2022 Presenters

13
Jan
2022

Janet Pocorobba

JANET POCOROBBA

A white cis woman in early fifties, long brown hair and brown eyes, chin in hands.

 

 

 

Janet Pocorobba is the author of The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, River Teeth, Post Road, Harvard Review, The Writer, and elsewhere. She has received writing residency fellowships at Bread Loaf, Vermont Studio Center, and Turkey Land Cove Foundation on Martha’s Vineyard. She teaches in the Lesley MFA Program and is their Associate Director.

Learn more at her website.

SESSION: Who’s Driving this Bus?: Separating Your Narrator From Your Character in Memoir

The memoir genre is vast in style and content, but one thing all memoirs have in common is a narrator looking back on a former self. But how does one create this narrator on the page? Is there one self telling the story or two—a narrator and a starring character? What is the role of each? And how is all this related to voice? This session will use written exercises and discussion to clarify the narrator who is telling—and controlling—the tale. We will also discuss the dangers of collapsing these roles, versus using them to gain perspective and tell a deeper story.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Author
13
Jan
2022

Eman Quotah

EMAN QUOTAH

A woman with brown hair and a striped shirt, standing outside.

 

 

 

Eman Quotah's novel, Bride of the Sea, was called a best debut of 2021 by Booklist. Her essays and stories have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Toast, The Establishment, Book Riot, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Witness, Necessary Fiction, Gargoyle, and other publications. She is also a communications professional who works with leaders in health, education, and social justice. She lives with her family near Washington, D.C.

Learn more at her website.

SESSION: Just My Opinion: Writing (and Landing) Op-Eds and Guest Essays

Whether your publisher has asked you to pitch essays to promote your book, or you’ve got a burning opinion you want to share with the world, this session will show you how to write, pitch, and land persuasive pieces that get people talking.

Opinion and essay writing are great ways for writers (of all genres) to get a byline and attention for their work. But when is it an opinion? And when is it an essay? And how do you get an editor’s “yes”? This session will walk you through how to identify topics to write about; the difference between opinion essays and personal essays; how to get started writing; how to find outlets that take each; what opinion editors are looking for, and what they're not; what makes an opinion an opinion; how to whittle down your pitch list; and what the pitching/submission process is for different types of publications. We'll also examine some recent pieces and talk about what aspects of each one make it a strong piece and likely helped it get published. Fiction and nonfiction writers are equally welcome.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Author
13
Jan
2022

Rebecca Bratten Weiss

REBECCA BRATTEN WEISS

A white cis woman of Ashkenazi descent in her mid forties, with mid-length blond hair.

 

 

 

Rebecca Bratten Weiss is a journalist, editor, and freelance academic residing in rural Ohio. Her creative work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Two Hawks Quarterly, Presence, Connecticut River Review, Sandy River Review, Shooter, New Ohio Review, Gyroscope Review, The Seventh Wave, and Westerly. Her collaborative chapbook Mud Woman, with Joanna Penn Cooper, was published in 2018, and her collection Talking to Snakes by Ethel Zine and press in 2020. She has published extensively as a religion reporter, and is employed as a journalist at her local newspaper.

Learn more at Rebecca's website.

SESSION: When Science Is Your Main Character

In an increasingly science-suspicious world, many writers want to incorporate scientific material into their fiction. But doing so presents some unique challenges.

In this session, we'll discuss approaches to writing fiction about science. How—in a fictional world—might we adhere to scientific fact? How can we make science central to our novels' conditions and conflict? How can we make the science work in the plot, without seeming like dull exposition? We'll examine excerpts from writers like Delia Owens, Andrea Barrett, Ted Chiang, and N.K. Jemisin to discover the choices they've made in diction, exposition, and science-as-plot-point. Considering the nation’s recent experience, we'll discuss the widespread resistance to vaccination, as well as the resistance of some in the dominant culture to the experience of LGBTQ+ people, in light of what science reveals about human sexuality. We will explore how these might be developed as a challenge or obstacle to be considered in narrative. Climate change is also a greater factor in the everyday lives of people and cannot be ignored without consequence. This session will be especially useful for anyone writing about characters who are scientists or researchers—or characters fighting resistance to facts that pose a threat to their lives or those of their loved ones.

CO-PRESENTER: John Farrell

Posted by GrubStreet in Journalist & Editor
13
Jan
2022

Lyzette Wanzer

LYZETTE WANZER

An African American woman wearing shoulder-length dreadlocks, attired in a black top with a disc-shaped pendant necklace.

 

 

 

Lyzette Wanzer is a New York City native now living in San Francisco. Her work appears in over twenty-five literary journals, books, and magazines, and she is a contributor to The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie), The Naked Truth, Essay Daily, and the San Francisco University High School Journal. A four-time San Francisco Arts Commission, three-time Center for Cultural Innovation, and first-time California Humanities grant recipient, Lyzette serves as Judge for the Soul-making Keats Literary Competition’s Intercultural Essay category and the Women’s National Book Association’s Effie Lee Morris Fiction category. She has been accepted to writing residencies across the country and in Canada. Lyzette enjoys reading and presenting her work at conferences such as AWP, the College English Association, American & Popular Culture Association, the San Francisco Writers Conference, and others. She teaches creative writing, with a specialty in professional development, at several Bay Area cultural and educational institutions. During the pandemic year she also began teaching nationwide via the ubiquitous Zoom platform. Her book, Trauma, Tresses, and Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative, is due out from Chicago Review Press in 2022.

Learn more on Lyzette's website.

SESSION: For BIPOC Writers: Get Invited to Read at Literary Conferences

This workshop offers information, guidance, and support to underserved Indigenous writers and writers of color who are applying to have their work—poetry, fiction, essays, and creative nonfiction—accepted at a writers' conference or convention, whether virtual or in-person. You've heard the alphabet soup of these events: ACA, AWP, CEA, MLA, PCA, and so many others. In a safe and supportive environment, we will explore how to choose the right writers' conference for you, prepare a polished submission, make a professional impression, create a conference plan, get financial support to attend, approach concerns that arise for us as attendees of color, and avoid common and costly mistakes in your CV and bio that mark you as an amateur. This workshop is intended for writers of color of all levels who feel prepared to present their work at a professional writers' conference.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Writer & Educator
13
Jan
2022

Jane Roper

JANE ROPER

A white woman in her forties with long brown hair and bangs.

 

 

 

Jane Roper is the author of a memoir, Double Time: How I Survived–and Mostly Thrived–Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins, and a novel, Eden Lake. Her novel The Society of Shame will be published by Anchor Books in 2023. Jane’s writing has appeared in Salon, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, and elsewhere, and was included in the anthology Labor Day: True Birth Stories by today’s Best Women Writers. She has taught writing at GrubStreet, Follow Your Art Community Studios, The University of Iowa, and elsewhere and is the host of the author interview series "The Zeitgeist" on A Mighty Blaze. Jane is also a copywriter and brand strategist. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and rad teenage twins.

For more information, see Jane's website.

SESSION: The Rhythm and Structure of Memoir

The most engaging memoirs move seamlessly from specific moments to general significance and back again, striking an artful balance between scene, summary, and exposition, while creating a sense of forward motion that keeps readers turning pages. In this session, we’ll look at excerpts from published memoirs to discover how authors manage to pull off this feat and explore topics including narrative distance, dialogue, transitions, and arc. Texts will include When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Author
13
Jan
2022

Kerrie Flanagan

KERRIE FLANAGAN

Kerrie Flanagan

 

 

 

Kerrie Flanagan is an author, writing consultant, instructor with Stanford Continuing Studies, and freelance writer with over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. She is the author of The Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing and creator of the Magazine Writing Blueprint. In addition, she has published seventeen other books, including three series with a co-author under the pen names, C.K. Wiles and C.G. Harris. Her work has appeared in publications including Writer's Digest, Alaska Magazine, The Writer, and six Chicken Soup for the Soul books. She was the founder of Northern Colorado Writers and led the group for ten years. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds of authors through classes and individual consultations. Her background in teaching, and enjoyment of helping writers has led her to present at writing conferences across the country and teach continuing studies classes through Stanford University.

Read more about Kerrie on her site.

 

SESSION: Magazine Writing Made Simple

Currently there are over 7,000 magazines in the U.S. and they all need content. This class—taught by an accomplished freelance writer and the author of Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing—will demystify the idea that writing for magazines is difficult and only attainable for a select group. With the right tools, knowledge, and understanding of how the magazine world works, it is definitely possible to publish articles and get paid for them. Through presentation and Q&A, participants will learn the steps needed to become successful magazine writers and will leave the class ready to pitch ideas.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Author
13
Jan
2022

Karen Dukess

KAREN DUKESS

A smiling white woman in her mid-fifties with wavy short brown hair and wearing sparkly gold earrings and a black v-neck blouse and sweater.

 

 

 

Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party, "a spare, bittersweet page-turner (NYTimes)," which was an IndieNext and Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick. She has been a tour guide in the former Soviet Union, a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia and a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations Development Programme. She has blogged on raising boys for The Huffington Post and written book reviews for USA Today. She has a degree in Russian Studies from Brown University and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She lives with her family near New York City and Cape Cod, where she hosts the Castle Hill Author Talks, a series of interviews on zoom and in person.

Learn more on her website.

SESSION: What Fiction Writers Can Learn (and Must Unlearn) From Journalism

Is journalism the best background for fiction writing or is it the worst? The answer is yes. It’s both. This session will discuss the journalistic skills that are helpful for writing fiction and those that are not only not helpful, but detrimental to the fiction writing process. We'll discuss how the nitty-gritty of reporting can strengthen the creation of fictional worlds and go over the different techniques and mindsets required for nonfiction and fiction. For example, in journalism, the most relevant information is delivered first; in fiction, you have to trust the reader and withhold information to build suspense. In journalism, what's true is most important; in fiction, authenticity is more important than truth, and it's often the things that really happened in the writer's life that ring most untrue. Through writing exercises, examples of different approaches to writing, and wisdom from writers on the fiction-writing process, this session will offer practical guidance and encouragement of particular use to nonfiction writers making their first forays into fiction.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Author
13
Jan
2022

Becky Tuch

BECKY TUCH

A white woman with curly hair and hoop earrings.

 

 

 

Becky Tuch is a fiction and nonfiction writer based in Philadelphia, PA. She has been honored with awards and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Somerville, MA Arts Council, Moment Magazine, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including Gulf Coast, Post Road, Salt Hill, Tikkun Magazine and Best of the Net. She is the Founding Editor of The Review Review, and now writes The Lit Mag News Roundup, a newsletter dedicated to lit mag publishing. Find her at BeckyTuch.com.

 

SESSION: Navigating the World of Literary Magazines

Literary magazines are a vital part of the literary ecosphere. They provide homes for our stories, short essays, and poetry. Building lit mag publishing credits also helps with landing fellowships, grants, literary agents, and more. But the world of lit mags can feel overwhelming. With over 6,000 journals on the market, how does a writer find the best homes for their work? Should writers enter contests? Are print lit mags more prestigious than online lit mags? How should cover letters be formatted? What should writers make of rejection letters, and when should writers keep trying their dream magazines?

In this session, Becky will help writers make sense of the lit mag landscape. She'll share the insights she has gleaned from years of speaking directly with journal editors, and will answer the many questions writers have about submissions. Participants will come away with the information needed to gain confidence and a sense of joy in the lit mag publication process.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Writer
13
Jan
2022

Caitlin McGill

CAITLIN MCGILL

A white woman in her early thirties, with teal earrings, long brown hair, and a gray shirt.

 

 

 

Caitlin McGill’s work appears in Blackbird, The Chattahoochee Review, Consequence, CutBank, Gastronomica, Indiana Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, The Los Angeles Review, McSweeney’s, The Southeast Review, Vox, War, Literature, & the Arts, and other publications. She was a finalist for the 2021 Chautauqua Janus Prize, and winner of the 2020 Indiana Review Creative Nonfiction Prize and the 2014 Crab Orchard Review Rafael Torch Nonfiction Award. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Newnan ArtRez, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and is a 2016 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award winner.

A resident of Lynn, MA, Caitlin teaches at Emerson College, GrubStreet, and Harvard University, and is a workshop facilitator for Writers Without Margins—a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to literary arts for everyone, including those marginalized, stigmatized, or isolated by the challenges of addiction recovery, disability, trauma, sickness, injury, poverty, and mental illness.

She is at work on a Miami-based, coming-of-age memoir about hiding from family the truth about her abusive, drug-addled ex-boyfriend—a six-year relationship that began when she was sixteen and he was twenty-two. Two essays from her book have been named Notables in The Best American Essays series. You can find her on Twitter, or on her website.

SESSION: Imagining the Gaps in Memoir: How to Write a Story When the Story Runs Out

Have you ever wanted to uncover the story behind your family’s silences and secrets? Ever longed to fill holes in overheard rumors and cryptic tales? As creative nonfiction writers, autobiographical novelists, and gossip lovers of all kinds, what do we do when we try to tell a story but the story runs out? And what do we do when the gap becomes so large that it forces us to question our genre choices?

This session will discuss how to turn what might, at first glance, seem like a limitation—a gap, a road block—into a source of possibility. We'll look at specific examples from authors like Helen Fremont, Justin St. Germain, Loung Ung, and Jesmyn Ward, and provide specific tips and take-home prompts for advancing narratives while engaging daringly with the complex boundaries of genre.

 

Posted by GrubStreet in Writer & Educator
13
Jan
2022

Brendan Mathews

BRENDAN MATHEWS

A white man in his early 50s with short gray-brown hair and a well trimmed beard.

 

 

 

Brendan Mathews is the author of This Is Not a Love Song and The World of Tomorrow, both published by Little, Brown and Co. This Is Not a Love Song—which includes two stories that appeared in Best American Short Stories—was a Massachusetts Book Awards "Must Read" and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. The World of Tomorrow was named an Honor Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and selected as an Indie Next Great Read and an Editors' Choice by the New York Times Book Review. A Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, he has also been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. He teaches at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

Read more on his website.

SESSION: Re-Envision Your Revision

Revision is the most essential—and for many, the most difficult—aspect of the writing process. Ideally, revision should open up new directions that allow you to re-envision your entire project, but after investing so much energy in the first draft, it can be hard to see new possibilities.

Through a lively lecture (including diagrams and demos of famous songs), we will explore a variety of revision strategies meant to help you see the possibilities ready to burst from your latest draft. Whether you approach your manuscript spatially, visually, musically, or one word at a time, you'll find new ways to energize your writing.

Posted by GrubStreet in Author