Master Classes

NOTE: THE DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR A MASTER CLASS HAS PASSED.

Master Classes offer intermediate and advanced writers a chance to delve more deeply into a particular genre. Each Master Class will take place over the course of Sessions I, II, and III, and will be limited to the first 12 qualified registrants.

While publication credits are not required, Master Class participants should be experienced writers dedicated to their craft. Applications will be reviewed, and qualified registrants admitted, on a rolling basis, until the Master Class fills or we reach the deadline of Friday, October 23—whichever comes first.

When you register for a Master Class, please choose another class as a back-up in case you are not admitted to the Master Class.

Please submit your current CV, along with the required manuscript (see each Master Class’s course description, below, for its manuscript requirements), to mail@ncwriters.org, on the same day that you register for the Fall Conference.

Application to a Master Class requires a non-refundable $35 processing fee in addition to the Fall Conference registration fee.

MASTER CLASS REGISTRATIONS (INCLUDING REQUIRED MANUSCRIPTS) MUST BE RECEIVED THE SAME DAY YOU REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE.

Poetry Master Class: Unbeautiful Animals with Raye Hendrix

Why does it bother us to kill a butterfly, but not a spider? Why are we (as a species) comfortable eating pigs, cows, and chickens, but not cats and dogs? These aren’t new questions, but they’re worth investigating, especially as poets. In this generative workshop, I want to push our poems to examine the aesthetics of morality, not just for literal animals (though we may start there), but for ourselves, our choices, the unbeautiful animals we are. The poetic line complicates, and in this class, rather than reaching for poetic perfection, like birth, I want us to lean into the mess of creation. Bring your spiders, your hairy toes, your sins (real or imagined). Let us find the strange, imperfect beauty that may be lurking there, too.

Please submit three poems, totaling no more than five pages, on the same day that you register for the conference, along with your current CV in a separate attachment. Poems should be saved in a single MS Word document, using single-spaced, 12-point, Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The Word document’s file name should include your own last name, and your name and the title of each poem should appear on the submission. If accepted into the Master Class, your submitted work will be shared with other Master Class registrants.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.

Master Classes continue through Sessions II & III.

Creative Nonfiction Master Class: Writing Narrative Nonfiction: Conceive, Research, Shape, and Sell with Denise Kiernan (FULL)

In this class we will explore methods to carry a nonfiction book idea from conception to the creation of a book proposal—the critical sales document typically used to tempt traditional publishers to buy your book. Along the way, we’ll discuss how to assess an idea, how to conduct research (including some of my favorite sources and research destinations), how to assemble and organize materials, and whether to pursue a traditional or self-publishing route.

Please submit up to 1,500 sequential words from a single work, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day that you register for the conference. Submissions should be saved in an MS Word document, using double-spaced 12-point Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font, with numbered pages, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The Word document’s file name should include your own last name, and the title of the work and your name should appear on the submission itself. If accepted into the Master Class, your submitted work will be shared with other Master Class registrants.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.

Fiction Master Class: The Feel of a Place with Tommy Hays (FULL)

In Richard Russo’s seminal essay “Location, Location, Location:”, he writes, “In the end, the only compelling reason to pay more attention to place, to exterior setting, is the belief, the faith, that place and its people are intertwined, that place is character, and that to know the rhythms, the textures, the feel of a place is to know more deeply and truly its people.” We fiction writers often undervalue or overlook the importance of place in our work, especially our own landscapes, the landscapes of our lives. For various reasons, we avoid writing out of them and by doing so, cut ourselves off from some of our own best sources. In this class we’ll read each other’s work closely in terms of craft, and one lens we’ll examine it through will be place, not as obligatory backdrop, but as character revelation through embodied emotional terrain.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the Master Class.