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Friday, June 7
 

9:00am MDT

Get Out of Your Own Way (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Self-doubt and self-criticism are two of the biggest obstacles a writer can face at any stage of their career. We produce our best work when we write with abandon, without any fears or second-guessing. Learn how to shake your imposter syndrome and liberate your process in this class.
Speakers
avatar for Alyse Knorr

Alyse Knorr

Instructor
Alyse Knorr is an assistant professor of English at Regis University and, since 2017, co-editor of Switchback Books. Her most recent book of poems, Mega-City Redux, won the 2016 Green Mountains Review Poetry Prize, selected by Olena Kalytiak Davis. She is also the author of the poetry... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  All Genres

9:00am MDT

Culturally Expansive Approaches to Plot and Story Structure
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
315
Register
U.S. fiction and nonfiction writers have been trained to follow “universal” rules of story structure: The Aristotelian plot arc. Three-Act Structure. The Hero’s Journey. In recent years, diverse voices in prose writing and craft have called for expanding these norms. In this class for prose writers of all levels, we'll deconstruct both western and non-western story structures and storytelling conventions to better understand how our own work might draw from, and fit into, a literal world of stories. We’ll read stories and watch short films as examples, and experiment with both generative writing and restructuring. Bring an informal outline of a piece you’re working on (either short story, essay, or book), or I’ll provide you with sample outlines of other authors’ work to use for the exercises if you don’t have anything handy.
Speakers
avatar for Angie Chuang

Angie Chuang

Instructor
Angie Chuang is an associate professor of journalism at University of Colorado Boulder who writes and teaches a wide range of nonfiction forms. Her memoir, The Four Words for Home (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2014),won an Independents Publishers Award for Multicultural Nonfiction... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
315
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Narrative Strategy in Fiction and Memoir
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
216
Register
Possibly, the biggest decision you’ll make, usually right at the start of your project, is who the narrator will be. “It’s Fred's story,” you’ll say, and you’ll start telling Fred's story in either first or third person. Along the way, though, you might discover that it’s someone else’s story. In this class, we'll examine the narrative choices we make in fiction and memoir and discuss a range of different options. This class will be a mixture of lecture, discussion, and in-class writing.
Speakers
avatar for William Haywood Henderson

William Haywood Henderson

Instructor
William Haywood Henderson earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from Brown University, and attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing. He is the author of three novels: Native, The Rest of... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Tapping Into Your Weirdness (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
George Saunders says, “Fiction at its best is not supposed to just be this flat, perfectly reflective mirror that presents a linear position of ‘life as it is.’ We should expect and enjoy some distortion in the baseline representation.” This craft seminar will be geared toward allowing that distortion—that weirdness—into your own writing. By close-reading examples of distorted realities, practicing written exercises, and sharing our results, we’ll address how and why “tapping into the weird” might be the best thing for your work at both the generative and revision stages. Come ready to get weird.
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He was also awarded a fellowship to the 2015 Arctic Circle Residency and was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, Electric... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

9:00am MDT

Fiction for Nonfiction Writers
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
304
Register
Learn from the instructor's mistakes! As a nonfiction writer writing for academic journals, blogs, and online magazines, the transition to fiction was far more challenging than he had expected. In this seminar, participants will explore some of the pitfalls specific to journalists, academics, and other nonfiction writers also striving to create fiction. Some topics include narration (aka, turning off that authoritative voice), show vs. tell (aka, it’s a story, not an essay), and interiority (aka, we don’t always say what we mean or mean what we say). We'll also complete a writing exercise if time allows.
Speakers
avatar for Andrew Hernandez

Andrew Hernandez

Instructor
Andrew Hernandez, PhD, is a writer and teacher. Born in the Chicagoland area, Hernandez’s work has taken him to Puerto Rico, New York, Mali, New Zealand, and now Colorado. A former Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism magazine, his narrative nonfiction has also appeared in... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
304
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

To Meander, Spiral, Explode
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
204
Register
This generative class will explore the narrative structures of meandering, spiraling, and exploding by paying homage to Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison (no need to read/have). We'll employ divinatory poetics for prompts to get us started and to keep going; specifically, the instructor will use the art of bibliomancy, turning to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig as the Muse (also no need to read/have). Come with an open mind! You might start something new or dive deeper into a work-in-progress. There’s no telling if you'll meander, spiral, or fracture, but you will come away with more knowledge about these structures.
Speakers
avatar for Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Instructor
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz is primarily a fiction writer living on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado in a Victorian-era farmhouse where her family is surrounded by open sky and century-old cottonwoods. She literally grew up in a bookstore with parents who worshipped all things literature... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
204
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

9:00am MDT

Hey, I Can Be Fun! Reapproaching the Nonfiction Book Proposal
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
215
Register
Does writing a nonfiction book proposal rub you as a daunting, dry, and restrictive task? What if crafting the proposal could be approached as the opposite—as an act of nuance, discovery, and creativity? In the instructor's experience, drafting a book proposal was an opportunity to step away from the frustrations of writing, play with structure, and infuse "pizzazz" (an actual component of the proposal) into an idea that might otherwise not have become a completed book. In this class, the instructor will share excerpts from her own proposal, and we’ll start working on the sections that can go into yours. Please come with a solid idea for a nonfiction book or memoir.
Speakers
avatar for Megan Nix

Megan Nix

Instructor
Megan Nix’s medical memoir, Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth, was published by Doubleday in 2023. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, where it won the Editor’s Prize. She holds an MFA in Nonfiction from the University of Alaska... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
215
  Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Research As Writerly Practice: Nonfiction Writing from Inquiry and Fact (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Are you working on a nonfiction project? The myth of artistic genius often suggests that inspiration is mainlined from the heavens and that one's imagination is the only creative source. And yet, it's often an inquiry into the world outside of ourselves that offers the most potent inspiration. How can research serve as a generative practice and a portal to the written word? This seminar will support nonfiction writers in incorporating rich factual inquiry into current or future nonfiction projects, rendering research into luminous prose, and creating a research roadmap moving forward.
Speakers
avatar for Lauren Markham

Lauren Markham

Instructor
Lauren Markham is a writer based in California whose work has appeared in outlets such as Guernica, Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, Freeman's, Lithub, Best American Travel Writing, The New Republic, Narrative, The New York Review of Books, and VQR, where she is a contributing... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Common Blindspots in Poetry Manuscript Development (and How to Overcome Them)
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
316
Register
This poetry manuscript seminar explores ten common blindspots that keep our books from reaching their true potential. Learn strategies and best practices that help poets overcome these challenges.
Speakers
avatar for Radha Marcum

Radha Marcum

Instructor
Radha Marcum, MFA, won the 2023 Washington Prize for her forthcoming collection, Pine Soot Tendon Bone (2024). She was also awarded the New Mexico Book Award in 2018 for her first collection of poems, Bloodline (3: A Taos Press), about her grandfather's work building the first atomic... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
316
  Poetry

9:00am MDT

Getting Published: Stories, Essays, Articles and Books
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
You've been polishing your writing, and now you're ready to submit it for publication. Just how do you do that? We'll delve into a quick overview of three different pathways to publication through literary journals, websites, magazines, and books. We'll discuss cover letters, query letters, and do's and don'ts for submissions. And we'll investigate ways of tracking your submissions and useful websites for researching publications. By the end of this class, you'll be armed with a thick-anti-rejection hide and a list of publications to submit your work to.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Beacon Hall
  Publishing/Career

1:30pm MDT

I Love You, Jackass: Writing Complex Emotions
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
Evoking emotion is one of the biggest challenges we face as writers. We want our readers to cry, laugh, fear death, or feel alive the way we do while reading our favorite books. But how do you write emotionally without sounding sappy, sentimental, or—horrors!—melodramatic? The answer lies in complexity, in layering emotions to mimic our own complicated emotions. By invoking the interplay of emotional opposites, we’ll create new emotional writing and also look at examples from masters to guide us along. Open to all genres.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  All Genres

1:30pm MDT

Writing Across Difference
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
“Can I write about that?” The question of cultural appropriation is a complicated one, and so too are its answers. We'll examine strategies for researching and portraying lives unlike our own that reflect social and historical context and the fullness of a character’s humanity. We'll work on writing exercises and discuss texts by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Toni Morrison, and Elaine Castillo, among others, who write responsibly and respectfully across race, age, gender, class, and other elements of identity.
Speakers
avatar for Vanessa Hua

Vanessa Hua

Visiting Author
Vanessa Hua is the author of the national bestsellers A River of Stars and Forbidden City, as well as Deceit and Other Possibilities, a New York Times Editors Pick. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  All Genres

1:30pm MDT

The Exquisite is in the Details
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
304
Register
In this detail-oriented class, we'll examine three different types of detail crucial to the craft of creative writing—the concrete, the significant, and the specific—as well as how, when, and why to use them.
Speakers
avatar for Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Instructor
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz is primarily a fiction writer living on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado in a Victorian-era farmhouse where her family is surrounded by open sky and century-old cottonwoods. She literally grew up in a bookstore with parents who worshipped all things literature... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
304
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Slaying the YA Novel (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
What is the difference between writing for adults and young adults? The answer you often hear is voice. However, even after nailing voice, you still have to contend with a faster pace, engaging plot, and powerful character arc that will keep your audience riveted. In this session, we’ll get down to brass tacks and talk about the basics, from voice to story structure and worldbuilding in all genres.
Speakers
avatar for Olivia Chadha

Olivia Chadha

Instructor
Olivia writes science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and literary novels for MG, YA, and adult audiences. She has a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing. The Balance of Fragile Things is her debut adult literary novel. Rise of the Red Hand, her YA debut, was awarded the Colorado... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Poetic Voice: Finding Your Zone of Unique Genius
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
Register
Poets often receive the advice to "develop a voice uniquely yours." But what does that mean? And how should we interpret journal or book submission guidelines that say the editors are looking for "voices that stand out"? This class explores what goes into "poetic voice" and what you can do to find and write from your own zone of unique genius.
Speakers
avatar for Radha Marcum

Radha Marcum

Instructor
Radha Marcum, MFA, won the 2023 Washington Prize for her forthcoming collection, Pine Soot Tendon Bone (2024). She was also awarded the New Mexico Book Award in 2018 for her first collection of poems, Bloodline (3: A Taos Press), about her grandfather's work building the first atomic... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

The Art of the Line Break (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
How do you break lines in your poems? By instinct? By sound? By visuals? Do you break lines to add tension or to create distinct units of thought? We’ll examine several different philosophies around poetic line breaks and try out a variety of strategies to make your line breaks more powerful. We’ll read examples from several contemporary poets, walk through some generative and revision-based exercises, and take the time to share our new work with one another.
Speakers
avatar for Alyse Knorr

Alyse Knorr

Instructor
Alyse Knorr is an assistant professor of English at Regis University and, since 2017, co-editor of Switchback Books. Her most recent book of poems, Mega-City Redux, won the 2016 Green Mountains Review Poetry Prize, selected by Olena Kalytiak Davis. She is also the author of the poetry... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

The Poetry of Play
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
As Diane Ackerman says, “The spirit of deep play is spontaneity, discovery, and being open to new challenges.” Playing with meaning, sound, punctuation, titles, cliches, and absurdities can provide both blissful relaxation and help sharpen poetic craft. In this class, we’ll enjoy a rollicking good time by responding to poetry’s call to do just that. Students will read a wide variety of playful poetry, then experiment with in-class writing prompts designed to awaken freedom and enjoyment.
Speakers
avatar for Joy Roulier Sawyer

Joy Roulier Sawyer

Instructor
Joy Roulier Sawyer holds an MA from New York University, where she received the Herbert Rubin Award for Outstanding Creative Writing. The author of several nonfiction books, she's also published two poetry collections, Tongues of Men and Angels (White Violet Press), and Lifeguards... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

Freelance Writing: Getting Started and Building your Career
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
How do you query editors to find those first jobs, and how do you make the first assignments lead to more? We'll discuss Neil Gaiman's rules for freelance writers, learn how to find venues open to new writers, study examples of query letters and write some of our own, and figure out how to establish yourself as a specialist so that eventually, editors will seek you out! The instructor has been a freelance writer of essays and articles about books, music, sports, and travel for decades and looks forward to addressing the particular interests of each student.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Publishing/Career

4:00pm MDT

A Good Title Is Hard to Find
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
Register
A great title is the hulking stevedore of your work—it does the heavy lifting and makes your writing life easier. But finding that great title is another thing altogether. How do you boil down an entire novel, memoir, short story, essay, or even poem into a few puny words? In this class, we’ll look at different approaches for titles, look at examples and the elements that make titles great, and work on exercises that you can use immediately in your own work. Open to all genres.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
  All Genres

4:00pm MDT

Draft a Short Story in Two Hours
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
In this generative seminar, we’ll outrun our inner critic by doing a series of exercises designed to leave each participant with the raw materials for a short story: compelling character, engaging narrative voice, and a palpable sense of conflict. We’ll borrow techniques from great storywriters, draw on our own experiences, and write past our inhibitions in a fun and supportive atmosphere. Appropriate for both seasoned and beginning writers.
Speakers
avatar for Amanda Rea

Amanda Rea

Instructor
Amanda Rea's stories and essays have appeared in Harper's, Best American Mystery Stories, One Story, American Short Fiction, Freeman’s, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, The Sun, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, New South, Lit Hub, and... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Stealing from Suspense
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
Register
What makes a story "unputdownable"? What keeps readers turning pages late into the night? We’ll examine the tools of the suspense writer and learn how we can use them to make our own stories more compelling, whether we’re working on a traditional mystery or a literary tour de force. We'll take inspiration from writers including Donna Tartt, Megan Giddings, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Shirley Jackson and others. Writers should come prepared to write.
Speakers
avatar for Tiffany Quay Tyson

Tiffany Quay Tyson

Instructor
Tiffany Quay Tyson is the author of two novels, The Past is Never and Three Rivers. The Past is Never is the recipient of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the 2019 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the 2019... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Hopeful Monsters
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
In evolutionary biology, a “hopeful monster” is an aberrant organism flawed by the usual norms of its species but with the potential to be unexpectedly well-adapted to the world into which it is born. This term can help us to challenge received notions about what "good writing" should do and turn the workshop into a laboratory where we explore, reconsider, and give functional meaning to newness. Through the reading of texts by Amos Tutuola, Philip K. Dick, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, we'll explore notions of malformation and mutation and interrogate the relationship between "structure" and "form." This talk will urge you to build completed pieces from your abandoned or unwanted works and spend time revisiting "monsters" and mistakes.
Speakers
avatar for Alexandra Kleeman

Alexandra Kleeman

Visiting Author
Alexandra Kleeman is the author of the novel Something New Under the Sun, Intimations, a short story collection, and the novel You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, which was awarded the 2016 Bard Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In 2020, she was awarded the... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Hopeful Monsters (Livestream)
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In evolutionary biology, a “hopeful monster” is an aberrant organism flawed by the usual norms of its species but with the potential to be unexpectedly well-adapted to the world into which it is born. This term can help us to challenge received notions about what "good writing" should do and turn the workshop into a laboratory where we explore, reconsider, and give functional meaning to newness. Through the reading of texts by Amos Tutuola, Philip K. Dick, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, we'll explore notions of malformation and mutation and interrogate the relationship between "structure" and "form." This talk will urge you to build completed pieces from your abandoned or unwanted works and spend time revisiting "monsters" and mistakes.
Speakers
avatar for Alexandra Kleeman

Alexandra Kleeman

Visiting Author
Alexandra Kleeman is the author of the novel Something New Under the Sun, Intimations, a short story collection, and the novel You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, which was awarded the 2016 Bard Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In 2020, she was awarded the... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Mining Memories (V)
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Flannery O'Connor once said that anyone who lives to age 18 has enough stories to last them an entire lifetime. But how do we access all those memories for use in our writing, and how do we turn them from memory into art? This class explores techniques for retrieving old memories and employing them in our writing projects, both prose and verse.
Speakers
avatar for Alyse Knorr

Alyse Knorr

Instructor
Alyse Knorr is an assistant professor of English at Regis University and, since 2017, co-editor of Switchback Books. Her most recent book of poems, Mega-City Redux, won the 2016 Green Mountains Review Poetry Prize, selected by Olena Kalytiak Davis. She is also the author of the poetry... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Inside Out: Turning Life into Compelling Nonfiction
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
In this generative seminar, we’ll explore different techniques that help us write about our past in a way that’s accessible or even entertaining to our readers. Where do we begin and how do we approach such a task? We’ll consider excerpts from works by great essayists and memoirists from the past fifty years, and try our hand at writing scenes and passages inspired by what we’ve learned.
Speakers
avatar for Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley

Visiting Author
SLOANE CROSLEY is the author of The New York Times bestselling books Grief Is for People, How Did You Get This Number, and I Was Told There’d Be Cake (a 2009 finalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor). She is also the author of Look Alive Out There (a 2019 finali... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

The Art of Speculation
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
There are gaps in facts and reality, be it our private memories or the historical record. Speculation helps us interrogate these gaps and bring to light stories that have been hidden or suppressed. In this class, we'll discuss some examples, techniques, and ethical considerations around speculation in writing nonfiction, and consider how we access truth in the face of erasure. There will be plenty of time for discussion as well as playing with strategies to access your unspoken truths.
Speakers
avatar for Teow Lim Goh

Teow Lim Goh

Instructor
Teow Lim Goh is the author of two poetry collections, Islanders (2016) and Faraway Places (2021), and an essay collection Western Journeys (2022). Her essays, poetry, and criticism have been featured in The Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, PBS NewsHour... Read More →
Friday June 7, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid
 
Saturday, June 8
 

9:00am MDT

Clocking In: How to Write about Jobs (V)
Saturday June 8, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Mortician. Rodeo Clown. Stormchaser. We've all had unique jobs that dramatically affected the framework through which we experience the world. This holds doubly true for characters' perspectives. What are the differences in how a professional tarot reader examines an oak tree versus a microbiologist intern? In this seminar, we'll read and discuss examples of writers who write jobs that influence character development, voice, and language. And we’ll write about our characters’ jobs too. You'll soon discover how much your characters' jobs matter to the heart of their stories.
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He was also awarded a fellowship to the 2015 Arctic Circle Residency and was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, Electric... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Desire and Power
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
Desire is one of the fundamental elements of character-building in fiction, yet in too many workshop drafts, character desires lack urgency or are too easily fulfilled. In this seminar, we’ll not only discuss different ways to pump up the stakes, we’ll also consider the sparks that can fly when multiple characters have multiple, competing desires. How can tension be built through power dynamics? What are the ways that power might manifest? How might it be applied? And how and when might it shift so that your characters—and your reader—are kept on their toes?
Speakers
avatar for Dino Enrique Piacentini

Dino Enrique Piacentini

Instructor
Dino Enrique Piacentini grew up in Los Angeles, lived in San Francisco for twenty years, and has also, at various times, set down stakes in Houston, Oaxaca, Champaign, and Prague. His writing has been published in Gulf Coast, Confrontation, Pembroke, The Globe & Mail, The Atticus... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

The Burning Heart: Finding the Energy in Short Fiction (V)
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Short story writer Rick Bass talks about the “burning heart of the story,” the place where the story quickens, where the energy seems to snap and ignite. In this class, we’ll learn to recognize the burning heart of a story and practice techniques to locate it. Bring the opening paragraph of a story to work with.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

The First Twenty Pages
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
The first twenty pages of your novel are the most essential. These pages orient readers and convince them to have confidence in your storytelling. You’re also establishing your novel’s narrative strategy (point of view, narrative distance, and other craft choices) and introducing the distinctive emotional register of your work. In this seminar, we’ll marvel at the many ways to begin a novel and learn how to create a contract with our readers to keep them reading. Appropriate for all levels, from writers drafting their first twenty pages to those further along, looking to land agents with a watertight writing sample.
Speakers
avatar for Andrea Bobotis

Andrea Bobotis

Instructor
Andrea Bobotis is the author of the debut novel The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt. A native of South Carolina, she holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Virginia, where she was honored with the All-University Graduate Teaching Award. Her fiction has received support... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Sharpening Your Sentences
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
In this two-hour seminar we'll talk about ways to structure our sentences for maximum impact, how to trim adjectives without losing your meaning, how to make verbs do the work, and the ways punctuation can push a point home. There's music in good prose writing, as we know, and that music is what this class is all about.
Speakers
avatar for John Cotter

John Cotter

Instructor
John Cotter is the author of a memoir, Losing Music, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions, and Under the Small Lights, winner of the Miami University Press novella contest. His essays, theater pieces, and fiction have appeared, or will appear soon, in New England Review, Raritan, Georgia... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

4:00pm MDT

The Courage to Revise: Moving from 1st to 2nd Draft
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
Register
Speakers
avatar for Gretchen Kurtz

Gretchen Kurtz

Instructor
A poet by training, Gretchen Kurtz has spent the past 30 years as a food and travel writer, columnist, blogger, magazine editor and restaurant critic in Paris, New York and Denver. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, The Denver Post, 5280, and Westword, among... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304

4:00pm MDT

Image and Text: A Generative Craft Seminar
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
Register
Photographs, illustrations, ekphrasis, comics, visual essays, documentary fiction; how do we create conversations between text and image that allow poems, fiction, and essays to travel across time, space, and genre? How can visual play and experimentation inspire our written work? This seminar will explore texts in a variety of genres that incorporate visual images into the space of their writing. We'll look at examples of these kinds of hybrid works from writers like Victoria Chang, Matthea Harvey, W.G. Sebald, and Michael Ondaatje. In response to these texts, you'll have the chance to experiment with your own visual/text hybrids that might include collages, photo essays, stencil poetry, and documentary flash fiction. You do not need to have any visual art experience/knowledge to participate in this seminar.
Speakers
avatar for Joanna Luloff

Joanna Luloff

Instructor
Joanna Luloff’s short story collection, The Beach at Galle Road, was published by Algonquin Books in 2012. It was selected by Barnes & Noble as a Discover Great New Writers pick and won the Maria Thomas Fiction Prize from Peace Corps Writers. Her stories have appeared in several... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
  All Genres

4:00pm MDT

Hysterical: A Voice Finding Seminar
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
Q: When is writing bad? A: When anyone could have written it.
Q: Has anyone ever called you “too much”? Have you ever been accused of being “dramatic”? A: Good. We’ll use that.
Having a “voice” and a writing “style” is like having a fingerprint. Readers should hear your voice in their heads. A speaker (or narrator or character) can’t be “just anyone,” and in writing, "too much" is exactly enough. In this once-in-a-lifetime seminar, we’ll cover every element of style and how you can use each one to sound like you on the page. We’ll also cover concrete ways to find your voice if you’ve lost it (we’ve all lost it at some point). We’ll read voicey examples and gossip about what to steal from them. And then we’ll brainstorm and do writing exercises to make your voice so distinctive that any reader could pick it out of a police lineup.
Speakers
avatar for Elissa Bassist

Elissa Bassist

Instructor
Elissa Bassist is the editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus and author of the tragicomic memoir Hysterical, a semifinalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus, she’s written cultural and personal criticism since the website... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

On Writing Through the Lens of Not, Don’t, No, Never
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
Kafka made the claim that “The positive is already given.” In this class, we'll explore any number of things that we don’t know, don’t want, don’t remember, and don’t think as a way of arriving at what we do know, do want, do remember, and do think; what, in short, we cannot turn away from, what is ours alone to say.
Speakers
avatar for Peter Markus

Peter Markus

Instructor
Peter Markus is the author of the novel Bob, or Man on Boat, as well as the books of stories, We Make Mud and The Fish and the Not Fish, all three published by Dzanc Books. A forthcoming book of poems, When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds, will be out in September of 2021 from Wayne... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Voice, Motivation, and Plot in KidLit
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
There was a time when literature for tweens focused on riding horses or finding lost pets and books for teens involved pining for a date for the summer dance. But today's tweens and teens are looking for books that help them navigate a complex and challenging world. In this session, we'll examine the way middle grade and YA novels tackle plot and character. Exercises in voice, motivation and plot will help you find your kidlit comfort zone—and pressure test your work-in-progress if you have a manuscript underway.
Speakers
avatar for Jan Thomas

Jan Thomas

Instructor
J.E. Thomas spent her early summers stuffing grocery bags with books at the local library, reading feverishly, then repeating the process week after week. So it's not surprising that she thinks books + imagination are the best streaming service around.  J.E. is an award-winning... Read More →
Saturday June 8, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  YA/Children's
 
Sunday, June 9
 

9:00am MDT

The Necessity of Darkness
Sunday June 9, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
316
Register
This class discusses the idea that it is necessary for writers to confront and write about dark, disturbing, and shocking subject matter, not just for the sake of catharsis or the effect of horror or gratuitous shock value but because they exist and must be handled on their own terms. The darker side of life is just as real and important as the lighter and more joyous side. The class does not focus on the genre of horror per se but will focus on the more literary stories of writers like Brian Evenson and A.M. Home.
Speakers
avatar for Trent Hudley

Trent Hudley

Instructor
Trent Hudley is the author of the short story collection One of These Days, published by Veliz Books. He currently teaches creative writing courses at the Lighthouse Writer's Workshop in Denver, CO. He has recently been published The New Feathers Anthology, The Pandemic Press, The... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
316
  Fiction

9:00am MDT

Homing in: Uncovering the Arc your Memoir (V)
Sunday June 9, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
In this experiential class, we'll work to define arc and then narrow in on the scope of your memoir by evoking memory and key scenes. Plan to write a lot.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Milieu: The World of Your Story
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
Too often, early drafts read as if they are set in a generic nowhere-land with little-to-no history, few concrete details, and a fuzzy sense of the social system within which characters operate. In this seminar, we’ll consider the question of milieu—the physical, social, and historical world of stories. We’ll identify different elements that create a story’s milieu, discuss how milieu might affect characters’ perceptions and actions, and then play around with writing exercises that help you uncover and capitalize on the unique world of your own stories. Bring a project you’d like to work on.
Speakers
avatar for Dino Enrique Piacentini

Dino Enrique Piacentini

Instructor
Dino Enrique Piacentini grew up in Los Angeles, lived in San Francisco for twenty years, and has also, at various times, set down stakes in Houston, Oaxaca, Champaign, and Prague. His writing has been published in Gulf Coast, Confrontation, Pembroke, The Globe & Mail, The Atticus... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Birth of Style
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
We all know (sort of) what makes a good sentence, but where and when did that consensus emerge, and how has it changed? How is our idea of what makes “good writing” historically determined? How can we trace the history of the English language in every line we write today, and how would it improve our style if we did? In this class, we’ll tour the last 300 years of English prose writing—from lush romanticism to postwar minimalism to the witty urbanities of the fin de siècle—and we’ll emerge with a new sense of how time works on words (and how time is working on us).
Speakers
avatar for John Cotter

John Cotter

Instructor
John Cotter is the author of a memoir, Losing Music, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions, and Under the Small Lights, winner of the Miami University Press novella contest. His essays, theater pieces, and fiction have appeared, or will appear soon, in New England Review, Raritan, Georgia... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

The Laundry Line (V)
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In his writing workshops, author Michael Pollan talks about every piece of nonfiction needing a "laundry line": a main conceptual throughline that is strong yet flexible enough to hold the various vignettes and analyses that make up the piece. This craft seminar will provide an opportunity for writers to develop a sturdy laundry line for a current project. We’ll brainstorm pivotal moments in each piece’s structure and then craft our own laundry lines, all while discussing the difference between narrative and chronology, identifying thematic and emotional “turns” in a piece, braiding personal reflection with reportage and analysis, and much more.
Speakers
avatar for Natalie Hodges

Natalie Hodges

Instructor
Born and raised in Denver, Natalie Hodges has performed as a classical violinist throughout Colorado and in New York, Boston, Paris, and the Italian Piedmont, as well as at the Aspen Music Festival and the Stowe Tango Music Festival. Her first book, Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Lattice as Ladder
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
This seminar will focus on the way that certain early and usually intuitive decisions in writing a poem (grammatical voice, verb tense, tone, choice of form or structure) create specific invitations that guide and affect whatever will come next to the page. A haiku does different work than an elegy, even though both can embody profound emotion. A poem looking backward in time will carry a different set of possibilities than one looking into an imagined future. After exploring a set of model poems for some sense of how this happens, participants will write (perhaps more than once, depending on time) to an invitation lattice they've consciously chosen. Note: Each participant should bring one contemporary poem (by someone else; not over a page in length at most) they are currently thrilled by.
Speakers
avatar for Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield

Visiting Author
Jane Hirschfield's ten poetry books include the newly published The Asking: New & Selected Poems (September, 2023); Ledger (March, 2020), The Beauty, long-listed for the 2015 National Book Award; Given Sugar, Given Salt, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

Lattice as Ladder (Livestream)
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
This seminar will focus on the way that certain early and usually intuitive decisions in writing a poem (grammatical voice, verb tense, tone, choice of form or structure) create specific invitations that guide and affect whatever will come next to the page. A haiku does different work than an elegy, even though both can embody profound emotion. A poem looking backward in time will carry a different set of possibilities than one looking into an imagined future. After exploring a set of model poems for some sense of how this happens, participants will write (perhaps more than once, depending on time) to an invitation lattice they've consciously chosen. Note: Each participant should bring one contemporary poem (by someone else; not over a page in length at most) they are currently thrilled by.
Speakers
avatar for Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield

Visiting Author
Jane Hirschfield's ten poetry books include the newly published The Asking: New & Selected Poems (September, 2023); Ledger (March, 2020), The Beauty, long-listed for the 2015 National Book Award; Given Sugar, Given Salt, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award... Read More →
Sunday June 9, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry
 
Monday, June 10
 

9:00am MDT

Taking the Pandemic to the Page (V)
Monday June 10, 2024 9:00am - Friday June 14, 2024 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
All of us have been touched—even changed—by the past several years. What are the stories we can tell about it, and what can we take away? How can we take these changes and reflect on them? In this class, we’ll look at writings that speak to the experience of this collective trauma. We’ll generate pieces of our own from the vantage point of four years later. If you’ve been wanting time to reflect on what the pandemic experience has meant for you, this will be an opportunity to get some thoughts to the page.
Speakers
avatar for Ellen Blum Barish

Ellen Blum Barish

Instructor
Ellen Blum Barish’s essays have appeared in Brevity, Tablet, Literary Mama, Full Grown People, and have aired on Chicago Public Radio. She is founding editor and publisher of the literary publication Thread which earned three notables in Best American Essays. Ellen is the author... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 9:00am - Friday June 14, 2024 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  All Genres

1:30pm MDT

(Re)Writing History: The Questions, Conundrums, Responsibilities, and Delights of Writing Fiction About the Past
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there," wrote L.P. Hartley. Peter Carey once described writing historical fiction as "a science fiction of the past," implying that creating the past in fiction is no less a matter of world-building than creating the future. Is deep historical research a boon or a confusing constraint? What do we owe to the historical record? To what extent are we free to invent?
Speakers
avatar for Claire Messud

Claire Messud

Visiting Author
Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family.
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

(Re)Writing History: The Questions, Conundrums, Responsibilities, and Delights of Writing Fiction About the Past (Livestream)
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there," wrote L.P. Hartley. Peter Carey once described writing historical fiction as "a science fiction of the past," implying that creating the past in fiction is no less a matter of world-building than creating the future. Is deep historical research a boon or a confusing constraint? What do we owe to the historical record? To what extent are we free to invent?
Speakers
avatar for Claire Messud

Claire Messud

Visiting Author
Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family.
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Funny Is the New Deep: How to Harness Your Comic Impulse
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
Contrary to popular belief, writing funny doesn’t mean sacrificing depth. In fact, for most literary writers, the comic impulse is inextricably linked to tragedy. It’s not a conscious effort to entertain the reader so much as an unconscious effort to face some tragic moment or realization. In this informal class, suitable for all genres, we’ll look at the work of Samantha Irby, Cathy Park Hong, Lorrie Moore, and others in an effort to learn how your sense of humor can become an instrument of truth and empower work. Yes, you are allowed to make people laugh—and break their hearts at the same time.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Visiting Author
Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football, and the forthcoming Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, a book on the writer's craft. After many failed efforts, his debut novel, All the... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Bad to the Bone: Writing Villains and Nefarious Characters
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
Ahab, Nurse Ratched, Kurtz, Professor Moriarty, Cruella DeVil, Voldemort, Satan...No matter the genre, a great villain is a key ingredient to a badass story. But what if you don’t know who your villain is, or if it’s even a person at all? This class will outline types of villains and tips for creating the best (yet worst) ones. We’ll explore adversarial “worth,” antagonist agency and power, alternative value systems and character motivations, and villainous codes, quests, and wounds. Prepare to get bad so your story can get good. Open to all prose writers.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Subverting Expectations
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
The stories that linger in our minds long after reading tend to subvert the reader's expectations. We know the golden rule: the reader likes to know more than the main characters, but you also don't want to bore the reader. We'll examine successful passages where the writer seemed to be taking the story one way and then had the characters surprise themselves and the reader in a way that feels startling but authentic and so right that it could not have gone another way. We'll also do writing exercises to see how we can apply these techniques in our writing to push our characters and ourselves to surprising outcomes.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Symbolism and Metaphor: They Aren't Just for Fiction (V)
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
So, do you think symbolism and metaphor are devices only fiction writers use? Everything humans do is symbolic. We create symbols, we use them, we misuse them. In this class, we’ll first take a deep dive into the symbolic and the metaphorical in our everyday lives. We’ll analyze several examples of literary nonfiction that use the same devices fiction writers employ. We’ll talk about ways nonfiction writers can both deepen and complicate their own narratives and, in the process, understand why and how they can be beneficial.
Speakers
avatar for Angelique Stevens

Angelique Stevens

Instructor
Angelique Stevens lives in Upstate New York where she teaches creative writing, literature of genocide, and race literatures. Her nonfiction has been published or is forthcoming in Granta, LitHub, The New England Review, and a number of anthologies. Her essay “Ghost Bread,” which... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Documentary Poetics: The Poetry of Politics, Testimony, and Witness
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
Register
Documentary poetics engages in the art of documentation in order to, as Philip Metres argues, “testify to the often unheard voices of people struggling to survive in the face of unspeakable violence.” How, then, and in what ways can documentary poetry challenge our thinking or change the world? This craft class will investigate the history of documentary poetry in order to understand the means and motivations behind the genre. We'll analyze a diverse range of documentary poetry, including work by Don Mee Choi, Layli Long Soldier, Solmaz Sharif, and propose our own documentary poetics project.
Speakers
avatar for Wendy Chen

Wendy Chen

Instructor
Wendy Chen is the author of the novel Their Divine Fires (Algonquin) and the poetry collection Unearthings (Tavern Books). She is the editor of Figure 1, associate editor-in-chief of Tupelo Quarterly, and prose editor of Tupelo Press. Her poetry translations of Song-dynasty... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

Poetry from the Earth (V)
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Poems not only connect us with the human community, but they can help us forge deeper bonds with the places we live and traverse, or what David Abram calls the “more-than-human species” all around us. Honing our attention and senses can help us bring more original and vibrant detail to the page, making the poem itself a place for the reader to enter and explore. We’ll experiment with prompts and approaches that bring greater presence to our poetry and lives while also considering the poetry of writers Pattiann Rogers, William Stafford, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, and others.
Speakers
avatar for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Instructor
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a nonfiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Creating Art in Dark Times (V)
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Some of the world’s greatest art has emerged in its bleakest hours. In this seminar, we’ll explore what causes fear and what we do to reinforce our creative fears, then devise strategies for overcoming them. Through writing prompts and discussion, participants will leave with some clear steps to take to overcome their fear and create meaningful works of art.

Speakers
avatar for R. Alan Brooks

R. Alan Brooks

Instructor
R. Alan Brooks teaches graphic novel writing at Regis University, and is the writer/creator of The Burning Metronome graphic novel, a supernatural murder mystery with social commentary. He also hosts the popular “MotherF**ker In A Cape” comics podcast, which focuses on marginalized... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  All Genres

4:00pm MDT

Writing About "Class"
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
Social class is everywhere, impacting where we live, what we believe, and how we move through the world. Yet, it’s not as often talked or written about. In this generative session, we’ll consider how it feels to live in America, regardless of where one falls on the social strata. We’ll look at how masterful writers from around the world have approached the subject of class and use prompts to generate new work.
Speakers
avatar for Amanda Rea

Amanda Rea

Instructor
Amanda Rea's stories and essays have appeared in Harper's, Best American Mystery Stories, One Story, American Short Fiction, Freeman’s, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, The Sun, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, New South, Lit Hub, and... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  All Genres

4:00pm MDT

Time Travel: Writing Flashback and Backstory
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
Register
Every character has a past, and often a troubled one. But how (and where, and when) do you bring that past to the page without slowing the story down? Through lecture, discussion, examples, and exercises, we’ll study techniques for using backstory and flashback and create a question-driven past narrative that actually drives your story forward. Open to all genres
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Fault Lines
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
Register
Too often, we put trouble and tension on top of our story instead of letting it simmer below the surface, but the best tension comes from epic problems that have been there all along. We’ll examine strong fault lines in fiction and nonfiction and then create our own for solid and stable stories with some epic problems.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

4:00pm MDT

Tackling the “S” Word: Writing Your Book’s Synopsis
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
Register
A task that few writers savor is writing a synopsis for their novel or memoir. While the process might feel daunting (or even unpleasant), writing a one or two-page synopsis can be constructive, especially during revision. Why? Because even if no one ever asks you for it, your synopsis can help you spot structural issues, undeveloped characters, and plot holes in your narrative. In this seminar, we’ll look at the nuts and bolts of a synopsis, how to whittle our stories down to the basics, and what we can learn from synopsis development.
Speakers
avatar for Cynthia Swanson

Cynthia Swanson

Instructor
Cynthia Swanson writes literary suspense, often using historical settings. Cynthia’s debut novel, The Bookseller, was a New York Times best seller, an Indie Next selection, the winner of the 2016 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, and is translated into 18 languages. The... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
204
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Poetry as Artivism: A Love Language for the Future (V)
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In this seminar, we'll approach writing poetry as a practice of creative hope, aggressive optimism, and exploring radical visions of a liberated future. Offering poems and prompts that invite participants to identify and celebrate unexpected moments of joy, life, beauty, and/or celebration in the midst of hardship and/or mundanity, this class will include time to explore and write about your own inspirations.
Speakers
avatar for Suzi Q. Smith

Suzi Q. Smith

Instructor
Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, organizer, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. She has created, curated, coached, and taught in Denver for over 20 years, managing the largest poetry festivals that Denver has seen to date. A TEDx speaker multiple times, Suzi has performed... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

The Art of Description
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
How is perception rendered into language? How do we go about the tricky business of representing the physical world on the page? Description isn’t there just to make a poem feel more vivid; it’s a way of revealing the self, characterizing the perceiver. In this seminar, we’ll look at a number of exemplary poems and practice with exercises designed to enrich sensory detail and get more of your individual way of knowing the world onto the page.
Speakers
avatar for Mark Doty

Mark Doty

Visiting Author
Mark Doty is the author of nine books of poetry, including Deep Lane (April 2015), Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2008 National Book Award, and My Alexandria, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the T.S. Eliot... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

The Art of Description (Livestream)
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
How is perception rendered into language? How do we go about the tricky business of representing the physical world on the page? Description isn’t there just to make a poem feel more vivid; it’s a way of revealing the self, characterizing the perceiver. In this seminar, we’ll look at a number of exemplary poems and practice with exercises designed to enrich sensory detail and get more of your individual way of knowing the world onto the page.
Speakers
avatar for Mark Doty

Mark Doty

Visiting Author
Mark Doty is the author of nine books of poetry, including Deep Lane (April 2015), Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2008 National Book Award, and My Alexandria, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the T.S. Eliot... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Starting Your Screenplay from Scratch
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
Do you have an idea for a movie that’s been percolating for a while? Can you see your novel/memoir/short story on the big screen? Start here! In this seminar, we'll start the writing before you write your screenplay by using the three-act structure to outline your screenplay and get you started on a clear path to a finished script. We’ll start from the beginning, and students should expect to leave the class with a logline and the start of a working outline. Students familiar with the structure but want to start a new project are welcome!
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn

Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn

Instructor
Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn is an author and screenwriter who is still paying for her MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, where she was awarded the James Pendleton Award, the Larry Thor Memorial Award, Oliver’s Prize, and was listed in the 2016 UCLA Screenwriter’s Showcase. Jenny has... Read More →
Monday June 10, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  Screenwriting
 
Tuesday, June 11
 

9:00am MDT

What a Moment Holds: Essays that Capture a Spark (V)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Writer Abigail Thomas calls them "the shock of truth" or "moments that feel like body blows"—moments that happen in a flash that, when captured in an essay by a writer, can do the same for the reader. These can be moments of insight, understanding, or vision—“aha moments.” Often found in flash nonfiction, these moments can also be found in longer essays that lead up to it. In this seminar, we'll read sections of essays and memoir that illustrate transformative moments and discuss what makes them work or not.
Speakers
avatar for Ellen Blum Barish

Ellen Blum Barish

Instructor
Ellen Blum Barish’s essays have appeared in Brevity, Tablet, Literary Mama, Full Grown People, and have aired on Chicago Public Radio. She is founding editor and publisher of the literary publication Thread which earned three notables in Best American Essays. Ellen is the author... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

The Excavation and Animation of Historical Fiction
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
Of historical fiction, author Sabina Murray writes, “...I know what a historical fiction writer is until I am asked. I do not feel that I easily occupy that place—half-archeologist, half-Doctor Frankenstein—excavating and animating in the name of literature.” What kinds of resources (archives, oral histories, documents) can we excavate in order to animate our work? In this course, we'll examine the methodologies of writers of historical fiction (W.G. Sebald, Min Jin Lee) to incorporate these techniques into our own work.
Speakers
avatar for Wendy Chen

Wendy Chen

Instructor
Wendy Chen is the author of the novel Their Divine Fires (Algonquin) and the poetry collection Unearthings (Tavern Books). She is the editor of Figure 1, associate editor-in-chief of Tupelo Quarterly, and prose editor of Tupelo Press. Her poetry translations of Song-dynasty... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Everything But Plot: Building Suspense on the Line Level
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
In this generative session, we'll engage in close readings of work in all genres and ask: what keeps us reading and moving forward? What delivers a chill? We'll investigate constructions of the line and the paragraph, asking after subtext and staging, POV and time shifts, dangling questions, and form. Come ready to experiment.
Speakers
avatar for T Kira Māhealani Madden

T Kira Māhealani Madden

Visiting Author
T Kira Māhealani Madden is a hapa-Kanaka Maoli writer, photographer, and amateur magician. She is the Founding Editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Tin House, DISQUIET, NYSCA/NYFA, and Yaddo. Her debut memoir... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Everything But Plot: Building Suspense on the Line Level (Livestream)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In this generative session, we'll engage in close readings of work in all genres and ask: what keeps us reading and moving forward? What delivers a chill? We'll investigate constructions of the line and the paragraph, asking after subtext and staging, POV and time shifts, dangling questions, and form. Come ready to experiment.
Speakers
avatar for T Kira Māhealani Madden

T Kira Māhealani Madden

Visiting Author
T Kira Māhealani Madden is a hapa-Kanaka Maoli writer, photographer, and amateur magician. She is the Founding Editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Tin House, DISQUIET, NYSCA/NYFA, and Yaddo. Her debut memoir... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

The Messy Middle
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
Your beginning rocks and has tons of forward momentum. You might even know what you want your ending to be. The problem, of course, is everything in the middle. Writing the “messy middle” can feel like trying to carry a king-sized mattress up twenty flights of stairs all alone. But you’re not alone! In this class, we’ll look at the most common messy-middle problems and how to identify them. Using strategic exercises, you’ll practice solid strategies to conquer and convert your messy middle into plot and prose that will propel you through your story. Open to all prose genres.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Nature Writing
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
What can we learn about writing and also about the world from nature writing? This craft seminar will present examples from some classic texts—Thoreau's Walden, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others—to inspire short writing exercises that help grasp what is urgent and beautiful about nature writing.
Speakers
avatar for Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar

Visiting Author
Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist who has published several works of nonfiction and three novels. His most recent title, The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal, is a collection of drawings and journal entries. Kumar's writing has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Harper’s... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

1:30pm MDT

Long Night's Journey into Day: Writing About Serious Illness (V)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Writing through and about serious illness can not only create powerful poems, memoirs, and fiction, but it can help us integrate and learn from our experiences as patients, survivors, and caregivers. We'll explore how and when to write about our experiences through innovative writing prompts, narrative medicine resources, and steady practices that steer us away from retriggering ourselves and toward insights, wholeness, and resilience. We’ll investigate approaches to widen our perspective and give us the appropriate distance to write powerful poetry and prose while also concentrating on original, vibrant, and enduring specifics in our writing.
Speakers
avatar for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Instructor
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a nonfiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

How to Write a Book Proposal
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
Register
This two-hour seminar will provide comprehensive instruction on how to research, write, and pitch a book proposal to an agent from an author who has submitted seven or eight of these things and scored book deals twice.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Knopper

Steve Knopper

Instructor
Steve Knopper is Billboard editor at large, former Rolling Stone contributing editor, and author of MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson (Scribner, 2015) and Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age (Free Press, 2009). He has written... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
  Nonfiction/Memoir   Publishing/Career

1:30pm MDT

Contemporary American Women Poets
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
Many living, breathing American women poets have written spectacular books in the last two years. Now, in its sixth edition, your instructor samples over three dozen poetry collections from large and small presses. This year, Evie Shockley, Jenny Xie, and Sharon Olds are in the running, plus a long list of new poets to come. Continuing a tradition, we'll explore the work of Joy Harjo as foremother. All are welcome.
Speakers
avatar for Lynn Wagner

Lynn Wagner

Instructor
Lynn Wagner is the author of No Blues This Raucous Song, which won the Slapering Hol Chapbook competition. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she won the Academy of American Poets prize. She has earned fellowships to the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Time Machine: Crafting Time in Fiction (V)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
The ticking clock, the switchback, the speeding bullet—writers are the gods of time. In this fun, exercise-based seminar, we’ll go over the fundamentals of scene (showing) and summary (telling). We’ll explore what Madison Smartt Bell calls the “scenelett,” and Jane Allison calls “splicing sensory glimmers” in order to enliven summary. We’ll practice triggering flashbacks and returning readers safely to the present, and we’ll try an Alice Munro style flashforward.
Speakers
avatar for Clemintine Guirado

Clemintine Guirado

Instructor
Clemintine Guirado has published short stories in StoryQuartlerly, Best New American Voices, Rainbow Curve, Comet Magazine, and 580 Split. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University and a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin. She... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

In These Fleeting Moments: Building Dramatic Tension
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
What's a "ticking clock" in writing, and how does it add dramatic tension to your story? In this two-hour class, we'll examine how ticking clocks can work in everything from an action movie to a family drama and see how understanding this tool might help with your own writing. Expect some brief writing exercises and lots of discussion.
Speakers
avatar for R. Alan Brooks

R. Alan Brooks

Instructor
R. Alan Brooks teaches graphic novel writing at Regis University, and is the writer/creator of The Burning Metronome graphic novel, a supernatural murder mystery with social commentary. He also hosts the popular “MotherF**ker In A Cape” comics podcast, which focuses on marginalized... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

4:00pm MDT

In Other Words: Narrative Styles
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
Sometimes we show, and sometimes we tell. Sometimes we’re interior, and sometimes we’re exterior. Sometimes, we describe, and sometimes we imply. But when do we use which styles, and why? In this class, we’ll explore six types of narrative styles: scene, exposition, description, interiority, dialogue, and “voiceyness.” We’ll talk about the assets and challenges of each style and explore techniques to use them to their best advantage in your writing. Writers can expect discussion, examples, and writing exercises. Open to all prose writers.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's recent memoir, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, won the 2023 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the 2023 Colorado Book Award... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Getting to the Finish Line
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
Register
All writers, from beginners to professionals, go through periods when it seems impossible to complete a project, no matter how much we love it and want to see it out in the world. In this seminar, we’ll explore what holds us back, the reasons we have trouble focusing on our writing projects (even when we easily check other items off our “to-do” list), and how to prioritize writing with a goal toward project completion. We’ll also do some exercises to help you address your specific barriers and overcome them.
Speakers
avatar for Cynthia Swanson

Cynthia Swanson

Instructor
Cynthia Swanson writes literary suspense, often using historical settings. Cynthia’s debut novel, The Bookseller, was a New York Times best seller, an Indie Next selection, the winner of the 2016 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, and is translated into 18 languages. The... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
304
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Memoir for the Anxious, Uncertain, or Scared Writer
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
This craft seminar aims to demystify the process of writing memoir. We'll talk about structure, perspective, ethical concerns, and more, including how to begin and how to continue.
Speakers
avatar for Beth Nguyen

Beth Nguyen

Visiting Author
Beth Nguyen also goes by Bich Minh Nguyen. Her essay in The New Yorker explains why she has two names. Please call her Beth. She is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner in 2023. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Romance Your Life (V)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
So often, nonfiction is framed by trauma, but what’s so wrong with rose-colored glasses? Writers often talk about how humor can be used as a tool to tell hard stories, but leaning into the romantic can be, too. Romancing Your Life is a technique for showing your past self (and those that populated your life) some care, tenderness, and grace.
Speakers
avatar for Minda Honey

Minda Honey

Instructor
Minda Honey’s (she/her) essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Baazar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads.Her work is featured in “Burn It Down: Women Writing About Ange... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

A KidLit Publishing Practicum (V)
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Come discover how to navigate the kidlit industry like a pro! Students will begin to chart a course toward their publishing goals via writing prompts and brainstorm exercises which will explore cultural sensitivity and authentic representation, in addition to querying agents; submitting solo; self-publishing; and marketing a title for children or tweens. "Lesser-known" paths to becoming a published author like IP work—plus the pros and cons of these types of book deals—will also be discussed.
Speakers
avatar for Rachel Werner

Rachel Werner

Instructor
Rachel Werner is the author of the picture books Floods (Capstone 2022), Moving and Grooving to Fillmore's Beat (Capstone 2023), and The Glam World Tour (Capstone 2024) as well as the nonfiction middle grade title Glow & Grow: A Brown Girl's Positive Body Guide (Free Spirit... Read More →
Tuesday June 11, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  YA/Children's
 
Wednesday, June 12
 

9:00am MDT

Haiku as Mindfulness Practice (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Haiku is a contemplative poetry form inspired by Zen, which emphasizes impermanence and draws attention to phenomena that may go unnoticed. In this class, we’ll talk about the Haiku within the cultural context of Japan, where it was born, and its evolution and use by Western novelists and peacemakers alike. We’ll learn from masters of the form and try our hand at writing our own. This class explores Haiku tags as the answer to hashtags and is for anyone who wants to slow down time by capturing fleeting moments in their life. You'll leave the seminar ready to use this minimalistic form both as a creative tool and a daily mindfulness practice.
Speakers
avatar for Ladane Nasseri

Ladane Nasseri

Instructor
Ladane Nasseri is a journalist and writer. A former Middle East correspondent for Bloomberg News where she led Iran’s news coverage, Ladane has reported for a decade and a half from Tehran, Dubai, and Beirut. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Businessweek... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry

9:00am MDT

Children's Picture Books: Using Dummies/Storyboards (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Through examples, exercises, and hands-on activities, you’ll explore book dummies and storyboards and how they can improve your story's pacing and page turnability. To participate, you will need: A published picture book that is a “mentor” text for your own story and TWO copies of your COMPLETED picture book story formatted as follows: one copy single-sided in standard manuscript format (1" margins, double-spaced, 12pt font) and one copy single-sided, single-spaced with 2.5” left & right margins (this will look odd but is perfect for our purposes).
Speakers
avatar for Denise Vega

Denise Vega

Instructor
Denise Vega is an author, writing coach, and “creative cheerleader,” exploring and supporting the many ways we pursue our dreams both through her books and in her interactions with the writers she works with in class and one-on-one. She is the award-winning author of seven books... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Death and Life
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
We often think about the arc of characters’ lives in our prose, but what about their deaths? How can we purposefully, responsibly, and, of course, creatively write death in a way that enlivens our stories and adds meaning to our characters’ and readers’ lives? Examining examples from fiction and memoir, in this seminar, participants will consider how other characters’ deaths might impact our protagonists/antagonists, as well as how to craft interesting and meaningful deaths without unintentionally slipping into the melodramatic or overly relying upon the retrospective voice. We'll also complete a writing exercise if time allows.
Speakers
avatar for Andrew Hernandez

Andrew Hernandez

Instructor
Andrew Hernandez, PhD, is a writer and teacher. Born in the Chicagoland area, Hernandez’s work has taken him to Puerto Rico, New York, Mali, New Zealand, and now Colorado. A former Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism magazine, his narrative nonfiction has also appeared in... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

How to Make Plot Your Friend
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
Many writers (myself included!) want to believe that a gift for exciting language or narrative invention will be a substitute for a genuinely arresting plot. Alas, it’s not. Velocity, it turns out, isn’t the same as direction. It can take many years to unlock the secrets of plot. But it shouldn’t! Plot, as Aristotle wrote, consists in the “artful arrangement of incidents”—a chain of consequence that helps establish a feeling of rising action. We’ll examine the work of writers such as Cheryl Strayed, Megha Majumdar, and Jane Austen in an effort to make sure your next plot keeps the reader enthralled.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Visiting Author
Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football, and the forthcoming Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, a book on the writer's craft. After many failed efforts, his debut novel, All the... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

High Before the Low
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
Register
One of the most powerful writing tools we tend to overlook is the high before the low. Many potent stories focus on a moment of high connection and joy before the moment of the largest low. The more you want to break the reader's (and your character's) heart, the bigger the high before the ultimate low needs to be. We'll examine powerful high and low moments from fiction and memoir and how they work together. Then, we'll tackle writing exercises to flesh out the high and low moments in our stories.
Speakers
avatar for Paula Younger

Paula Younger

Instructor
Paula Younger received her MFA from the University of Virginia Creative Writing program, where she was awarded a Henry Hoyns Fellowship. She was also the Fiction Editor for Meridian and a Bronx Writers' Center Fellow. Her award-winning fiction has appeared in such literary journals... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

On Defamiliarization: A Lesson in 10 Sentences
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
“Art exists to help us recover the sensation of life; it exists to make us feel things, to make the stone stony again. The end of art is to give a sensation of the object seen, not as recognized.
Victor Shklovsky
In this craft seminar, we'll explore how to describe the world around us without resorting to commonplace imagery or received sentiments. Our intent will be to make the familiar unfamiliar through acts of careful attention. We'll look at the process of defamiliarization at both the sentence and the paragraph level, and then use these images and descriptions as springboards for our own writing.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Offill

Jenny Offill

Visiting Author
Offill's 2020 novel, Weather, is the story of confronting, both directly and less so, looming climate catastrophe . The book was described as “emotional, planetary, and very turbulent, “ by the New York Times, “utterly exhilarating in its wit and intelligence” by the Boston... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

On Defamiliarization: A Lesson in 10 Sentences (Livestream)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
“Art exists to help us recover the sensation of life; it exists to make us feel things, to make the stone stony again. The end of art is to give a sensation of the object seen, not as recognized.
Victor Shklovsky
In this craft seminar, we'll explore how to describe the world around us without resorting to commonplace imagery or received sentiments. Our intent will be to make the familiar unfamiliar through acts of careful attention. We'll look at the process of defamiliarization at both the sentence and the paragraph level, and then use these images and descriptions as springboards for our own writing.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Offill

Jenny Offill

Visiting Author
Offill's 2020 novel, Weather, is the story of confronting, both directly and less so, looming climate catastrophe . The book was described as “emotional, planetary, and very turbulent, “ by the New York Times, “utterly exhilarating in its wit and intelligence” by the Boston... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

I'll Follow You Into the Dark: Letting the Unknown Drive Your Personal Narrative
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
When it comes to personal essay and memoir, the idea of closure can be overrated. It's not always possible (or preferable) to achieve clarity or tie up loose ends in your story. So why not embrace the unknowns instead? Some of the best creative nonfiction puts the unknown (or unthought-known) in the driver's seat, using it as a tool to build tension, create emotional resonance, and engage the reader as a fellow detective. In this seminar, we'll make a case for stumbling in the dark. We'll explore how to let questions drive your narrative and embrace discomfort on the page, dig into relevant examples, and work through a few prompts.
Speakers
avatar for Gina DeMillo Wagner

Gina DeMillo Wagner

Instructor
Gina DeMillo Wagner is the author of Forces of Nature: A Memoir of Family, Loss, and Finding Home. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Memoir Magazine, Modern Loss, Self, Outside, CRAFT Literary, and other publications. She is a Yaddo fellow... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

When Life Doesn't Live Up to the Hype: Wringing Essays from Disappointment (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
An essay is what's born out of the distance between our expectations and our reality and how we reconcile the two. In this class, we'll dissect essays that follow this path and construct our own work from our lives less-than-perfect moments.
Speakers
avatar for Minda Honey

Minda Honey

Instructor
Minda Honey’s (she/her) essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Baazar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads.Her work is featured in “Burn It Down: Women Writing About Ange... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Memory Fog: Getting Lost in Order to Write and Remember
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
Memory can be tricky and elusive. You can have an idea for a story arc, an image for a poem, or a telling line for the essay, but then it disappears like a vivid dream later in the day. However, what is lost can be found. In this multi-genre workshop, we'll look at short poems and prose by contemporary writers and discuss the process of incorporating reflection, authorial interruptions, flashbacks, and knowing when to leap. We'll also write and get a little lost by considering moments of question, rediscovery, and wandering with purpose.
Speakers
avatar for Juan J. Morales

Juan J. Morales

Instructor
Juan J. Morales is the son of an Ecuadorian mother and Puerto Rican father. He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Handyman’s Guide to End Times, winner of the 2019 International Latino Book Award. Recent poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, The Laurel Review... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

The Art of Self-Portraits (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
What does it mean to be the cartographer of the self? To identify its multitudes when the body is a nesting doll of possibility? We show different sides of ourselves based on the choices we make. We also play different roles in our lifetime—sibling, friend, lover, worker, etc. In this seminar, participants will poetically document various “selves” through memory, sense, and voice. We'll look at the work of Lucille Clifton, Terrence Hayes, Brenda Shaughnessy, Vievee Francis, Ocean Vuong, and others who interrogate identity in various ways.
Speakers
avatar for Cynthia Manick

Cynthia Manick

Instructor
Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, was named among the “Best Poetry of the Last Year” by Ms. Magazine, and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023. She is editor of The... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Time Machine II: Crafting Time in Fiction (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
The ticking clock, slo-mo, the speeding bullet—readers don’t get invested unless they believe the clock is ticking—whether a bomb is under the table or a character simply wants to graduate from Clown College. In this fun, exercise-based seminar, we’ll cover the full craft menu of narrative hydraulics as described by Jane Alison: gap, summary, scene, dilation, and pause. Then, we’ll attempt each of these using Tobias Wolff’s famous “Bullet in the Brain” as a model. We’ll also explore the concept of “two boats,” as illustrated in the pulp novel “Dead Calm.”
Speakers
avatar for Clemintine Guirado

Clemintine Guirado

Instructor
Clemintine Guirado has published short stories in StoryQuartlerly, Best New American Voices, Rainbow Curve, Comet Magazine, and 580 Split. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University and a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin. She... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Deeper Character Descriptions
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
Register
We often forget the importance of quick character descriptions. In our early drafts, we sometimes devote paragraphs describing our characters, even sliding into police-type descriptions: 6’4”, blonde, blue eyes. Yet, with all that description, we know nothing important about that character. But the best stories, novels, and essays have succinct descriptions that give us a strong sense of the character. We'll go through some examples of character descriptions in fiction and nonfiction, then do some exercises to find deeper descriptions of our characters that tell us more about who they are and help propel your story forward.
Speakers
avatar for Paula Younger

Paula Younger

Instructor
Paula Younger received her MFA from the University of Virginia Creative Writing program, where she was awarded a Henry Hoyns Fellowship. She was also the Fiction Editor for Meridian and a Bronx Writers' Center Fellow. Her award-winning fiction has appeared in such literary journals... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

4:00pm MDT

Psychoanalysis and Literature
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
The world of the mind has forever mesmerized both psychoanalysts and writers. Both fields have been obsessed with understanding the human being, both as an individual/self and in relation to others. In this course we'll look at the intersections of the two disciplines and discuss how they approach questions of language, dreams, stream of consciousness, addressing trauma, and else. In class, we'll also partake in some exercises that use methods of psychoanalysis to generate writing.
Speakers
avatar for Poupeh Missaghi

Poupeh Missaghi

Instructor
Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, a translator both into and out of Persian, Asymptote’s Iran editor-at-large, and an educator. Her debut novel trans(re)lating house one was published by Coffee House Press in February 2020. She holds a PhD in English and creative writing from the University... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

ABCs and 123s: Making the Personal Matter
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
We’ll explore strategies for integrating research into our own first-person writing to answer some burning questions about creative nonfiction. How do essayists use “real” experiences to make stories that move? How do they create context that matters, turn personal anecdotes into universally applicable meanings, and write fresh perspectives into experiences and topics that are age-old: culture, travel, death, or love? What is the best way to build context and to shape essays so that they have momentum and meaning? In other words, how do we make meaning?
Speakers
avatar for Emily Rapp Black

Emily Rapp Black

Visiting Author
Emily Rapp Black is the author of four books of nonfiction: Poster Child; The Still Point of the Turning World, which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor's Choice, and a finalist for the PEN USA award; Sanctuary, a New York Times Editor's Choice; and Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

ABCs and 123s: Making the Personal Matter (Livestream)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
We’ll explore strategies for integrating research into our own first-person writing to answer some burning questions about creative nonfiction. How do essayists use “real” experiences to make stories that move? How do they create context that matters, turn personal anecdotes into universally applicable meanings, and write fresh perspectives into experiences and topics that are age-old: culture, travel, death, or love? What is the best way to build context and to shape essays so that they have momentum and meaning? In other words, how do we make meaning?
Speakers
avatar for Emily Rapp Black

Emily Rapp Black

Visiting Author
Emily Rapp Black is the author of four books of nonfiction: Poster Child; The Still Point of the Turning World, which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor's Choice, and a finalist for the PEN USA award; Sanctuary, a New York Times Editor's Choice; and Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

The Craft of Interviewing
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
This course is all about how to make your story sing with dialogue, vignettes, and rich details provided by primary sources. We'll cover interview requests, how to talk to strangers, preparation, and, most crucially, how to ask the right questions and get the best info out of people—taught by a former Rolling Stone journalist who has interviewed thousands of sources over 30 years.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Knopper

Steve Knopper

Instructor
Steve Knopper is Billboard editor at large, former Rolling Stone contributing editor, and author of MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson (Scribner, 2015) and Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age (Free Press, 2009). He has written... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Truth or Dare: Writing Family Stories (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
This class explores the twin desires to tell the truth about our lives and write about our families and loved ones who may not like what they see. How do we position ourselves so that we can honestly convey our experience? What strategies and stances can we develop so we can write open-heartedly the story we were given? Plan on vigorous discussion of a few examples and lots of time for Q&A.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

The Poem's End: A Discussion
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
In this seminar, we'll explore the various significances, textures, and possibilities at play in the endings of poems, delving into how they encapsulate deferred themes, evoke unresolved emotions, and leave unexpected impressions.
Speakers
avatar for Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Visiting Author
Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a multi-award winning poet, nonfiction writer, scholar, screenwriter, and translator. He is the author of The Ground, Heaven, Living Weapon, Silver, When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness, and The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey. Phillips has been the recipient of... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

The Poetic Line (V)
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
One of the most emphasized elements of the poetic form is the line. We'll consider the music in our writing, the context, the rhythm of our language, and how our own voices and aesthetics impact the way we open and close a line. We'll navigate texts from across genres to identify tools and approaches to create mood, movement, color, landscape, and tone through the art of the line. We'll talk enjambment, punctuation, using the page as a canvas, invitations, slammed doors, breadcrumbs, sheet music, and the “so what” of it all. Participants will write from prompts and then, depending on time, share some of their writing.
Speakers
avatar for Suzi Q. Smith

Suzi Q. Smith

Instructor
Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, organizer, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. She has created, curated, coached, and taught in Denver for over 20 years, managing the largest poetry festivals that Denver has seen to date. A TEDx speaker multiple times, Suzi has performed... Read More →
Wednesday June 12, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Poetry
 
Thursday, June 13
 

9:00am MDT

Art of Creative Research (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Research is a fundamental part of long-form writing projects. Knowing where to find the info and how to access it (whether through research or interviews) is a key skill for writers across genres. Background information, facts, anecdotes, and different perspectives all make a story richer and more authoritative. Drawing from journalism and the oral history tradition, this class provides tools for writers working on essays, profiles, memoirs, or novels. We'll create a road map for our research and discuss how to prepare and conduct interviews with relatives or strangers to collect information professionally, responsibly, and ethically.
Speakers
avatar for Ladane Nasseri

Ladane Nasseri

Instructor
Ladane Nasseri is a journalist and writer. A former Middle East correspondent for Bloomberg News where she led Iran’s news coverage, Ladane has reported for a decade and a half from Tehran, Dubai, and Beirut. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Businessweek... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Using Your Characters to Break Writers Block
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
Sometimes, we're stuck in the middle. We're at 40,000 words. We've hit our catalyst, but we're 30,000 words from hitting our climactic moment. By the time you hit 40,000 words, your characters should be alive and living on their own. This seminar will use discussion and generative exercises that push your characters to help break writer's block for you.
Speakers
avatar for Kase Johnstun

Kase Johnstun

Instructor
Kase Johnstun lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. He was most recently named the 2021 Ogden Mayor’s Award Recipient for the Literary Arts. His forthcoming novel Cast Away will be published from Torrey House Press in 2024. Johnstun is the author of recently released Let The Wild Grasses... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Characterization Through Contrast
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
In this craft seminar, we'll explore complex characterization through a series of brief readings and short writing exercises on developing character through contrast. We’ll consider various kinds of passing and performance: when does a character understand themselves to be putting on an act? What kinds of structural or personal relationships compel performance? What can a character’s performance for an external audience tell us about characters themselves, the settings they inhabit, and their potential narrative arcs?
Speakers
avatar for Danielle Evans

Danielle Evans

Visiting Author
Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Characterization Through Contrast (Livestream)
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In this craft seminar, we'll explore complex characterization through a series of brief readings and short writing exercises on developing character through contrast. We’ll consider various kinds of passing and performance: when does a character understand themselves to be putting on an act? What kinds of structural or personal relationships compel performance? What can a character’s performance for an external audience tell us about characters themselves, the settings they inhabit, and their potential narrative arcs?
Speakers
avatar for Danielle Evans

Danielle Evans

Visiting Author
Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

How to Survive Writer's Block
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
Have you ever suffered with the Black Plague of writers? In this fast-paced and potentially incoherent class, we’ll get down to the nitty-gritty when it comes to writer’s block and ask a radical question: Is it possible to view moments, and even eras, of creative stasis as necessary and even essential to our artistic growth? (Gasp!). The answer, for the instructor, anyway, is a resounding YES. The question is how to move from anxiety and self-loathing to a posture of forgiveness and curiosity. This class is for anyone who’s ever struggled to keep going at the keyboard.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Visiting Author
Steve Almond is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football, and the forthcoming Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, a book on the writer's craft. After many failed efforts, his debut novel, All the... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Revising for Social Change (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Revision necessitates change, and change is everywhere in the writing process. It happens when we give ourselves space to grapple with a topic. It emerges in workshop when others contribute opposing views. It evolves because the world in which the piece was written has been fundamentally altered. Revision isn’t always about making things “better.” Sometimes, it's just about the complication of an idea. Sometimes, it’s about allowing for the complexity and the chaos. Revision is about grappling with the material, our audience, ourselves, and the world. This seminar will focus on the art of revision for social change.
Speakers
avatar for Angelique Stevens

Angelique Stevens

Instructor
Angelique Stevens lives in Upstate New York where she teaches creative writing, literature of genocide, and race literatures. Her nonfiction has been published or is forthcoming in Granta, LitHub, The New England Review, and a number of anthologies. Her essay “Ghost Bread,” which... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Collaging the Draft
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
In this generative class, each participant will be given an envelope with fifteen magazine, news, book, art, and textile clippings. Step by step, you’ll learn how to collage a draft of a text taking form in their subconscious mind and translate the visual into the verbal through emotion, intuition, and stimulation.
Speakers
NK

Nazli Koca

Instructor
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Writing Desire and Sexuality
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
Register
Delving into the erotic is not an easy task for many writers. But as Audre Lorde notes, “The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.” In this course, we'll look at some works that directly address human desire and sexuality and discuss how their craft choices enable the writers to connect their audiences with an aspect of humanity that is more often oppressed and repressed than welcomed and embraced.
Speakers
avatar for Poupeh Missaghi

Poupeh Missaghi

Instructor
Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, a translator both into and out of Persian, Asymptote’s Iran editor-at-large, and an educator. Her debut novel trans(re)lating house one was published by Coffee House Press in February 2020. She holds a PhD in English and creative writing from the University... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
315
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Children’s Picture Book Story vs Short Story (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Using published short stories and picture books, along with discussion and activities, we’ll explore the differences between the two forms and what writers need to consider when creating either short stories for magazines or picture book stories.
Speakers
avatar for Denise Vega

Denise Vega

Instructor
Denise Vega is an author, writing coach, and “creative cheerleader,” exploring and supporting the many ways we pursue our dreams both through her books and in her interactions with the writers she works with in class and one-on-one. She is the award-winning author of seven books... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Embracing the Shadow (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Whether you’re interested in writing outright horror or just exploring the darker recesses of society and self through your fiction, we’ll use the generative exercises in this class to deepen your access to and expression of the grotesque, the monstrous, the repressed, and the abject.
Speakers
avatar for Courtney E. Morgan

Courtney E. Morgan

Instructor
Courtney E. Morgan received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she has also taught creative writing workshops for five years. Her collection of stories, The Seven Autopsies of Nora Hanneman, was a semifinalist for the FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Time Machine III: Modeling Mary Gaitskill's Time Craft (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In this fun, exercise-based seminar, we'll model Mary Gaitskill's impressive timecraft. We'll look at her use of scenic summary or the "scenelette" and how she expertly weaves direct dialogue, summarized dialogue, scene, and flashback. Then, we’ll emulate her techniques.
Speakers
avatar for Clemintine Guirado

Clemintine Guirado

Instructor
Clemintine Guirado has published short stories in StoryQuartlerly, Best New American Voices, Rainbow Curve, Comet Magazine, and 580 Split. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University and a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin. She... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

The Devil Made Me Do It: Using Folktale Forms to Structure Your Writing
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
Register
The oldest story forms provide potent templates for structuring new work. Learn about the elements of a classic devil story and how contemporary writers such as Emily St. John Mandel and Colson Whitehead have incorporated its charms. Study notable features of ghost stories and see how writers such as Jesmyn Ward and Silvia Moreno-Garcia have crafted haunting fiction. We'll examine several folk and fairytale forms and use these as guides toward writing own new classics.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
216
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Experimental Prose
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
Register
What would happen if we refused to limit ourselves to what is considered the “right” way to tell a story? Let’s move beyond traditional and mainstream modes of narrative. Let’s allow ourselves to experiment with language and the page. Let’s start from a place of flexibility and fluidity rather than rigidity and fixed rules. We'll look at some models that go beyond definitions of genre and take risks in redefining the interrelationship of content and form. There will be prompts to invite participants to start their own experimentations.
Speakers
avatar for Poupeh Missaghi

Poupeh Missaghi

Instructor
Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, a translator both into and out of Persian, Asymptote’s Iran editor-at-large, and an educator. Her debut novel trans(re)lating house one was published by Coffee House Press in February 2020. She holds a PhD in English and creative writing from the University... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
315
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

The "I" Club: How to Write Using a Thrilling First Person (V)
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
This class is about memoiristic, essayistic, and journalistic use of the first person. Memoirists and essayists we'll study include, but are not limited to, Emmanuel Carrère, Eduardo Halfon, Jazmina Barrera, Gabriela Wiener, Cristina Rivera Garza, Patti Smith, and David Carr. We'll see how deep they can go using first person, and we'll investigate their techniques to develop our writing skills. Writing in the first person opens the door to honesty, vulnerability, and the need to appear real in the face of everything around us. We'll try to understand why it is the ultimate attitude of the writer.
Speakers
avatar for Javier Sinay

Javier Sinay

Instructor
Javier Sinay is a writer and journalist. His books include The Murders of Moises Ville (Restless Books, 2022–Nominated for Book of the Year, 2023 CrimeCon C.L.U.E. Awards/original title: Los crímenes de Moisés Ville), Camino al Este, Cuba Stone (in collaboration), and Sangre joven... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Just Two Poems
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
Register
In this class, we’ll experience the power of deep reading. Before class, you’ll be given two poems that serve as jumping-off points to explore and be inspired by master poets of exceptional craft. We’ll explore both the measured unfolding of a longer poem and the lyric compression of another. Exercises, experiments, and your own poems will follow.
Speakers
avatar for Lynn Wagner

Lynn Wagner

Instructor
Lynn Wagner is the author of No Blues This Raucous Song, which won the Slapering Hol Chapbook competition. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she won the Academy of American Poets prize. She has earned fellowships to the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
215
  Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Creatures of Impulse: What Writers Can Learn From TV
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
Register
This session will focus on the way popular TV series hook viewers, construct scenes, build characters, and structure episodes, and how this can easily be adapted to add energy to short stories, memoirs, novels, and even poems. We’ll likely use the pilot (first) episodes of Breaking Bad, Reservation Dogs, Atlanta, Severance, and Insecure as examples, so you may want to watch those in advance. A few clips will be shown as time allows.
Speakers
avatar for Dean Bakopoulos

Dean Bakopoulos

Visiting Author
Dean Bakopoulos is the author of the novels Please Don't Come Back from the Moon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), My American Unhappiness (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and Summerlong (Ecco/HarperCollins). The winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and NEA fellowships in both fiction and creative... Read More →
Thursday June 13, 2024 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
316
  Screenwriting
 
Friday, June 14
 

9:00am MDT

Letters to a Stranger (V)
Friday June 14, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Each of us is haunted, in both great and odd ways, by the people we meet. And it so often happens that the person is a total stranger—one who then unexpectedly changes us—that we never see again. But if you had the chance to speak to this stranger today, what would you say? This class, inspired by the anthology Letter to a Stranger, will guide you through the process of considering how a stranger has impacted you. Then, we’ll draft a letter to this stranger, a letter that will explore how they unknowingly redirected the river of your life.
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He was also awarded a fellowship to the 2015 Arctic Circle Residency and was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, Electric... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

How to Wrangle a Cloud
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
Register
This craft seminar will be a discussion of all the techniques and serendipities that go into bringing a story idea from the initial burst of inspiration to the finished product. We’ll cover how to find and develop good material in the face of uncertainty, time constraints, and a lack of confidence. Special emphasis will be placed on the writer's experience of joy while writing, and plenty of time will be available for questions and answers throughout the course of the seminar.
Speakers
avatar for Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Visiting Author
Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s most recent book is the story collection, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You (One World, 2021), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and longlisted for the Story Prize. His first book... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Beacon Hall
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Story in a Flurry
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
Register
In this class, you’ll develop a set of story elements through quick writing exercises designed to break through your inner critic and put words on the page. We’ll work on focussed prompts that build on one another to generate interrelated narrative fragments, such as characters, setting, plot, beginning, and ending. At the end, you will have (hopefully!) the skeleton of a complete story draft. These exercises will help you break free some useful writing or ideas for future writing, but the focus on individual aspects of craft will also lead us to some insights into the nature of narrative itself.
Speakers
avatar for Nick Arvin

Nick Arvin

Instructor
Nick Arvin is the author of In the Electric Eden, Articles of War, and The Reconstructionist. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal and has been honored with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Library Association... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
216
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Two-Faced: The Art of Multiple Perspectives
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
Register
Sometimes, there's one perfect perspective through which to tell a story, but other times, a story requires multiple angles to convey the whole picture. Multiple perspectives can open up a story's possibilities, showcase a writer's range, and build suspense and tension. However, they can also confuse or annoy the reader or slow the story's pacing if not incorporated with care. We'll study examples of multiple-perspective magic by Alice Munro, May-Lee Chai, Tommy Orange, and Yoon Choi and learn how to craft our own stories.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
316
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Evoking Our Haunts: On Persons, Places, and Finding Voice
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
Register
A ghost is often created out of trauma or deep emotions—a haunting of place or person, seeking a witness to form and voice. In this seminar, we'll explore possibilities of homes for our ghosts, from sestina to erasure, lyric essays to prose poetry. What’s haunting you, and what can’t you seem to dispel? Together, let’s evoke our own powerful words to better understand what lingers beyond the veil and our own rituals for words.
Speakers
avatar for Hillary Leftwich

Hillary Leftwich

Instructor
Hillary Leftwich is the author of two books, Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock (Agape Editions, 2023, new edition) and Aura (Future Tense Books and Blackstone Audio Publishing, 2022), and a collection of experimental forms TBA. She owns Alchemy Author Services and Writing... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
215
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Your First Page: Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Voice
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
Register
In this class, we’ll examine five to ten first pages (250 words or less) to see how authors have created their voice through vulnerability, syntax, authenticity, and structure. It will be a great lesson in establishing a voice immediately.
Speakers
avatar for Kase Johnstun

Kase Johnstun

Instructor
Kase Johnstun lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. He was most recently named the 2021 Ogden Mayor’s Award Recipient for the Literary Arts. His forthcoming novel Cast Away will be published from Torrey House Press in 2024. Johnstun is the author of recently released Let The Wild Grasses... Read More →
Friday June 14, 2024 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
204
  Nonfiction/Memoir
 
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Beacon Hall
Lighthouse HQ
TBA
Zoom
  • All Genres
  • Dramatic Writing
  • Fiction
  • Hybrid
  • Nonfiction/Memoir
  • Poetry
  • Publishing/Career
  • Screenwriting
  • YA/Children's
  • Type
  • Advanced Weekend Workshop
  • Advanced Weeklong Workshop
  • Craft Seminar
  • Event
  • Lunchtime Business Panel
  • Two-Day Intensive