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.