Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Lee Gutkind to Lead Master Workshop at Writer's Center

This is a great opportunity to learn from a true master:

The Writer's Center is pleased to announce that one of the leading figures of creative nonfiction, Lee Gutkind, will lead a master workshop this winter at The Writer's Center.

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE: THE CREATIVE NONFICTION TRIPLE CHALLENGE
7 - 9:30 p.m. Monday, Feb 8, Tuesday, Feb. 9, Thursday, Feb. 11, and Friday, Feb. 12
Fee: $300 for members; $350 for nonmembers

Whether you are writing memoir or writing about science, business, or history, the writer, to be successful, must find a way to communicate interesting and vital information along with his or her ideas and feelings--through scene or narrative.

Those are the first two challenges in creative nonfiction: Style or story blended with substance or fact. And then there's focus/theme--the awesome final challenge: What does all of this information plus narrative mean to the reader, to the writer, and to the world? What do we want our readers to think or do after they read our essay or our book?

These are the three challenges facing the nonfiction writer today--often the vital prerequisites of publication and communication.

In this workshop, Lee Gutkind, founder and editor of the landmark magazine Creative Nonfiction, will lead you through the creative nonfiction writing process from beginning to end. He will demonstrate the writer's pitfalls and the ways in which the writer might fulfill the creative nonfiction triple challenge.

In the first class, Gutkind will discuss and demonstrate the classic structure of creative nonfiction--how style and substance come together. In the second class, Gutkind will be joined by his colleague, Dan Sarewitz, a columnist for the journal Nature, and co-director of Arizona State University's Consortium for Science Policy & Outcomes. Sarewitz and Gutkind will focus on perhaps the most difficult of the three challenges: finding meaning in your work. For the third and fourth sessions students will be asked to write a short narrative that combines style, substance, and meaning--and share their work with the class.

This is a master workshop. To apply, you must submit 5 hard copy pages of a creative nonfiction piece (it can be an excerpt from a longer work). Please do not register for this workshop before you are admitted. Submission deadline for this workshop is January 4. Check the website for details.

To learn more about Lee Gutkind, please visit him at http://www.leegutkind.com/

Work-in-Progress

DC-area author Leslie Pietrzyk explores the creative process and all things literary.