The fuel that runs the engine of all good writing is our uncertainty…and the true curiosity of the writer.
For memoir and nonfiction Included in the Season Pass
Too often, writers of true stories lock in early on what they know—times, places, apparent facts—and what results is a flat retelling of the past. But memoir is essentially an act of discovery. As writers, we must enter our work filled with questions and true uncertainty, or we risk pushing the story where we think it should go rather than where it needs to be. As acclaimed memoirist Abigail Thomas warns, “If your memoir ends where you thought it was going to end, you aren’t doing it right.”
The engine of good writing is fueled by the curiosity of the writer, the process of thinking aloud on the page, and uncovering what we didn’t know the morning we sat down to begin our memoir or story.
In this webinar, we will look at how other writers have used their uncertainty as fuel for the story, how to locate your own questions, and how reconnecting with what you don’t know can revive a stalled project. There will also be prompts and time for questions.
In this webinar, you will:
SEE how questions within your process allow for discovery and surprise
LEARN strategies for incorporating “what you don’t know” into nonfiction
UNDERSTAND how questions and curiosity drive memoir, nonfiction, and even fiction
ENGAGE with a series of short prompts to find the questions in your own work
This webinar is ideal for writers who…
at the beginning stages of a memoir or nonfiction project
who feel stalled on their current essay, story or book
with a story they want to tell, who feel unsure why readers will be interested enough to read it
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
Previously offered August 2023
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
One of our most popular and beloved presenters, DINTY W. MOORE is author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer, among other books. He has published essays and stories in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Short Reads, and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of Brevity, the preeminent journal of flash nonfiction, and an editor at The Brevity Blog.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
Every beginning sets a tone, establishes a voice, and signals the quality of the language that is to come. Your beginning is one of your most important writing choices—learn to make it powerful.
REPLAY INCLUDES: VIDEO, CHAT, HANDOUT, AND TRANSCRIPT
For All Genres
Will that language be complex and tangled? Plain-spoken? Vanilla? Lavender? Will it zing like jazz or sing like a lullabye? Will it feel lethargic, or will it clop, or will it swashbuckle?
It’s always time to think about sentences—to explore the ways they work (and sometimes don’t), the ways we bend them to get closer to the truth, and the ways we work on patterns and rhythms so that the pages remain alive.
Prose from Hilton Als, Michael Ondaatje, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Jia Tolentino, Annie Dillard, Olivia Laing, Carmen Machado, Terry Tempest Williams, and Mark Richard will inspire us and lead our way.
Exercises presented will be focused on voice, tone, mood, and pace.
In this webinar, you will:
REFINE your writing voices
EXPERIMENT with mood, tone, and pace
DEVELOP powerful new beginnings
CREATE a better understanding of your writerly strengths
This webinar is ideal for writers who:
are intent on capturing the attention of agents, editors, and readers.
are keen on perfecting their work.
wish to build more dimension into their writing.
Want to learn more about sentence craft and explore their writing voice.
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
The live event happened in May 2025.
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
One of our favorite presenters, BETH KEPHART, is the award-winning writer of memoir, children’s books, young adult novels, and craft books. She is also a paper artist. Her new book, her first novel for adults, is Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday’s News: A Philadelphia Story. Please join her Substack journey at The Hush and the Howl. More at bethkephartbooks.com
Do you actually need a website, or is social media enough?
A website is the one piece of your author platform you actually own—and it might be the most underused sales and discovery tool authors have.
Every author eventually asks the same question: do I really need my own website, or can I just live on Instagram and Substack? The honest answer is that social platforms come and go, algorithms change overnight, and none of it belongs to you. A website is different. It’s your one-stop business card, mailing list nerve center, and permanent home base—the one place readers, agents, and editors can find the real, current story of who you are and what you write.
We’ll cover what actually belongs on an author website (and what doesn’t), why an email sign-up matters more than almost anything else on the page, how a website helps new readers discover your books through search, and how to keep readers engaged between releases. We’ll also talk through the practical build question every author faces: pay for a custom build, DIY on a platform like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress, or use an author-specific tool like Tertulia, built to make author websites easy and fast.
Join us TUESDAY JULY 28 at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!
Our special guest
Lynda Hammes is the co-founder of Tertulia, a platform reimagining online book discovery and community, and an all-in-one website, email marketing, and direct-sales builder made specifically for authors. Her career spans journalism, magazine publishing — including her tenure as Publisher/Chief Revenue Officer at Foreign Affairs — and brand strategy and growth marketing consulting. That background in content, audience, and digital growth now shapes how Tertulia helps authors build a real, lasting connection with readers.
Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing careers, publishing realities, and how authors can position themselves and their books in the world.
FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS
Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.
Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Learn the craft techniques that transform separate threads into a rich, seamless narrative that surprises, moves, and resonates with readers.
For memoir and nonfiction Included in the Season Pass
The braided memoir has become one of the most exciting and sought-after forms in contemporary nonfiction—but weaving multiple narrative threads into a compelling whole requires far more than alternating between story lines. How can you transform fragments, obsessions, research, memory, and reflection into a unified work that delivers both emotional impact and a high level of reader engagement?
In this webinar, we explore the hidden architecture that makes braided memoirs resonate. Learn how to choose strands that deepen one another, create momentum across timelines, withhold and reveal information strategically, and build a deeply satisfying narrative arc from seemingly disparate materials.
Whether you’re simply curious about the form, beginning a braided essay or book-length project, or struggling to master the form, you’ll leave with new tools for creating a memoir with confidence and purpose, whose threads are stronger together than apart.
In this webinar, you will:
IDENTIFY the three powerful reasons to use this exciting—but tricky—form
SELECT themes that connect multiple narrative strands
LEARN to MAP the movement between each narrative beat
EXPLORE the braider’s triple threat: repetition, juxtaposition, and variation
AVOID common pitfalls
DISCOVER revision techniques that strengthen connections between strands
This webinar is ideal for writers who…
are new memoirists needing a flexible, accessible way to begin
want to deepen their structural and thematic control of memoir
feel ready to break out of linear storytelling and try something more dynamic
are struggling to connect disparate memories, themes, or materials into a cohesive narrative
want to strengthen structure, control, and impact in their memoir
seek to weave personal experience with research, reflection, or cultural context
want to turn vivid fragments into a finished essay or book
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
Dr. Heather Sellers has been teaching for over thirty years, and she doesn’t teach like anyone else. Her classes are innovative and groundbreaking, and students describe them as fun, lively, and warm—the kind of workshop where you laugh out loud and walk away having learned an enormous amount.
She is the author of You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, a popular memoir about family and face blindness. An Oprah Book-of-the-Month Club selection and Editor’s Choice at the New York Times Book Review, the award-winning book was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, Dick Gordon’s The Story, Dateline, The Today Show, and Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos. Her essays appear in The New York Times, The Sun, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Best American Essays, and numerous journals and anthologies. She is the author of four books on the craft of writing, including The Practice of Creative Writing.
Her fifth collection of poetry, Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators, is just out from Lynx House Press. Currently, she is a member of the MFA faculty at the University of South Florida, where she won the university’s highest teaching award. She also offers in-person workshops and private lessons for writers at all levels.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
September 5
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2:00 pm
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September 12
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4:00 pm EDT
Grief on the page doesn’t guarantee grief in the reader. Learn to show how your character feels and make the reader feel it, too.
Live On Zoom | Saturdays, September 5 & 12, 2026 | 2-4 pm Eastern For Creative Nonfiction and Fiction Writers
As fiction and non-fiction writers, we often want to evoke agony on the page—grief, misery, blinding fury. Yet we get feedback: “What is the narrator feeling?”
Over two sessions, we’ll examine how we, as writers, can do two separate things:
Evoke emotions within the READER: sorrow, compassion, and empathy
Effectively show how the point-of-view character/narrator is feeling
These two jobs are often conflated; people assume if they describe how a character is feeling, readers will also feel those feelings. Alas, it’s not that simple.
We’ll focus on why it’s not just important to render the feelings themselves and how we can’t intentionally manipulate the reader with forced or pushed emotions.
In this insightful two-day course, you will:
DISTINGUISH between evoking emotion in the reader and describing what a character feels—and learn why conflating the two weakens your work
DIAGNOSE the “what is the narrator feeling?” note and understand what’s actually missing from the page
PRACTICE techniques for rendering emotion through action, image, and subtext
RECOGNIZE where emotional writing turns maudlin or overwrought—and how to pull back before you lose the reader
APPLY these techniques to a piece of your own work across two sessions, with feedback for a selection of students on the second day
Schedule…
Day One—We start with the core distinction the whole workshop builds on: showing emotion versus evoking it. You’ll get a set of practical tips for writing feelings without naming them, look at examples from published work, and break into small groups to hunt for more on your own. Then a short in-class prompt—write an intense moment with the feelings stripped out—followed by open Q&A.
Homework: Find two pages of your own work centered on a character or narrator feeling a big emotion. Revise so the emotion rises naturally from the material rather than being pushed onto the reader. (Extra credit for big feelings that never tip into maudlin!)
Submit 300–400 words of revised work as a Word document to the shared Google Drive by the morning of September 3rd.
Day Two—This session is yours. We’ll screen-share as many submissions as time allows, read them aloud, and workshop each one with about 10 minutes of group discussion.
This seminar is ideal for intermediate writers wrestling with intense material that can feel overwhelming.
Closed captioning is available. ✔ Think you might miss class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after the event. ✔
ABOUT YOUR Instructor
Direct, funny, and unsentimental, Peter Mountford is a warm and encouraging teacher. He’s the author of the novels A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism (Washington State Book Award), The Dismal Science (NYT editor’s choice), and his latest, a collection of short stories, Detonator (now out from Four Way Books). His work has appeared in the New York Times (Modern Love), Paris Review, Southern Review, The Atlantic, The Sun, Ploughshares, and Guernica. He teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe’s MFA, and through Mountford Writing.
Student Testimonials
“I’m so grateful to Peter—he’s that perfect combination of sweet and sour, candid but never cruel, encouraging but never ever full of shit.” – Sharon Schindel (NYT, Washington Post)
“Peter has an unerring sense of a story’s center of gravity and the structure that best suits the material. Peter’s expertise & generosity have been instrumental in my writing journey. I can’t recommend him highly enough.” – Hannah C.
“Peter knows how to make a story work & how to make it publishable. ”- Jeremy S.
“In a star rating, he’d get a full 5 from me.”- Robin R.
“I left class seeing how much more I need to write & read and how much more there is to learn, which is humbling and exciting. ”- Michael B.
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the class, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee.
Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.
When words fail, images can unlock secrets. Surprise the stuck places in your manuscript by looking at them anew.
For All Writers
Sometimes the most effective way through a writing challenge is without words.
In both writing and visual art, what’s beyond the page or the frame often holds the key. Finding that hidden context can help a lifeless scene find its heartbeat. Images, photographs, illustrations, even collages, can help us see our stories differently. Surrealist imagery is particularly effective because it’s already characterized by the juxtaposition of unexpected elements.
We’ll begin with quick-start generative prompts to help you identify an area in your writing to focus on during our time together. Then, we’ll look at traditional images and use them to help unlock a challenging place in your manuscript. Finally, we’ll progress to surrealist photographs, paintings, and collages to see your own work and themes through fresh lenses.
We’ll also discuss ways the qualities of surrealism can inform our writing, regardless of genre, and practice using “prepositional questions” to explore what’s beyond, above, below, underneath, inside, before, and after your scene to view your stuck place with curiosity and allow for unexpected connections.
If you’re currently struggling with an aspect of a work-in-progress, feel free to bring that, but it’s not required to benefit from the tools and techniques of the seminar. After the class, you’ll receive the seminar recording and the slide deck with all the images and prompts used during our time together.
All levels and all genres are welcome. Please be prepared to write.
In this interactive three-hour live seminar, you will:
EXPLORE how visual imagery can deepen your writing
LEARN key tenets of surrealism and apply them to a writing challenge
GENERATE new portals into an existing piece of writing
LEARN HOW unexpected visual arrangements open a door to the unconscious
USE key prepositional questions to view your writing differently
SURPRISE yourself by finding hidden connections in your work
This course is ideal for writers who…
curious about new ways to deepen their writing
interested in the connection between visual and literary arts
struggling with a difficult part of their manuscript
who are open to unconventional portals to the imagination
Closed captioning is available. ✔ Think you might miss class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after the event. ✔
ABOUT YOUR Instructor
Funny, kind, and direct, Laraine Herring is a popular CRAFT TALKS presenter and one of our strongest voices on deeply personal writing that powerfully connects with readers.
Laraine’s memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens, was released in 2021 from Regal House. She’s the editor of the anthology Becoming Real: Women Reclaim the Power of the Imagined through Speculative Nonfiction (Pact Press, 2024) and a trilogy of writing books from Shambhala, including Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice. A retired professor of creative writing and psychology, Lariane has worked with writers for thirty years.
She’s also an illustrator and a grief counselor and the creator of The Grief Forest: a book about what we don’t talk about. She founded the online ‘zine Hags on Fire, a place for women to share stories about menopause, and co-designed The Imaginal Memoir Cave immersion program with Gayle Brandeis. Laraine’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Tiferet, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, and many more. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Counseling Psychology and lives in the mountains of northern Arizona with many cats.
Student Testimonials
“Laraine helped my book tell me what it wants to be and challenged me to do the work to get it there. I am grateful for her intuitive, empathic, supportive approach, and for her enthusiasm when I arrived at the realizations she was hoping I’d get to as I did that work. Laraine’s skills are many, and she is fantastic to work with. She is dedicated, direct, detailed, dependable, and delightful.”
— Meg Weber, author of A Year of Mr. Lucky (Sincyr Publishing)
“Through Laraine’s authentic nature and ability to listen, I learned that writing is as much an act of bravery and strength as it is about being gentle and flexible. I can’t wait to be one of her students again!”
— Naomi Kaplan
“Without a doubt, Laraine is the most generous, inspirational and challenging writing instructor I have ever met. Using provocative writing exercises, she guided me through creative discovery, helping reveal ideas and truths I had previously locked away. She challenged me to delve deeper into my story, even if it meant going into the dark hidden corners.”
— Janine Weyers
“Laraine opened doors inside my mind and created space for me to come into relationship with my writing in a refreshing way that was all my own. I had more than one breakthrough working with her. With ease and honesty, she created an authentic, interesting and inviting space to grow.”
— Grace Welker
“Laraine encourages students to dig deep. She provides original, interesting exercises designed to pull past the first obvious idea and find the more compelling material underneath. She is as invested in students’ work as the students themselves.”
— Janet Burruel
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the class, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee.
Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.
What separates a thriving newsletter from one that fizzles out after three posts? A best-selling Substack founder has answers you can use.
For publicity/platform-building Included in the Season Pass
In recent years, many writers have turned to Substack and other newsletter platforms as a way to explore niche interests, publish creative work, and bypass gatekeepers to connect directly with readers. Newsletters in all formats can help writers grow an audience, gain craft confidence, and build a publicity platform to support publishing their books, public speaking, and teaching careers.
In this session, we will start from the beginning and look at how to create a newsletter for anyone eager to begin. We’ll address important and often-overlooked areas like the Substack name, About section, and style. We’ll also look at common questions: How often should you post? How long should your posts be? What should you write about (and what if you change your mind)? How do you sustain momentum beyond the first few months? Finally, we’ll discuss how to gain readers and continue growing your audience over time.
Note: While this webinar will include technical elements specific to Substack, the underlying principles of newsletter set-up, frequency, audience awareness, and platform growth will apply to any newsletter or email-sending platform.
In this webinar, you will:
LEARN HOW to start a Substack and what pitfalls to avoid
UNDERSTAND best strategies for maintaining a newsletter over the long haul
STRATEGIZE how to grow readership and build a platform
GET INSPIRED to launch a Substack and connect directly with readers
This webinar is ideal for writers who…
have a Substack (or other type of newsletter) but feel stagnant
want to learn whether or not to launch a newsletter (and are curious about pros and cons)
are excited about their newsletter and want to keep growing it
are overwhelmed by the prospect of a newsletter and want to see if it’s the right fit for their own platform
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
A down-to-earth, practical, and encouraging teacher, Becky Tuch is the founder ofLit Mag News, a bestselling Substack dedicated to demystifying the world of literary magazines.Lit Mag News has over 17,000 subscribers and has been listed in Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers. The leading expert in understanding, assessing, and submitting to literary magazines, Becky is noted for her generous sharing of knowledge and accessible, honest information for writers at all stages of their publication process.
Becky’s short fiction has been honored with a MacDowell fellowship and first place in Moment Magazine’s Karma Foundation Fiction Prize and has appeared or is forthcoming in STORY Magazine, Chicago Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, Best of the Net, and elsewhere. She has taught newsletter writing and fiction writing to kids, teens, and adults throughout the country. She lives with her family in Philadelphia, PA.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
Every genre has its sacred rules. Learn what they actually protect — so you can break them with confidence.
For writers at all stages, in all genres Included in the Season Pass
Every writer collects a list of commandments. Show, don’t tell. Don’t start a scene with dialogue. One point-of-view per scene. Search and destroy all adverbs. Memoir must be told in the first person. These rules are repeated in workshops and webinars until we think they’re all true, all the time, but most of them are shorthand for a much more useful question: Am I making the best craft choices for readers to experience these words as I intend?
In this webinar, Allison K Williams (author of Seven Drafts and editor of NYT bestselling memoirs and novels) debunks the “rules” writers hear most often in workshops, craft classes, and query guidance and unpacks the real craft principle underneath each one. You’ll learn which rules are structural (break them, and the story stops working) and which are stylistic conventions (break them deliberately, and readers barely notice—or love you for it). We’ll use examples from published books that defy every dictum on this list and succeed anyway, plus a clear-eyed look at when breaking a rule reads as “bold choice” versus “rookie mistake.”
You’ll leave knowing exactly which rules support the writing you want to do—and which ones were never really rules at all.
In this webinar, you will:
IDENTIFY the difference between structural craft principles and stylistic conventions
LEARN why POV discipline, tense consistency, and dialogue-opening “rules” exist—and what actually breaks when you ignore them
EXAMINE notable published novels, essays and memoirs that violate these rules on purpose, and why they work
WALK AWAY with a framework for deciding, scene by scene, when a “rule” is serving your story and when it’s safe to ignore—or gleefully defy
This webinar is ideal for writers at any level who…
keep getting the same craft note in workshop and want to understand why, not just fix it
have gotten craft feedback that doesn’t resonate or feels just plain wrong
are drafting memoir, YA, or genre fiction and want to know which conventions their category actually enforces (and what to do if you’re not going to play along)
have a bold structural choice in mind and want to pressure-test it before committing
are tired of contradictory advice and want one clear-eyed pass through the “rules” that matter
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
Sharp, funny, and genuinely useful from the first five minutes, Allison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from First Draft to Book Deal and Managing Editor of the Brevity Blog. She teaches memoir and novel craft through Rebirth Your Writing, leads retreats from Maine to Morocco to the middle of the Atlantic, and has a well-earned reputation for advice that improves your pages the same day you hear it.
Allison holds an MFA from Western Michigan University, and her own work has appeared in The New York Times,McSweeney’s, and Brevity (the magazine) as well as on NPR, The Moth, Snap Judgement, and CBC-Canada. She is the co-producer of CRAFT TALKS and founder of The Writers Bridge.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
Sometimes words aren’t enough. Discover how photos, documents, original artwork, and other visual elements can deepen, complicate, and illuminate your creative nonfiction.
For creative nonfiction, including hybrid & experimental Included in the Season Pass
From family photos, maps, and diagrams to drawings, erasures, and collages, authors, artists, and publishers are finding new ways to present mixed media texts that combine words and visual elements. Whether you’ve already started using images or are curious about how images could enrich your writing process and practice, this webinar is for you.
From brainstorming and generating to the printed page, images can add depth and nuance to your writing practice and finished drafts. We’ll look at striking examples of hybrid and mixed media essays, and talk through not only the whys but also the hows—including technical and conceptual considerations (‘Do I need Photoshop?’ ‘What does ‘print ready’ mean?’ ‘Does it count as Fair Use if I only use a piece of someone else’s work?’ You’ll leave with inspiration and actionable ideas for your own visual + text essays.
In this webinar, you will:
LEARN different uses for images in both brainstorming and writing essays
GET an overview of practical considerations, such as hardware and software, publication readiness, and permissions for images that aren’t your own
BE INSPIRED by image+text prompts and a roundup of resources
DISCOVER image + text work from a great reading list
This webinar is ideal for writers at any level who…
want to explore hybrid writing, collage, or experimental essays
enjoy hands-on brainstorming techniques (collage is great for that!)
are already experimenting with images and want to learn how to get them published
have a visual art practice or passion they want to combine with their writing practice
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
Known for packing her webinars with deep knowledge, actionable information, and fun facts, Chelsea Biondolillois a collage artist and the author of The Skinned Bird: Essays and two prose chapbooks, Ologies and #Lovesong.
Her essays have been collected in Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016, The Lyric Essay as Resistance, How We Talk to One Another: An Essay Daily Reader and is forthcoming in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay.
Chelsea’s paper and mixed media collages have been shown in Oregon, Washington, and New York. Her image and text essay, “Weeds” was the winner of CRAFT Literary’s inaugural hybrid writing contest. She has a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MFA from the University of Wyoming. She currently lives in Eugene, Oregon.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
Turn the overlooked corners of your everyday world into vivid and compelling writing.
Open to 20 writers only, working in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Live On Zoom | Sundays, August 23 – September 6, 2026 | 5-6:30 pm Eastern
You don’t have to travel far to find inspiration. This workshop explores how paying close attention to the natural world around us—whether in a backyard, neighborhood park, or along a familiar walking route—can lead to engaging, thoughtful writing. Through readings, lectures, and guided assignments, we’ll discover how ordinary places can reveal extraordinary stories.
The course includes three live sessions featuring discussions, short lectures, readings, and workshops. Between meetings, you’ll complete weekly writing assignments that encourage you to write where you are, spend time outdoors, and practice observing the living world with fresh eyes.
You’ll also receive written instructor feedback on one piece you write during the course.
Whether you’re new to nature writing or looking to deepen your practice, you’ll leave with new ways of seeing the places you know best and the confidence to turn those observations into compelling pieces of prose or poetry. All you need is curiosity and a willingness to step outside.
Students should set aside at least 4 hours a week for the course.
Over these three weeks, you will …
SOW a nature writing practice through close observation, weekly writing prompts, and time spent outdoors in the landscapes you know best
TEND your craft through readings, discussions, mini-lectures, and workshops during three live class sessions
ROOT your writing in place through sensory detail, observation, and personal experience
GATHER insights through personalized written instructor feedback and workshop notes
Feedback Submission Due – September 6th by 9pm EDT
Instructor Feedback Returned – September 13th
This course is for writers who …
want to generate new material in a supportive environment
would like to train their observational skills
want to strengthen their use of setting and description
desire to get outside and soak up the season
Closed captioning is available. ✔ Think you might miss a class? No worries, replays will be available. ✔
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
A high-energy teacher noted for deep historical dives and technical side quests that always bring more understanding, Megan Baxter has won numerous national awards, including a Pushcart Prize. Her essay collection, Twenty Square Feet of Skin, was longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.
Megan has published three books of creative nonfiction and is currently writing short stories and novels. Her short story collection ‘The Off-Season’ debuts in Spring 2027 from Jada Ibis Press. She lives in New Hampshire, where she runs her own small farm and teaches creative writing through online courses and lessons.
Testimonials from past students
“Megan’s belief in my viability as a writer never waned! Our discussions on craft and the works of other writers fueled my faith and love for language and the publishing process.” – Yossi R.
“I enjoyed the class because of Megan’s energy and the well-organized, immense amount of information shared.” – Daniel L.
“I am a perpetual student, taking multiple classes and workshops, and Megan ranks among the top instructors I have met. She meets writers where they are and helps them discover, develop, and hone their writing voice as they move toward their goals.” – Lisa C.
“Megan is that rare blend of insightful critique and genuine encouragement. I always leave our meetings feeling energized, with a clear path forward and a stronger piece of work thanks to her guidance.” – Anne B.
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the first class, you may request a refund (less a $25 processing fee).
After class begins, you may request a refund for the remaining value of the course (less a $25 processing fee). No credits or refunds will be available after the 1st class.
What do you do when a book you believe in didn’t find its readers the first time around?
Publishing trends, author persistence, and smart strategy can give a great book the life it deserves.
Many authors have one — a book that came out quietly, got lost in the noise, or simply arrived before its moment. And every author wonders: is it gone for good, or can I bring it back?
Christopher Buehlman, author of successful fantasy novels The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters War knows both sides of that question. His novel Between Two Fires — a harrowing, visionary journey through plague-ravaged medieval France — was published in 2012 to critical acclaim and then waited, mostly quietly, for the world to catch up. Now, 14 years later, it’s a New York Times Bestseller, acquired by Tor and re-released in March 2026. That’s not luck. That’s an author who stayed in the game, kept writing, kept building, and understood how publishing actually works over time.
We’ll talk about the long arc of a writing career, what it takes to keep your backlist alive and findable, how to recognize when publishing trends are moving in your favor, and what authors can do right now to make sure their best work gets the second chance it deserves.
Join us TUESDAY JUNE 30 at 1PM EASTERN – live and FREE on Zoom, all welcome!
Our special guest
Christopher Buehlman is the New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Fires, The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughters’ War, The Lesser Dead, The Necromancer’s House, The Suicide Motor Club, and Those Across the River. Writing at the intersection of horror and fantasy with wit, grit, and genuine literary ambition, he has built a devoted readership across more than a decade of publishing. He escaped Florida via sarcasm and dark fiction, and has never looked back.
Join your hosts Allison K Williams (SEVEN DRAFTS), Sharla Yates (CRAFT TALKS) and our special guest for this lively, funny hour of frank talk about writing careers, publishing realities, and books that refuse to stay dead.
FREE, all welcome! Sign up to receive the Zoom link the day before.
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTERS
Allison K Williams has edited and coached authors to publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Knopf, Mantle, St. Martin’s Press, and numerous small presses. An expert in author marketing and community building, her platform includes the Brevity Blog (80k+ followers), Instagram (10k+), a mailing list (12k+), and Facebook (5k+), with publications in the New York Times and appearances on NPR and CBC. Her book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, sold on proposal. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats and co-hosts The Writers Bridge.
Sharla Yates is the author of the poetry chapbook What I Would Say if We Were to Drown Tonight, published by Stranded Oak Press (2017). She hosts a webinar series, CRAFT TALKS for writers on writing, and co-hosts The Writers Bridge with Allison K Williams. Her nonfiction essay, “Address” was a finalist for the 2015 Columbia Journal writing contest and the 2016 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award. She is the former Director of Education at the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Nature writing is often treated as a genre of its own, but the natural world belongs in every story, essay, or poem. Move beyond viewing nature as a backdrop, and weave it meaningfully into your writing.
For All Genres Included in the Season Pass
Discover what happens when we stop treating nature as scenery and begin to recognize it as an active presence in our narratives, woven into every story we tell. Through a selection of historical and contemporary readings, we’ll look at the many ways writers have engaged with the living world and consider how those approaches can enrich our own work.
Together, we’ll explore the idea of de-othering nature and its implications for our writing, from setting and imagery to metaphor, character, and point of view. Through lecture, close reading, and a generative writing exercise, you’ll experiment with new ways of bringing the natural world onto the page—not simply as background, but as a vital part of the work itself.
Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, you’ll leave with practical techniques for creating more vivid and immersive landscapes, a deeper awareness of the relationships between people and place, and fresh inspiration for your creative practice.
In this webinar, you will:
EXPLORE how writers across time have represented the natural world, from historical texts to contemporary voices reshaping the genre
REIMAGINE nature’s role in your work and how de-othering the environment can transform your imagery, figurative language, and sense of place
STRENGTHEN your craft with tools for creating rich, memorable landscapes
INTEGRATE environmental awareness into your creative practices
This webinar is ideal for writers at any level who…
struggle with settings and world-building
want to explore a new way of writing from a new point of view
write about the natural world but don’t want to be pigeonholed as “nature writers”
are garden-obsessed, dirt-under-the-fingernails, seed-catalog-collecting, hiking-boot-wearing aficionados who wonder what else there is to write about
Closed captioning is available. ✔ All registrants receive the recording. ✔
ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER
A high-energy teacher noted for deep historical dives and technical side quests that always bring more understanding, Megan Baxter has won numerous national awards, including a Pushcart Prize. Her essay collection, Twenty Square Feet of Skin, was longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.
Megan has published three books of creative nonfiction and is currently writing short stories and novels. Her short story collection ‘The Off-Season’ debuts in Spring 2027 from Jada Ibis Press. She lives in New Hampshire, where she runs her own small farm and teaches creative writing through online courses and lessons.
REFUNDS (less a $10 processing fee) ARE AVAILABLE before the replay is sent out. For a refund, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process.
