Jumpstart Your Novel with Julie Christine Johnson

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Dates: Wednesdays, September 20th - October 25th
Time: 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Cost: $270
Limited to: 8 Participants (4 minimum) -- FULL
Where: Imprint Bookstore

This 6-week series will help you get started on a full-length fiction project or recharge a novel-in-progress. Through a series of in-class writing prompts and homework exercises, we will dig into what makes a compelling story – character development, scene building, point-of-view, conflict, narrative arc — and how to approach the writing process to move you from “Once upon a time” to “The End”. Whether you are mulling over a story idea, have already written several chapters, or have a first draft but don’t know what to do next, you will gain a deeper understanding of your story, your characters and their motivations, as well as learn methods to structure your plotting while still honoring the magic of inspiration and your muse. 

The in-class exercises and homework will be generative, i.e. you will come away with new material, and you will have opportunities to share your work with other writer-participants.

To jumpstart our time together, all participants must begin the class series with a story idea to work on. You will be asked to provide your story concept (100 words maximum) a week or so prior to the first session.    

Julie Christine Johnson is the award-winning author of the novels In Another Life and The Crows of Beara. Her short stories and essays have appeared in several literary journals and anthologies. With degrees in French, Psychology and International Affairs, Julie has been a study abroad program administrator, a corporate wine buyer, and once managed a slaughterhouse in New Zealand. Now the finance manager for a non-profit poetry publisher, Julie makes her home in Jefferson County with her partner, their three cats, six chickens and Labradane, Daisy. Learn more about Julie and her writing at juliechristinejohnson.com

The Ongoing Poetry Workshop with Gary Copeland Lilley

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Dates: Wednesdays, September 27th - November 15th
Time: 5:30pm to 8:00pm
Cost: $250
Limited to: 8 Participants -- 2 Seats Available
Where: Online

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 the Artistic Curator of the Port Townsend Writers Conference and a Cave Canem Fellow.

Picture Book Writing with Patrick Jennings

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Dates: Tuesdays, September 26th - October 10th​
Time: 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Cost: $150
Limited to: 4 Participants -- FULL
Where: Online
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​In this three-week workshop we will explore the singular art form that is the picture book for children. We not only will critique your manuscript, but also look at examples of the form, and discuss finding and working with illustrators, art directors, agents, and editors.

Patrick Jennings is the author of 25 books for young readers—published by Scholastic, Random House, HarperCollins, et al—including Guinea Dog, We Can't All Be Rattlesnakes, and Odd, Weird & Little. He is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award, Booklist Editor's Choice Award, Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children, New York Public Library Best Book, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award finalist and the PNW Booksellers Association Award. Patrick has been a presenter at schools and libraries in the US and abroad for over twenty years.

Reading and Writing Plath: The Poetry Workshop with Lauren Davis

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Dates: Mondays, October 2nd - 30th
Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm
Cost: $125
Limited to: 5 participants -- 2 seats available
Where: Imprint Bookstore

In this weekly workshop we will take an intimate look at the life and writing of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). Exploring her journals, letters, and poetry, we will use her work as inspiration for the creation of new poems. We will also give each other constructive feedback in a supportive environment. Celebrate and learn from the timeless writing of a treasured poet.

Lauren Davis is the author of the forthcoming short story collection The Milk of Dead Mothers (YesYes Books) and the poetry collections Home Beneath the Church (Fernwood Press) and When I Drowned (Aldrich Press), and the chapbooks Each Wild Thing’s Consent (Poetry Wolf Press), and The Missing Ones (Winter Texts). She holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She is a former Editor in Residence at The Puritan’s Town Crier, and she is the winner of the Landing Zone Magazine’s Flash Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in numerous literary publications and anthologies including Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Poet Lore, Ibbetson Street, Ninth Letter and elsewhere. She reads for the Maine Review. Davis lives with her husband and two black cats on the Olympic Peninsula in a Victorian seaport community.

Essay Consultation with Samantha Ladwig

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Dates: Essays due Monday, October 16th. Individual meetings the week of October 30th.
Time: NA
Cost: $125
Limited to: 12 participants
Where: Imprint Bookstore and Online

Looking for guidance on a complete or in-progress essay? This essay consultation offers just that. I will provide comments throughout your draft (up to 8 pages of a single essay), a letter of feedback on the overall work, and a one-on-one half hour meeting, either in person at Imprint Bookstore or online via Zoom, to discuss my notes as well as help with where and how to pitch your piece for publication.

Please note that this is not a group workshop. Essays are to be submitted by end of day on Monday, October 16th. Works need to be double spaced, in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, and with 1" margins. I will reach out to you shortly after to schedule our individual meeting, which will take place sometime during the week of October 30th.

Samantha Ladwig is a writer and the co-owner of Imprint Bookstore in Port Townsend, Washington. Her work has been published by New York magazine's The Cut and Vulture, Literary Hub, Vice, Real Simple, Bustle, Crimereads, and others. She is also a regular book reviewer for BUST magazine. Prior to owning a bookstore, she worked as a moving image cataloger at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Autofiction Intensive: A Generative Workshop with Corinne Manning

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Date: Saturday, October 21st
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm 
Cost: $150
Limited to: 12 Participants (6 minimum)
Where: Imprint Bookstore

Autofiction is more than autobiographical writing—it is an experimental form that considers the container of the story and examines the speaker. In this generative workshop, we will experiment with methods that will manipulate the lived and sensed reality of our experience, including the Japanese I-novel and biomythography. Example writers will include Dionne Brand, Yūko Tsushima, and Hervé Guibert.

Corinne Manning's debut story collection We Had No Rules (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020) has received starred reviews from Booklist and Publisher's Weekly the latter noting it "exquisitely examines queer relationships with equal parts humor, heartache, and titillation." They've received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Banff Centre, and Hub City Writers Project. Corinne's criticism has been published in many publications including The New York Times. They've been teaching in the PNW since 2011. 

The First Draft Club: Memoir with Kathryn Hunt

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Dates: Thursdays, November 2nd - 16th
Time: 2:00pm to 4:30pm 
Cost: $225
Limited to: 10 Participants -- 3 Seats Available
Where: Imprint Bookstore
 
This three-part generative workshop will teach the art and craft of memoir. Those with a manuscript underway and those wanting a boost to get going are all welcome. We’ll read excerpts from memoirs and talk about what you can mine for your own work. Each session, you’ll write from prompts to draft new work - scenes, fragments - that you can continue to write, revise, and add to your manuscript. I’ll offer feedback if you’d like. The workshop will address questions of voice, dialogue, veracity, and structure and help you identify the heart of your story—the pulse and urgency that make us want to write. I’ll send you an excerpt from A Childhood by Harry Crews to read before we meet. The workshop aims to create a safe, supportive atmosphere that fosters a community of writers 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, and the Missouri Review, among other journals. Her second collection of poems Seed Wheel was published by Lost Horse Press in 2021; she is also the author of two chapbooks, The Country I Come From (2022) and She Who Walks the Earth (2023). She’s recently completed a memoir, Unforgettable, a mother-daughter story. Kathryn Hunt has worked as a waitress, shipscaler, short-order cook, bookseller, food bank coordinator, filmmaker, and freelance writer. kathrynhunt.net