Finishing A Novel: You have an idea; it's burning to be written. In the distance, you see a finished book on a shelf with your name on it. The road map to get there is uncertain, the amount of work overwhelming, your brow sweats in anticipation--those who climbed Everest have nothing on you. This class is taught by a professional for the purpose of helping you organize chapters, build on ideas and get it going. This is a class for advanced writers who have their writing skills down. Expect research, readings on how to finish a novel, a field trip and to write extensively each week. For more specific fiction writing issues like dialogue, action, voice or themes, see the Fiction class or individual consulations are available. 

Writing Essays: So your passion is of the non-fiction variety. You have ideas, you listen, absorb, research, think; and at the end of the day you have a series of arguments, research and insights to compile. But to write essays a sense of authority is necessary.  How do you write a convincing thesis? How do you back it up with just the right amount of information, concise language and bomb-proof facts? This is a class for those who want to go over the ways one can polish impressive essays. Expect to walk away with a portfolio of publishable work.

Multi-Genre Project: The multi-genre project is a personal collection of writing bound in a creative way that you can take with you. The goal is to select a handful of writing styles (bumper sticker, flash fiction, prose poem, recipe, text message, billboard, short story) to explore one topic with that you are passionate about; whether it's travel, family, a historical event, nature, love, etc. By the end of the class, you will have a bound project of creative writing that pushed you to explore many genres while celebrating an important topic for you in a series of creative ways.  

Travel Writing: This class is about the places you have been and have yet to go. Maybe you have a stack of photographs that you've been dying to put together with an artful series of vignettes or essays? Whether you travel to Boston, Vermont, Uraguay, or Utah, you've been meaning to get these stories down and publish them or put them in a portfolio or scrapbook. This class will discuss travel writing tips, offer excerpts from inspiring travelers, find unique ways to use voice. One class trip will be scheduled and a finished body of work or a portfolio should be expected.  

Photojournalism: Who better to write about an event than the person taking pictures? What better than a portfolio of stories? Where better to practice these skills than The Workshop? When has there ever been so many cool photography opportunities? How could you pass this class up?  Taught by a professional journalist in the field, the class will cover interviewing, form, ethics, and editing. This is a class for the intrepid reporter who finds something about politics, community life, art, history and social movements the stuff that gets them up in the morning. Freelance opportunites through our expanding network of professional news organizations and on-line journals will be explored and followed up on. Examples of news writing, photographs, historic figures in the field and writing exercises will be included.

Spoken Word/Slam Poetry: Across the country in taverns, pubs, cafes and livingrooms, spoken word has a vast and energetic history; whether biting and political, moving and vulnerable or bombastic and hilarious, poetry spoken outloud has captivated audiences everywhere. This class is a workshop on how you put together a poem meant to be read outloud. It will cover issues like voice, style, stage presence, message and imagery.  The class will help you develop a series of spoken word poems to be read at local open mics in the seacoast and as faraway as Boston.

Feature Writing/Creative Non-Fiction: This is a chapter of writing dedicated to life as it really is from your perspective. It's a blend of narrative, journalism and storytelling that sticks to real events, people and history but unlike the memoir, these stories are about the world. A branch of journalism with a literary zest, this style of writing plays by some rules of journalism and some rules of literary arts to engage reality with artful prose. Maintaining certain facts and a sense of authority gives this style weight, while allowing room for the stories to be inventive with creative description and assembly.    

The Poetic Collage: Literary art on canvas by using snippets of written words mixed with art materials such as paint, pictures, scraps, wood, glass, cloth, etc. A major art project will be developed by the end of class.

Modernism (Prose as Portraiture): This class is designed to focus on the nuances of great modern prose style - a glimpse not only into what prose is but also into the infinite effects of its magic.  There will be a directive of perceiving good prose as you would look at a painting.  There is not one great style but many, and it will be the study of the contours, colors, shapes and movements of prose works by authors such as Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, Samuel Beckett, Paul Bowles, Gertrude Stein, Hermann Hesse, James Joyce etc.  The class will include close reading of the material, an essay assignment and a final project.