Faculty: Les Standiford

January 22-24, 2026

STRUCTURE--WHAT I STOLE FROM HOLLYWOOD. A three-day workshop focused on narrative structure and the composition of effective scenes in fiction, memoir, and narrative non-fiction, informed by the instructor's experience as a WGA-credited screenwriter and a graduate of the American Film Institute.

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit up to 25 pages of a book-length work in fiction, nonfiction or memoir, plus a 1-page synopsis (as p. 26).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the book and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 26-50), provide a detailed synopsis of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).       

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference. 

Required format for writing samples:  

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx only)
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial. 
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including 1-page synopsis. All manuscripts must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except when indicating a transition.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 pages of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25 pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Submit manuscript + synopsis as a single file (with synopsis as final page).

Faculty:  Karen Russell

January 18-20, 2026

“Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space . . . I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification,” writes Italo Calvino. In this workshop, we will read each other's work attentively and help each other to gain fresh perspectives on our works and worlds in progress. We will also read excerpts from some extraordinary short stories that model different approaches to various narrative challenges.

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit one or more short stories of no more than 25 pages total.  No synopsis necessary.  

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.  No new material will be accepted. 

Required format for writing samples:

1. Accepting only Word documents (.doc or .docx only).
2. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman and Arial.
3. Margins must be 1 inch.
4. Manuscript must be double-spaced and contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
5. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
6. If you submit more than 25 pages, only the first 25 pp will be read and considered. 
7. Do not include title pages or dedications.
8. Please submit in a single file.
   

Faculty: Didi Jackson & Major Jackson (co-leading)

This workshop will examine ways language moves from earnest expression to artful speech. In our time together, we will direct our attention to how a poem makes a lasting imprint on the reader and what craft elements might we concentrate to render the poem memorable. We will attempt to avoid overly familiar phrases, conceits, tropes and arrive at an original work by finding the extraordinary in the everyday. With support, kindness, and respect, we will commit to help each other make each poem a better version of itself.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit up to 7 pages of unpublished poetry.  

NOTE: We are reading and evaluating these poems for workshop readiness.  If accepted, the poems submitted with your application are the poems that will be discussed in the workshop.  No new material will be accepted.
 

 
    Required format for writing samples:
 

1. All poems must be submitted as one document, 7 pages max.
2. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
3. Manuscript must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
4. Title of each poem should appear in all caps, and each new poem should start on a new page.
    

Faculty:  Michael Koryta

This workshop is open to writers working on a suspense novel, particularly one with a supernatural or paranormal element — think Shirley Jackson, Ira Levin, Stephen King, Megan Abbott, and Joe Hill. Our focus will be on the handling of core issues such as character, structure, scene building, and how supernatural suspense is built through grounded stories with emotional realism.

Submission Guidelines  

In a single file, submit up to 25 pages of a novel-in-progress, plus a 1-page synopsis (as p. 26).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the book and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 25-50), provide a detailed synopsis of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).

PLEASE NOTE:  We are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop.  What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.

 

1. Accepting Word document only (.doc or .docx).
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial. 
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the 1-page synopsis. All manuscripts must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 pages of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25 pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript + 1-p synopsis as a single file (with synopsis as final page).

Faculty: Luis Alberto Urrea

A colleague I admire calls the non-fiction genre “Verity.” This being a memoir course, I still like this term – but with a more personal focus. Writing memoir should indeed be the truth. But it is your opportunity to tell *your* personal truth, your verity of a story.

The form you choose to tell your memoir is up to you – it could be an essay, it could be a poem. It could be a short story. It could be a novel. I would argue nearly everything I have written is a form of memoir. The point is making a record of a story only you can tell.

Your writing is not only what is upon the page, but what lurks beneath. The shadow realm that makes your readers dream. Your story can be humble, closely observed. It doesn’t have to be a world war. It can be about your grandmother’s hands. Your story, after all, is huge to you or you wouldn’t want to write it. What you are writing is a gift to the reader and it calls for you to be brave and look into the light – and the shadow.

So bring your best light. Bring your best shadow. Bring your generous spirit.

Don’t be shy. Do not fear, we won’t let you fall.

 

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit up to 25 pages of the opening of a memoir-in-progress plus a 1-page synopsis (as the final page).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the memoir and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 26-50), include in your synopsis a summary of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.

  Required format for writing samples:
 

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx only)
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the one-page synopsis and contain a header or footer with page numbers and author's name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript and synopsis as a single file.

Faculty: Madeleine Blais

Let’s have fun. Whether you are working on memoir, essays, an historical account, a biography, or some combination, your prose is going to need a narrative arc, which can be challenging in nonfiction. Our group will brainstorm ways to create an engine for your prose—-on how to turn a situation into a story (especially tricky in memoir). A Prompt of the Day will help us devise further strategies to create lively prose, with a special emphasis on generating future subject matter. Plan on submitting between 15 to 25 (max) sample pages of your work to share with the group. If all goes as I hope, you will arrive brimming with enthusiasm and you will be just as enthusiastic when the week if over, if not more so.
 

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit one or more essays up to 25 total pages or the opening 25 pages of a memoir-in-progress, plus a 1-page synopsis (as the final page).  The entire submission should not exceed 26 pages (25 + 1p synopsis).  Synopsis should include if your submission is/are stand-alone piece(s) or part of a collection, where we are in the narrative if part of a longer work; and a brief paragraph summarizing the status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.).    
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.

 Required format for writing samples:
 

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx only)
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the one-page synopsis and contain a header or footer with page numbers and author's name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript and synopsis as a single file.

Faculty:  Laura Lippman

Looking for the formula for writing great crime fiction?  Alas, it doesn’t exist.  But this workshop can help writers with novels in which a crime is the engine that moves the story forward.  Counter-intuitively, the emphasis will be on character, not plotting.  Crime novels work best when characters are true to themselves. Then again, per Raymond Chandler, it never hurts to send a man through the door with a gun.

 

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit the opening 25 pages of a novel in-progress plus a 1-page synopsis (as p. 26).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the book and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 25-50), provide a detailed synopsis of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.

  Required format for writing samples:  
 

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx).
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the one-page synopsis. 
6. All manuscripts must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
7. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
8. If you submit more than 25 pp (25 of manuscript + 1-pg synopsis), only the first 25 pp will be read and considered.
9. Do not include title pages or dedications.
    

Faculty:  Andre Dubus III

If I teach nothing else in my writing classes, I teach this: do not outline your novel or novella or short story or essay. Do not think out the plot, the narrative arc, the protagonist’s journey, whatever you want to call it. Instead, try to find the story through an honest excavation of the characters’ total experience of the situation in which they find themselves. Do that, and I promise the story will begin to write itself, with little need for the controlling hand of the godly, intelligent, well-read, and ambitious author. But how, precisely, does one go about this “excavation”? And how, technically speaking, can we ignite a story into “writing itself”? Come to this workshop, and I will seek to demystify those writerly tools and skills that time and time again, if they are sharp enough, and if the writer can summon enough daily faith and nerve, can penetrate the mystery of story itself.

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit one or more short stories of no more than 25 pages total.  No synopsis necessary.
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.  No new material will be accepted.
 

Required format for writing samples:

1. Accepting only Word documents (.doc or .docx only).
2. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman and Arial.
3. Margins must be 1 inch.
4. Manuscript must be double-spaced and contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
5. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
6. If you submit more than 25 pages, only the first 25 pp will be read and considered. 
7. Do not include title pages or dedications.
8. Please submit in a single file.

Faculty:  Ann Hood

“The page is still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible,” Nabokov said of writing a novel. That’s our goal in this workshop—to bring that miracle of words that tell a story to the page. We will discuss the architecture of novels, the best ways to begin, the muddle of the middle, rising tension, character development, situation versus story, making characters breathe on the page, and where to end. And more. Through examples from published novels and close reads of your own work, we will investigate, explore, and celebrate writing your novel.

Submission guidelines:
 

In a single file, submit the opening 25 pages of a novel-in-progress plus a 1-page synopsis (as p. 26).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the novel and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 25-50), provide in the synopsis a summary of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.
 

Required format for writing samples:

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx).
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the 1-page synopsis. All manuscripts must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25 pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript + synopsis in a single file (with synopsis as final page).

Faculty:  Stewart O'Nan

The class will be primarily a workshop. Students will read one another’s novels-in-progress, interrogating character, action, language, ideas and setting with an eye toward revision.

Submission guidelines:
 

In a single file, submit the opening 25 pages of a novel-in-progress plus a 1-page synopsis (as p. 26).  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the novel and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 25-50), provide in the synopsis a summary of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).
 

PLEASE NOTE: we are reading to assess the strength and readiness of the manuscript for workshop. What you submit here will be what you workshop during the conference.
 

Required format for writing samples:

1. Accepting Word documents only (.doc or .docx).
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. All manuscripts must be double-spaced including the 1-page synopsis. All manuscripts must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 26 pages (25 of manuscript + 1-page synopsis), only the first 25 pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript + synopsis in a single file (with synopsis as final page).

Faculty:  Sterling Watson

During our meeting, the participant and I will discuss the manuscript including my thoughts on what I think works and doesn’t work.  I will give the participant a brief report on the manuscript, which will be the basis for my spoken comments.  Additionally, I will provide the participant with a line-edited copy of the manuscript (participants may decline line-edits if they wish to).  Finally, we will address any questions that the participant prepares for the meeting.
 

Submission guidelines:

In a single file, submit the opening 35 pages of a novel-in-progress plus a synopsis.  Synopsis should include the following: one brief paragraph summarizing the novel and status of the project (i.e., unfinished first draft, completed first draft, completed draft which has undergone multiple revisions, etc.). If you are submitting a portion which appears later in the work (for example, pages 25-50), provide a detailed synopsis of the pages prior to your submission (e.g. pages 1-24).

 

Required format for writing samples:

1. Word documents only (.doc or .docx).
2. Page numbers must be consecutive throughout the manuscript.
3. Font must be 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial.
4. Margins must be 1 inch.
5. Manuscript must be double-spaced including the synopsis and must contain a header or footer with page numbers and author’s name.
6. No extra spacing between paragraphs except that which indicates transitions.
7. If you submit more than 35 manuscript pages, only the first 35 pp will be read and considered.
8. Do not include title pages or dedications.
9. Please submit manuscript + synopsis in a single file.