Morning Creative Writing Workshops

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Fiction

1.  Robert Eversz 
2.  Stu Dybek   FULL       
3.  Robert Olen Butler/ Richard Katrovas   FULL

Poetry

1.  Jack Myers / Roger Weingarten
2.  Cynthia Hogue / Alison Deming

Creative Nonfiction

1.   Robin Hemley / Lee Gutkind  FULL

Scriptwriting/Playwriting

1.   Arnie Johnston & Debbie Percy /Claudia Barnett & Gaylord Brewer

Multi-Genre (undergraduate only)

This workshop will center on the particular needs of undergraduate poets, as well as fiction and nonfiction writers interested in attending graduate school. In addition to traditional workshop activity, students will be coached in the graduate-school application process. The course will be taught the first two weeks by Gerald Costanzo, a highly respected poet and founding editor of one of the premier university presses in America, Carnegie Mellon University Press. As an editor, Costanzo (an aficionado of genre fiction) evaluates hundreds of poetry, fiction and nonfiction manuscripts each year, and as a mentor of undergraduates has places students in most of the leading graduate programs in America. The second two weeks will be taught by Richard Jackson, a celebrated poet, translator and editor and one of the most successful and respected mentors of undergraduates in the profession.

1.   Gerald Costanzo/Richard Jackson

Workshop description

Most creative writing workshops will have two mentors, one in the first two weeks and one in the second. The slash mark between names separates the faculty teaching the first two weeks from the faculty teaching the second two weeks of the program. Robert Eversz and Stuart Dybek will teach 4-week workshops (2-week enrollments will be accepted for these workshops).

Each will also have a TA who is the class manager; the TA will facilitate the collection and distribution of work prior to the beginning of the program, take roll, disseminate work once workshops are underway and help in the transition from the first two weeks to the second, etc. The TA will also serve as liaison between program participants and the academic director. In addition, the TA, a Western Michigan University MFA or Ph.D. candidate with teaching experience, will serve as mentor for those program participants who have limited workshop experience.

We make our best effort to limit workshops to twelve students, including the TA. Above are the workshops as they will likely be configured when the Program begins. The creative writing classes will be composed of individuals at all skill levels, and will include both undergraduates and graduates. Novices (who may be brilliant and wildly gifted, but are early in their development as artists, and/or are relatively new to the workshop experience) will meet out of class with their TAs for special tutorials, and will otherwise be observers in the classroom. These tutorials will center on writing assignments and text-editing exercises. In consultation with the TAs, the mentors may invite novice poets and prose writers to submit their writing for critique.

Each PSP participant will have work solicited by her or his TA, before the Program begins, for dissemination online to the rest of the workshop. This is a messy though necessary process that will insure that each workshop begins crisply.

All students seeking academic credit for PSP courses and workshops must also attend the Tuesday Lecture Series (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and submit a minimum 1000-word personal essay on the 2008 theme to the PSP director by the evening of the final Tuesday of the program. In addition, creative writing students seeking credit must attend all of the Ypsilon Theater readings (few will find this requirement anything but a joy).

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
(June 30 to July 11 only--first two weeks of program)
 
Refining the Nonfiction Manuscript
Gribner Peer Review Workshop 

Sue Ribner & Ron Grant

This peer review workshop, offered in Prague for the third year, will be a gathering of nonfiction writers with manuscripts in which they have committed to subjects and have already made significant progress on memoirs or a collection of essays.

One unique element of this workshop is that the entire manuscript-in-progress may be evaluated. This will be a genuine peer workshop with members having an equal voice and a chance to determine the direction of their own feedback sessions. Our conversation, which will center on close, soulful readings of one another’s work, will be conducted over six four-hour sessions, and will center on issues of form, theme, copy-editing, and submission preparation.

Class size is limited to 10 (2 groups of 5), affording each writer’s work significant time for review. All manuscripts will be disseminated by e-mail in the weeks preceding our arrival in Prague, so participants will have time to read and prepare comments. In addition, there will be classroom visits by Prague Summer Program Faculty, who will speak about craft and the how-tos of getting published.

Workshop facilitators Sue Ribner, MFA and Ron Grant, MD, MFA, founders of Gribner Nonfiction Manuscript Workshops (www.gribner.com ), will manage the workshop in association with Professor Richard Katrovas, the Prague Summer Program founding director. They will choose the participants and generally ensure that the quality of the writing to be discussed by the group meets a high level of proficiency.

Participants in the workshop pay the Prague Summer Program’s two-week, one-course enrollment rate of $2,145, and are eligible for John Woods Scholarships (see U page), but not academic credit. They may reserve dorm housing and are entitled to all PSP benefits and privileges, including the Monday night Czech movie series, the Tuesday morning PSP Lecture Series, evening readings by PSP faculty, weekend excursions, and other special events.

Class size limited to TEN. Apply early. This workshop was full by February 1 for the 2007 session.

Gribner application deadline: April 15, 2008

PSP Gribner workshop selection process:

Applicants must submit the following materials directly by e-mail to Sue Ribner and Ron Grant at:    This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

1) 15 pages from the manuscript they plan to workshop

2) A short, one-paragraph description of their writing project

3) A short biography that includes your experience with writing classes and workshops.

4) A cover letter that includes their contact information, name, address, phone, e-address.

Upon acceptance into this workshop by Sue and Ron, applicants must complete the PSP online application and pay the $250 deposit to reserve a slot. Full payment of program fees is due by May 15, 2008.