WRITERS JOINING THE FESTIVAL IN 2025
BREENA CLARKE
CHERYL CLARKE
ESTHER COHEN
VALERIE COLE
STEPHANIE COTSIRILOS
MARGO FARRINGTON
RUTH FRANKLIN
MIHO KINNAS
IRENA KLEPFISZ
DAHLMA LLANOS-FIGUEROA
ELLEN MEEROPOL
STEPHANIE NIKOLOPOULOS
BERTHA ROGERS
MARGARET R. SÁRACO
SOPHFRONIA SCOTT
SALLY SIMON
CLICK ON ANY NAME ABOVE TO ZOOM TO THAT PARTICULAR WRITER, OR SIMPLY SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE ENTIRE ROSTER.
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 8th ONLY. Intensives are limited to 15 Participants, so please register early. The Intensive Registration deadline is Thursday, 5/29/25 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 $35.
Please consult the specific Workshop description below for any materials or references required by the Instructor, noted in bold, red print.
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.
Now in its 12th year, she 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 12th year.
Intensive Workshop for :
Esther Cohen
This is a SIX-HOUR Class
GOOD STORIES: How to Write Them
Everyone has a good story to tell. How to tell your story will be the focus of this six-hour Intensive Workshop. Participants will look at masterful good stories, will tell them, will discuss good writing, techniques, and examine what makes a story good. And each participant will write a story of their own.
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 Twelfth 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
DARE TO BEGIN: Writing Later in Life
Many of us have lived through unconventional trajectories that propelled us toward writing later in life. We may sometimes wonder if we’re kidding ourselves, if our prior experiences matter, and if reinvention is possible. Time may feel like it’s poking us between the shoulder blades, reminding us to hurry up.
We’ll supportively consider these questions and their realities and potential. After exploring accounts of how women artists have addressed similar challenges, we’ll use an exercise to test the ways in which mature POVs can illuminate past events. We’ll brainstorm options for moving forward. I’ll provide a digital bibliography.
Workshop for :
Margot Farrington
ALL THOSE OTHERS: An Exploration of Animals
This workshop celebrating our animal kin, will focus on writing about other species through three avenues of approach:
1) the mythic
2) the scientific
3) the personal encounter, to write poetry or prose.
The primary goal is to generate compelling ideas, lines, and first drafts allowing us entry into new works.
Participants will examine these three areas separately, then be shown ways to blend them if the writer so chooses. Participants receive source materials for use, both in the written and visual realms.
Takeaway at workshop's end includes source list (written and visual) for further use, and a "surprise" to work from.
Photo Courtesy of Dos Madres Press
Margot Farrington
Margot Farrington is a poet, writer, and performer. Her two most recent books are The Blue Canoe of Longing (Dos Madres Press, 2019), and Early Cover Art: From Shellac To Vinyl (Edition Longplay, 2022, with Rainer Haarman).
Three prior poetry books plus reviews, essays, and exhibition catalogues comprise other published works. Radio interviews with readings include Art On Air International, Wave Farm, Out Of Bounds, and others.
Farrington has read and performed in venues around the U.S., and in France, England, Wales, and The Netherlands. From 2014 to 2019, she served as founder and director of Writers At The Eyrie in Brooklyn, NY.
This is Margot's Fifth Festival and she will present the Workshop: "ALL THOSE OTHERS: An Exploration Of Animals".
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 :
Valerie Cole
WITCHES ARE PEOPLE TOO: A Creative Writing Workshop for Women
This workshop will explore stereotypes related to fantasy characters, including witches, demons, angels, vampires and other types of magical beings to examine successful character studies of magical beings and to develop characters that embody qualities that are realistic and appeal to the author and to readers.
Part didactic, part creative the workshop participants will be presented with various characters from popular and successful novels and asked to determine how they affect the reader (e.g., Elphaba from Wicked, Lestat de Lioncourt from The Vampire Diaries, Aziraphael from Good Omens)
Participants will be asked to write a brief character study of a magical being, including origin story, supernatural abilities/characteristics, personality traits, relationships and vulnerabilities. Workshop participants will offer feedback to each other on believability, interest and novelty of the characters.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Stephanie Cotsirilos
Honoring foremothers who couldn’t read and tapping her own prior careers on Broadway and in law, Stephanie Cotsirilos writes about humor, injustice, and resilience. She’s author of the novella My Xanthi, essayist in Beacon Press’ Breaking Bread anthology on food, hunger, and family, and has been published in The Sewanee Review (forthcoming), Narrative, and McSweeney’s, among others.
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 First Workshop: "DARE TO BEGIN: Writing Later in Life"
Workshop for :
Miho Kinnas
HAIKU+ WORKSHOP: Sabi and Karumi —Basho’s Aesthetics
Based on the world-famous “frog” poem and a few other haiku by Basho, this workshop will discuss craft, aesthetics, editing, and translation. What made Basho new then, and why is it still important in haiku? Additional topics include:
Abbreviated Overview of Japanese literary history
Kigo (season words) & Kireji (cutting words)
Haiku in English — American poets in haiku
Rengay — American style linked verse
Modern / Contemporary Japanese haiku/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 First Festival and she will present the workshop: "HAIKU+ : Sabi and Karumi —Basho’s aesthetics".
Visit her at:
Photo Courtesy of Robyn Wishna
Irena Klepfisz
Irena Klepfisz has taught English literature, Yiddish language and literature, Jewish Women’s Studies at Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus), Columbia University and was guest lecturer at numerous universities.
Beginning in 1996 she taught Jewish Women’s Studies as an adjunct for 22 years at Barnard College. Simultaneously she also taught English literature and Women’s Studies for 10 years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison for women in upstate New York.
Since retiring she has led numerous creative writing workshops.
This is Irena's First Workshop and she is presenting the Workshop: "TEXTS OF BETRAYAL: Secrets and Boundaries".
Workshop for :
Irena Klepfisz
TEXTS OF BETRAYAL: Secrets and Boundaries
The truth and nothing but the truth...and yet... Our lives are inevitably intertwined with others--family members, friends, fellow workers, next-door neighbors with whom we share experiences and confidences.
In the workshop participants will discuss the complex issues involving delicate information and experiences that bind us to others and to whom we have promised secrecy. Of course, we do not want to reveal confidences, and yet... Yet, we want to write without inhibitions and limitations and to publish (meaning: to go public), but in doing so, we run also run the risk of exposing others.
To explore these issues the workshop will try to address such questions as: What is our obligation to others and their role in our experiences? How do we depict others (prose and/or poetry)? How do we tell "my story" when "my story" touches upon "our/their story"? Do we edit, disguise, lie, omit, or give up all together and never even begin?
Workshop for :
Ruth Franklin
BETTER WRITING THROUGH CRITICISM
This workshop session will incorporate strategies from criticism into creative writing (fiction or nonfiction).
Participants will read together a piece of flash nonfiction that is centered on a photograph and dissect the way it works. They then have the opportunity to create and share their own prose on a photograph or other image important to them.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Ruth Franklin
Ruth Franklin’s latest book, The Many Lives of Anne Frank, was published by Yale University Press in January 2025. Her previous book, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (2016), won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2016, a Time magazine top nonfiction book of 2016, and a “best book of 2016” by The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, and others.
She is also the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction (2011), a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Writing. Her criticism and essays appear in many publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, and Harper’s. She lives in Brooklyn.
This is Ruth's First Festival and she will present the workshop: "BETTER WRITING THROUGH CRITICISM".
Visit her at:
Photo Courtesy of Matzvey Zabbi
Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College-City University of New York.
As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before becoming a young-adult librarian.
The 2009 hardcover edition of Daughters of the Stone was listed as a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize.
Her short stories appear in the following anthologies:
Breaking Ground: Anthology of Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York 1980 - 2012 (Abriendo Caminos: antologia de escritoras puertorriquenas en Nueva York 1980 - 2012), Bronx Memoir Project, Latina Authors and Their Muses, Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, and Growing Up Girl.
n 2021, she was awarded the Inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellowship from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundation’s Arts Fund aimed to enrich and sustain literary tradition in Puerto Rico and across the US Diaspora. Her second novel, A Woman of Endurance (Amistad, 2022) is available in the Spanish edition, Indómita, (Harper Espanol, May 2022) and is now available in paperback edition (Amistad, 2023).
This is Dahlma’s Seventh Festival as a participating writer and is presenting the Workshop: "CREATIVE NONFICTION: Alternative Ways of Telling Your Life Story".
Workshop for :
Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
CREATIVE NONFICTION: Alternative Ways of Telling Your Life Story
Have you ever wanted to write memoir but felt constricted by the notion of adhering to absolute empirical data written in traditional narrative style? Have you ever tried to mine your own memories and wondered how the same act is remembered by others?
Are you fascinated by the subjectivity of memory? Are you intrigued by how point of view alters the notion of reality? Is there ever only one reality? How can we use culturally diverse forms of storytelling to enhance our narrative? How many of us seek a broader, more freeing way of tapping into memory?
How many of us wish that we could include the perspective of people who are unavailable or have passed on in our lives? Have you explored going beyond the limits of objective reality and using techniques usually reserved for fantasy, magical realism, or mysticism to fully explore our recollections?
There are many different techniques that go beyond the traditional narrative and can broaden narrative through use of speculative narrative techniques, attention to different structure models, mixed genres, overriding metaphors and others. Using these techniques allows us the freedom to approach memoir with fresh eyes.
By embracing the use of structure, metaphor, and imagination, we can push possibilities beyond parameters of traditional memoir. This is a workshop for those who explore, who consider bending the rules, stepping out of the box, to get to the core of their emotional truth. It offers of options for your craft tool box.
Be ready to dig in to your store of memories, to explore and to share.
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Valerie Cole
Valerie Cole has been writing fiction full-time since 2021. Her debut novel, The Old Witches Home, a cozy senior fantasy, was published under the pen name Avian Swansong in June 2024 by Wildebeest Publishing. She is currently working on a climate fiction novel set in the near future in the Western Catskills.
Her stories and articles have been published in Catskills Literary Journal and the New Franklin Register. She currently is a member of three writing groups, takes classes with the Downtown Writers Center at the Syracuse YMCA and foists a biweekly blog on about a hundred friends and fans.
Cole is a lifelong witch, guardian of the amazing cat, Opus, and resident of Oneonta, NY.
This is Valerie's First Festival and she will present the Workshop "WITCHES ARE PEOPLE TOO: A Creative Writing Workshop for Women".
Workshop for :
Ellen Meeropol
THE WRITER IN THE WORLD: Literary Activism and Literary Citizenship
Stories that directly engage our world present both exciting opportunities and significant challenges.
This workshop will explore writing fiction that engages with social/political issues and controversies. We’ll talk about—and practice—strategies to help the writer dramatize potentially provocative material without being didactic or preachy.
We will also look at examples of using storytelling skills to make a positive impact on the world and brainstorm ways we can each be a better literary citizen.
Photo Courtesy of Danielle Tait
Ellen Meeropol
Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels 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 Fourth Festival as a participating writer and is presenting the Workshop: "THE WRITER IN THE WORLD: Literary Activism and Literary Citizenship".
Workshop for :
Stephanie Nikolopoulos
MAKING & BREAKING WRITING RULES
Do you have a writing mantra? Ernest Hemingway said to stop writing each day when you know what will happen next; Susan Sontag said to observe the world around you; Zadie Smith said to read your work the way your enemy would.
In this workshop, you’ll discover the rules famous writers have made for themselves and assess whether they’re worth adding to your own creative practice.
Through guided prompts you’ll write to uncover the sometimes subconscious rules that may be holding you back. You’ll come away with your own personal list of mantras to inspire, nurture, and hone your literary craft.
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 Ninth year and will offer the Writing Workshop, "MAKING & BREAKING WRITING RULES".
Workshop for :
Bertha Rogers
RIDDLES & RHYMES BY & FOR KIDS, AGE 8-12
In this workshop, Bertha Rogers will lead students in writing funny riddles and poems, using made-up words, rhymes, limericks and other poetic techniques. Participants will complete a poem or riddle about living in or visiting the Catskills.
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 Eleventh Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop, "RIDDLES & RHYMES BY AND FOR KIDS, AGE 8-12".
Visit her at: www.BerthaRogers.com
Photo Courtesy of hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog
Sally Simon
Jane Schulman is a poet and fiction writer. In 2020, she published a book of poetry, Where Blue Is Blue, with the terrific small press, Main Street Rag. In the book, she explores themes of love, death, disability, and wonder in the everyday. Jane’s poems have appeared in Mezzo Cammin, Sixfold, The Lake and many others. She is now at work on a book of short stories.
Jane was born in Brooklyn and lives in Jamaica, Queens. She's the mother of four sons and grandmother of six. A seeker and finder of voices, she works as a speech pathologist in a Brooklyn public school with children with autism and learning challenges.
This is Sally’s First Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop: “WRITING SMALL: Writing Flash Fiction with a Big Punch”.
Visit her at:
Workshop for :
Sally Simon
WRITING SMALL: Writing Flash Fiction with a Big Punch
How many words does it take to make an impact? Flash fiction, writing from 6-1,000 words, has grown exponentially in the last decade. In this workshop, participants will read exemplary flash fiction from 100-300 words and discuss what makes them work.
Participants will be given writing prompts that aim to produce writing with emotional resonance. Time will be allotted for peer feedback, and participants will leave with 2-3 flash fiction drafts.
Note: This workshop will work with non-fiction as well.
Workshop for :
Lisa Wujnovich
HIGH CONFLICT POETRY
Poets add nuanced language to conflict, whether that conflict is political, religious, philosophical, or personal.
As citizens of one small planet, war-torn, engulfed in climate crisis, we are increasingly divided and lonely, morally at odds, with finite lines drawn.
In this workshop, participants will examine how poetic language in narrative and lyrical form reaches into the humanness of conflict. Participants will use poetry prompts to listen beyond first impulses and write crafted poems to tell stories that explore individuality and commonality within our high conflicts.
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 Sixth Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering a Special Multi-Media Event: Book Art Presentation and Poetry Reading with Open Panel Discussion
Workshop for :
Margaret R. Sáraco
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 facebook
Margaret R. Sáraco
Margaret R. Sáraco, a storyteller writing at the intersection of poetry, fiction, and memoir, is the author of two poetry collections, If There Is No Wind and Even the Dog Was Quiet, (Human Error Publishing.)
She is poetry editor for the Platform Review, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and twice recognized in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest. Her poetry and short stories appear in Paterson Literary Review, Exit 13, The Path Literary Magazine, Book of Matches, Greening the Earth (Penguin Books), Lips, and Kerning. Since retiring from teaching middle school math in 2022, she is a full-time writer.
This is Margaret's Second Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop, “UNLOCK UNTOLD STORIES AND POETRY: Use the Jobs You’ve Worked to Generate Writing”.
Visit her at:
Workshop for :
Sophfronia Scott
ALMOST STRAIGHT TO THE HEART: Using the Self-Discovery Process as a Craft Tool in Creative Writing
Joan Didion famously noted, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking…” That kind of writing can mean a precarious process. After all, what you’re thinking may be unsettling! And writing has been compared to opening a vein and bleeding onto the page. But the journey of self-discovery need not be so dramatic or traumatic.
In fact, it can be quite productive. Unpacking your interiority as you put words on the page may solve writing blocks, present new ideas, and result in deeper and more meaningful and authentic work.
We will play with a writing exercise and think about how to observe your thoughts as you write. We will also discuss what to do with what you find in the marginalia of your brain. By embracing the unknown, we may see that writing, no matter the genre, doesn’t have to be about opening a vein. It may be as simple as stepping onto a path and seeing where it takes you.
Photo Courtesy of Rob Berkley
Sophfronia Scott
Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.
Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton won the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison.
Sophfronia holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, where she co-authored the groundbreaking cover story “Twentysomething,” the first study identifying the demographic group known as Generation X, and People.
When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophfronia was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as “potentially one of the best writers of her generation.” Sophfronia Scott is also a founding Participating Writer at the Hobart Festival of Women Writers.
This is Sophfronia's Seventh Festival and she will present the Workshop: "ALMOST STRAIGHT TO THE HEART: Using the Self-Discovery Process as a Craft Tool in Creative Writing".
Visit her at:
Special Multi-Media Event
Book Art Presentation and Poetry Reading with Open Panel Discussion
Lisa Wujnovich
with Roni Gross and Peter Schell
Join the creators of "I Know How to Be Helpful", a letterpress book of a poem of the same name, written by Lisa Wujnovich.
The book speaks in the inside and outside voice of a 12-year-old girl who is coerced into a dangerous car ride by a stranger. "I Know How to Be Helpful", Z'roah Press, 2024, limited edition of 24 copies, was created by the book artists, Roni Gross and Peter Schell, and is a Minnesota Center for Book Art Prize Semi-Finalist 2024.
A film of the unfolding of the art book by the filmmaker, David Dawkins, will be shown overlaid with a live reading, followed by a panel discussion about the making of the book and the importance of voice in empowering and protecting girls' and womens' bodies in today's political climate.