Workshops

The Ongoing Poetry Workshop with Gary Copeland Lilley

Dates: Thursdays, April 14th - June 23rd
Time: 2:30pm to 5:00pm OR 5:30pm to 8:00pm
Cost: $250
Limited to: 8 participants
Where: Online -- FULL

A weekly poetry workshop open to writers of any skill level or genre, a gathering of writers coming together in a supportive environment to work on the development and refining of our personal aesthetics. Yes, free to do your poetic thing with a focus on the crafting of poems, and on not judging poets. That is exactly the attitude this ongoing workshop has always maintained, while working the literary elements we use to create poems: gaining an understanding of poetry’s major operating modes, discovering ways to build the sharper images, enhance the poem’s musicality, and to convey those subtle meanings and significant statements uncovered in the poetic process. Each week, bring 9 copies of a poem in progress. Simply put, this workshop rocks as much as you want it to.

Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman's Medicine Show, from Lost Horse Press (2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing, from Blue Horse Press (2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. He is published in numerous anthologies and journals, including Best American Poetry 2014, Willow Springs, The Swamp, Waxwing, the Taos International Journal of Poetry, and the African American Review. He is a Cave Canem Fellow.

Writing the Personal Essay: A Generative Workshop with Peter Mountford

Dates: Wednesdays, June 8th - 29th
Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Cost: $290
Minimum 8 Participants
Where: Online -- FULL

This four week personal essay workshop will help you tell your story in a way that editors of magazines or newspapers will want to publish. Through peer review and in-class discussions of student work, you will hone and refine your idea, have a clear path for revision and an understanding of where to send the piece once it is done. A rare offering from the instructor who teaches Advanced Personal Essay at Creative Nonfiction, and whose students have gone on to publish dozens of personal essays in venues like the New York Times Magazine, Slate, the Modern Love column, and elsewhere.

Peter Mountford is the author of the novels A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism (2012 Washington State Book Award in fiction), and The Dismal Science (a NYT editor's choice). His work has appeared in Paris Review, New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Sun, Granta, and The Missouri Review. He is currently on faculty at Sierra Nevada University's MFA program, teaches at Creative Nonfiction, Hugo House, and is a writing coach and developmental editor.

Seven Tips to Rev a Stalling Story with Peter Mountford

Date: Saturday, September 10th
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm (with an hour for lunch)
Cost: $180
Limited to: 12 Participants
Where: Online

An in-depth look at each of the techniques described in Mountford's article of the same name -- out in Writer's Digest in August, 2022 -- this class will help you boost tension and excitement in your stories. Through a combination of short writing exercises and readings, you will see how to implement each of these seven concepts. Mainly of use for fiction writers, these techniques can also sometimes be reframed for those working on memoir or personal essay.

Peter Mountford is the author of the novels A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism (2012 Washington State Book Award in fiction), and The Dismal Science (a NYT editor's choice). His work has appeared in Paris Review, New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Sun, Granta, and The Missouri Review. He is currently on faculty at Sierra Nevada University's MFA program, teaches at Creative Nonfiction, Hugo House, and is a writing coach and developmental editor.

The Art and Craft of Poetry: A Generative Workshop with Kathryn Hunt

Dates: Fridays, October 7th - November 11th
Time: 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Cost: $225
Limited to: 10 Participants
Where: Online

This six-week workshop offers a chance to strengthen your writing practice and begin new poems. We’ll read and discuss poems by contemporary writers, you’ll write new drafts based on prompts, and I’ll provide feedback (if you’d like) while your workshop mates listen. We’ll explore forms like persona poems, sonnets, braided poems, and prose poems, with an eye to the art and craft of poetry, and consider revision, music and rhythm, and the act of listening deeply for what the poem under the poem is trying to say. The weekly workshop will foster a supportive atmosphere that encourages and builds a community of poets on the Olympic Peninsula and beyond.

Kathryn Hunt makes her home on the coast of the Salish Sea, on the ancestral lands of the S’Klallam, Chemakum, and Suquamish. Her poems have appeared in Orion, Radar, Terrain, Missouri Review, and Narrative, among other journals. Her second collection of poems Seed Wheel was published by Lost Horse Press in 2021 and a chapbook The Country I Come From was published by Refugia Press in 2022. She’s recently completed a memoir, The Matter of All Things. Kathryn Hunt has worked as a waitress, shipscaler, short-order cook, bookseller, food bank coordinator, filmmaker, and freelance writer. kathrynhunt.net

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

Date: Saturday, October 15th
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Cost: $125
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. She’s the host of The Write Inspiration, an encouraging and educational podcast for fiction authors. Nicole has a Master’s Degree in Writing & Instruction and is a board member of the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association.

Nicole got her start writing fantasy, but nowadays writes 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, was a 2020 Chanticleer International Book Award Somerset First Place winner, a 2021 Book Excellence Award winner, and a 2021 International Book Award winner.

In addition to her writing career, Nicole works as a horse caretaker on a large farm in the Pacific Northwest. She fills her spare time with books, nature, and coffee. Learn more at nicolejpersun.com. Discover her recent novels at jennifergoldauthor.com.

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

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

Dates: Tuesdays, November 29th - December 6th
Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Cost: $120
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

WORKSHOPS