Cambridge, MA Fall 2016 Creative Writing Workshops – Registration Opens July 27!

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The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is proud to announce our new series of creative writing workshops and craft of writing seminars in partnership with the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in Cambridge, MA!  The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is thrilled to return to Cambridge and to offer an exciting range of courses for our Boston-area writers.  Our featured faculty this fall includes Jade Sylvan, Rita Banerjee, Laura van den Berg, and Diana Norma Szokolyai.  Information on classes, meeting times, and faculty are listed below.  Courses are $40 each and those who register for 5 or more classes will receive a 10% discount on registration.  Two kinds of classes will be offered this fall at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education (56 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA): craft of writing seminars and writing workshops.  In craft of writing seminars, students will learn about a particular craft issue, study and discuss examples of contemporary creative writing, and will do an in-session writing prompt.  For creative writing workshops, students will bring in new and in-progress creative work to be reviewed and critiqued during class.

Registration for our Fall 2016 creative writing workshops and craft of writing seminars will open on the Cambridge Center for Adult Education website on July 27, 2016!  Since 1938, The Cambridge Center for Adult Education has offered a most diverse menu of courses to adults in Cambridge and surrounding areas, and it aims to give people the opportunity to explore their interests and nurture their talents and potential.  We’re proud to collaborate with the CCAE!

Location:  

Cambridge Center For Adult Education
56 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Time:

Saturdays, 10 am – 1 pm, September 10 – December 10, 2016

Schedule:

September 10:
“What’s At Stake in your Poetry, Fiction, & Nonfiction Manuscripts?”
with Diana Norma Szokolyai (writing workshop)

September 24:
“Science : Fiction – Building Literary Worlds”

with Rita Banerjee (craft of writing seminar)

October 8:
“Revision Strategies for All Genres”
with Jade Sylvan (writing workshop)

November 5:  
“Time in the Short Story”
with Laura van den Berg (craft of writing seminar)

November 12:
“Spatial Poetics”

with Diana Norma Szokolyai (craft of writing seminar)

December 3:
“Emotion and Suspense in Theatre, Poetry, and (Non)Fiction”

with Rita Banerjee (craft of writing seminar)

December 10:
“Writing Yourself Naked”

with Jade Sylvan (writing workshop)

Featured Faculty:


lowres-dsc_0340-edit-2Jade Sylvan
(they/them/their), called a “risqué queer icon” by The Boston Globe, is an award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, producer, and performing artist heavily rooted in the literary and performance community of Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. Jade’s most recent book, Kissing Oscar Wilde (Write Bloody, 2013), a novelized memoir about the author’s experience as a touring poet in Paris (sponsored by a travel grant from The Foundation of Contemporary Arts), was a finalist for the New England Book Award and the Bisexual Book Award.  Other work has appeared in The Washington PostBuzzfeedThe Toast, Mudfish, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and many other publications.  Jade has toured extensively, performing their work to audiences across the United States, Canada, and Europe.  They are currently overseeing the production of their first full-length stage play, Spider Cult the Musical, opening June 24th, 2016 at Oberon Theater in Harvard Square.

 

RitaBanerjeeRita Banerjee is the Creative Director of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop and the new Executive Director of Kundiman. She received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and her writing appears in The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of BooksElectric Literature, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP WC&C Quarterly, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Riot Grrrl Magazine, The Fiction Project, Objet d’Art, KBOO Radio’s APA Compass, and elsewhere. Her first collection of poems, Cracklers at Night (Finishing Line Press), received First Honorable Mention for Best Poetry Book of 2011-2012 at the Los Angeles Book Festival, and her novella, A Night with Kali (Spider Road Press), is forthcoming in October 2016. Finalist for the 2015 Red Hen Press Benjamin Saltman Award and the 2016 Aquarius Press Willow Books Literature Award, she is currently working on a novel and book of lyric essays.

lauraauthorphotoLaura van den Berg 
is the author of the novel Find Me, longlisted for the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize an selected as a best book of 2015 by Time Out New York and NPR, and two story collections What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth, both finalists for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her honors include the Bard Fiction Prize, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jeannette Haien Ballard Writer’s Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and an O. Henry Award, and her fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories. She has taught fiction at institutions including Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. At present, Laura is a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, MA, with her husband and dog.

diananormaDiana Norma Szokolyai is a writer/interdisciplinary artist/educator and Executive Artistic Director of Cambridge Writers’ Workshop. Based in Brooklyn, NY, she is author of the poetry collections Parallel Sparrows(honorable mention for Best Poetry Book in the 2014 Paris Book Festival) and Roses in the Snow (first runner-­up Best Poetry Book at the 2009 DIY Book Festival). She also records her poetry with musicians and has collaborated with several composers. Her poetry-music collaboration with Flux Without Pause led to their collaboration “Space Mothlight” hitting #16 on the Creative Commons Hot 100 list in 2015, and can be found in the curated WFMU Free Music Archive. Szokolyai’s work has been published in Quail Bell Magazine, Lyre Lyre, The Fiction Project, The Boston Globe, Dr. Hurley’s Snake Oil Cure, and Up the Staircase Quarterly, as well as anthologized in The Highwaymen NYC #2, Other Countries: Contemporary Poets Rewiring History, Always Wondering and Teachers as Writers. Szokolyai earned her Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard University and her M.A. in French Literature from the University of Connecticut, while she completed coursework at the Sorbonne and original research in Paris for two years. She is currently at work on three books and recording an album of poetry & music.

Emotion & Suspense in Theatre, Poetry, and (Non)Fiction – Munich Readery Creative Writing Workshop – June 25 [SOLD OUT]

EmotionandSuspenseEmotion & Suspense in Theatre, Poetry, & (Non)Fiction
Saturday June 25, 2016 * 9:00-12:00

The Munich Readery
Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

Plato argues that human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.  And before staging Kalidasa’s The Recognition of Śākuntalā, the director challenges his actress-lover: “As though in a painting, the entire audience has had their emotion colored through your melody.  So now—what shall we perform to sustain the mood?”  In this class, we will explore how creating vivid emotional worlds between characters and within storylines can build suspense, sustain drama, and lure the reader deeper in. If you’re currently working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatrical play, lyrical essay, memoir, or narrative poem which has a unique emotional landscape, come stop by the Munich Readery on Saturday June 25 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee.  To register, send an email to John by June 20 at:store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.  This workshop is SOLD OUT.

“There is no end to the story” – Moushumi Sen Sarma reviews Rita Banerjee’s Munich Creative Writing Workshops

MunichWorkshopsMunich-based writer and novelist, Moushumi Sen Sarma, reviews Rita Banerjee’s creative writing workshops in her essay, “There is no end to the story.”  Sen Sarma writes:

If you have wondered what I have been up to all these days, and for that matter, what I am up to in general, here is the blog post that will tell you. I have been and am writing, my friends. Until recently, I have been working on two novels, and some short stories. A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop on the art of world-building in science fiction and suddenly wrote up the first pages of a third novel. So now I am working on three novels. Plus those short stories. Also I am totally excited about a poetry workshop coming up next Saturday. Because I do ocassionally write these short lines on a sheet of paper that tend to sound lyrical, at least to me. So soon, I shall find out if they qualify as poetry or not…

But I am really lucky to have found a thriving community of English-language writers in Munich, supported by a wonderful independent bookstore and its proprietors Lisa Yarger and John Browner, and an inspiring teacher in Rita Banerjee. Ever since I found out about her workshops, that’s two years ago, I have diligently attended all the ones I could. Back when I was still doing science, I found conferences to be very inspiring. I would come back from one of those, all fired up and raring to work on some new idea that I had.

These literary workshops do the same for me. I look at my work with new eyes and come back encouraged and inspired. And I write, revise, write, revise and I enjoy every moment of the process. That is how I know that I have found my calling. Do you enjoy what you do? Do you like it so much that you don’t mind the ups and downs that come with it? If the answers are yes to both, you will know that you have found your calling too.

Read the full review here.

Poetry & What’s at Stake – Munich Readery Creative Writing Workshop – June 4

OBIT BARAKA 4Poetry & What’s at Stake
Saturday June 4, 2016 * 9:00-12:00

The Munich Readery,
Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

“What’s at stake” reveals how and why a poem is being told. What’s at Stake builds urgency, conflict, and pivotal turns within a lyrical or narrative poem, and drives engagement. It reveals what’s on the line for the speaker and the reader in terms of personal, emotional, psychological, physical, social, and political investments. In this class will read work by poets such as Gertrude Stein, Paul Celan, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Carolyn Forché, Yusef Komunyakaa, Patrick Rosal, Bianca Stone, and Ocean Vuong, and will explore how writers and readers become more invested in a poem, its performance, and its narrative by raising the stakes. If you’re currently working on narrative or lyrical poetry, or are interested in the commitments and stakes of modern world poetry, come stop by the Munich Readery on Saturday June 4 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee.  To register, send an email to John by June 1 at: store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.

Science : Fiction – How to Build Literary Worlds – Munich Readery Creative Writing Workshop – April 30 [SOLD OUT]

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Science : Fiction – How to Build Literary Worlds
Saturday April 30, 2016 * 9:00-12:00

The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

In this class, we will explore how the fabric and rules of literary worlds in realist and speculative fiction are created.  By examining the parameters of social and behavioral codes, human interactions and psychology, and the materiality of worlds, we’ll explore that volatile space where truth and lie meet, where conflicts crystallize, and where storytelling disturbs and delights. If you’re currently working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatrical play, lyrical essay, memoir, or narrative poem which has a unique literary world at its heart, come stop by the Munich Readery on Saturday April 30 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee.  To register, send an email to John by April 22 at: store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.  This workshop is SOLD OUT.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? Writing What You Fear – Munich Readery Creative Writing Workshop – April 16

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Are You Afraid of the Dark? Writing What You Fear
Saturday April 16, 2016 * 9:00-12:00

The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

In this workshop, writers will be invited to write about what they fear. We will begin by studying Lidia Yuknavitch’s personal essay, “Woven,” and Alexander Chee’s “My Parade,” and will discuss how nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and theatre can grapple with uncomfortable subjects and situations to illuminate conflicts, heighten drama, create complex characters, and reveal the human condition. In this class, writers will be invited to push their speakers and protagonists to face obstacles that they’re rather like to avoid or are afraid to encounter. We’ll study what makes a story compelling based on psychological, physical, spiritual, and emotional stakes. If you’re currently working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatrical play, lyrical essay, memoir, or narrative poem which has a unique dilemma at is heart, come stop by the Munich Readery on Saturday April 16 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee.  Participation in this workshop is limited to 15, and advance registration is required. To register, send an email to Lisa by April 12 at: store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.

 

National Write-a-Novel Month 2015 Writing Workshops & Write-Ins at the Munich Readery – November 7, 14, 21, 28

RoyalTypeWriterDuring November, The Munich Readery will host workshops and write-ins for writers developing or working to complete a book-length manuscript. We’ll kick off the month by hosting a workshop with Rita Banerjee on “Life and Lived Stories” and the craft of nonfiction and fiction writing on Saturday, November 7. Writers will bring in their project proposals and ideas for a book-length project to be reviewed in class. We’ll review a text that blurs the line between fact and fiction and can serve as a launching pad for building longer narratives. Beginning writers also welcome.  On the next three Saturdays, November 14, 21, and 28, The Munich Readery will host special “write-in” sessions, during which writers will work on their book-length projects.  Rita Banerjee will meet individually with writers during these sessions to discuss their projects and progress.  Rita will help writers set goals for each write-in, and the sessions will conclude with self-assessments and a question and answer period.  Workshop Fee: €30/workshop.  Email Lisa at the Munich Readery to enroll at store@themunichreadery.com

Location: The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München
Saturday November 7 – Life & Lived Stories Workshop (9 am – 12 noon sharp) [SOLD OUT]
Saturday November 14, 21, 28 – Write-ins (9 am – 12 noon sharp)

Rita Banerjee received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and teaches at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.  Her writing has been featured in VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, Riot Grrrl Magazine, Poets for Living Waters, The Fiction Project, Objet d’Art, and on KBOO Radio’s APA Compass in Portland, Oregon. Her first collection of poems, Cracklers at Night, received First Honorable Mention for Best Poetry Book at the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival.  Creative Director of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, she is currently working on a novel and a book of lyrical essays.

Creative Writing Workshop & Literature Lab Series at the Munich Readery

WritingWorkshopRita Banerjee will be leading a monthly creative writing workshop and literature lab at The Munich Readery for writers who are currently working on a long-term, book-length creative writing manuscript.  Poets, fiction writers, playwrights, memoirists, essayists, and screenwriters are welcomed to join the workshop.  The workshop will meet for a three-hour session each month in which writers will share and receive feedback on their creative writing projects and manuscripts in progress.  In addition, each workshop will open with a half-hour literature lab in which short and well-known works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theatre will be analyzed alongside essays on creative writing craft and technique.  This workshop will be limited to 10 participants, and enrollment will close once seats are filled.  Writers are encouraged to enquire about upcoming workshop dates in case seats become available.  Readings for classes will be provided to all writers.  Workshop Fee: €30/session.  Email Lisa at the Munich Readery to enroll: store@themunichreadery.com  Location: The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

Upcoming Workshops:
Saturday April 18, 9:00-12:00 –   Triggering Towns + Introductions [SOLD OUT]
Saturday May 9, 9:00-12:00 – John McPhee & the Art of Nonfiction [SOLD OUT]
Saturday June 13, 9:00-12:00– Haruki Murakami & Stories within Stories [SOLD OUT]
Saturday June 20, 9:00-12:00– Haruki Murakami & Stories within Stories [OPEN]
*
Sunday July 5, 14:00-17:00 – Joan Didion & Telling Stories Slant [SOLD OUT]
* Due to popular demand, a second class of Haruki Murakami & Stories within Stories will be offered on Saturday June 20, from 9 am – 12 pm at the Munich Readery.

What’s at Stake Revision Workshop

typewriter-revisionWhat’s at Stake Revision Workshop
Sunday May 17, 2015 * 14:00-17:00

The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

What makes a story tick? What makes a hero embark on a story filled with the promise of adventure and the inevitability of peril? If you are trying to figure out what the central, driving force of your story is, and how to structure and propel your narrative forward, come to our creative writing workshop “What’s at Stake Revision Workshop.” In this revision workshop, we will pick up where our “Storytelling and What’s at Stake” workshop left off, and we will investigate how knowing what’s at stake in a story can help a writer to further engage his/her audience by developing central conflicts and tensions which help to make a story unique and memorable. During workshop, we will review and revise the writing begun for the “Storytelling and What’s at Stake” Workshop. Participants are also welcomed to bring in the character sketches, stories, poems, and performance pieces they are currently working which explore what makes each character tick and react in terms of their personal, professional, social, and political investments. So if you’re currently working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatre play, lyrical essay, memoir, or narrative poem and are trying to figure out what’s at stake in your work, come stop by the Munich Readery on Sunday May 17 for our next creative writing workshop led by Rita Banerjee.  To register, send an email to Lisa at: store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.  Please contact the Munich Readery at store@themunichreadery.com for information on future writing workshops taught by Rita Banerjee.

Storytelling & What’s at Stake Writing Workshop at the Munich Readery – Mar 8 [SOLD OUT]

storytellingSunday March 8, 2015 * 14:00-17:00
The Munich Readery, Augustenstraße 104, 80798 München

What makes a story tick? What makes a hero embark on a journey filled with the promise of adventure and the inevitability of peril? If you are trying to figure out the central, driving force of your story and how to structure and propel your narrative forward, this workshop is for you! We will explore what makes every character tick and react in terms of her personal, professional, social, and political investments. We’ll also look at how understanding what’s at stake can help a writer to further engage readers by developing central conflicts and tensions that help make a story unique and memorable.  So if you’re working on a short story, novel, screenplay, theatre play, lyrical essay, memoir or narrative poem and are trying to figure out what’s at stake in your work, join us on March 8.  Participation in this workshop is limited to 15, and advance registration is required. To register, send an email to Lisa at: store@themunichreadery.com. Workshop Fee: €30.  This workshop is currently sold out.