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Our Spring Season has come to an end - look for information on Fall classes at the end of August.
If you would like to propose a class for our next literary season, click here for guidelines.
Payment in full is required at the time of registration. You can register and pay with Visa/Mastercard via our secure server by clicking the "Register Now" links below. If you prefer to pay by check or Paypal (access via 49writers@gmail.com), complete and submit our online form. Class size is limited for some courses, so we recommend you register early to avoid disappointment. Click here for instructor bios. Please be sure you are a current member of 49 Writers before registering at the member rate.
All registrations on a first-come, first-served basis; we do not hold slots. We do not issue refunds but if you have to cancel and notify us at least 24 hours in advance, we will provide a tuition voucher in the amount of your registration (valid for one year). For more information, visit About Our Programs or via email.
If you have a physical disability and wish to participate in a class scheduled at 645 West 3rd Avenue, Anchorage, please immediately so we can relocate the workshop to an integrated setting that is ADA-accessible.
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49 Writers has partnered with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators to provide registration for the following:
SCBWI MENTORSHIP FOR CHILDREN'S WRITERS
Dates and times arranged with instructor
Work one-on-one with well-published children’s author and editor Deb Vanasse to polish and perfect your manuscript. You’ll submit up to 30 pages (picture book, chapter book, middle grade, or young adult; may include query and/or synopsis) for close reading and editing. After a one-on-one discussion of how to strengthen structure, character, pacing, dialogue, perspective, and voice, you’ll have up to three months to revise and submit again, this time for line edits, followed by a final consultation on how to move forward to publication. For the manuscript exchange, we’ll use Word and Track Changes; consultations will be by phone or on Google Plus. Upon receipt of your registration, your mentor will set up a starting date with you.
$135 for members of SCBWI
$145 for non-members of SCBWI
SCBWI WORKSHOP: REVISION: BECOMING OUR OWN BEST EDITOR
Monday, July 8, 6:00-9:00 pm
Location: In Anchorage and hopefully at libraries everywhere in Alaska via OWL system
$25 for members of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators)
$30 for non-SCBWI members
Join us for a very special workshop taught by Linda Sue Park, Newbery Winner (A Single Shard) and author of more than a dozen other middle grade and picture books. This workshop will benefit both picture book authors and novel writers. Come learn from one of the best.
SPRING 2013 COMPLETED CLASSES
WRITING FICTION AND NON: HOW STORY CHOOSES ITS FORM with Christine Byl
Saturday, February 9, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Fiction, nonfiction
$39 members/$45 non-members
Once upon a time, an unsuspecting fiction writer got shanghaied by a memoir. Nothing, not even the writer's avowed aversion to the memoir form, could persuade the material to become fiction. Has this ever happened to you? Or, maybe the reverse: you're a non-fiction writer who swears she has a terrible imagination, but suddenly, a story, an undeniable, imagined story, takes hold of your brain. How do writers move between these two prose forms? What craft elements do fiction and non-fiction share, and when do the genres demand something specific? In this session, we'll investigate the experience of writing both fiction and non-fiction, learn how to discern what a project is suggesting, and become more confident writing in whatever mode best suits our current passion. Discussion may touch on the continual debate about truth in non-fiction, but the focus will be on craft choices and the practical experience of writing in these two prose genres.
BRING IN THE CLOWNS: THE USES OF HUMOR IN WRITING with Rich Chiappone
Saturday, February 16, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm (6 hours)
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: All
$85 members/$95
A day-long cross-genre workshop examining how humor can be an effective tool a writer can use in many way: to offset sentimentality; to soften harsh subject matters; to make an unlikeable main character palatable; to mitigate tendentiousness; to question conventional norms; to transcend genre stereotypes. Includes in-class exercises and group discussions.
BUILDING A PLATFORM AS A WRITER with Lorena Knapp
Mondays, February 18, March 18, April 1, 6:30-8:30 pm; Tuesday, March 5, 6:30-8:30 pm
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: All
Level: Beginning or intermediate knowledge of social media
$140 members/$155 non-members
This class is designed as a workshop. Each week there will be a mini-lesson taught on an element of platform-building/social media, including blogs/website, Facebook, Twitter. After the lesson the instructor will be available to answer questions and to assist individual students. Bring your laptop! The course fee includes up to two hours total of individual consulting time between sessions, from February 28 through April 1.
SPIRITUAL WRITING; AN INTRODUCTION with Kathleen Tarr
Tuesday & Thursday, February 19, 21, 26, 28, 6:00-9:00 pm (12 hours)
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry
$170 members/$185 non-members
The seekers, the dreamers, the pilgrims, the saints: what powerful stories have they passed down through the ages in their common quest for a more profound inner life? What questions did they seek to answer in their search for meaning? In this class, we’ll explore and discuss some of the best spiritual writing through the centuries as well as from modern times. Readings will be selected from across faith traditions and genres in an eclectic offering of prose and poetry, including the classics from spiritual autobiography. We will broaden our literary knowledge and may dispel some popular misconceptions about spiritual writing overall—that it represents too much “feel-good fluff” or is bogged down by too much religious “piety.” Finally, participants will be invited to reflect, write and share aspects of their spiritual journey and the spiritual dimensions and contexts of their own work.
REVISION INTENSIVE with Andromeda Romano-Lax
Wednesdays, March 6, 13, 20, 27, April 3, 10, 6:30-9:00 pm (15 hours)
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: All
$190 members/$215 non-members
Revision means more than polishing. It means “re-seeing” and possibly making substantial changes—something most of us resist, even when we know that in-depth editing will make our work stronger. It isn’t often that we have reliable readers who will read multiple successive drafts of a work in progress, as well as deadlines to make sure that more than surface-level changes are made. In this workshop–intensive course, each participant in a small group will have a single chapter, story or essay of up to 25 pages rigorously workshopped three times, with revisions propelled and reinforced by brief in-class exercises and weekly mini-lectures on the skills of revision. All participants will be required to purchase Susan Bell’s The Artful Edit (about $11), in advance.
SHORT STORY STRUCTURE & BRAINSTORMING with Nancy Zafris
Saturday, April 6, 9:00 am-4:00 pm; Sunday, April 7, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm (9 hours)
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Fiction
$120 members/$130 non-members
In this class we will do exercises that highlight the unique structure a composition of a short story. Beginning with a brainstorming exercise, we will progress to prompts, using them to analyze the formal structure of a story. The class will be fun, mentally exciting, supportive, and casual. the first day, 6 hours, will end with an assignment for a 500-word story, read the next day during the 3-hour class.
CHARACTERS: REAL AND IMAGINED with Amy O’Neill Houck
Saturday, March 23, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm (3 hours)
Juneau Arts & Humanities Council
$39 members/$45 non-members - CANCELED
In both fiction and nonfiction, fully developed characters make the difference between a flat story and one that springs to life in the minds of your readers. Character development can also be a great springboard for a stuck story. Over the course of a morning, we'll explore different tools for developing characters, look at literary examples in various genres, and complete exercises and prompt to activate the character side of our brains.
PROSE/POEM: Exploring the Boundary between Poetry & Prose with Eva Saulitis
Saturday, March 23, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm (6 hours)
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Nonfiction, poetry
$85 members/$95 non-members
In this workshop, participants will explore the boundaries between poetry and creative-non-fiction, getting a sense of the lay of the land, from the prose poem, to flash non-fiction, to experimental forms like the "hermit crab" essay and the mosaic. How can techniques of poetry cross over into our prose writing, and vice versa? A wide range of examples will be used to jump-start participant writing practice and discussion.
WHAT’S NEXT? Taking Story Starts and Rough Drafts through Development and Revision with Amy O’Neill Houck
Saturdays: April 20 & 27, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm (6 hours)
This class is in Juneau at Juneau Arts & Humanities Council
Genre: Fiction, nonfiction
$85 members/$95 non-members
Here's the perfect opportunity to dig out old drafts and inspired story starts from classes and workshops past. In this class, we'll share strategies on next steps once you've put that initial idea on paper. How do you develop a story and know what it wants to be? When is it time to revise? How do you know when a story is finished? If you've never been a fan of revision you'll learn a new appreciation for it with new exercises and examples.
ANATOMY OF THE SENTENCE with Andromeda Romano-Lax
Saturday, April 27, 9:00 am to Noon
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Fiction, nonfiction
$39 members/$45 non-members
Sentences are our most basic building blocks, and authors’ distinctive styles—and sometimes the DNA of entire stories, novels, and memoirs—can be traced back to the sentence level. Even so, those of us who fared poorly in English class, missed out on sentence diagramming, or skipped linguistics at the college level may feel uncomfortable with the lingo and bravado required to dissect sentences. In this low-pressure clinic, we’ll take a dip in the grammar pool, analyze great sentences, appreciate voice and style through close reading, and get our hands dirty at the micro level, all in the service of becoming better readers and writers. Enrollment limited to 10 students.
ANATOMY OF THE SCENE with Andromeda Romano-Lax
Saturday, April 27, 1:00 -4:00 pm
645 W. Third Avenue, Anchorage
Genre: Fiction, nonfiction
$39 members/$45 non-members
Scenes are our essential, larger building blocks on the macro scale, and every scene must do considerable work, succeeding independently while contributing to the larger whole. Scenes, like novels and memoirs, have predictable structures, and we’ll look at how a better understanding of scene can make even book-length projects less forbidding. We’ll closely read and discuss scenes from published works while mapping out a novel in its entirety, honing our ability to see both the forest and the trees. Enrollment limited to 10.
POETRY: THE MYSTERIOUS AND THE OBSCURE with Julie LeMay
Sunday, April 7, 2:00-4:00 pm (2 hours)
Fireside Books, 720 South Alaska Street, Palmer
Genre: Poetry
$25 members/$30 non-members
Many poets struggle with work that is either prosaic or unclear. Mystery is a plus; obscurity isn't. How do we keep mystery in our writing without confusing the reader? The best poems create a sense of mystery while negotiating a balance between regularity and randomness. In this workshop we will practice writing exercises that allow us to play with the abstract and the concrete. Participants will be encouraged to share their favorite methods for bringing both mystery and understanding to their poems.
