Classes and Workshops

Take a moment to browse through NHWP's fall offerings. To save yourself time during the checkout process, be sure to jot down the classes you would like to take before registering online. Remember to pick either the nonmember rate or the NHWP member rate. Not a member? Join now and enjoy a 25% discount!

All classes take place at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.

Straight Up Workshop for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Creative Nonfiction with Kathy Boss Six weeks, Saturdays, September 11 through October 23, 2010 (skips Sept 18) (ACC 110) 10 a.m. to Noon Thinking Like a Poetry Editor: How to Be Your Own Best Critic with April Ossmann Saturday, September 11, 2010 (Robert Frost 321) 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your “How-To” or Business Book with Linda Chestney Six weeks, Wednesdays, September 15 through October 20, 2010 (Hospitality 202) 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Literary Flash: Writing with Nerve and Verve with Carla Gericke Saturday, September 25 , 2010 (ACC 212) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sharing Our Toys: An Interactive Generative Workshop with Rick Agran Saturday, October 2, 2010 (Robert Frost 320) 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Social Media for Authors with John Herman Saturday, November 6 , 2010 (Robert Frost 331) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book and Get It Published with Mary Carroll Moore Saturday and Sunday, November 6 & 7, 2010 (Robert Frost 320) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Robots and Dragons and Zombies, Oh My! with James Patrick Kelly Saturday, November 13, 2010 (Robert Frost 320) 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Straight Up Workshop for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Creative Nonfiction with Kathy Boss

Six weeks, Saturdays, September 11 through October 23, 2011 (skipping the week of September 18) (ACC 110)

10 a.m. to Noon

Cost: $201 NHWP members, $268 nonmembers

Looking for a chance to get feedback on your work? Want the stimulation and support of other writers? Ready to dig deep and give your writing the boost it needs? Want to get the support and feedback you need to finally get that piece you’ve been working on out the door and into the hands of an editor or agent? Then this workshop is right for you. We will highlight your strengths as a writer, encourage the expansion of what is working in your writing, and help you brainstorm solutions for possible problem areas. Come to the first class with ten to eleven pages of your writing and be prepared to help everyone improve. Class limited to eight. All levels welcome.

Kathy Boss is the former executive director of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. A published children’s book author, Boss earned her master’s degree in literature from University of New Hampshire. She has served as an artist in residence, acted in several plays, worked as a writing tutor and mentor, and continues to stay engaged in the vibrant cultural life of New Hampshire.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Thinking Like a Poetry Editor: How to Be Your Own Best Critic with April Ossmann

Saturday, September 11, 2010 (Robert Frost 321)

9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $101 NHWP members, $135 nonmembers

Learn how to think like a poetry editor! During the “Ossmann Method” poetry workshop, we’ll turn the usual workshop model on its head by allowing the poet being critiqued to speak before group discussion begins: the poet will critique his or her own poem and discuss correlations between these criticisms and those he or she has for other participants’ poems. This will offer a taste of what it means to be both poet and poetry editor, a position in which it becomes easier to objectively assess your own work: to spot dull versus energetic syntax, generic versus original imagery, and other strengths and weaknesses you may have overlooked. This approach also empowers the poet in the process and engenders an unusually positive and congenial workshop atmosphere. Participants will receive written editorial suggestions for their poems (one-page limit) from the instructor and participants.

The final hour of the workshop will be devoted to expert advice about poetry publishing, including the nuts and bolts of getting poems published in literary journals, magazines, and e-zines and of getting a book manuscript published. We will discuss submission dos and don’ts, cover letters, contests, manuscript ordering, common reasons for rejection, and ways to know when a poem or manuscript is publication ready. There will be generous time allowed for Q&A, so bring questions!

All levels welcome. Preregistration required: minimum enrollment five; maximum sixteen. Workshop poems must be submitted (as MS Word documents, no more than one page) no later than September 1 so that the instructor and participants have time for advance preparation. Poems will be emailed to participants at least one week prior to the workshop, and instructions for advance preparation are available online at www.aprilossmann.com/ossmannmethod.htm.

The workshop preparation is more stringent and time consuming than the norm (so allow plenty of time), but it’s what allows you begin to think like an editor -- and half the fun!

April Ossmann has more than twelve years’ experience in book publishing. She was executive director of Alice James Books from 2000 to 2008 and left to launch a consulting business. She edits book manuscripts for and offers publishing advice to poets hoping to find a publisher. Ossman also teaches private tutorials and poetry workshops at the Writer’s Center in White River Junction, Vermont, using a nontraditional workshop method she developed. She has taught creative writing and literature courses at the University of Maine at Farmington and seminars for the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing. She is the author of Anxious Music: Poems (Four Way Books, 2007) and has published poetry in numerous journals, including Colorado Review and Harvard Review, and in anthologies such as From the Fishouse. She is the recipient of several awards for her poetry, including the Prairie Schooner Readers’ Choice Award.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

How to Write, Publish, and Promote Your “How-To” or Business Book with Linda Chestney

Six weeks, Wednesdays, September 15 through October 20, 2010 (Hospitality 202)

7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Cost: $201 NHWP members, $268 nonmembers

Want to learn the process of writing, publishing, and promoting your book? What does it really take to get a book published? This workshop highlights the “Where to? What next?” of negotiating the publishing maze -- starting with completing your manuscript, getting your book published, and then facing the challenge of promotion.

Landing a publisher or agent has never been harder, but having the right tools can make it much easier. Although we touch upon content, organization, and writing in this workshop, primarily the focus will be on what to do after your nonfiction manuscript is completed. After this class, participants will understand how to edit a completed manuscript, how to write an overview and proposal, how to find the “hook” to attract publishers/agents, and what to look for in a contract. We explore the pros and cons of traditional and alternative publishing and lastly discuss the inside tricks of navigating the promotion of your book.

Your book can be the springboard for your business -- or lead to a business based on the expertise you share in its pages. You will discover how to navigate the waters of publishing, promotion, and taking your book (and your writing career) to the next level.

Linda Chestney, MA, is owner of Nicolin Fields Publishing & PR and is an acquisitions editor with University Press of New England. She has written numerous nonfiction books, most recently Bicycling New Hampshire’s Seacoast, writes regularly for magazines, and is a published poet. She serves as the president of NHWP.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Literary Flash: Writing with Nerve and Verve with Carla Gericke

Saturday, September 25, 2010 (ACC 212)

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $101 NHWP members, $135 nonmembers

Great flash fiction leaves an indelible impression. It forces you to write with precision: with nerve and verve. In this workshop, we will explore the elements of flash fiction and study award-winning work. We will do in-class writing exercises and participate in a group critique session of three-minute flash fiction pieces that will be read aloud. You will leave with new work, inspiration, publishing leads, and solid footing for the next Literary Flash: Three Minutes to Fame competition (to be held during the Concord Literary Festival).

Please note: You do not have to be a Literary Flash contestant to reap benefits from this class. Honing your flash fiction skills can improve your writing, whether you are a novelist, short story writer, or poet. All levels welcome.

Carla Gericke, JD, MFA, is the program director at the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. Her work has appeared in anthologies, in literary journals, and online. Her writing has been honored by awards and scholarships from various organizations, including A Room of Her Own Foundation. She served as a judge for the 2010 Best of the Upper Valley High School Invitational Show and taught at the 2010 Seacoast Writers Association’s conference. Her flash fiction piece “Duck, Duck, Goose” was named one of Wigleaf’s Top 200 Online Short-Shorts for 2008.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Sharing Our Toys: An Interactive Generative Workshop with Rick Agran

Saturday, October 2, 2010 (Robert Frost 320)

9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $101 NHWP members, $135 nonmembers

… When my dad was small,
his only toy was an acorn and a stick.
That’s what he told me.
So he carved the acorn into a spinning top
and wrote in the dirt.
And that’s what made him
the man he is today.

-- from “Toys on the Planet Earth” Naomi Shihab Nye

Writing and exploring our childhood experiences can be really joyful and enlightening (or dark and intriguing, depending on how you were raised). We learn an amazing amount through osmosis when we are young. Unpacking it all onto pages provides fun and challenge. In the way we played with each other when we were little, sharing (or not sharing) our toys, explore in this workshop the power of friendship and exclusion. Come to understand the pull of material possessions, rules, and rule breaking. Learn about love and forgiveness and develop keen senses of fairness and justice. Play out dramas and fantasies, create imaginary friends, and project yourself into the world as heroes and villains, sheroes and scoundrels.

Come play in a simple experimental, experiential writing workshop. Bring a journal or paper and a writing instrument. Bring old toys and games, your ideas, your stuffed animal missing an eye, marbles, jacks, Transformers, jump rope, your “blanky,” etc. Workshop participants will use simple games and freewriting prompts for spontaneous creative writing (poems, stories, short-shorts, and more), reflective creative nonfiction, and written collage. The group will play, do, write, share, and reflect, and you’ll discover the generative power of childhood and lived history. Nerds, geeks, Eeyores, and best friends welcome.

Rick Agran grew up in Brookline, New Hampshire, and now lives at the foot of Blue Job Mountain. He has been poet in the schools for a decade with the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and recently joined the writers in residence program of the Children’s Literacy Foundation. In workshops and classes, Agran models using wordplay, poetry, creative writing, poetic impulses, and freewriting to explore writing as a form of play. He has published two books: Pumpkin Shivaree, a picture book for children, and a collection of poems called Crow Milk, from which Garrison Keillor has read selected poems on The Writer’s Almanac. Agran coedited an anthology, Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets, with Portsmouth Poet Laureate Mark DeCarteret and poet Hildred Crill. His poems are recently included in the Poetry Society of New Hampshire’s The Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire for 2008 and 2010.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Social Media for Authors with John Herman

November 6, 2010 (Robert Frost 331)

9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $101 NHWP members, $135 nonmembers

Increasingly today’s authors use social media to promote themselves and their work--without spending a dime. Join us as we demystify it all, sharing strategies for blogging, vlogging, Flickr, Twitter, podcasting, live video casting, YouTube, Skype, Facebook, and more. Go beyond the buzz. Learn the right tools and strategies for enhancing your writing career. Find out why John Herman has been called a “new-media guru” (Boston Globe), “a writer, a media maker and a compulsive ringleader” (Pitchfork), and someone “in demand as a spokesman for the new revolution in communications media” (NH Magazine).

John Herman is an artist, a writer, and a teacher. He serves as an emerging media trainer and consultant, covering the wide range of topics in the intersection of technology and culture. He founded and hosts NH Media Makers. Recent speaking topics have included live web streaming (for Boston University’s College of Communication), collaborative art on the Web (for Pecha Kucha), social media for writers (for NHWP’s annual Writers’ Day conference), and media literacy in the twenty-first century (for the Woods Hole Film Festival). Recently he was a featured comedy performer at the Tokyo Impro Festival. Herman was the first NHWP Literary Idol winner and is a member of NHWP’s board.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book and Get It Published with Mary Carroll Moore

Saturday & Sunday, November 6 & 7, 2010 (Robert Frost 320)

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $201 NHWP members, $268 nonmembers

Books often start with a simple yearning to explore new territory: fascinating topics, characters who won't leave you alone, a good story. But manuscripts get unwieldy, fast. One out of ten writers never finish the--—manuscript because most first-time book writers get lost without good structure and planning. Mary Carroll Moore, award-winning author of thirteen published books in three genres and a PEN/Faulkner nominee, will guide you through a simple and successful book-writing and editing process that can take your book from idea to publication, using “islands” (dramatic moments), storyboarding, and a three-act structure that eases organization and makes a manuscript vivid and engaging to readers.
 Learn a step-by-step six-month plan, a flexible timeline to develop each chapter, and a working storyboard that explores the three-act structure to make unwieldy manuscripts manageable -- and take the next step toward publication. Each day, a series of fun writing and art exercises will get us deeper into our books' inner and outer stories.

We'll look at transitions between chapters, and how to find holes in plot, character development, topic anecdotes, setting, and dialogue that need filling. You'll learn how to support your book-writing journey via systems to organize book research and computer files, set aside sacred writing time, network with other writers, and work with editors and feedback partners. This workshop includes plenty of up-to-date information on submitting to agents and publishers and what they look for in today's competitive market.

The workshop is for writers at all levels, working in nonfiction, fiction, or memoir, with a book concept or a work- in- progress. Find out why past students have called this workshop "the best writing course I ever attended" and were able to leave with "a book that is finally alive for me, flowing, and fun to write!"

Supplies needed: one 18 in. x 24 in. foam-core board, three to four small packs of assorted colored 3 in. Post-It notes, one glue stick, and a pair of scissors. You're also encouraged to bring a double-spaced printed copy of your manuscript, story scenes, or notes so far, as well as your laptop computer, extension cord or power strip, and plenty of writing materials.

Mary Carroll Moore, MA, MFA, is the author of thirteen published books in three genres. Her recent novel, Qualities of Light, was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner award and was featured in the New York Times. She is on the faculty of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and the Hudson Valley Writers' Center near New York City. A former syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, she has had over 200 of her essays, short stories, articles, and poetry appear in literary journals, magazines, and newspapers around the U.S. and has won such awards as the McKnight Awards for Creative Prose, and such competitions as Glimmer Train Press and the Loft Mentor Series.

Register online or call 603-314-7980

Robots and Dragons and Zombies, Oh My! with James Patrick Kelly

Saturday, November 13 (Robert Frost 320)

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost: $101 NHWP members, $135 nonmembers

Although the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror, each have their own unique attributes, their literary DNA is closely related. In each, the writer must build strange new worlds that stand in stark contrast to the everyday yet reflect concerns that all of us share. The worlds of speculative fiction must be consistent, and their boundaries must be well defined. There is a saying among practitioners of the fantastic: “Where anything is possible, nothing is interesting.” The challenge for the writer is to explain just enough without bogging down the narrative with lumps of exposition. And because these are all genres of popular fiction, once the writer masters her craft, she must still place her work in a topsy-turvy market. Join us for an intense session of world building and plot doctoring and a snapshot of what’s hot and what’s not. For those with an undiminished sense of wonder, the yellow brick road awaits. All levels welcome.