New York State Writers Institute Fellow and award-winning author James Lasdun will conduct two creative writing workshops for community writers during the spring 2014 semester. Lasdun, a fiction and nonfiction writer, poet, and screenwriter, will offer two eight-week workshops: one on fiction writing, and one on poetry. The workshops are offered for non-credit and will be held at the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Admission to both workshops is based on the submission of writing samples.
Fiction Writing Workshop
The Fiction Writing Workshop (starting March 6) will focus on detailed discussion of students’ work but there will also be readings from published novels, novellas, and short stories. These will range from the classic to the contemporary, and will be selected with a view to broadening the discussion of topics such as character, plot, style and form, as they arise. Participants will be expected to be strongly self-motivated and to submit two works of up to twenty pages each over the course of the semester. These may be short stories or excerpts from longer works.
Poetry Writing Workshop
The Poetry Writing Workshop (starting March 5) is for self-motivated students who already have some writing experience, and is intended to give participants an opportunity to develop and revise poems within a context of constructive peer-group criticism. Course work will concentrate on students’ writing, but will also include close reading of selected texts with a view to discussing specific aspects of the art of poetry, such as voice, metaphor, and the relation of style to subject. Participants will be expected to submit up to ten pages of poetry every second week.
Complete information on the workshops and submission guidelines may be obtained by calling the Institute at 518-442-5620 or by visiting the Institute’s website.
