritual writers of our time." San Francisco Chronicle. This event is organized by Northeastern University  and is The College of Social Sciences and Humanities Encountering Humanities Dean's Lecture, presented in partnership with Trinity Church in the City of Boston.  For additional events with Kathleen Norris at Northeastern University, including a Master Class workshop for non-fiction writers at all levels, please see www.northeastern.edu/humanities.
FREE, Trinity Church, Copley Square.

--READING(S): Dates listed below, 7pm, Nichole Bernier
Debut author Nichole Bernier reads from her new book, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. Nichole Bernier is a writer for magazines including Elle and Boston Magazine, and was a 14-year contributing editor with Conde Nast Traveler. She is a founder of the literary website BeyondTheMargins.com, and lives outside of Boston with her husband and five children.
June 20th, 7pm, Newtonville Books. Reading with J. Courtney Sullivan.
June 25th, 7pm, Brookline Booksmith
June 26th, 7pm, Buttonwood Books and Toys (event is at the Hingham Public Library)

--MEETUP AND OPEN MIC: Thursday, June 28th, 8pm, The Boston LGBTQ Writers' Network
The Boston LGBTQ Writers' Network will meet for a night of readings and discussion. All genres welcome! Please come share your 5-7 minute piece or join in the after-reading discussion. Check us out at http://www.facebook.com/BostonLGBTWritersNetwork.
FREE, the MALE Center, 571 Columbus Avenue Boston.

--WORKSHOP: July 8th - 14th, Late Night Comedy Writing
This class explores various approaches to creating late night and cable comedy-variety content, including monolog, running bits, sketches, and short comic vignettes of the Funny or Die type. Fluency in Yiddish not required, but encouraged. Also the ability to recognize the previous sentence as a joke. Instructor: Emmy award-winner Steve O'Donnell was the longtime Head Writer for both David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. His television work includes The Chris Rock Show, The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Dana Carvey Show, and most recently Sports Show with Norm Macdonald. His sit-com work includes stints at Seinfeld and Lateline with Al Franken. He has also written animated programs ranging from The Simpsons to the Cartoon Network's Space Ghost. He grew up in Cleveland Ohio, the ninth of ten siblings, all much funnier than he is. But then, life is famously unfair. He now lives in New York and Los Angeles.
$1050, Maine Media Workshops and College.