NYWW @ Goddard Riverside

Tim Tomlinson

In this three-hour intensive on writing (fiction, memoir and personal essay), we’ll consider some storytelling basics (setting, character, incident) and look at samples of narrative prose that illustrate those basics. We’ll use the samples as prompts for in-session exercises that, when put together, begin to move the way stories move: by raising questions, and by delaying answers. After this workshop, participants will have a firm grasp on storytelling approaches and a couple of drafts of new material for further development.
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Tim Tomlinson is co-founder of New York Writers Workshop and co-author of its popular text, The Portable MFA in Creative Writing.  He is also the author of Yolanda:  An Oral History in Verse, Requiem for the Tree Fort I Set on Fire (poetry), and This Is Not Happening to You (short fiction). He teaches in the Global Liberal Studies Program, NYU.

Sarah Stern

Become inspired with other poets in an encouraging and lively workshop. Sarah Stern will lead a poetry intensive and provide writing exercises that will rouse new poems. In the class, participants will read and discuss selected contemporary poems with a broad range of topics and techniques. Participants will then receive prompts and have specific time to write, share and discuss their own work. Beginning, emerging and seasoned poets are encouraged to attend. This workshop is meant for those looking for a supportive community of writers who wish to bring their writing to the next level.
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Sarah Stern is the author of We Have Been Lucky In The Midst of Misfortune, But Today Is Different, and Another Word For Love. She is a recipient of a 2018 Pushcart Prize nomination and a five-time winner of the Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Poetry Award.  You can see more of her work at https://sarahstern.me/ 

Ruth Danon

In this class we will, through a variety of playful measures, develop the ability to write poems that surprise both writer and reader.  The word “poem” comes from “poesis” which means “making.” This is a class in poem-making. Starting from the premise that poems are made from words and not ideas, we will move from words, to sentences, to lines. We will come to understand the relationship of heartbeat and breath to pattern and line and so to the creation of the strange linguistic objects we call poems.
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Ruth Danon is the author of Word Has It (Nirala Series, 2018), Limitless Tiny Boat (BlazeVOX, 2015), and earlier works including Triangulation from a Known Point and Living with the Fireman. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Paris Review, Fence, Rain Taxi, and Tupelo Quarterly, among others, and have been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2002 and Eternal Snow. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and taught for over two decades at NYU’s McGhee Division. Now based in the Hudson Valley, she teaches in New York City and is the founder of Live Writing, a project for teaching and curating poetry. She is a member of New York Writers Workshop and the Urban Range Poetry Collective.

Karol Nielsen

This workshop will help the memoir writer find and shape a personal narrative whether a short essay or a book-length memoir. Weekly lectures and in-class exercises will illuminate the elements of storytelling used to write a memoir: structure, characterization, plot, description, dialogue, point-of-view, style, voice, and revision. Works developed in my classes have been published as books and essays with honors in The Best American Essays and elsewhere. I believe in a warm, supportive atmosphere where even the most unformed idea can turn into a work of substance and art. 
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Karol Nielsen is the author of the memoirs Walking A&P (Mascot Books, 2018) and Black Elephants (Bison Books, 2011), a finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, Guernica, Epiphany, and North Dakota Quarterly, among others. A former journalist covering Latin America and the Middle East, she has contributed to Thomson Reuters, New York Newsday, and The New York Times. She holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School. Karol teaches at New York University and New York Writers Workshop and has served as an editor at Epiphany literary magazine.

Joanne Serling

Are you convinced that you could write a compelling short story if you just had the time? Do you have an essay or novel in a drawer that you want to dust off? Just Write is a three-hour workshop that includes guided writing prompts, the chance to share your work in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere, and the opportunity to develop and expand ongoing works. All levels of fiction and creative non fiction are welcome. Whether you’re just getting started, completing a rough draft, or refining your work, you’ll receive the guidance and support to move to the next level.
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Joanne Serling is the author of the debut novel, GOOD NEIGHBORS (Twelve/February 2018), a book that Kirkus Review called, “a spicy stew of suburban discontent.” Serling’s fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in New Ohio Review and North American Review. She is a graduate of Cornell University and worked in women’s magazines and public relations before embarking on a career as a novelist. Serling is a member of The New York Writers Workshop and lives in New Jersey with her husband and children where she is at work on her second book.

Hermine Meinhard

In this workshop we will experiment with the everyday, with memory, dream, evocative language, objects and artworks as pathways into making poems. Through playfully quiet exercises, and a supportive, stimulating community, you will engage in writing as an act of discovery from which a richness of poetry and transformation comes. The workshop is multi-generational, multi-level and welcoming to both beginners and experienced.

Hermine Meinhard's book Bright Turquoise Umbrella, published by Tupelo Press, was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Barrow Street, Drunken Boat and Verse Daily among other publications and aired on public radio. She has read her work at venues such as Live at Prairie Lights Bookstore, Hudson Valley Writers Center, the Kitchen, KGB Bar, Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club, and has been interviewed and profiled by the online journals Margin and Chicago Post Modern Poetry. Meinhard teaches at NYU and is a founding member of New York Writers Workshop. She has an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College

Judith Hannan

This workshop will combine writing excerpts and examples with related prompts to begin the process of opening up your personal narrative. Introductory prompts will focus both on the tools and craft of writing followed by an opportunity to delve into specific scenes or moments of one's life. Sharing what we have written with each other is an additional crucial step in the process. First, when we read our own words aloud, we feel the full impact of what we have discovered. Second, by receiving positive feedback from a supportive and loving community, we will be encouraged to keep writing.

Judith Hannan is the author of The Write Prescription: Telling Your Story to Live with and Beyond Illness and Motherhood Exaggerated, her memoir about caregiving and transformation. Her essays have appeared in Woman’s Day, Narratively, Brevity, and The Forward, among others. She leads writing workshops for homeless mothers, justice-involved young women, and those impacted by illness, and serves as a mentor with Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Visible Ink program. A recipient of the 2015 Humanism-in-Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, she is a member of New York Writers Workshop and serves on the boards of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.

Luis H. Francia

You don’t need to write about something in order to write a poem.
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As the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé once said, poems are written with words, not ideas. Taking its title from a Talking Heads song, my workshop uses Mallarmé’s insight as its guiding principle, so the participant can embark on a productive literary voyage distinct from that of prose. Here we emphasize lyricism and the spirit of play, and an openness to technique distinct from narrative. (Think jazz.) Workshoppers will, for example, explore the sound of a word or phrase, and what this might suggest, without regard to meaning. Meaning will be arrived at rather than be predetermined. We will create non-sense that actually makes sense!

At the outset I shall provide a few examples of lyrical poems. Participants will then do writing exercises. We will conclude with each workshopper crafting a short poem based on these exercises. This will be a workshop that will both be fun and instructive.

Joanna Laufer

This two-part writing workshop will help students decide on the best genre to tell a particular story – fiction or personal essay. In-class discussions on the importance of the first sentence, voice, storytelling, and the thin line between fiction and creative nonfiction will help writers of all levels produce powerful and publishable work. The second meeting will focus entirely on the work created and submitted. Feedback will be given in a safe and supportive environment.

Joanna Laufer is the author of Inspired  (Doubleday) and the co-creator of the best-selling Inspired classical music series on RCA. Her nonfiction has appeared in Child Magazine, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher, Bottom Line, including essays recently published in SheKnows, Brain, Child Magazine as well as in anthologies. Her fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals. Joanna is the creator and executive producer of the television series Dancers: Just Plain Dancing. She works as a freelance manuscript editor and writing coach.