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The Writers Studio is happy to announce the revival of Word Sprint-- a weekly time to write in the company of others. Using Zoom to come together, we'll write for twenty-five minutes, take a break, repeat. There is no sharing or critique of your writing, only fast-paced, supportive productivity in the company of other writers. It will be fun, exciting, and might be the thing to help you finish (or start...) your manuscript. These virtual sessions will help participants set aside time to write and be with other writers in an informal setting.
The sessions will be led by a rotating team of hosts including Jen Scheiderman, Amelia Ramsey, Kassia Sing, Genevieve Douglass, and Steve Bice
Details:
Studio Lead: Sallie Maron Writers.Lead@bainbridgebarn.org
**This workshop will be live streamed via Zoom.**
Agents report that they’re flooded with more queries and proposals than ever before, even as publishers cut back the number of books they produce each year. How can you break through the noise and get your project noticed? This workshop with Beth Jusino will help you step back and see your fiction or nonfiction work through fresh eyes and a business-based perspective. We’ll identify the things that make your work unique, marketable, and irresistible to publishing gatekeepers, and then with lots of examples and time for practice and personal feedback, we’ll work on verbal “elevator pitches,” one-paragraph hooks (great for query letters), and the dreaded synopsis. (This is also a valuable class for self-publishing writers who want to pitch their books so that readers pay attention.)
Attendees will…
Beth Jusino is a publishing consultant for both traditional and self-publishing authors, with almost 20 years of experience helping writers navigate the complicated space between manuscript and final book. A former literary agent and marketing director, she’s the author of the award-winning The Author’s Guide to Marketing and has ghostwritten or collaborated on half a dozen additional titles. Beth is a member of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, a regular speaker for Seattle Public Library’s #SeattleWrites workshops, and has taught at writers’ conferences across the country. Visit her online at www.bethjusino.com or on Twitter @bethjusino.
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Join Susan Wiggs for a hands-on class that will work for emerging, intermediate, and experienced writers. Bring your ideas or your work-in-progress to explore the basics of novel structure, and leave with a work plan to move ahead with your story. Recommended reading prior to class: The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber.
Susan Wiggs’s life is all about family, friends…and fiction.
Susan has been featured in the national media, including NPR and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally, and on the high seas.
From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages.
Her novels have appeared in the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List, and have captured readers’ hearts around the globe. Her newest novel, The Lost and Found Bookshop will be released in 2020.
It’s time to apply to schools and the dreaded personal essay looms overhead! Where do you start? You can start here. Learn how to write an impressive essay that reflects your uniqueness and catches the eye of college admissions. In both two-hour-class sessions, you will brainstorm and workshop ideas for finding the heart of your essay, select unique details to support your theme, and develop a structure that works for a truly personal essay. And have fun doing it!
Join Emmy Award-winning writer and best-selling author, Lynn Brunelle and award-winning author, Washington State McAuliffe Teaching Fellow, and former teacher and college instructor, Maureen McQuerry
Instructor Bio:
Lynn Brunelle is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy with over 25 years’ experience writing for people of all ages, across all manner of media. Previously a classroom science, English, and art teacher for kids K-12, an editor, illustrator, and award-winning author of over 45 titles, Lynn has created, developed, and written projects for Chronicle, Workman, National Geographic, Scholastic, Random House, Penguin, A&E, Discovery Channel, Disney, ABC TV, NBC, NPR, the Annenburg Foundation, World Almanac, Cranium, and PBS.
A regular contributor to NBC’s New Day Northwest as a family science guru, Martha Stewart Radio as a family activity consultant, and a contributor to NPR’s Science Friday, she is the creator of the Mama Gone Geek blog and Tabletop Science (videos that make science fun and accessible). Lynn won five Telly Awards and two CINE awards for her music videos, which range in topics from bullying prevention, child protection, and the adolescent brain for international curriculums through Committee for Children, to independent projects encouraging science literacy and STEAM.
Maureen McQuerry is an award winning poet, novelist and teacher. Her YA novel, The Peculiars is an ALA Best Book for Young Adult Readers 2013 and winner of the Westchester Award. Her other novels include the Celtic Mythology duo Beyond the Door and The Telling Stone, and most recently Between Before and After, one of Barnes and Nobles most anticipated historical fictions for 2019. Big Ideas for Little Philosophers, a 4 book series featuring Socrates, Descartes, Aristotle and DeBeauvior, for preschoolers, releases in July 2020 to be followed by Big Ideas for Little Environmentalists.
Contact: Sallie Maron writers.lead@bainbridgebarn.org
A safe environment is created to provide writers of all levels and genres an opportunity to generate new writing. Enrollment is limited to eight writers.
Two prompts will be provided for timed writing, followed by an opportunity to read and receive responses to this fresh written material. Reading your work is optional. Responses can only begin with: what is strong, what I like and what stays with me. An additional prompt will be given for optional homework.
Julie Gardner, an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate, has led WritersGathering writing groups, workshops and retreats in Seattle for nearly a decade. At BARN, for over a year, she has offered a series every quarter. Participants say they learn more about their strengths, discover new ones, develop their repertoire of craft elements, take risks, generate writing, and have fun learning from and writing with others.
Julie is the editor of Original Voices: Homeless and Formerly Homeless Women's Writings. Recent works have been featured in Passager's Pandemic Diaries, Persimmon Tree, and in Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of Covid-19.
The BARN’s annual Dark and Stormy Night is creeping up on us again but this year will be a little twisted. Please join us from the comfort and safety of your own place for a few star local authors reading original spooky stories in an online format. You bring your own snacks and cocktails and we will bring the thrills and chills.
Get ready for terrifying tales written and read by . . .
Garth Stein Elizabeth George Megan Chance Warren Read Maureen McQuerry Lynn Brunelle Bridget Foley Jim Brunelle
Author Bios:
Garth Stein is the internationally bestselling author of the contemporary classic, The Art of Racing in the Rain, the story of a beloved philosopher dog named Enzo who teaches us everything we need to know about being human. As a major motion picture starring Kevin Costner, Milo Ventimiglia, and Amanda Seyfried, it hit the big screen in 2019.
Stein is the author of three other novels—A Sudden Light, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, and Raven Stole the Moon—as well as a full-length play, Brother Jones “Brother Jones“, which had its premiere in Los Angeles and was described as “brimming with intensity,” by The Los Angeles Weekly.
He has produced and directed several award-winning documentaries and music videos, and is the winner of multiple literary awards, including two PNBA awards. Garth is also the author of The Cloven: Book One, the first of a three-book series, illustrated by Matthew Southworth (Stumptown), published in July 2020 by Seattle's own Fantagraphics Books.
Elizabeth George is the New York Times and internationally best selling author of twenty British crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his unconventional partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. Her crime novels have been translated into 30 languages and featured on television by the BBC. She is also the author of a young adult series set on the island where she lives in the state of Washington.
A longtime instructor or creative writing, she has taught at colleges, universities, writers’ retreats, and conferences internationally. She is the recipient of the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, France’s Grand Prix di Literatture Policiere, Fullerton, and an honorary MFA from the Northwest Institute of Language Arts (Whidbey Island MFA Program).
She has also written the longtime best selling creative writing book Write Away, has edited two volumes of short stories, and is the executive chair of the Elizabeth George Foundation, which makes grants to poets, emerging playwrights, and unpublished novelists.
Megan Chance is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of several novels. Her work has been chosen for Amazon Book of the Month, Borders Original Voices, and Booksense/Indie Next. The Best Reviews says she writes “fascinating historical fiction.” Her novels have been translated into several different languages. She is included in the short story collection Stories for Suffragette City (Henry Holt, October 2020), and her latest novel, A Splendid Ruin, will be released by Lake Union Publishing in January 2021.
Megan is a former television news photographer with a BA in broadcast communications from Western Washington University. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.
Her latest book for adults, a memoir called Mama Gone Geek, was released in 2014 and won the Independent Publishing Award Gold Medal. Her newest book, Turn This Book into a Beehive was released in 2018.
Maureen taught middle school through college for almost twenty years in the Tri-Cities and was the McAuliffe Fellow for WA State in 2000. She currently lives on Bainbridge Island with her husband, 4 chickens and a hive full of bees.
Warren Read is the author of a memoir, The Lyncher in Me (2009, Borealis Books) and the award-winning novel, Ash Falls (2017, Ig Publishing). His fiction has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge, Mud Season Review, Sliver of Stone, Inklette, Switchback Magazine and East Bay Review. He is an assistant principal in Bainbridge Island, WA; in 2015 he received his MFA in from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. His latest novel, One Simple Thing, will be released by Ig Publishing in January 2021. Learn more about Warren at www.warren-read.com
Bridget Foley is originally from Colorado, and attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television. She worked as an actor and screenwriter before becoming a novelist. Her first novel Hugo & Rose was published in 2015.
She now lives a fiercely creative life with her family. Bridget's next novel Just Get Home will be published by MIRA in 2021.
Jim Brunelle is an award-winning journalist, television host and author. Winner of the New England AP News Executives Association Award for Editorial Writing and Political Reporting, Jim is an inductee to the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. He now makes his home on Bainbridge Island, where he continues to write.
Please note that this class will only be held at BARN if Kitsap County has been approved for Phase 3. We will notify you if we are not and will possibly offer it as an online course.
In these troubled times, the news reminds us daily that the difficult history we share is with us still and we all suffer as a result. The often unexamined legacies of the attempted genocide of indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans, in particular, continue to haunt our land. Through writing fiction, poetry or memoir, we can chart a path to help us move forward together.
This class invites writers from all cultural lineages to bring their stories to the table. Lessons and assignments are designed to fit each individual’s skill level and project—beginner, intermediate, or advanced; fiction, poetry or creative non-fiction. Each session focuses on a different aspect of story craft—narrative arc, sensory detail, dialogue, mature narrator. Participants also learn to critique in ways that are supportive, honest and helpful by practicing deep listening.
Writing can be a spiritual practice that teaches us to be fully present and alive to ourselves and the world. Take a journey inward, tap into your imagination, and find the deep truths and visions. In witnessing one another’s stories, let’s combine our energies to form a creative community of inspiration and compassion.
Laura Bowers Foreman and Ann Holmes Redding met 14 years ago and have been partners in teaching writing for nearly a decade. Their friendship began with sharing their personal stories and discovering common commitments both to writing and healing from ancestral and national historical harms. Together, Laura and Ann embody African, European, and indigenous heritages. Over the years they have jointly participated in a number of circles dedicated to healing and restorative justice.
Dubbed “the story doulas” by one student, Ann and Laura consciously support and coach each writer on the journey from inception to delivery of their work. They are experienced fellow travelers, helping students negotiate the sometimes unsettling information and emotions that may surface en route. They also confer with their students as they discern what vehicle—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or some combination—best suits the task at hand.
Laura Bowers Foreman offers her students all that she has gleaned from her twenty-five years as a writer. Her writing is informed by a passion for both the environment and social justice at every level, from the personal to the global. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Whitefish Review, About Place Journal, Nature in Legend and Story, Wildlife Conservation Magazine, and The Christian Science Monitor. She also has contributed to the anthologies Memoirs in the Light of Day and The Sweet Breathing of Plants (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), among others.
Ann Holmes Redding brings 40+-years of teaching experience, wisdom, and compassion to her students. Creative expression as a medium for transformation stands at the center of her life work as a spiritual guide, speaker, and instructor. Her essays and articles have been published in the Fairacres Chronicle and The Living Pulpit, as well as in scholarly works. She is co-author Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Qur’an with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.
Other information:
