Piper Center for Creative Writing offers workshops for aspiring authors

July 26, 2006

The Piper Writers Studio at ASU's Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing will offer two eight-week series of workshops in creative writing, beginning Aug. 21.<separator></separator>The beginning and one-day workshops are appropriate for writers of all experience levels. Intensive workshops are geared to writers who have taken four or more writing workshops.<separator></separator>All workshops are offered in the evenings and on Saturdays.<separator></separator>The schedule for Session One, Aug. 21-Oct. 9, includes:<separator></separator>• “Beginning Fiction,” with Jennifer Spiegel Bell. This class will survey the specifics of writing great fiction, including creating multifaceted characters, choosing detail and crafting authentic dialogue.<separator></separator>• “Beginning Nonfiction,” with Kathy Montgomery. Students will do guided writing exercises designed to spark memories, then learn to make them come alive on the page.<separator></separator>• “Intensive Fiction,” with Barbara Nelson. The class will look at the beginnings of novels-in-progress.<separator></separator>• “Overcoming Writers Block,” a one-day workshop with Karen Petersen. By using methods based on the results of recent research on brain activity, participants will learn how to attain that elusive “writing mood.”<separator></separator>Session Two workshops, Oct. 16-Dec. 4, include:<separator></separator>• “Intensive Fiction,” with Melissa Pritchard. This course will explore the holistic, non-logical process of story writing, beginning with inspiration or vision, moving into revision and ending, ideally, with a mature fiction narrative.<separator></separator>• “Beginning Screenwriting,” with M. Scott Krause. First-time screenwriters will be taught to create realistic characters, write authentic dialogue and develop storylines that take on a life of their own.<separator></separator>• “Intensive Nonfiction,” with Tania Katan. In this intensive workshop, participants will develop their life stories through writing exercises, and group discussions, and find the threads that connect anecdotes and create the arc of a memoir.<separator></separator>• “Journal Writing,” a one-day workshop with G. Lynn Nelson. This course will help students discover the power of their personal stories through journal writing.<separator></separator>Registration fee is $400 per beginning workshop, $550 per intensive workshop, and $75 for a one-day workshop. Piper Center members receive discounts. Piper Center membership is $35.<separator></separator>For more information about the workshops, call (480) 965-6856, or go to the Web site (<a href="http://www.asu.edu/piper/workshops">www.asu.edu/piper/workshops</a>).