Please note: This is a partial list of our panel descriptions. This page will be edited regularly and more will be added.

 

Almost Incognito: Writing Through the Mask in Persona Poems
We usually associate character study with fiction or nonfiction, but persona poetry is also driven by the lives of characters—real or imagined. As with all writing, what fuels these poems is the author’s interest. Characters are chosen because they connect to the poet’s concerns. If I’m writing a poem in the voice of Sojourner Truth or Popeye or Mr. Rogers, I’m working with their words as I sense them, as I imagine myself being them. In this lab, we will examine persona poems and explore how a convincing persona is created. Is the poet directing the character’s voice or inhabiting the character—or both?

Autism and Creative Writing: An Inside Perspective
Whether you are on the autism spectrum yourself, have someone on the spectrum in your life, or simply hoping to learn more, this workshop is designed to spark thinking and dialogue into how autism and creative writing can overlap. The autistic mind can work very differently than the neurotypical mind in areas such as social skills, special interests, sensory perception, literal thinking, and more.

Building a World on a Small Plot
Short stories must be economical, but they must also exhibit granularity. That may sound paradoxical, but the writer needs to find a way to harmonize the two.

Characters don’t exist in a vacuum. They emerge from and exist in specific places, and they bear the cultural imprint of those places. A story's action, likewise, occurs in a specific setting, one that inevitably affects the trajectory of the plot.

In this workshop we’ll look at how the strategic deployment of detail is an efficient way to convey both the place and the characters’ relationship to it.

We will pay particular attention to the challenges of the short story, but whether you are working on a story, novel, or memoir, dealing with real or fictional places, this workshop will help you envision that world's multiple facets, understand their influence on characters and story, and vividly convey them to your reader.

 

Creating Characters with Attitude for Film & TV
What makes a movie or TV character intriguing, compelling, and someone we really want to root for— even if their goals are abhorrent? Using film clips, script excerpts and free writing exercises, we will explore the ways that screenwriters craft behavior and attitude to create the most memorable screen characters.

The Creative Nonfiction Pendulum: Striking a Universal Chord
The best memoirs balance the deeply personal with the universally resonant. Find your story's universal subject and use research, perspective, and specific details to swing between you and the world. What does your memoir really mean? Connect it to something larger.

Criminal Investigations for Authors: A Practical Guide to Law Enforcement Operations
This course is designed to give writers an authentic understanding of how real investigations unfold from the first officer stepping onto a crime scene to the final arguments presented in court. Whether you write crime fiction, thrillers, true crime, or investigative journalism, this course equips you with the operational knowledge needed to portray law enforcement work with accuracy, nuance, and narrative power.

Writers will explore the full investigative lifecycle: securing and processing a crime scene, collecting and interpreting evidence, interviewing witnesses and suspects, coordinating with forensic specialists, building investigative timelines, and preparing a case for prosecution. You’ll learn how detectives think, how decisions are made under pressure, and how investigative missteps or breakthroughs shape the story.

 

The Importance of the First 10 Pages of Your Screenplay
The first 10 pages of a film or TV script are the most important part of any script you’re trying to sell because the readers who evaluate your work— before it will ever be shown to an agent, manager or producer— will NOT read page 11 if the first 10 don’t knock it out of the park! Using film clips, script excerpts and free writing exercises, we will explore all the elements necessary to craft a thrilling, memorable, and above all, cinematic story opener.

Lessons from the Slush Pile
From 20+ years of reading short fiction that comes over the transom, I can talk about the pitfalls that bedevil many authors. This discussion should give the participants tools for self-editing before submitting.

The Mindful Journal: An Expressive Arts Experience for Healing, Reflection, and Renewal
Reconnect with your inner wisdom through a gentle blend of creative writing, low skill art activities, music and sound exploration, and mindfulness based stress reduction techniques. No artistic experience needed—just an open heart and a willingness to explore. This session combines the grounding practices of mindfulness with the liberating nature of the expressive arts.

Poetry of Place: Mapping the Paths to Where We Are
This course will guide writers through exercises designed to explore the marks the locations in our lives leave on us and those we leave on the places we’ve been. Students will be introduced to concepts such as the accident of birth and environmental psychology and engage in a discourse that seeks to find the difference between what it means to be somewhere and to be from somewhere.

Poetry Prompt Roulette: You'll Never Know What Prompt You'll Get
A "write now" style workshop where students will spin a wheel of over 100 different poetry prompts and begin drafting right then. Don't like the prompt you got? Spin again! Once participants are able to generate a draft, they can share their poem and receive cold-reading-style feedback. The focus is on producing what you can in the time allotted, and just being open to the creative direction the wheel of prompts sends you toward.

Tap Dancing on Thin Ice: Creating & Sustaining Dramatic Tension in Poetry
We want to write poems that electrify an audience. Whether they are quietly reading our work or listening to us, we want to create an experience that deeply satisfies all attention paid to our poetry, but how do we do it? Surely, surprise, clarity, and a sharp sense of craft are at the center of this concern, but what exactly do these things mean? In this lab, we will examine poems by established authors and discuss the dramatic elements that make their work memorable.

Write Now
We’ll write, in our short time together, to prompts, both visual and verbal, and we’ll share our writing (if we like) with our session-mates (if we choose) for some positive feedback.

What Goes Into A Nonfiction Proposal
There are lots of different guides online as to what goes into a Nonfiction Proposal. In this session, you'll get firsthand advice from an agent working in the nonfiction space to give you the details you need on what the heck a proposal even is, what sections you need to make sure to include, and which pieces are essential for capturing an agent's attention.