“The Night of the Fire” is one I’ll never forget. Read about it here along with some truly fine writers in the latest issue of Diagram. What an honor! http://thediagram.com/19_1/fraterrigo.html
Winter/Spring 2018 Classes with the Lafayette Writers' Studio
Winter/Spring 2018 classes are open for registration. Workshops in fiction, poetry and nonfiction begin on Tuesday, March 20. To learn more about offerings, please visit lafayettewritersstudio.com
Registration is Open for Fall 2017 Classes and Inspired Words Writers' Conference
Writing Fiction and Nonfiction Workshop
Wed., September 20, 27; Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25; Nov. 1 & 8 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Wed., Nov 29, Dec. 6, 13 & 20 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Inspired Words Writers’ Conference
Saturday, November 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 pa.m. at MatchBOX Coworking Studio Featuring keynote author Barbara Shoup, novelist and prose writers Sarah Layden and Melissa Fraterrigo, and poets Lauren Mallett and Kaveh Akbar. In addition to Shoup's workshop, you may attend breakout sessions designed to help you learn more about craft, generate new work, and explore yourself and your writing. All sessions will be generative in nature, so you will leave with the start of several pieces of new work. Lunch and refreshments included with admission. Local bookseller Second Flight Bookswill be selling books by presenters along with other merchandise. Discover writing that stirs and surprises you, and meet other committed writers. You will leave with more than inspired words.
Space is limited. Earlybird registration ends Oct. 13, 2017.
Lafayette Magazine feature
Thanks so much to the kind folks at Lafayette Magazine for including this fine piece about my work with the Lafayette Writers' Studio in the Summer 2017 issue. Gratitude also to the interviewed students--Larry Drench, Sandra Burbank, Karis Amanda, Nicole Brooks, and all my students. I am so fortunate to work with you!
Open Mic and Spring Classes
Share an excerpt of your latest story, poem, or memoir-in-progres at the Lafayette Writers' Studio SIXTH Open Mic on Thursday, April 27 from 7 - 9 p.m. at MatchBOX Coworking Studio in Lafayette. Sign up to read at the door. Let your voice be heard!
Teen Creative Writing registration is open. Storytelling is the basis for all modes of creative writing. If you can tell a good story, you can write anything. Teen Creative Writing will offer a place for you to discover how the foundations of writing can help you develop your story-writing strengths while meeting other writers. By the conclusion of the course all students will have written one complete story, and will have both the spark and the knowledge to keep writing.
Teen Creative Writing will be held for four Wednesdays: May 24, 31 & June 7 &14 from 6-7:30 at MatchBOX Coworking Studio. To register visit lafayettewritersstudio.com
Glory Days cover revealed
Register for Winter/Spring 2017 writing classes
Writing Your Book from Start to Finish and Everything In Between
Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This is the year you write your book. Sound daunting? It doesn’t need to be if you follow your idea’s lead and create a routine that not only builds on inspiration but also takes into account your lifestyle and personality.
Tuesdays Feb. 1, 8, 15 & 22 from 6-7:30 p.m.
Storytelling is the basis for all modes of creative writing. Whether you write poems, are working on a memoir, or are penning your seventh fan fiction novel, if you can tell a good story, you can write anything. Teen Creative Writing will offer a place for you to discover how the foundations of the craft of writing can help you generate ideas and develop your story-writing strengths while meeting other writers.
Writing Fiction and Nonfiction Workshop
Wednesdays March 8, 22, 29, April 5, 12, 19, 26 & May 3 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Writers need one another for feedback and community, but also to generate ideas and learn from one another. In this workshop writers will have the opportunity to come together to evaluate published work as well as that of our peers.
More than Meets the Eye: Ways of Reading, Writing and Talking about Poems
Thursday, March 30 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Poems are not the locked boxes we may think they are. Poems have much to offer when we set aside the goal of "getting it." This class will focus, instead, on trusting--and talking through!--our emotional experience of poetry.
Open Mic – free and open to the public
Thursday, April 27, 2017 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at MatchBOX Coworking Studios
Fall 2016 classes and writing conference now available
If you have yet to take a class or attend an event with the Lafayette Writers’ Studio, this fall is the time to do so.
Interested in writing but unsure where to begin? Or perhaps you need to be reminded about what you love about the written word Join us for The Write Start: Cultivating Creativity – Wed., Aug 31 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. we will develop a plan for your writing goals while examining your particular pitfalls to creativity.
Writing Jumpstart offers a broad overview of the conventions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction and meets eight Wednesdays: Sept. 14, 21, 28; Oct. 5, 12, 19; and Nov. 9 & 16 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Inspired Words Writers’ Conference - Saturday, Oct. 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring a keynote by Cathy Day; workshops led by Adam Watkins, Catherine Grossman, James Tadd Adcox, and Melissa Fraterrigo
Space is very limited for the conference and early-bird registration ends soon.
Novel forthcoming in 2017
I'm thrilled to announce that Glory Days, my novel-in-stories, is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press in fall 2017 as part of the Flyover Fiction series. More details to follow!
Lafayette Leader article
Thanks so much to the good folks at the Lafayette Leader for this story on the genesis of the Lafayette Writers' Studio, as well as more insight into my approach to teaching and writing.