Upcoming events

Switch to Calendar View

• 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