March - April 2024
Virtual Weekend Writers Series
From March through April, join us online for a series of virtual weekend-long craft seminars led by Award-Winning MVICW Writers. Each weekend will be hosted virtually and consist of the following schedule:
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Friday, Welcome Reading: Kick off your weekend-long seminar by getting to know your instructors through an intimate virtual reading of their work.
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Saturday & Sunday, Generative Seminars: Generate new work with morning and afternoon seminars where instructors will lead virtual discussions on craft topics. Each seminar will be 1½ hours long, broken up by a lunch.
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Saturday & Sunday Evening, Open Mics: Form deep connections within the community by sharing your own original work during our virtual Attendee Reading celebrations.
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The schedule for every weekend is as follows (all times are EST):
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Friday
7:00pm – 8:00pm EST: Welcome & Visiting Writer Reading
Saturday
11:00am – 12:30pm EST: Morning Writing Seminar
12:30pm – 2:00pm EST: Lunch Break
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST: Afternoon Writing Seminar
7:00pm – 8:00pm EST: Open Mic (Optional)
Sunday
11:00am – 12:30pm EST: Morning Writing Seminar
12:30pm – 2:00pm EST: Lunch Break
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST: Afternoon Writing Seminar
7:00pm – 8:00pm EST: Open Mic / Closing (Optional)
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WRITERS & CLASSES
T Clark's work has appeared in Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Joyland, and elsewhere. They have received fellowships and support from The Fine Arts Work Center, The Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Writing, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and more. They live and teach in New Orleans.
A WEEKEND OF
with
T Clark
FICTION
April 26 - 28
An Exploration of Place: Creating Complex Settings
April 26 - 28
While we recognize setting as an essential feature of craft, oftentimes we think of it as simply a "place" within our writing. This class is designed to help expand our understanding of what setting can be, and how to make it burst from the page like a complex character might. The intent is for writers to learn to pay closer attention to the wealth of objects, feeling, and movement around us at all times. We will look at the places of our past, present, and imagined futures for inspiration. Each session will feature a mix of craft lessons, short readings, and writing exercises that can be revisited beyond our weekend together. This class is appropriate for writers interested in exploring any genre; readings will be both prose and poetry.
Alexander Weinstein is the founder and Director of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the author of the short story collections Children of the New World, which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR and Electric Literature, and Universal Love. His fiction has appeared in Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy and Best American Experimental Writing. His short story, "Saying Goodbye to Yang," was adapted as the film After Yang by A24 Films, and was the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at Sundance, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award, and Barack Obama's Best Film Films of 2022.
A WEEKEND OF
with
Alexander
Weinstein
WRITING
April 19 - 21
Freeing the Muse: Rejuvenating Your Writing Process
April 19 - 21
In this class we will examine the three parts of the writing psyche--The Writer, The Inner Critic, and The Slacker--as a platform for freeing our creativity and producing new work. In the process we will explore traditional narrative structures alongside the more wily world of experimental writing. We will look at some of the lesser explored points of view, including 2nd and 4th person perspective along with how to make our settings and characters come alive. Part laboratory, part creative-sanctuary for our inner writer, this class will give you the tools to rejuvenate your writing process, start or finish the big projects you've wanted to work on, and tap into the abundance of stories, poems, and novels within you. While we will focus primarily on fiction, the course is open to all genres and is excellent for both beginners as well as more experienced writers.
Christopher Citro is the author of If We Had a Lemon We'd Throw It and Call That the Sun (elixir press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Antivenom Poetry Award, and The Maintenance of the Shimmy-Shammy (Steel Toe Books, 2015). His honors include a 2018 Pushcart Prize for poetry, a fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation, and writing awards from Columbia Journal (poetry) and The Florida Review (creative nonfiction).
A WEEKEND OF
with
Christopher
Citro
POETRY
April 5 - 7
Unfolding Poems Upon the Page
April 5 - 7
Join me for a weekend of generative poetry workshops that will excite, nurture, and inspire us in our poetic practice. As we explore contemporary poems that dazzle with the power of metaphor and imagery, juxtaposition, struggle, anaphora, and more, we’ll experiment with exciting ways of breaking up our writing habits, reviving our relationship with the elements of poetic craft, and enlarging the scope of what we do when we sit down to make a poem. Together we’ll read, discuss, and be guided by poems by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Jennifer Chang, Ama Codjoe, Natalie Diaz, Vievee Francis, francine j. harris, Leslie Sainz, Sean Singer, Wendy Xu, and others. Our online time together will include audio and video of the poets performing their work, so we can enjoy hearing their words in their own voices. Over the course of the session, you’ll draft several new poems and have the opportunity to share your work in an encouraging, inclusive, supportive environment. And when our weekend is over, I’ll send you off with more poems and prompts to keep the inspiration flowing long after the course is completed.
Joshunda Sanders is an author & executive communications leader. Her debut novel, Women of the Post, published in July 2023, to acclaim from Alice Walker, Honoree Fannone Jeffers and Jacqueline Woodson, among others. She currently works as the Senior Executive Communications Officer to the President and CEO at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her work has appeared in TIME Magazine, Poets & Writers, the New York Times, Oxford American and many other publications. She has been the recipient of numerous writing residencies, fellowships or awards from Lambda Literary, Bronx Council on the Arts, Hedgebrook, VONA and the Key West Literary Seminars. In 2018, she was awarded the competitive Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award for excellence in fiction. She lives in her hometown, The Bronx.
A WEEKEND OF
with
Joshunda
Sanders
CREATIVE NONFICTION
March 15 - 17
Subversive Joy:
Writing the Senses as Resistance
March 15 - 17
Audre Lorde wrote in her 1977 essay, “Poetry is Not a Luxury”: “The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us – the poet – whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” While most creative nonfiction and writing in general focuses on the dark, challenging and painful tensions we live, especially in trying times, it is a revolutionary act for writers to choose to focus on pleasure and joy. But most people believe that agony and the tragic are the ultimate inspiration. Subversive Joy is a weekend of tapping into the sensual delight and pleasure that comes with noticing what brings us bliss. We will ground ourselves at the start of the weekend with writers like Audre Lorde, Ross Gay, adrienne maree brown, Toni Morrison and others to prime ourselves for writing prompts meant to help us remember our inner children, and how they persevere in spite of cyclical societal pain. The writing we do will be inspired by how what we write and share makes us feel, what it makes us see. On the last day of the seminar, we will read our favorite lines together to relish in how good it feels to be delighted by words.