Blah, Blah, Blah: When Dialogue Falls Flat (And How to Fix It!) with Nicole Persun

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​Date: Saturday, October 15th
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Cost: $95
Limited to 12 Participants
Where: Online
 
Dialogue isn’t just about propelling the plot or allowing your character to voice her thoughts—it’s about power struggles, emotions, backstory, and more. Good dialogue is nuanced, multi-layered, and intentional. It grips the reader’s attention and subtly conveys the unspoken inner lives of our characters. In this class, you will learn how to take your dialogue to the next level. If you’ve been struggling to make your characters sound different from one another, want to add layered tension and unspoken intrigue to your dialogue, or simply want to write conversations that flow smoothly and pack a punch, this class is for you.

Nicole J. Persun is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author with a master's degree in Creative Writing & Instruction. Nicole has written and published in multiple genres, most notably book club fiction under the pen name Jennifer Gold. The Ingredients of Us was a 2020 Book Excellence Award Winner and a two-time finalist for the 2020 International Book Award. Her latest release, Keep Me Afloat, received five award recognitions, including a 2020 CIBA Somerset First Place honor. Learn more at nicolejpersun.com and jennifergoldauthor.com. ​

Demystifying Book Contracts with Conner Bouchard-Roberts (Winter Texts) and Christina Vega (Blue Cactus Press)

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Date: Saturday, October 22nd
Time: 11:00am to 3:00pm
Cost: $100
Limited to: 15 participants
​Where: Online

Conner and Christina will lead participants through the ins and outs of book publishing contracts. Topics we will pay particularly close attention to include understanding publishing rights, royalties, advances, and free and discounted author copies, negotiating expanded participation in editorial and design components of the book-making process, understanding how and why authors and publishers can advocate for their needs, and embedding equitable and reasonable checkpoints for contractual and relationship reevaluation into contracts.

Christina Vega (they/them) is a Queer Chicana poet from New Mexico. They're the publisher at Blue Cactus Press, a hybrid publishing house making books by Queer and BIPOC authors. Christina is also a board member at Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. They have been teaching creative writing, book making, and publishing workshops in the Pacific Northwest for the last five years. Christina self-published their debut poetry collection, Still Clutching Maps, in 2017. Their poetry has appeared in Creative Colloquy, Frontera Vol. 3: estados silvestres // natural states, International Poetry Review, Papeachu Issue 3, Timberline Review, WA129+, and Milk Gallery. Christina’s journalism has appeared in City Arts, Grit City Magazine, Hilltop Action Journal, OLY ARTS, The Ranger, VOICE Magazine and Weekly Volcano. Follow Christina on Twitter @bluecactuspress and Instagram @ccthemighty.

Conner Bouchard-Roberts is a Pacific Northwestern author, bartender, gardener, and publisher from Qatáy/Port Townsend, WA. Winter texts is his publishing practice, and the Green Room is his bookshop and bar. He has worked with writers of all types as an editor, collaborator, designer, and publisher. @winter_texts

Personas and Point of View in Creative Nonfiction with Anne Liu Kellor

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Dates: Tuesdays, November 29th and December 6th
Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Cost: $120
Limited to 16 Participants (minimum of 8)
Where: Online

All of us have many layers, roles, or parts of ourselves we can inhabit. Whether we are with family, with friends, in public, in private, at home or traveling, our identity is malleable and shifting. In this generative workshop, we will explore writing from our different personas from a range of points of view—including 3rd person, 2nd, 1st person, past and present tense— experimenting with how point of view allows us to access a multitude of voices. Which part of you needs permission to come alive on the page? Together we will free-write, share, and listen in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.

Anne Liu Kellor is a mixed-race Chinese American writer, editor, and teacher based in Seattle. Her memoir, Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging, was praised by Cheryl Strayed as "insightful, riveting, and beautifully written" and was a 2021 Foreword Indie Book of the Year Finalist and Independent Publisher’s Book Award Winner in multicultural nonfiction. Anne's essays have appeared in publications such as YES! Magazine, Longreads, Fourth Genre, Witness, The Normal School, and New England Review. She is the recipient of fellowships from Hedgebrook, The Seventh Wave, Jack Straw Writers Program, 4Culture, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. Anne facilitates a seasonal generative writing workshop series, as well as a yearlong creative nonfiction program for women and nonbinary writers seeking mentorship and community. www.anneliukellor.com

Sorrow's Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief with Sheila Bender

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Date: Saturday, January 7th
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
Cost: $150
Limited to 10 Participants (minimum of 5)
Where: Online

Using writing exercises with models from published work, we will explore not only writing from grief (coming at the truth slant as Emily Dickinson advises) but many joyful memories in hiding during grief. Many of the exercises are based on my book Sorrow's Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief and my new collection Since Then: Poems and Short Prose through which I learned patterns for writing the conversation one most wants to have while in grief and after the rawness has healed over. Participants will be encouraged to share the writing they do in class for response (not critiquing) aimed at helping the writer write more.

Sheila Bender has written many instructional books on writing, several volumes of poetry, and a prose memoir. Writing is her passion but her passion for facilitating others is as large. Since the death of her 25-year-old son in 2000, Sheila has written the words she has needed to come to terms with loss and the life she wants to live with love and joy. These writings culminated in her memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, Sorrow's Words: Writing Exercises to Heal Grief, as well as her newest poetry collection, Since Then: Poems and Short Prose. You may already know the way she values writing and those who write from her long-running KPTZ FM program "In Conversation: Discussions on Writing and the Writing Life."

​Payment and Refund Policy:

• Full payment may be made with credit card, cash, or check.
• Full payment must be made at the time of sign-up to hold your place.
  • We do offer payment plans and need-based scholarships. Email us at hello@imprintbookstore.com for more information on how to apply.
• Imprint Bookstore and The Writers' Workshoppe will offer a refund only if the workshop you're signed up for is full and we can find a replacement for your spot. This policy is necessary in order to pay and attract quality instructors.