FALL 2021
Classes, conferences, and workshops provide opportunities for professional contacts, manuscript critiques, networking and fellowship. Many an unpublished manuscript has been refocused, redefined, rewritten and published after its author attended a class or workshop.
CLASSES:
Picture This: Writing Picture Books for Children
Instructor: Esther Hershenhorn
Date/Time: Wednesday September 29th- November 3rd 6:00pm-7:30pm
Tuition: $210
This workshop focuses on how to create and write a successful children’s picture book that will connect with today’s young readers and our ever-changing marketplace. Participants’ manuscripts will be shared and discussed to highlight the variety of picture books and structures, craft, the writing process, and publishing opportunities. Writers of all levels will be offered a supportive, challenging, and encouraging environment.
To Register: https://www.newberry.org/F21ChildrensLit
Write Your Story Fact or Fiction
Instructor: Patricia Hruby Powell
Date/Time: 6 Mondays September 13th – October 10th; 6:00 pm – 8:30 p.m.
Tuition: $149
Everyone has a story they have thought about putting into words. Award-winning author Patricia Hruby Powell will help you write your story for publication or personal sharing. Explore character, point of view, plot, and setting. Use your manuscript or start a new one, with prompts. Practice “show, don’t tell” techniques and scene building using the senses. Discuss prose or verse, nonfiction or fiction. Practice giving and receiving constructive criticism in a safe environment and get advice on getting published. Your questions and concerns will be addressed in a fun atmosphere. For writers of all levels.
To register:
https://parkland.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay
Writing Your Middle Grade Novel
Instructor: Kate Hannigan
Date/Time: 6 weeks starting November 10th 6:30pm-9:00pm
Tuition: $365
What is the middle-grade genre? Who is the audience? What makes it a special designation in literature for young adults?
In this six-week course taught by Kate Hannigan, author of six novels for kids including the Golden Kite Award-winning The Detective’s Assistant (Little, Brown), we will focus on the crucial elements to writing your middle-grade novel. We’ll move from brilliant concepts to bang-up endings, working through activities that can help shape projects and move them closer to being submission-ready for agents and editors.
Students will turn ideas into outlines, outlines into pages, and pages into stories while considering what might catch a reader’s eye, or more deeply develop existing middle-grade projects.
To register: https://www.storystudiochicago.org/classes/creative-writing/writing-your-middle-grade-novel-with-kate-hannigan/
Perfecting the Picture Book I
Instructor: Lisa Katzenberger
Date/Time: Mondays October 18th – November 22nd
Tuition: $412
Lisa Katzenberger presents a lesson each week complete with hands-on exercises to provide writers with the practical tools they’ll need to advance their craft; each writer is critiqued at least once by their instructor in the drafting stages. Lisa will share drafts of her own picture book revisions to aid in the learning process. In addition, each writer is also workshopped once by the entire group.
To Register: https://www.thewritingbarn.com/class/perfecting-the-picture-book-i-with-lisa-katzenberger-online/
Art Classes
Evanston Art Center
Instructor: Michelle Kogan
Date/Time: See individual class for time
Tuition: See individual class for cost
To Register:
https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/school/search?search_api_fulltext=Kogan
Additional Institutions:
The Ragdale Foundation
Lake Forest, IL
Phone (847) 234-1063 or visit https://ragdale.org/
Off Campus Writer’s Workshops
Winnetka Community House
Winnetka, IL
Visit https://ocwwinfo7333.wildapricot.org/events
The Story Studio Chicago
https://www.storystudiochicago.org/
Highlights Foundation Founders Workshops
For Professional and Aspiring Writers and Illustrators
Honesdale, PA
Conferences include seminars, small-group workshops, and one-on-one sessions with some of the most accomplished, prominent and supportive authors, illustrators, editors, critics and publishers of the world of children’s literature, all determined to help authors and illustrators meet their goals
Visit https://www.highlightsfoundation.org/
The Writing Barn
Austin TX and Online
Founded by award-winning novelist and picture book writer Bethany Hegedus, author of the Grandfather Gandhi series, Between Us Baxters and Truth with a Capital T, The Writing Barn is here to serve all your writing-related needs.
Visit https://www.thewritingbarn.com/
Low Residency MFA Programs:
VERMONT COLLEGE BRIEF RESIDENCY
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
IN WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Montpelier, VT
July, January
11-day intensive residencies in July and January on campus alternate with 5 month
nonresident projects (4 semesters, 5residencies). Faculty includes M. T. Anderson, Kathi Appelt.Marion Dane Bauer, Sharon Darrow, Ellen Levine and Norma Fox Mazer
Contact Melissa Fisher at (800) 336-6794, Ext. 8637 or e-mail melissa.fisher@tui.edu or visit the website at www.tui.edu/vermontcollege
SPALDING UNIVERSITY BRIEF RESIDENCY
MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN WRITING PROGRAM
Lousville,KY
with a Concentration in Writing For Children
Semesters begin in May or October
Program is 4 semesters, 5 residencies
Contact Graduate Admissions at (800) 896-8941, Ext. 2423 or e-mail: mfa@spalding.edu or visit the website at www.spalding.edu
LESLEY UNIVERSITY LOW-RESIDENCY
MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN CREATIVE WRITING
Cambridge, MA
Offering a concentration in Writing for Young People
Semesters begin in January and June
Program is 4 semesters, 5 residencies
Contact Jana M. Van der Veer
Assistant Director, Advising and Student Services
[LINK: mail to: jvanderv@lesley.edu] jvanderv@lesley.edu
HAMLINE UNIVERSITY LOW-RESIDENCY
MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
1536 Hewitt Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
Semesters begin in January and July
Program is 4 semesters, 5 residencies
Office phone: (651) 523-2047, Fax: (651) 523-2490
For questions, call (651) 523-2900 or e-mail gradprog@hamline.edu
ONLINE OPPORTUNITIES
LEARNING ON-LINE
INSTITUTE OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Correspondence courses and access to articles, tips, chat room discussions on writing.
Visit www.Institutechildrenslit.com
WRITER’S DIGEST ONLINE WORKSHOPS
“Fundamentals of Writing For Children” (12 week beginning course)
“Focus Course in Writing For Children” (14 week intermediate course)
For details and starting dates on these workshops and other Writer’s Digest Online Courses, visit www.writersonlineworkshops.com-