2016 miami writers institute brochure

Miami Writers

Institute

a creative writing conference of

MAY 4 - 7, 2016REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

/ miamibookfair.com /miamibookfair

Four days of intensive workshops on fiction, nonfiction, poetry and more! Taught by respected visiting writers in the heart of downtown Miami.

Quality workshops? Of course. But the Writers Institute is so much more:

Manuscript Consultations: Get feedback on your manuscript in a one-on-one session with literary agent Allison Devereux. Space is limited. For more information, see page 10.

Welcome! On Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. enjoy a pre-Writers Institute drink compliments of Miami Book Fair at a Miami hot-spot. Meet your fellow writers before you embark together on an intensive writing journey. For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.

First Draft: A Literary Social:On Friday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. join us for drinks and a writing prompt with a twist! For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.

¡Tómate una copa y escribe mejor! El miércoles 4 de mayo súmate a nuestra tertulia literaria guiada Tómate una copa y escribe mejor, para embriagar a tu editor interno y expresarte con libertad! Para más información, visita miamibookfair.com. (in Spanish)

Lunchtime Reads: Each day, gather for lunch and hear Writers Institute faculty read from their work. For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.

Pitchapalooza with The Book Doctors! Anyone with an idea for a book has the chance to pitch it to a panel of judges. But they get only one minute. All attendees come away with concrete advice on how to improve their pitch. At the end of each Pitchapalooza, the judges come together to pick a winner. The winner receives an introduction by Eckstut and Sterry to an agent or publisher that is appropriate for their work. For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.

LipService! Close out the Writers Institute with a night of LIP SERVICE: True Stories Out Loud, the smartest, hottest, and most honest storytelling event in South Florida. Anyone can submit! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cringe. And you just might be inspired to tell your own story. For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.

Ready to Register? See page 11 for deadlines, fees and instructions.

#miamiwrites / page 03

4-Day Workshop Wednesday - Saturday, May 4 - 7 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

NEW SHADOWS: READING TO WRITE with Terrance HayesThis workshop will offer concrete strategies for writing when the only teacher available is a book. We will explore the ways “reading to write” can result in new poems. During the week we will look at how an assortment of poems “shadow,” imitate, and are in conversation with other poems and other forms (music, film, journalism). Most importantly, inventive imitations and transformations will be generated in response to the reading.

One of the most compelling voices in American poetry, Terrance Hayes is the author of five books of poetry: How to Be Drawn (2015), longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry; Lighthead (2010), winner of the 2010 National Book Award in Poetry; Wind in a Box, winner of a Pushcart Prize; Hip Logic, winner of the 2001 National Poetry Series, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and Muscular Music, winner of both the Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He has been a recipient of many other honors and awards, including a 2014 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award.

4-Day Workshop Wednesday - Saturday, May 4 - 7 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

CONFLICT THROUGH CHARACTER: THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH with Jacinda TownsendAre your characters falling flat? Has your plot soured and curdled? This workshop proposes the cure: conflict through character, or the bottom-up approach. While many writers start with an idea of a plot or even a theme, this workshop starts with the proposition that when we let our characters do what they will, we end up with conflicts that soar, plots that dazzle. We will visit with your old characters and your new ones: all you need to bring are their thoughts and voices, a pen and paper (or a laptop), and your creative willingness.

Jacinda Townsend is the author of Saint Monkey (Norton, 2014), which is set in 1950’s Eastern Kentucky and won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical fiction and was the 2015 Honor Book of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Jacinda grew up in Southcentral Kentucky, leaving at age 16 for Harvard, where she took her first creative writing class. Prior to attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she worked as a broadcast journalist and lawyer in New York. Since receiving her M.F.A. she has been a Fulbright fellow and has taught at universities throughout the Midwest. She recently finished a novel called Kif and is a mom to two beautiful children who amaze her daily.

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Terrance Hayes

Jacinda Townsend


Smith Henderson

Dani Shapiro


3-Day Workshop Wednesday - Friday, May 4 - 6 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

FINDING THE RIGHT SENTENCE with Smith HendersonWriting is complicated. Character, plot, imagery, metaphor, voice…there is so much to master in order to make a piece of fiction. But all of the story’s effects are built out of words, out of simple sentences. A good sentence can reveal the hidden meaning of the story, be the key to unlocking a character, or set the tone for the entire piece. In this class we will discover how the act of simply focusing on the sentence, one after another, is the fundamental tool in every phase of writing. From first draft to deep revision to final polish, finding the right sentence is your only task.

Smith Henderson is the author of the debut novel Fourth of July Creek (Ecco), a 2014 New York Times Notable Book. It was the winner of the 2015 John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger Award and the 2014 Montana Book Award. It was also a finalist for the 2015 PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, the James Tait Black Prize, the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, the Ken Kesey Award for the Novel, and the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction. The novel also made the longlists for the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award, the Folio Prize, and the VCU Cabel First Novelist Award. The book appeared on the Best Books of 2014 lists for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Kansas City Star, Book Riot and Powell’s Book Store.

3-Day Workshop Wednesday - Friday, May 4 - 6 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

FROM CHAOS INTO ART: FINDING AND SHAPING THE LARGER STORY with Dani ShapiroLife often presents itself as one damned thing after another. When we set out to write about some aspect of our lives, paralysis may set in. Why this moment and not that one? Why this detail and not that other one? Given the seemingly endless array of choices, a writer might throw up her hands in confusion or despair, or fall victim to the “kitchen sink” approach. But not everything belongs, and — as V.S. Pritchett once said — It’s all in the art. You don’t get credit for living.

In this workshop, in addition to giving feedback on the opening pages of student manuscripts, we will also generate new work on the spot, and will take a look at various aspects of modern memoirs in order to begin to identify the lenses through which writers can make stories – and hopefully art – out of what happened.

Dani Shapiro’s books include the bestselling memoirs Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and the novels Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Ploughshares, n+1, One Story, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Op-Ed Page, The Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Elle, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia University, NYU, The New School, and Wesleyan.


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In Spanish/en español

3-Day Workshop Jueves 5 y viernes 6 de mayo | 6:30 a 9:30 p.m. y Sábado 7 de mayo | 10:00 a.m. a 1:00 p.m.

LA FICCIÓN CREATIVA: UN CURSO INTENSIVO con Daína Chaviano(For an English translation of this information, please visit miamibookfair.com and click on Writers Institute.)

Un taller de 3 días que proporcionará a los participantes las herramientas para desarrollar sus habilidades creativas, descubriéndoles cómo construir personajes sólidos y tramas complejas. Se abordarán temas como: creación y manejo de los personajes (características, cómo crear personajes creíbles y efectivos, etc), elaboración de tramas narrativas (el cuento y la novela, el punto de vista del narrador, inspiración vs. creación consciente, etc) y publicación (revisión del texto terminado, presentación del manuscrito, búsqueda del agente literario, etc).

Daína Chaviano nació en La Habana. En 1979 recibió el Premio David de Ciencia Ficción por Los mundos que amo. Publicó entre otras obras: Historias de hadas para adultos, Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre, el ciclo de novelas «La Habana oculta», compuesto por El hombre, la hembra y el hambre, Casa de juegos, Gata encerrada y La isla de los amores infinitos, la novela cubana más traducida de todos los tiempos. Ha recibido, entre otros, los premios Anna Seghers (1990), Azorín de Novela (1998), Internacional de Fantasía Goliardos (2003) y la Medalla de Oro al Mejor Libro en Lengua Española (Florida Book Awards 2006).

2-Day Publishing Seminar Wednesday and Thursday, May 4 & 5 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

HOW TO GET PUBLISHED SUCCESSFULLY with The Book Doctors (Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry)It is the greatest time in history to be a writer. The barrier to publishing has been torn down and now anyone can get published. But to get published successfully is a whole other matter. Eckstut and Sterry take you through the entire publishing process. This step-by-step, soups-to-nuts workshop will remove the smoke and mirrors from the murky world of publishing and give writers a compass and map to a successfully published book.

Topics covered include:

• Choosing the right idea

• Creating a blockbuster title

• Crafting an attention-getting pitch

• Putting together a selling proposal/manuscript

• Finding the right agent/publisher

• Self-publishing effectively with ebooks, print-on-demand or traditional printing

• Developing sales, marketing and publicity savvy

• Producing a video book trailer and helping it go viral

• Building a following through social media


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Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry

Daína Chaviano


1-Day Publishing Seminar Friday, May 6 | 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. (Limited to 20 people)

PERFECTING YOUR PITCH with The Book DoctorsA great pitch is one of the most powerful and underestimated tools any writer can have in his/her quest to be published successfully. From landing an agent and a book deal, to self-publishing well, to getting traction online, to attracting media, to convincing booksellers that they must carry your book, to letting readers know why they should buy your book, the perfect pitch is the goose that will lay your golden publishing egg. Find out how to craft and dynamite pitch. And be sure to bring your pitch with you, even if it’s far from perfect!

Together, Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, have appeared everywhere from NPR’s Morning Edition to The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal to USA Today. They have taught everywhere from Stanford University to the Miami Book Festival to the granddaddy of American bookstores, Strand Books in New York City.

Their book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, is the go-to book on the subject, and contains all the information you’ll ever need, taking you through the entire process of conceiving, writing, selling, marketing and promoting your book.

Get Feedback from a Pro Wednesday - Friday, May 4 - 6 (various times, as appointed.) Consultations are limited to 30 people.

MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATIONS with Literary Agent Allison DevereuxLiterary agent Allison Devereux will read a sample of your work, then meet with you for a one-on-one, 15-minute consultation. SPACE IS LIMITED. By appointment only.

Via e-mail, forward a 10-page sample of your manuscript (preferably the first 10 pages) as a Microsoft Word attachment to Nicole Swift at [email protected]. In order to give your consultant time to review your work, submissions must be received NO LATER THAN 5 p.m. on April 4.

Allison Devereux is an agent and the foreign rights manager at Wolf Literary Services. She moved to New York from Austin, where she was a graduate of the University of Texas and an intern at the Harry Ransom Center. She previously worked at Tor Books.

Allison reads books across all genres, but has a particular focus on literary and up-market commercial fiction. For nonfiction, she’s interested in a broad range of topics, including examinations of contemporary culture, pop science, and modern feminist perspectives; humor and blog-to-book; illustrated novels or memoir; and narrative and journalistic nonfiction that uses a particular niche topic to explore larger truths about our culture.


How to RegisterVisit miamibookfair.com and click on Writers Institute. Follow the instructions to register online. If you have any questions, call 305-237-3940.

DeadlinesLast day to register: April 15, 2016

Last day to submit a manuscript consultation: April 4, 2016

All workshops are limited to 15 people, unless otherwise noted

Note: Space in workshops is limited. Register as soon as possible to secure your space. Payment must be received at time of registration and must have cleared at least five business days prior to the first day of class. Please note registration deadlines for each course. Please speak to a member of our registration staff if you require clarification.

Registration Fees


4-DAY WORKSHOPS: $550Registration fee includes:• One free drink at welcome happy hour• Continental breakfast Wednesday – Saturday • Workshop Fee • Boxed lunch and lunchtime reading from WI

faculty • 2-Day Publishing seminar with the Book

Doctors • Craft talks • Invitation to First Draft with one free drink• Pitchapalooza • Access to Hospitality Suite with complimentary

snacks and beverages • Access to Writing Lounge equipped with Mac

computers

3-DAY WORKSHOPS: $450Registration fee includes:• One free drink at welcome happy hour• Continental breakfast Wednesday – Saturday • Workshop Fee • Boxed lunch and lunchtime reading from WI

faculty • 2-Day Publishing seminar with the Book

Doctors • Craft talks • Invitation to First Draft with one free drink• Pitchapalooza • Access to Hospitality Suite with complimentary


computers

3-DAY WORKSHOP IN SPANISH: $300Registration fee includes:• One free drink at welcome happy hour• Workshop Fee • Invitation to First Draft with one free drink• Pitchapalooza • Access to Hospitality Suite with complimentary


computers

2-DAY PUBLISHING SEMINAR WITH THE BOOK DOCTORS: $100 (included in 3 and 4-day English workshop pricing. Limited to 40 additional participants.)

1-DAY QUERY WORKSHOP WITH THE BOOK DOCTORS: $50 (limited to 20 people)

MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATIONS: $80 (limited to 30 people)

*Manuscript consultation fees are not reading fees and do not go to the agent; rather, they support the programs and initiatives of Miami Book Fair.

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2016 miami writers institute brochure

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