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• Rachel Swearingen - The Magic and Mechanics of Imagery

  • When
    February 28, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  From Rick Bass’s lyrical descriptions of ice in “The Hermit’s Tale” to uncanny fertility dolls in Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “Who Will Greet You at Home,” images, when done well and consciously shaped into a pattern, can make a story unforgettable and mysterious. In this prose session, we'll explore the mechanics behind the magic, including how to use images to structure your narrative, to transition in time and space, and to modulate setting, pace, and voice. We’ll study the works of several image-driven stories. We'll also write our own pieces, attempting to pull something altogether unexpected from our magician’s hats.
  

  Rachel Swearingen’s stories have appeared in VICE, The Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, Agni, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. Her work has garnered several awards, including the 2015 Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in Fiction, a 2013 MacDowell Colony fellowship, a 2012 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, and the 2011 Mississippi Review Prize in Fiction. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute and lives in Chicago.

  No manuscripts

  
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Mary Robinette Kowal - Conceptualizing the Modern Short Story

  • When
    March 07, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  When people are struggling to write short fiction, the problem usually begins with the idea. It often leads to a story that is too long, really the beginning of a novel, or is so simplistic that it is dull. In this workshop, we'll walk through how to create and structure a short story idea.

  Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, and the Lady Astronaut duology. She’s a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, three Hugo awards, and the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com

  No manuscripts

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Kelly McNees- Create Conflict that Propels your Plot

  • When
    March 14, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  Storytelling revolves around characters and the things they must overcome—conflict. When novels fail to find a publisher, it's often because they don't have enough conflict. In this session, editor/author Kelly McNees outlines different sources of conflict and how to use them to make your story more scintillating, from first page to last.

  Kelly O'Connor McNees began her editorial career at Harper Collins and the University of Michigan Press. She launched Word Bird Editorial Services in 2008, and has helped writers of all stripes—including a CIA agent, a musician, a New York City bartender, a newspaper columnist, a dentist, an organic farmer, an art house cinema owner, and many, many others—improve their writing and pursue their publication goals. Kelly is the author of Undiscovered Country (coming in 2018), The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, In Need of a Good Wife, and The Island of Doves. She is passionate about coaching writers and troubleshooting manuscripts to help them succeed. 

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Abby Saul and Tina Schwartz-The Agent Challenge

  • When
    March 21, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  
  

  Agents Abby Saul (adult fiction) and Tina Schwartz (YA, children's literature, non-fiction) reprise last year's rousing session on finding and working with an agent. Their presentation will include an emphasis on Q & A, and a review of member-submitted critiques and first pages of manuscripts. Abby will critique query letters and Tina will critique manuscript first five pages (see website for submitting and fee details).
  

  Agent Abby Saul founded The Lark Group after a decade in publishing at John Wiley & Sons, Sourcebooks, and Browne & Miller Literary Associates. She’s worked with and edited bestselling and award-winning authors as well as major brands. Abby also has helped to establish ebook standards, led company-wide forums to explore new digital possibilities for books, and created and managed numerous digital initiatives.

          As an agent, Abby is looking for great and engrossing adult commercial and literary fiction. A magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley College, Abby spends her weekends—when she’s not reading—cooking and hiking with her husband. 

  Tina P. Schwartz is a writer of ten traditionally published books. She is a graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing Communication with an Advertising emphasis. After spending many years in advertising, Schwartz gave up a career in media sales to pursue her true passion of selling manuscripts when she opened The Purcell Agency, LLC in July of 2012. She enjoys spending time with family, playing games and sports. She is a huge movie lover and a self-proclaimed tomboy. You can find out more about her at www.tinaPschwartz.com or www.ThePurcellAgency.com. 

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Eric Rampson-An Arc of Arcs or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Story Structure

  • When
    March 28, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  As writers, we’re always told to keep our eye on the arc of our story, making sure it rises and rises until we get to the climax and then, whoosh, back down the hill we go toward our stunning, unexpected-yet-right ending. Most of the time, during the writing, it feels like we’re rising and rising and rising and rising and, oh, c’mon, we’re still rising, I’m running out of momentum here, story, and this hill is going to kill both of us, I just want to get to the whoosh! already… Well, what if you did get to maybe not the whoosh but a whoosh, a little bit of downward slope that let you regain your momentum to get up the next stretch? What if instead of one, long arc upward toward the climax, you instead laid in little plateaus where you could catch your breath and muster your strength? And what if these little plateaus let you make the most out of the important moments of your story? Pretty great, right? Well, that’s what we’ll be talking about: taking a page from the best of television (and a number of novels and stories), we’ll look at “episodic” structures that build one main arc out of a bunch of little arcs, discuss what these structures give us as writers, and even how to start building them into your existing work (it’s easier than you might think).

  Eric Rampson is a Chicago-based writer who spent almost 20 years studying, performing, and teaching improv comedy before getting his MFA in Fiction from The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His fiction has been published in Change Seven Magazine, The Matador Review, Typishly, Metonym, The Gateway Review, Leaf~Land Journal, and Broad River Review. His novel-in-stories Always Already and story collection Hazards are currently looking for good homes while he works on his new novel.

  Eric will accept manuscripts for critique. Please see manuscript guidelines on our website.
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Zoe Zolbrod- Braided Narratives: Stories Deeper than the Sum of their Parts

  • When
    April 04, 2019
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka, IL

  Register

  

  Memoirist and novelist Zoe Zolbrod will discuss the use of multiple storylines in fiction and nonfiction narratives, which can result in work that’s deeper than the sum of its parts. She’ll provide examples of various sorts of braided narratives, analyze how they function, suggest ways to avoid possible pitfalls, and talk about her own use of them. The second hour of the program will include writing exercises designed to unveil connections between characters, time periods, or topics that will get writers thinking about new ways to structure their work. 

   

  Zoe Zolbrod is the author of the Ippy-award-winning memoir The Telling and the novel, Currency. Her essays have appeared in places such as Salon, The Guardian, Lit Hub, the Manifest Station, and The Rumpus, where she served as the Sunday co-editor. Zoe teaches at StoryStudio.            

  6:00-6:30 Socializing 

  6:30-8:30 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Mary Ann Mohamraj- Writing the Taboo

  • When
    April 11, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  Dorothy Allison suggests (in her book Skin:  Talking about Sex, Class, and Literature) that the best writing happens when one is terrified, and writes through the fear.  That's great advice, but the question is *how* does one write through the fear?  It's often frightening when you're trying write about subject matter that is in some manner taboo: material that violates social norms, that might upset family members, or that is simply personally difficult to confront.

  In the hands-on workshop, we'll explore a variety of taboo topics.  We'll look at how brilliant writers have delved into material that was forbidden for their place and time (some of which might seem quite tame by today's standards), and then work through a series of exercises designed to push you into challenging places.  At the end of the session, you should have some tools to lead you to stronger, braver work that takes more risks.  Maybe it'll challenge your audience too!

  Important note:  You won't be required to share this work with anyone, though I may ask for volunteers to read bits of what they've written.

  Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion (HarperCollins),
  The Stars Change (Circlet Press) and eleven other titles. Bodies in
  Motion was a finalist for the Asian American Book Awards, a USA Today
  Notable Book, and has been translated into six languages.  Mohanraj
  founded the Hugo-nominated science fiction magazine, Strange Horizons,
  and serves as editor-in-chief of Jaggery, a South Asian literary
  journal (jaggerylit.com). She received a Breaking Barriers Award from
  the Chicago Foundation for Women for her work in Asian American arts
  organizing, won an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose, and was
  Guest of Honor at WisCon. She serves as Director of two literary
  organizations, DesiLit (www.desilit.org) and The Speculative
  Literature Foundation (www.speclit.org).  Mohanraj is Clinical
  Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at
  Chicago, and lives in a creaky old Victorian in Oak Park, just outside
  Chicago, with her husband, their two small children, and a sweet dog.
  She is currently working on a breast cancer memoir, a science fiction
  novel, and a collection of poetry.  http://www.maryannemohanraj.com    
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Jay Rehak- Publishing Cohort-Written Fiction: Putting it Together

  • When
    April 18, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  Publishing Team-Written Fiction: Putting it Together

  Workshop #2 of award-winning author and celebrated teacher Jay Rehak's instruction on episodic story telling, reviews and sews the OCWW team-written project together and discusses the joys & implications of shared publication.

  This session will be of interest to anyone wanting to learn about pulling the pieces of a team-written novel together, and the process of self-publishing this type of project. Everyone on the team is expected to attend.

  Jay Rehak has been a writing teacher for 32 years; he is the author of 27 produced short plays and has co-written 13 novels with his students and friends. Honored as the 2014 Chicago Public Schools Tech Innovator of the year, Jay has spoken at numerous educational conferences around the country; his TedX Northwestern talk, “How to Teach Empathy through Collaborative Writing” is available on YouTube. In 2013, Mr. Rehak created and co-authored the award winning 30 Days to Empathy, the world’s first high school class sourced novel.  Subsequently, Jay collaborated with his students, writing and publishing Someone Else’s Shoes, The Absolutely Awesome Adventures of Internet Ed, and The Long, Strange Trip of Augie Stone. Additionally, his non-fiction work, How to Write a Class-Sourced Novel has been used by teachers around the world to create their own collaborative novels. He is currently working on Sideline Ink, the second book of his middle grade novel series, which helps promote financial and social emotional literacy.  All of Jay’s works are available on Amazon at  http://bit.ly/jaycrehak. Jay is married to award winning children’s singer, Susan Salidor and he has three children, Hope, Hannah and Ali. Additional biographical information can be found at www.sidelineinkpublishing.com.
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Jennifer Solheim-Want to Improve your Writing? Rx: Read Like a Writer

  • When
    April 25, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

   
  

  

  Writers read. It's a platitude: we all know this. But how do you look at a text you admire for its craft elements? From grammar and syntax to sense and clarity, voice, mood, and tone to character and metaphor—as well as narrative strategies it can be helpful to understand how to analyze a literary text for these elements to use in turn in your own writing. Drawing from the French tradition of explication de texte (textual analysis), this talk will show you how to read for writing craft, as well as demonstrate exercises for drafting and revision based on this close reading technique. 

  Jennifer Solheim is a writer, freelance editor, literary translator, and teacher. She has a PhD in French from the University of Michigan and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the author of The Performance of Listening in Postcolonial Francophone Culture (2018, Liverpool University Press) and a Contributing Editor at Fiction Writers Review. Her short stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in the Bellevue Literary Review, Confrontation, The Pinch, and Poets & Writers, among others. More about her work www.jennifersolheim.com.
  

  Jennifer will accept manuscripts for critique. Please see manuscript guidelines on our website.
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 
  

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Sharon Darrow-Emotion and Revision: Finding the "Emotional Core" of Character in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

  • When
    May 02, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House , 620 Lincoln, Winnetka, IL

  Register

  

  By revisiting our stories, we re-enter our imaginations to discover more about our characters’ inner lives. When we open ourselves to this process, we become the writers we need to be to write the stories we need to write, to bring our characters to life on the page so that they may live in the hearts of our readers.

  Sharon Darrow will talk about emotional resonance, why it is necessary, what we need to achieve it, what obstacles we might encounter, and some practical technical steps to achieve it in revision. This session will include writing exercises, sharing our results, discussion and Sharon will take questions at the end of the session.(Appropriate content for writers of all genres)

  Sharon Darrow was a member of the faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, Vermont College of Fine Arts, from 1997 to 2018. She also taught at Columbia College Chicago in the English department from 1996 to 2003. She is the author of Picture Books (Old Thunder and Miss Raney, art by Kathryn Brown; Yafi’s Family, co-author Linda Pettit, art by Jan Spivey Gilchrist; Through the Tempests Dark and Wild: A Story of Mary Shelley, Creator of Frankenstein, art by Angela Barrett) and Young Adult novels (The Painters of Lexieville and TRASH). Her poetry for young people has been included in Home to Me: Poems Across America, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and her poems, short stories, interviews, and personal essays for adults have appeared in literary journals Rhino, Folio, Whetstone, ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), Columbia Poetry Review, Great River Review, Other Voices, The Writer’s Chronicle, and in the anthology, In the Middle of the Middle West, edited by Becky Bradway. Her most recent book for adults is Worlds within Words: Writing and the Writing Life.

  The Darrow Lecture Series, named in her honor, is held annually in Montpelier, Vermont, with lectures delivered by distinguished authors who are graduates of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

  9-9:30 Socializing 
  

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Michelle Fallkoff-Dialogue Tips for Young Adult and Adult Fiction

  • When
    May 09, 2019
  •  
    6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    The Mallinckrodt Community Center - Senior Center 1041A Ridge Road Wilmette, Illinois 60091 (parking on left side of building)

  Register

  

   In this session, we'll discuss how to use dialogue effectively in both adult and young adult novels. We'll talk about how to make characters' voices distinct, how to make dialogue do more than one thing at once, and how to avoid common dialogue-related issues. We'll read some sample dialogue and discuss it together, and we can also talk about your own writing.

   Michelle Falkoff is the author of PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD, PUSHING PERFECT, and QUESTIONS I WANT TO ASK YOU. Her fiction and reviews have been published in ZYZZYVA, DoubleTake, and the Harvard Review, among other places.  She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and serves as Director of Communication and Legal Reasoning at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

  6:00-6:30 Socializing 
  

  6:30-8:30 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Emily Clark Victorson, Andrea Hall, and Anna Michels- Meet the Editors

  • When
    May 16, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  
  

              Andrea Hall             Emily Clark Victorson             Anna Michels

   Albert Whitman and Company         Allium Press                       Sourcebooks

  Three of Chicago's premier book editors share their thoughts about today's market for fiction and non-fiction, and insights into the editorial review process of queries and manuscript submissions. Panelists include Emily Victorson, editor and publisher of Allium Press, a cutting-edge small press publisher of adult fiction;  Andrea Hall, an associate editor at Albert Whitman & Company who specializes in children's picture books; and Anna Michels, Senior Editor at Sourcebooks acquiring adult fiction and nonfiction.

  Andrea Hall is an Associate Editor at Albert Whitman & Company where she focuses primarily on picture books. She is particularly drawn to stories that have layers of meaning and diversity. Some of the titles she’s acquired include Far Apart, Close in Heart, Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code, and Finding Christmas. Andrea started her publishing career at Pearson Education and is a former ARA of the Central and Southern Ohio Chapter of SCBWI.

  Emily Clark Victorson is the publisher/editor of Allium Press of Chicago. After receiving degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Michigan she moved to the Chicago area. Prior to starting Allium Press she worked as a librarian, historian, and book designer for such organizations as the Newberry Library, the Chicago History Museum, and History Works, Inc.
  

  Anna Michels is a Senior Editor at Sourcebooks, acquiring adult fiction and nonfiction. Anna is looking for a wide variety of books under the mystery/suspense/thriller umbrella, including psychological suspense, cozy mysteries, and contemporary crime fiction in the vein of Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis; book club fiction that hits the sweet spot between commercial and literary; and memoir by writers who connect the events of their lives to readers through incredible storytelling, as well as a wide variety of prescriptive and narrative nonfiction on both historical and contemporary topics.

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Matthew Bird- Crafting Compelling Scenes and Meaningful Themes

  • When
    May 23, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  You can’t tell a great story without great scenes, but this basic unit of storytelling often gets glossed over.  What clever tricks can you use to juice your scenes with more impact and emotion?  In the first half, Matt will work through his Scene Work checklist, then in the second half, he’ll move on to Theme.  What’s the difference between theme and moral?  How can you use ironic dilemmas to magnify the meaning of your story?  Matt will bring lots of examples and some new videos.    
  

  Matt will accept manuscripts for critique. Please see manuscript guidelines for details.

  Matthew Bird has an MFA from Columbia University, but a lot of the advice he hands out now is the opposite of what he was taught there.  He is the author of the bestselling writing guide “The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers”, published in 2016 by Writer’s Digest Press.  He lives in Evanston, Illinois with his wife and two adorable children. Matt can be reached on his website: www.secretsofstory.com

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Abby Geni- Writing a Literary Thriller

  • When
    May 30, 2019
  •  
    9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka IL

  Register

  

  All great literary thrillers have a few things in common: a streamlined plot, unrelenting tension, and complex characters. In this class, award-winning author Abby Geni will share her insights about how to write a page-turner, covering everything from plot architecture to unreliable narrators to red herrings. We will focus on infusing your work with tension through pacing, point of view, dialogue, description, characterization, and even setting. The literary thriller has something to teach writers working in any genre. We will talk about how to create a powerful inciting incident, how to deepen and strengthen your plot, and how to arrive at a satisfying ending.
  

  Abby Geni is the Chicago-based author of The Wildlands (September 2018), The Lightkeepers, winner of the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction and the Chicago Review of Books Awards for Best Fiction, and The Last Animal, an Indies Introduce Debut Writers Selection and finalist for the Orion Book Award. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship. Her website is www.abbygeni.com    
  

  9-9:30 Socializing 

  9:30-12 Program 

  
  

  
  

  Show details