Join us at the Indiana State Library when Indiana’s best established and emerging writers will meet for a full day of classes on the writing craft. Featuring a keynote address and a creative nonfiction breakout session from author Natalie Lima. Other breakout sessions include poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, publishing and a writing roundtable presented by J.R. Jamison, Mitchell L. Douglas, Matthew Graham, Noley Reid, Katherine Higgs-Coulthard, Sarah Layden and Suzanne Walker You’ll leave full of inspiration, armed with writing drafts ripe for experimentation—along with a hundred other writers who feel the same way.
For ticket registration click here. For faculty bios click here. Full program available soon!
Writing Your Life
Creative Nonfiction
Natalie Lima
There are myriad ways to tell your stories. As we grow older, the documentation seems more and more important. In this workshop, we’ll take time to write the stories of our everyday lives. We’ll read examples and, via writing exercises, we’ll practice telling our own stories.
Crafting Realistic Characters by Focusing on Core Beliefs
YA Fiction
Katherine Higgs-Coulthard
Kurt Vonnegut advises writers to “make their characters want something right away.” Desires make characters relatable, define their actions, and make readers care about what happens in the story. But these desires can’t be superficial. Instead they must stem from the character’s core beliefs. This session will provide opportunities to explore how core beliefs shape characters’ perspectives, impact their relationships with other characters, and drive their actions and reactions within the story.
A Higher Truth: Fictionalizing Life for Poetry
Poetry
Mitchell L. H. Douglas
In a poem, staying true to the details of an event as they happened is not as important as the higher truth a poem attempts to achieve. This generative workshop will ask poets to start with a seed of truth and grow a tree that twists the branches into something magical and unexpected.
The Power of Place and the Importance of Detail
Poetry
Matthew Graham
In this class we will talk about the power of place – in the present, in the past and in the imagination – and its importance in our lives. We will also do various writing exercises that will demonstrate how specific, concrete details can make a place and a time come alive.
Writing with an Empathetic Eye (and Ears) to Enhance Character Development
Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Writers
J.R. Jamison
Award-winning author and NPR host J.R. Jamison will lead attendees through an interactive writing workshop that explores authentic listening and empathy as ways to enhance character development for fiction and nonfiction writers.
The Big Benefits of Small Presses
Publishing
Sarah Layden
You’ve written and revised your work, and you’re ready to send it out in the world, to make it public, to publish. Now a different kind of work begins: finding a publisher. This session spotlights university presses, independent publishing houses, and literary magazines, and we’ll discuss the ins and outs of working with these venues, including a wealth of resources to help find the best home for your writing. For all levels of writers who want to learn more about the publishing process.
Strong Openings: Right from the Start
Fiction
Noley Reid
After the title, a short story’s opening can make or break its connection with a reader. After all, the first words, first sentence, first paragraph are the most visible and the spot where most readers, editors, and agents decide to stop reading altogether. In this workshop, we will examine the openings to dozens of well-published authors’ short stories, noting the many techniques used and how they strengthen these openings. Then we will turn to our own work, revising our current openings according to what we’ve learned. We all want our stories to grab our readers and hold on tight; bring one short story draft to this workshop and a healthy sense of adventure, and you’ll never write another dull opening again.
Next Steps for Your Writing: A Round Table
Writing Life
Suzanne Walker
You’ve written a bunch of awesome pages. What do you do next? The answer is different for everyone! Join us to discuss a myriad of tools available to writers including networking opportunities, contests, writing societies, writing groups, pitchfests, agents, critique partners and more. Do you have advice or a tool you’d love to share with other writers? BRING IT. This session is lead by Suzanne Walker, librarian in the query trenches, and also lead by YOU. Be ready to share and learn in this interactive session. It’s practically guaranteed that you’ll leave with several concrete next steps for your writing journey.
Thank you to the following partners and sponsors that help make our programming possible:
Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Glick Fund
Indy Arts Council
Indiana Arts Commission
Indiana Humanities
Lilly Endowment Inc.
Poetry Foundation
The Indianapolis Foundation
Theatre Unchained
Wiseman Logistics
A special thank you to our major event sponsor:
Indiana Center for the Book