Upcoming Sessions

Presenter: The Book DoctorsTrack: General Session

Pitchapalooza is American Idol for books (only kinder and gentler). Twenty writers will be selected at random to pitch their book. Each writer gets one minute—and only one minute! Dozens of writers have gone from talented amateurs to professionally-published authors as a result of participating in Pitchapalooza, including Raul the Third, Ylonda Caviness, Stacy McAnulty, Judith Fertig, Gloria Chao, Nura Maznavi and Ayesha Mattu. At the end of Pitchapalooza, the judges will pick a winner. The winner receives an introduction to an agent or publisher appropriate for his/her book.

Presenter: Jamie BrickhouseTrack: Writing Creative Non-Fiction

Memory and fact are two different animals. The meat of literary memoir is the author’s salient memories around the facts of the story he is telling. In this introduction to memoir, Jamie Brickhouse, author of the critically-acclaimed Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and my Mother (St. Martin’s Press; “Required Reading” in Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir; Amazon “Best Book of May 2015,” Book Chase “Top 10 Nonfiction of 2015” ) shows writers how to unlock their deepest memories—the buried, nearly forgotten, and painful—to allow those memories to flower on the page. Taking a lead from Joe Brainard’s literary and artistic cult classic, I Remember, students will discover that laying “I remembers” on the page before writing prose, is akin to an artist priming a canvas before painting. The first half of the workshop will explore the art and craft of channeling and writing about memory as Brickhouse discusses examples from classic memoirs (The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr, The Night of the Gun by David Carr, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion) and a range of how-to books on memoir and writing (The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss by Jessica Handler, The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Victoria Gornick) and his own writing experience. He will also explore how to lift the “burden of too much information”—to weed out the memories, passages, and scenes from a life so that only the essential ones germane to the story you’re telling remain. The second half will be participatory, and students will write their own memories through a series of “I remember” exercises and then transform some of those into prose. Participants will discover that the memories which materialize from their stream of conscious—the ones that cannot be ignored—are the ones that must be written about, and are usually the ones that create literary gold. Brickhouse will lead guided discussions around the students’ work in a supportive, encouraging and laid-back atmosphere. Students will receive a reading list, as well as additional writing prompts and exercises.

Presenter: Jenny JohnsonTrack: Writing Poetry

What is your relationship to looking? What are your strategies for conveying what you
see, picture, or imagine through language? How long do you hold the gaze in your work?
And what might happen if you held it longer, if you kept looking, if you chose not to look
away? We will turn to a range of models for tips on seeing—Robin Wall Kimmerer’s
sustained attention to moss in Gathering Moss, and poems by Kamilah Aisha Moon and
Tommye Blount. Of course, we will do some writing, too.

NOTE: Before class students will read a short essay by Robin Wall Kimmerer called, "Learning to See."

Presenter: Eva Lesko NatielloTrack: The Business of Writing

Are you maximizing all the opportunities Goodreads offers authors?

When time and resources are limited, authors need to focus on marketing strategies with the biggest opportunity for impact. Enter Goodreads: the unparalleled social media hang-out for readers. Learn in this session everything that’s available to authors and how to maximize your efforts to reach readers. Discover how to optimize your author page, interact with readers, run a giveaway, market away from your book, and much more. With over 65 million book-loving members, you can’t afford to ignore Goodreads!