WRITERS JOINING THE FESTIVAL IN 2026
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WORKSHOPS
Our Registration process now incorporates the use of the well-known website Eventbrite. Please note that when you click on a button below to register for a Workshop, you will be sent to the Festival's Registration page on Eventbrite.com.
INTENSIVE SIX-HOUR WORKSHOP
The “Writing Intensive Workshop” is a SIX hour session, to be held on Friday, June 5th ONLY. Intensives are limited to 15 Participants, so please register early. The Intensive Registration deadline is Thursday, 5/28/26 at 8am. A Workshop that draws fewer than 6 Participants will be cancelled, unless the Writer agrees to conduct it.
In an Intensive Workshop you will share work and receive feedback on your writing. The Festival will provide space dedicated solely to each Intensive in order to maximize this special opportunity.
Intensive Participants will pay a Registration fee of $150 for the unique opportunity to spend a day in an advanced setting with a professional writer, one of our Festival Alumna. The $150 Registration fee includes a lunch on the day of the Intensive and covers ALL OTHER Festival activities. All we ask of you is a firm commitment to attend once you register.
While Intensive participants may register for other Festival Workshops, they may register for only one Intensive. If your Intensive is cancelled and there are available spaces in other Intensives, we will email you. If you find that you cannot attend an Intensive Workshop that you have signed up for and it has not been cancelled, a refund may be given if we find a replacement for you from the waiting list.
Please consult the specific Intensive Workshop description below for any materials or references required by the Instructor, noted in bold, red print.
TWO-HOUR WORKSHOPS
Writing Workshops are a solid tradition of the Festival of Women Writers. Writers returning to the Festival and those who have been invited for the first time will offer the Festival a diverse group of Workshops.
Each Workshop will be presented for two hours and will address a variety of topics, genres, skills, and techniques.
In order to participate in any Workshop, a registration fee is required. A $120 fee entitles you to attend as many workshops as you wish with the exception of the Intensive Workshops.
Those seeking to take part in an Intensive Workshop on Friday, June 8th and attend any Workshop on Saturday or Sunday should simply register for the Intensive Workshop of your choice then make your 2-Hour Workshop sections in the appropriate time slots on the Eventbrite Registration Page. The fee for this Intensive Workshop / Workshop combination is $150.
If you want to attend just ONE Workshop during the weekend, we have instituted a "Single Workshop Fee" which is $30.
Please consult the specific Workshop description below for any materials or references required by the Instructor, noted in bold, red print.
Begin TWO-HOUR Classes
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Breena Clarke
Breena Clarke is the author of four novels, most recently published, Alive Nearby, a gently ruminative, epistolary work that explores characters in Angels Make Their Hope Here, Clarke’s 2014 novel set in an imagined mixed-race community in 19th century New Jersey.
Clarke's debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection and was named by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the seven essential books about Washington, D.C. Her critically reviewed second novel, Stand The Storm, was named one of 100 Best for 2008 by The Washington Post. Her short fiction has appeared in Washington Post Magazine, Kweli Journal, Stonecoast Review, Nervous Breakdown, Mom/Egg review, The Drabble, Catapult, Solstice, and Now, the online magazine of The Hobart Festival of Women Writers.
Breena is co-founder of The Hobart Festival of Women Writers, an annual three-day celebration of the work of diverse women writers. Additionally, she has been a member of the fiction faculty of Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing at The University of Southern Maine.
Breena Clarke is co-editor of NOW, an online journal of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Cheryl Clarke
Cheryl Clarke's new collection of poetry, ARCHIVE OF STYLE: POEMS NEW AND SELECTED was released from Northwestern University Press in August 2024. She is the author of six previous poetry collections, in addition to the critical study AFTER MECCA: WOMEN POETS AND THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT (2004) and THE DAYS OF GOOD LOOKS: PROSE AND POETRY, 1980-2005 (2006).
Cheryl Clarke is one of seven organizers of the annual Hobart Festival of Women Writers, now in its 13th year.
Intensive Workshop for :
Esther Cohen
This is a SIX-HOUR Class
GOOD STORIES: How to Write Them
Writing is what so many of us want to do. Finding the stories we want to tell, and then writing them, is what the work together in The GOOD STORIES INTENSIVE with the phenomenal novelist and poet, Esther Cohen, will be.
Some of us are beginning. Some of us are continuing. Together, participants will all be looking for stories, good stories, working together to understand what good stories are and where they come from.
Participants will examine how we tell them and then will tell them. Using exercises and prompts, and reading and hearing examples from other writers, this special SIX-HOUR WORKSHOP will be an investigation into narrative, using what we know and what we don’t know to figure out what stories we will tell.
A box lunch is served to participants. Each participant can expect a deeply inspirational and restorative journey to the heart of writing craft.
Photo Courtesy of www.esthercohen.com
Esther Cohen
Esther Cohen is the author of Don’t Mind Me: And Other Jewish Lies with illustrations by Roz Chast, the novels No Charge for Looking and Book Doctor, and Unseen America, an ongoing project in visual history, started in 2000. Nannies, homecare workers, migrants, and scores of others tell the stories of their lives through pictures they take of what they see.
Esther has also published two volumes of poetry, God Is a Tree and prayerbook. She has been writing a daily poetry blog since 2014. She lives in Manhattan as well as Cornwallville, NY.
This is Esther's Thirteenth year as a participating writer at the Festival and she will be offering the INTENSIVE Writing Workshop, "GOOD STORIES: How To Write Them" on Friday
Workshop for :
Stephanie Cotsirilos
WRITING LATER IN LIFE: Secrets and The Sacred - How and Whether to Tell
Here we are, writing later in life ... or about to do so. Our goals may vary widely; and we'll briefly share them.
We'll also ask: What do we do with our secrets? With elements of our lives that feel sacred? Or as Gwendolyn Brook's main character in Maud Martha asked, "What, what, am I to do with all of this life?" The answer is ours to shape from where we find ourselves.
We'll sportively consider these questions, then engage in writing exercises that explore craft options for approaching secrets and sacred things. We'll brainstorm next steps.
I'll provide a digital bibliography.
Workshop for :
Margot Farrington
DEEP GAZE: Painting & Sculpture as Helpmates for Writing
Geared for poets and writers at all levels of ability.
How can painting and sculpture help us create new works, especially when we may feel blocked? Come experiment and enjoy how to use painting and sculpture as a portal into writing poetry or prose.
First, we'll look at examples of how others have been inspired as we embark on the study of a few selected poems. Next we'll discuss and put to use useful strategies for generating our own poems or prose, linking the leaps of see/feel/write.
Two examples of Text to be used are: "Young Woman Knitting" by Moira Linehan, and "Dream" by John Ciardi.
Paintings providing the impetus for these works are: "Young Woman Knitting" by Berthe Morisot, and "The Sleeping Gypsy" by Henri Rousseau.
Participants will take away writings to continue and complete and will gain some insights into looking at art.
Photo Courtesy of Dos Madres Press
Margot Farrington
Margot Farrington is a poet, writer, and performer. Trained in theater—her earliest love—she has read and performed widely as poet and as storyteller, garnering praise both for her work and for dynamic readings and performances.
Margot is the author of four full-length collections, most recently “The Blue Canoe of Longing” (Dos Madres Press, 2019 and Early Cover Art: From Shellac To Vinyl (Edition Longplay, 2022, with Rainer Haarman)).
This is Margot's Sixth Festival and she will present the Workshop: DEEP GAZE: Painting & Sculpture As Helpmates for Writing
Workshop for :
Mary Johnson
WILD NIGHTS
Experiences that transcend the five senses, bringing you into an altered, expanded state of consciousness, are often described as “beyond words”: spirituality, the artistic process, really good sex, birth, experiences induced by psychedelic substances, love, death.
Drawing on a vast selection of texts from ancient religion to science fiction and a whole lot in between, participants will explore nine specific strategies and try them. Includes in-class writing. Suitable for writers of any genre.
Workshop for :
Jennifer Bartell Boykin
O TASTE HOW GOOD IT IS: Using Food Imagery in Poetry
Collard greens, okra, fried chicken, company chicken, pileau (pronounced perlo), sweet tea, pound cake and more appear throughout my poetry.
Each dish is important to my experiences with my family and my community. Think of the dishes that are staples for you. What are the memories you have with that food? How do you feel while eating it? Who are you with? The tastes,textures, and smells are the menu for memory, emotion, and therefore poetry.
In this workshop, we will explore the connections between food, memory, and poetry. We will read poems with food in it, go through 3-4 memory exercises, and examine the essay, "What Does Food Have to Do With Poetry" by Dorothy Chan.
Come prepared with notes or lists of 1-2 dishes/food and any memories associated with them.
Family recipes may prove useful as well. Poets will leave this workshop with 2- 3 poems in progress.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Stephanie Cotsirilos
Stephanie Cotsirilos is the author of the novella My Xanthi, essayist in Beacon Press’ award-winning anthology Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family, and a finalist in The Sewanee Review’s 2024 Fiction, Poetry & Nonfiction Contest. She was also Story of the Week author and finalist in Narrative Magazine’s Fall 2022 Story Contest, and published finalist in Mississippi Review’s 2019 Prize in Fiction. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her work has appeared in print and online venues including McSweeney’s, The New Guard, and various media.
A values panelist at Olympia Snowe Leadership Institute’s 2024 fall forum, she’s a Sewanee Writers’ Conference alumna and was Katahdin fellow at Alaska’s Storyknife retreat for women writers. She holds degrees in music and law from Yale and in comparative literature from Brown.
This is Stephanie's Second Festival as a Participating Writer and she will be presenting the Workshop: "WRITING LATER IN LIFE: Secrets and The Sacred - How and whether to tell
Workshop for :
Miho Kinnas
“POEMS COME IN ALL SIZES: An Introduction to Japanese Poetic Forms
This workshop is a brief survey of Japanese literature through three representative poetry anthologies, Manyoshu (8th century), Kokin wakashu (10th century), and Shin Kokin wakashu (13th century), using six waka to begin discussions.
Additional topics are:
The overview of Japanese history,
The relationship between Chinese and Japanese poetry, and
The transition of the Japanese writing system as seen in these anthologies.
Love poem exchanges of the Helan period.
Writing Exercise: tanka.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Miho Kinnas
Miho Kinnas is a Japanese writer, translator, and poet. Her latest book is Waiting for the Sunset to Bury Red Camellias (Free Verse Press, 2023). Her poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2023, American Book Review, and World Literature Today.
She teaches poetry workshops based on Japanese poetic forms at writers.com, New York Writers Workshop, Pat Conroy Literary Center, and other locations. For more information: Interview – World Literature Today, Artist Profile (Pink Magazine), South Carolina Arts Directory.
This is Miho's Second Festival as a Participating Writer and she will present the workshop: “POEMS COME IN ALL SIZES: An Introduction to Japanese Poetic Forms”
Visit her at:
Workshop for :
Sandi Dollinger
STREETS AND ALLEYS: Journeying to Your Own Ten by Ten
In this workshop writers will use streets and alleys of their past and present, to conjure up material for a short, one-act play called a "Ten by Ten."
We'll do some reading from modern plays to examine basic building blocks and the underbelly of what makes a play. From there, participants will proceed on to their own individual play-making, using a variety of writing exercises and theatre games to help craft monologues and scenes.
At the session's end, there will be time for anyone who wishes to share what they have written.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Sandi Dollinger
Sandi Dollinger is an Albany-based playwright. Currently, she is bringing Happy Birthday, Greta Garbo, to Senior Centers, Senior Housing, and Nursing Homes as a free staged reading. Dollinger was director of the Irish Heritage Museum, Albany, NY. She has an MA in Speech, a Theatre Arts Minor, a BA in English, and an Education Minor. Currently, Dollinger is working on a performance piece called Pokoj, which examines war and peace in daily life against a background of global chaos. Sandi Dollinger will offer the workshop,
This is Sandi's First Festival as a Participating Writer and she will present the workshop: "STREETS and Alleys: Journey to Your Own Ten by Ten".
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Photo Courtesy o Linda Loweni
Linda Lowen
Linda Lowen is a nonfiction book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a theater reviewer for the Syracuse Post-Standard. Lowen is familiar to many after years on-air at local NPR and PBS stations.
Her work has been published in the New York Times and in Tiny Love Stories: True Tales of Love in 100 Words or Less (Artisan Books, 2020).
A writing instructor and editor, her writing advice has appeared in The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines.
Lowen’s two travel/tourism books about her hometown —100 Things To Do in Syracuse Before You Die and Secret Syracuse: A guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure — have sold over 5,000 copies. She’s currently researching a third book, Unique Eats and Eateries of Syracuse, forthcoming in Spring 2026.
This is Linda's Seventh Festival as a Participating Writer and she is presenting the Workshop: "SCENE AND DONE: Understanding Story Through the Four Elements of Scene"
Workshop for :
Linda Lowen
SCENE AND DONE: Understanding Story Through the Four Elements of Scene
How much is too much description? Where should interiority and flashback be employed? Is action necessary? The answers lie in the pattern of the story, and understanding that pattern is best done through deconstruction.
To deconstruct a quilt, you separate the blocks, then disassemble each block into its component pieces. Writing is similar: a short story or book is a series of scenes, and scenes involve key elements intentionally placed.
Drawing from the scene/structure work of Jack Bickham, learn the four key elements of scene through the study and deconstruction of a short work. Then use those elements in your own short piece.
The workshop consists of a short lecture, group reading of a flash memoir, time for individual deconstruction of elements, group discussion and analysis, and closes with a writing exercise to apply these concepts.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Jennifer Bartell Boykin
Jennifer Bartell Boykin is the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia, South Carolina. She received an MFA and MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Her debut book of poetry is Traveling Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and her second book Only Believe (The Word Works, 2024) won the 2023 Hilary Tham Capital Collection Prize.
An alumna of Agnes Scott College, Jennifer is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow and has additional fellowships from Callaloo and The Watering Hole. Additionally, she is a school librarian.
This is Jennifer's First Festival as a Participating Writer and she will present the Workshop: "USING FOOD IMAGERY IN POETRY".
Workshop for :
Ellen Meeropol
INNOVATIVE STRUCTURES FOR POLITICALLY ENGAGED FICTION
Writing fiction that illuminates life under the shadow of climate apocalypse, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and fears of increased political turbulence both locally and globally is enormously challenging.
Artists and writers have linked the chaotic and terrifying state of the world to the trend toward abstraction and fragmentation as methods to express internal turmoil and political angst.
In this workshop, participants will look at examples of inventive narrative structure in contemporary novels, including the use of speculative elements, magical realism, and constellation and mosaic novel structures. They will brainstorm shaking up our own work trying out these techniques and forms.
Photo Courtesy of Danielle Tait
Ellen Meeropol
Ellen Meeropol is the author of six novels: Sometimes an Island, The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest and guest editor of the anthology Dreams for a Broken World.
Essay and short story publications include Ms. Magazine, Lilith, The Writer Magazine, Lit Hub, Guernica, and The Boston Globe. Her work has been a finalist for the Sarton Prize, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and a Group Reads selection of the Women’s National Book Association.
Ellen is a founding mother of Straw Dog Writers’ Guild and lives in Northampton, MA.
This is Ellen’s Fifth Festival as a participating writer and is presenting the Workshop: "INNOVATIVE STRUCTURES FOR POLITICALLY ENGAGED FICTION".
Workshop for :
Stephanie Nikolopoulos
MARKETING YOUR BOOK IN A CROWDED MARKETPLACE
Marketing budgets are shrinking across publishers, even as 3 million new titles hit the shelves each year. How can you make your book stand out?
In this practical workshop, participants will discuss marketing strategies for self-published and traditionally published authors, including how to start building your audience before you draft your first chapter; maximize visibility for your backlist while promoting new releases; and unlock opportunities through newsletters, readings, and more-and how to use Al as your marketing assistant.
Come ready to roll up your sleeves: after reviewing insights from authors like Jane Friedman and Susan Shapiro, participants will draft a book synopsis, author bio, and social posts they can use right away
Photo Courtesy of www.stephanienikolopoulos.com
Stephanie Nikolopoulos
Stephanie Nikolopoulos is a writer and editor based in New York City.
She is the coauthor, with Paul Maher Jr., of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”; a contributing writer to Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Making “Me Time”; and introduction author to the Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird and Hunting the Grisly by Theodore Roosevelt.
She earned her MFA in creative writing, nonfiction, from The New School and BA in English from Scripps College.
Stephanie is returning to the Festival for a Twelfth year as a participating writer and is presenting the Workshop: "MARKETING YOUR BOOK IN A CROWDED MARKETPLACE".
Workshop for :
Bertha Rogers -Renowned Poet Laureate
FAMILY POETRY / ART WORKSHOP
FOR PARENTS and CHILDREN (AGE 8-16)
This 2-hour workshop for Parents and Children (kids ages 8-16) begins with brief readings by the leader, after which the participants write poems that begin with "I wish I were. .." or "When I was...".
When the poems are complete, kids and parents will read them out loud, then plan and make miniature artist books.
All materials (pencils, paper, scissors, markers, crayons, etc.) will be supplied.
Photo Courtesy of Nick Kelsh
Bertha Rogers
Bertha Rogers is a poet, translator, and visual artist. Her poetry collections include the Salmon Press titles What Want Brings: New & Selected Poems, 2024), Wild, Again, 2019; Heart Turned Back, 2010; and several chapbooks and interdisciplinary collections.
Bertha's illustrated translation of Beowulf was published in 2000. Her translation, with illuminations, of the Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Poems from the Exeter Book, Uncommon Creatures, was published in 2019. Other poems and translations appear in literary journals and anthologies.
Bertha Rogers, was named the First Poet Laureate of Delaware County, New York, in March 2005. Additionally, she has been awarded fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, Hawthornden, Millay, and others. With her husband, Ernest M. Fishman, she founded Bright Hill Press & Literary Center in 1992.
This is Bertha’s Twelfth Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop, "FAMILY POETRY / ART WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS and CHILDREN (AGE 8-16)".
Visit her at: www.BerthaRogers.com
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Jo Salas
Jo Salas is a New Zealand-born writer living in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley. Jo’s second novel, Mrs. Lowe-Porter, was published by JackLeg Press in February 2024.
Her short fiction includes the Pushcart Prize-nominated “After” in Facing the Change: Personal Encounters with Global Warming. Her first novel, Dancing with Diana, was published by Codhill Press in 2015.
Jo has also authored nonfiction books including Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre, now published in eleven languages. She’s currently working on a historical novel about immigration and motherhood.
This is Jo's First Festival as a Participating Writer she is presenting the Workshop: "LOVE POETRY THROUGH THE AGES"
Visit her at:
Workshop for :
Christina Chiu
HOW TO USE DISCOURAGEMENT AS A MOTIVATING TOOL
"Together, I will show you how to use discouragement as a motivator and provide a system prototype." - Chiu.
Rejection can be crushing. Even successful authors struggle with discouragement sometimes. But how do some writers succeed more readily than others? The answer, in part, is resilience.
As editor Tom Lutz pointed out in a discussion with author Amy Liu and her students, "Women typically submit once, and if we reject their work, we never hear from them again, even if we tell them we liked their submission, even if we give them feedback, even if we specifically invite them to try us in the future."
Let's change that. Stop letting "business" interfere with the personal creativity in you. Whether you are submitting stories to journals, novels to an agent, or writing applications to writing residency programs, start writing and submitting fearlessly and get your work out into the world.
In this workshop, I will discuss strategies, give practical advice (yes, if you have ADHD, I'm definitely speaking to you), and share systems that will bypass overwhelm and change your approach to the submissions process. Together, I will show you how to use discouragement as a motivator and provide a "system" prototype. So, bring your laptop or a notebook.
During our time together you will individualize a framework that works specific to your own needs. You will have the chance to re-submit one of those rejected stories that you've tucked away in that computer "drawer," aka the dark void, and get the ball rolling again.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Christina Chiu
Christina Chiu is the grand-prize winner of the James Alan McPherson Award for her novel, Beauty. She is also the author of Troublemaker and Other Saints, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Christina has published in magazines and anthologies, including Tin House, Charlie Chan is Dead 2, Not the Only One, Washington Square, World Wide Writers, The MacGuffin, the Asian Pacific American Journal, Acorn, Grandmothers: Granddaughters Remember, and Not the Only One.
Her stories have won awards and honorable mention in literary contests such as Playboy, Glimmer Train, New Millennium, New York Stories, World Wide Writers, Explorations, and El Dorado Writers’ Guild.
Chiu curates and co-hosts the Pen Parentis Literary Salons in New York City. She received her MFA in writing from Columbia University
This is Christina's First Festival as a Participating Writer and she will present the Workshop: "HOW TO USE DISCOURAGEMENT AS A MOTIVATING TOOL".
Workshop for :
Lyndsey Ellis
WRITING REAL WITHOUT FORFEITING CARE
As Toni Morrison once stated, 'Oppressive language is dead language.' A story can move its readers, but if it's at the expense of an entire community, it causes unnecessary harm that sometimes can't be reversed.
"Writing Real Without Forfeiting Care" is a workshop that highlights the value of crafting dignity-centered narratives that offer accurate character portrayals by recognizing differences, adversity, or trauma without reducing excluded groups represented in literature to caricatures, victims, or otherness.
Participants will look at language-shifting contemporary texts: "The Night Watchman" by Louise Erdrich, "Castaway Mountain" by Saumya Roy, and "The Icarus Girl" by Helen Oyeyemi that balance honesty with sensitivity in depictions of historically resilient voices.
Get suggestions on ethical storytelling practices that honor community experiences without reinforcing wounds, as well as in-class writing exercises.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Lyndsey Ellis
Lyndsey Ellis crafts fiction and essays that explore regional history and/or inter generational dynamics. She has appeared in The New York Times, Kweli Journal, Narratively, Shondaland, Catapult, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, and Electric Literature.
"Bone Broth", her debut novel, was published by Hidden Timber Books in 2021. Ellis has been a recipient of the Friends of American Writers Literature Award, San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Washington University’s Inaugural Heartland Journalism Fellowship, and an artist support grant from the Regional Arts Commission St. Louis.
This is Lyndsey's First Festival as a Participating Writer and she will present the Workshop: “WRITING REAL WITHOUT FORFEITING CARE”.
Workshop for :
Blair Hurley
“FINDING YOUR ENDING”
Finding the right ending for your story might be the most difficult part of the writing process. We need to thread the needle with theme, magic, metaphor, and character, all without being too preachy or heavy-handed.
In this workshop, participants will look behind the curtain of great story endings and adapt what they discover to their own endings. Participants will work on fitting resonant images and powerful character choices into story endings- all while balancing the bitter and the sweet.
They will read examples of great stories and discuss what makes them great (readings may include works by Jennifer Egan, John Steinbeck, Toni Morrison, Richard Ford, James Joyce, Sandra Cisneros, and others).
Participants will engage in practical exercises to revise their own endings. This two-hour workshop is perfect for beginning or intermediate writers in the process of drafting novels or short stories.
Participants will come away with a new ending for their story or novel drafted.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Blair Hurley
Blair Hurley is a writer, editor, and instructor of writing. Her first novel, The Devoted, was published with WW Norton in 2018, and was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
Her second novel, Minor Prophets, was published with Ig Publishing in 2023. Her work is published in New England Review, Electric Literature, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Paris Review Daily, West Branch, and elsewhere.
She is a Pushcart Prize winner and an ASME Fiction award finalist. Her story “The Telepathist” was listed as a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2022.
Blair received her A.B. in English and Creative Writing from Princeton University and her M.F.A. in Fiction from New York University. She lives outside Toronto.
Workshop for :
Jo Salas
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Whatever we write, especially if it's fiction, we try to find the most fitting, appealing, effective names for our characters and for our books or short stories.
Names do a lot of work for our readers. They can evoke personal and cultural characteristics. They can signify ethnicity, gender, class, historical period, and geographical location. In memoir and other nonfiction we may have to invent character names to protect identity while keeping the quality of the original name.
Book titles can be concrete or conceptual (think Mrs. Bennet's Five Daughters instead of Pride and Prejudice), poetic, elliptical, punning, allusive, purposely irritating, short or long.
As a writer, you're likely to spend many hours pondering these questions and trying out different names (thank goodness for search and replace!). Then you'll probably find that your agent and publisher have their own ideas, especially about book titles.
In this workshop for aspiring and published writers, we'll review character names and book titles from literature, and experiment with your own character names and titles.
Looking at published authors' choices can illuminate your own thoughts about your current writing-or simply deepen your appreciation for this essential dimension of writing and reading.
Workshop for :
Kim Roberts Meikle
UNLOCK UNTOLD STORIES AND POETRY: Use the Jobs You’ve Worked to Generate Writing
We learn about ourselves through the jobs we’ve worked. Current and former careers, monotonous or the oddest of odd jobs, can be fantastic prompts to use in your writing.
We will mine our memories for occupations and careers from our past and present lives, incorporate workplace vocabulary into the writing, while exploring our workplace histories together.
Shake some memories loose and see what emerges. Everyone has a story about where they worked.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Kim Roberts Meikle
Kim Roberts Meikle is a American poet, editor and literary historian who lives in Washington, D.C.
She is the editor of the anthologies By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of Our Nation’s Capital and Full Moon On K Street: Poems About Washington DC and author of five books of poetry, including The Scientific Method, Animal Magnetism, and The Wishbone Galaxy.
Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and literary journals throughout the US, and internationally.
This is Kim's First Festival as a Participating Writer she is presenting the Workshop: A GENERATIVE SESSION ON PANTOUMS
Visit her at:
Workshop for :
Lisa Wujnovich
LOVE POETRY THROUGH THE AGES
What makes a love poem, wedding poem, courtship poem, erotic poem, declaration to the divine, praise poem to earth? Deceptively easy until you try to write one.
Participants will write some of their own, but first look at some of the great love poems through the ages: Shakespeare's sonnets, Rumi's ghazals, Yeats' Romantic rhymed verse.
They will look at Oliver's nature poems, Angelou's free verse, as well as those of Andrea Gibson and Ross Gay, among others.
Participants will practice using imagery, symbolism, and figurative language to listen for words of love.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Lisa Wujnovich
Lisa Wujnovich is a farmer, poet, activist, educator, and herbalist, writing and performing in the heart of the Marcellus Shale Region. Her anti-fracking poems were on the forefront of the movement to ban fracking in New York State.
She directs the Hancock Community Education Foundation Elementary K-4 After School Garden, where students and families grow, learn about, and cook fresh vegetables from the garden. Additionally, she teaches poetry as an enrichment tutor at the after-school program.
Lisa received her MFA in poetry from Drew University and BA in drama from Antioch College.
Poetry Publications:
Fieldwork (Finishing Line Press) 2012
This Place Called Us (Stockport Flats Press) 2008
Co-editor for anthology, The Lake Rises, poems to and for our bodies of water (Stockport Flats Press) 2013
Published poems in anthology, Vigil for the Marcellus Shale, (FootHills Press) 2013 and Ghost Fishing, An Eco-justice poetry anthology 2016.
Lisa's poems can be read in Canary, 5 AM, Naugatuck Review, Adanna Journal, Earth’s Daughters, New York Organic News and The River Reporter.
This is Lisa’s Seventh Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Workshop "LOVE POETRY THROUGH THE AGES"