Course Descriptions

Creative Nonfiction with Caroline McCoy: Take Two: Revising Nonfiction Writing with Publication in Mind

Open to writers pursuing works in all genres of narrative nonfiction—including memoir, literary journalism, personal essay, biography, criticism, and more—this workshop will focus on revision as a critical part of the writing process. Through good-faith readings of drafts submitted by our peers and keen attention to such elements of craft as structure, voice, scene, research, sourcing, and perspective, we’ll identify clear pathways toward strengthening each work to meet the author’s narrative goals. Each writer should come to the workshop prepared to offer thoughtful and constructive feedback on their peers’ drafts. Each writer should leave the workshop with a revision plan and a sense for which publications might be a fit for their work.

Please submit up to 1500 sequential words from a single work, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day you register for the Squire Summer Writing Workshops. Submissions should be saved in a single MS Word document, using double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font, with numbered pages, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The title and your name should appear on the submission. The sample you submit will be the work discussed in class, and accepted registrants will be asked to circulate their drafts to others in the class prior to the conference.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of this workshop.

Fiction with Caleb Johnson: Where Do I Begin? Writing Compelling Openings to Short Stories and Novels

The opening lines of any piece of fiction should teach readers how to understand everything that follows. Point of view, character, plot, tone. A lot of that success boils down to emphasis. Where is our attention pointed, where is it not, and what is left out of the first paragraph, first page, first section? In this workshop, we will look at openings from short stories and novels by writers such as Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Gina Berriault, Brad Watson, James Baldwin, and others, as well as examine the opening pages of participant work.

Please submit the first 1,500 sequential words from a single work, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day you register for the Squire Summer Writing Workshops. Submissions should be saved in a single MS Word document, using double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font, with numbered pages, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. The title and your name should appear on the submission. The sample you submit will be the work discussed in class, and accepted registrants will be asked to circulate their drafts to others in the class prior to the conference.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of this workshop.

Poetry with Annie Woodford: Using an Ax to Make an Ax: Poems as Models of Creation

Gary Snyder’s poem “Ax Handles” repeats the maxim, first coined in fourth century China: “In making the handle of an axe by cutting wood with an axe the model is indeed near at hand.” In this generative workshop, we will read and discuss poems by poets such as Layli Long Soldier, Nickole Brown, Phillip Levine, Crystal Wilkinson, A.R. Ammons and others as models of invention for our own work. Examination of the structural moves made by these beloved poets will provide us with ideas for our own work and the imaginative inspiration that will sustain our writing practice. As Snyder wrote, “model / And tool, craft of culture, / How we go on.”

Please submit three poems, in a total of no more than three pages, along with your current CV in a separate attachment, on the same day you register for the Squire Summer Writing Workshops. Poems should be saved in a single MS Word document, using single-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font, and sent as an attachment to masterclass@ncwriters.org. Your name and the title of each poem should appear on the submission. The sample you submit will be the work discussed in class, and accepted registrants will be asked to circulate their drafts to others in the class prior to the conference.

Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of this workshop.