MASTER CLASS

World and Objects in Narrative

Jeanne Thornton

O brave new world, that has such people in it! This is said by the sorcerer's daughter in Shakespeare's The Tempest, a play often taken as an allegory for the writer's craft. As writers, we often focus on the people part of this line, neglecting the world that forms, surrounds, and focuses our characters and their stories. Whether it's the deck of the Pequod, the dead blue sitting-rooms, jewel chests, and burning wills of Middlemarch, the quicksand and glass mansions of the Iles des Chevaliers, the stone labyrinths of Earthsea, a story's setting and its key objects are a crucial part of a narrative's weave--and often, when we're blocked in progress, it's because we have further to go on our journey to imagine those worlds.

In this master class, we'll dig int our works-in-progress--whether that's a piece you're starting at this conference, or a project of many years--with a focus on plot, setting, characters, and the key objects that comprise a narrative world--whether that world is fictional, nonfiction/history/memoir, or something in between. We'll then work to find ways both to build on those narrative strengths and to identify and develop the blank spots that block our path forward.

This is a juried workshop, but novice writers are welcome and encouraged to apply. All genres of prose fiction and nonfiction are welcome--please be prepared to step out of your comfort zone when discussing fellow students' work.

Please note: this year’s Master Class is juried - applications are open until 11:59 p.m. PT on Saturday, February 28, 2026.

POETRY WORKSHOP

WHAT, AND HOW, DO YOU DECLARE?

MJ Jones

“The majority of my time is spent trying to figure out a way to get into the poem that’s going to surprise you.” -Patricia Smith

In the age of AI and revisionist history (and present), poetry remains one of the most powerful vehicles we have to confront truth and declare what is unspoken.

Yet as we declare – how do we find new language for the age-old themes of life, loss, love, grief? How do we maintain wonder? Some entryways into surprise can be through persona, or from where the line is broken; it could be different registers of voice from the speaker. Persona, characterization, and poetic forms are all practices that are useful in making age-old content, new.

In our workshop home, we’ll practice new ways of entry into our existing poems and generate new work as well. We will come away with strategies to kindly & critically discuss the work of others and apply these to our own revision.

What do you declare? What do you keep hidden?

Reveal too much too soon and lose the majesty of the poem; reveal too little and lose clarity. The best poetry finds a balance - we will work together to find what balance means for each of our unique poetic voices.

NOVEL WORKSHOP

Signs of Life

Susanna Kwan

In this workshop, we’ll approach the novel in progress with curiosity and care. As we explore the essential questions of your novel, we’ll look at how image, feeling, place, movement, and shape function within it—with an eye toward what feels most alive. You’ll leave with new directions to consider, a deeper connection to your writing, and strategies for sustaining a creative practice.

SPECULATIVE FICTION WORKSHOP

Building Strong WorldS

Tara Sim

Whether you're writing fantasy, science fiction, or even contemporary, worldbuilding is an integral part of telling a story. A world is so much more than where your characters live; it's what they interact with on a daily basis, what forms their perceptions and opinions, what gives them food and clothing, etc. While the process of worldbuilding may seem daunting, this workshop will break down the most fundamental elements, such as society, economy, and culture, to provide you with the necessary questions to ask when building a world from the ground up.

HYBRID GENRE WORKSHOP

It’s Alive! - Finding the Spark In Your Work

Syr Beker

What is the magic that makes a piece of writing or art feel so uniquely, irresistibly alive, and how do we connect to that aliveness in our practice? What if a better word for craft was inspiration?

In this workshop, we will focus on image, structure, worldbuilding, characters, and endings to ask: what makes this feel alive. We will borrow methods across genre and art forms, including theater, architecture, and visual art, and we will listen deeply to what draws us. The goal is to discover, beyond sometimes limiting notions of craft, the practices and concepts that give you, specifically you, access to that current of electricity that makes your writing come roaring to life.

MEMOIR WORKSHOP

The “I” and the “Eye”: Making Meaning of Personal Narrative

Lauren Markham

Writers of nonfiction are often called to the page in order to excavate our own experiences; it is also the writer’s job to attempt to make sense of the world around us, and of the larger human condition. Strong nonfiction—be it memoir, personal essay, or reported work—is at once deeply particular (written from the subjectivity of the “I”) and taps into, or toward, the universal (the roving “eye” of the reader). As writers of memoir, how do we ensure that our stories are bigger than just us, and that they resonate with others? How do we write our personal experiences with resonant immediacy and the simultaneous clarity of narrative remove?

In this workshop, we’ll use generative exercises, workshop-style feedback sessions, and discussions on published works to expand our skills as nonfiction storytellers, focusing on both style and substance. We’ll consider how scene, exposition, rumination, sentence-level craft, and larger structural choices work together to create a narrative whole, and how we can use the conceit of narrator – a character representing self, who is neither the author nor the person on the page – to most effectively tell our story.

NONFICTION WORKSHOP

Writing Crisis: Crafting the Literature of Turbulent Times

Roberto Lovato

Living in times marked by relentless and intersecting crises, the serious writer must ask, “Where is the literature that responds to this astonishing moment?” Our goal for this workshop is to answer the question by crafting our own, by writing crisis. This introduction to the art of writing the prose of crisis—memoir, journalism, different genres of fiction and science fiction—(and poetry if there’s interest) will begin by looking at the crisis in literature that has created the vacuum that we will fill with our own work, including work we will polish in the course of our session. The seminar will include the following:

• Close readings of writing that exemplifies the art of writing crisis, analyzing the choices—structure, tropes, imagery, language, characterization—that these writers make.

• Taking our lead from classic and contemporary writers of crisis, we will engage in generative writing exercises designed to apply what we’re learning.

• Workshops / sharing works-in-progress with other participants and the instructor.

Each writer in the class will leave with a writing crisis toolkit developed by the instructor. You will also leave the course looking at writing and at crisis in a different way. You will leave with an enhanced ability to respond to this unprecedented historical moment with the words and stories it demands.

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG ADULT (MG/YA) WORKSHOP

A Plot To Be Desired

Emily Lloyd-Jones

There is nothing more daunting than a blank page. When should you begin a story? What ideas can you include and which ones do you leave out? How do you introduce characters? And how do you hook a young reader? In this workshop, participants will study how to craft an emotionally resonant narrative for middle graders and young adults. Learn how to take your ideas and turn them into a whole story, from a gripping first paragraph to a satisfying conclusion.