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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260501T000000
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DTSTAMP:20260507T062013
CREATED:20260423T152437Z
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UID:10000119-1777593600-1780271999@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:REPLAY | The Magic of Micro Prose: Find Your Story in 300 Words or Less
DESCRIPTION:Unlock your storytelling potential and share your words with captivating brevity.\n\n\n\nREPLAY INCLUDES : VIDEO\, CHAT SCRIPT\, AUDIO FILE\, SLIDES\, HANDOUT\, AND TRANSCRIPT & MORE \n\n\n\nMicro prose—stories told in 300 words or less—provides an opportunity for more\, not less. Learn how this short but versatile form can amplify your creative nonfiction work (memoir and personal essay) and even poetry and fiction.  \n\n\n\nWe’ll look at examples of micro in the world\, how you can begin writing micro right away\, and submission opportunities as you ready your work for the world. Darien will share her methods for drafting and crafting micro prose\, and lead an in-class exercise so you can try it for yourself.  \n\n\n\nIf you’ve ever been curious about micro\, now’s a great time to add this powerful form to your writer’s toolbox. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nLEARN about micro prose and its storytelling superpowers\n\n\n\nEXPLORE micro prose possibilities for creative nonfiction\, fiction or poetry projects\n\n\n\nCONSIDER submission and publication options for your own micro prose work \n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers who …\n\n\n\n\nwant to explore new ways to generate material\n\n\n\nare interested in learning more about short-form writing\n\n\n\nare ready to experiment with different ways of telling a story\n\n\n\nwant to publish short work as they write toward longer projects\n\n\n\nwant to deepen their literary craft\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDarien Hsu Gee is an international bestselling author published by Penguin Random House and the third Mark Twain Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Connecticut\, following Alexander Chee and Justin Torres. Her work spans genres\, from novels translated into eleven languages to award-winning micro prose and poetry collections. She is the executive editor of Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World (IPPY Silver Award) and the author of Allegiance (IPPY Bronze Award)\, Other Small Histories (Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship)\, and Writing the Hawaiʻi Memoir (Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award of Excellence). \n\n\n\nA recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant and a Vermont Studio Center fellowship\, Darien teaches creative nonfiction at UCLA Extension and Hugo House. She also leads specialized micro prose workshops through her platform\, Writer-ish\, and publishes two Substacks: Writer-ish\, focused on the art of micro prose\, and Drafts\, Deals & Detours\, a real-time look at the working writer’s life. \n\n\n\nHer service to the literary community includes board work with Short Reads and Flash Fiction Institute. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nBecause the replay is delivered instantly upon purchase\, all sales are final. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/replay-the-magic-of-micro/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Gee.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260513T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260513T163000
DTSTAMP:20260507T062013
CREATED:20260412T152910Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T144348Z
UID:10000117-1778684400-1778689800@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Call and Response: Writing Beginnings and Endings in Essays
DESCRIPTION:What tone to strike at the start? And how to shape an ending that responds? Learn how to make your essays move.\n\n\n\nFor Personal Essays \n\n\n\nEssays sing. Beginning sentences open the tune—and connect to the endings in how the song ends. An essay’s opening says something about what the writer wants to explore through different lenses or truths. The beginning can nail the “what\,” the essence of an essay’s quest\, through an image or inflection or voice or rhythm of language (“It was the best of times\, it was the worst of times”).  \n\n\n\nEssays move. Writers listen for a change—a mini-epiphany\, an angle through the mind’s eye that frames in a fresh way\, or a phrase like prayer in structure and sound. What might the last line say in response to the first? If beginnings and endings are siblings\, what is the connection that links them? How might the closing not just echo the opening but instead extend it\, go beyond what’s there? \n\n\n\nIn this practice-driven webinar (be ready to write)\, Jonathan Callard will guide you through possibilities in shaping strong openings and closings in essays and how they can work together to inspire movement and revelation in your work. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nEXPLORE key elements of strong openings in essays and how to express them on the page.\n\n\n\nDISCOVER how closings can respond to openings to deepen a piece and ways to write strong closings.\n\n\n\nLEARN how beginnings and endings can work with a “what”—a tension/question—to create a transformative essay that pivots toward a change/shift\, a “then.”\n\n\n\nPRACTICE writing your own openings and closings in real time\, guided by exercises designed to unlock movement and revelation in your essays.\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers who …\n\n\n\n\nfeel stuck on how to begin or end their pieces\n\n\n\nwant to play with structure of narrative or idea\n\n\n\nwant to hone their essays to engage agents\, editors\, and readers\n\n\n\nwant to understand how a central tension or question can guide an essay\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJonathan Callard is a writer\, editor\, and teacher who helps writers shape stories and find their voice. The winner of the Prairie Schooner Creative Nonfiction Contest judged by National Book Award honoree Sarah M. Broom\, his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner\, PublicSource\, Creative Nonfiction\, Hotel Amerika\, Gulf Coast\, Image\, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review\, Pittsburgh Magazine\, Arts & Letters\, and the Dallas Morning News\, among others\, and has earned fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation\, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts\, and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. Having previously taught for the Creative Nonfiction Foundation\, he currently offers writer-mentoring services and also teaches for the University of Pittsburgh\, where he received an MFA in nonfiction writing. He lives in Pittsburgh\, Pennsylvania. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nBefore the replay is sent\, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/call-and-response/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Callard.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260520T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260520T170000
DTSTAMP:20260507T062013
CREATED:20260422T175949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260424T205404Z
UID:10000120-1779289200-1779296400@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Mind the Gaps: Writing Less While Saying More
DESCRIPTION:Beyond show-don’t-tell\, create powerful scenes through details\, images\, and juxtaposition.\n\n\n\nFor Fiction Writers\, Memoirists\, and Essayists \n\n\n\nOur strongest writing makes the reader feel with our characters/our narrator selves. But too often\, we over-write—spelling out emotions\, explaining through dialogue\, interrupting memoir scenes with reflection or novel scenes with backstory—so that readers are watching someone else have an experience. By paring down our prose to singular details and powerful images\, we give room for the reader to “lean in” to the story\, actively assemble information\, and share the discoveries\, realizations\, tears\, and laughter on the page. \n\n\n\nIn this interactive webinar (let’s call it a workshop!) we’ll prune text\, remove summaries to let details stand\, and use gestures and images to create meaning and feeling. We’ll examine how to “score” text by arranging it on the page\, making the visual processing of words and white space part of the reader’s experience. In published examples from fiction and memoir\, we’ll learn how juxtaposition\, high-context dialogue\, and purposeful repetition give emotional punch. And we’ll challenge ourselves to create endings without explanations that resonate in the reader’s mind long after they’ve closed the book. \n\n\n\nRaise your craft level and gain a tool kit. In-class writing time and live editing will give you a chance to apply this to your writing right away. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis is a TWO-HOUR class\, with 20 minutes of writing time in the middle. \n\n\n\n\n45 minutes – Learn a new tool kit of writing techniques to give fewer words more power.\n\n\n\n5 minutes – Q&A to fully understand and apply the techniques.\n\n\n\n20 minutes – Revise a scene from your novel\, memoir\, short story\, or essay using your new tools. Allison will continue taking questions in the chat. \n\n\n\nOPTIONAL: Volunteer for live editing and upload your revised scene as a Word doc or docx to a Google Drive (link will be provided IN CLASS; no pages accepted early).\n\n\n\n40 minutes – Allison will live-edit volunteer pages on screen\, noting where the writer is succeeding and what revisions could make the prose even more effective. She’ll call out specific techniques and tips for everyone to apply to their own work. \n\n\n\n10 minutes – additional Q&A and more on applying this work to your writing.\n\n\n\n\nIn this workshop you will: \n\n\n\n\nHEAR how the interplay of said and unsaid makes dialogue more powerful\n\n\n\nSEE how scoring text on the page establishes distance and attitude\, smooths transitions\, and increases dramatic tension\n\n\n\nDISCOVER ways to increase emotional power on the page through specific details\n\n\n\nAPPLY the tools and techniques to your own scene\, essay or story\n\n\n\nCREATE powerful emotional connection with deliberate craft choices\n\n\n\n\nThis Course is ideal for writers who are …\n\n\n\n\nNovelists who want readers to feel what the characters are feeling\n\n\n\nMemoirists and essayists who want to write powerful emotions without over-explaining their own feelings or over-using reflection.\n\n\n\nCreative writing students and graduates of MFA programs who want to expand their writing craft with conscious practice.\n\n\n\nDevelopmental editors who want to grow their knowledge of white space\, details\, and juxtaposition in prose and better communicate that knowledge to their author clients.\n\n\n\nWriters hearing feedback that they are “telling” or info-dumping on the page\n\n\n\nWriters struggling with realistic dialogue\, whether recreating a remembered scene or writing fiction.\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAllison K Williams is the author of Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book. She has edited and coached writers to Big Five and literary/university publishing deals and the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. She’s guided essayists and humorists to publication in media including the New Yorker\, Time\, the Guardian\, the New York Times\, McSweeney’s\, Refinery29\, Hippocampus\, the Belladonna and TED Talks. As Social Media Editor for Brevity\, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life.As a memoirist\, essayist\, and travel journalist\, Allison has written craft\, culture and comedy for National Public Radio\, CBC-Canada\, the New York Times\, the Christian Science Monitor\, Creative Nonfiction\,McSweeney’s Internet Tendency\, Kenyon Review Online\,Travelers’ Tales and Flash Nonfiction Funny. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nBefore the replay is sent\, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/mind-the-gaps/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260527T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260527T161500
DTSTAMP:20260507T062013
CREATED:20260409T161303Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T144423Z
UID:10000116-1779894000-1779898500@writingcraft.com
SUMMARY:WEBINAR | Blurb Clinic: The 150 Words That Hook Agents\, Editors\, and Readers
DESCRIPTION:Write your book’s “blurb”—the sharp\, versatile pitch for submissions\, promotion\, and marketing that defines what your book is and why it matters.\n\n\n\nAll Genres \n\n\n\nWhether you call it “jacket copy\,” an “extended pitch” or the meat of your query\, your book’s blurb is critical. This short piece of persuasive copy determines whether someone reads on\, requests the manuscript\, or buys the book. Just 150 words do a lot of heavy lifting: positioning your book in the market\, introducing your protagonist and stakes\, and making a promise that reading will be worth the commitment.  \n\n\n\nBut many writers get stuck with blurbs that sound generic or interchangeable with another author’s book. Shortcuts\, AI\, and borrowed language won’t sum up the heart of 100\,000 words. You have to step inside your book and ask what it is truly offering—and then stress-test whether or not your manuscript delivers on that promise. \n\n\n\nWhen I finally arrived at the right 150 words for my own memoir/reported nonfiction project\, everything fell into place. I received thoughtful\, encouraging passes instead of crickets\, and in a very short period of time\, two offers of publication. As I wrote and revised\, the blurb became a microcosm of my story’s logic and the reason someone would choose my book over anything else in front of them. \n\n\n\nAgents are looking for the blurb in your query letter (and will use it to sell your book to publishers). Editors are looking for the blurb in your book proposal. Marketers are looking for the blurb in your materials. And most importantly\, your readers are looking to be fulfilled by the blurb’s promise. They want to read your book; give them every chance to be excited. This session shows you how to make those 150 words count. \n\n\n\nCan’t make it live? No worries—a replay will be available to all registrants. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this webinar\, you will:\n\n\n\n\nDEFINE what a blurb is (and is not) and see how it functions across queries\, proposals\, websites\, and sales materials\n\n\n\nANALYZE real blurb examples to see how a clear\, compelling story or concept is expressed in 150 words\n\n\n\nSTRUCTURE a blurb for yourself that introduces the protagonist/author\, stakes\, and take-away (without summarizing the entire book!)\n\n\n\nIDENTIFY and AVOID common pitfalls that weaken blurbs\, including generic language and over-reliance on trends\n\n\n\nEVALUATE whether your blurb makes a promise your manuscript actually delivers on\n\n\n\n\nThis webinar is ideal for writers who are …\n\n\n\n\nnot getting responses from their query letters or book proposals\n\n\n\nplanning to self-publish and needing strong sales copy for online retail pages and author websites\n\n\n\nfinished with their manuscript and need to articulate what the book is about\n\n\n\nstruggling to describe their book clearly\, concisely\, and in a compelling way\n\n\n\ngetting stuck in the weeds of their book and need to refine the premise\n\n\n\n\nClosed captioning is available. ✔All registrants receive the recording. ✔ \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABOUT YOUR PRESENTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMichelle Cutler is an award-winning screenwriter\, storytelling coach\, and developmental editor specializing in true stories and memoir\, as well as an enthusiastic teacher. She has written more than 1\,700 advertising campaigns for global brands\, humanizing brand copy for short form content. She holds an MFA in film from NYU and a diploma in advanced creative writing nonfiction from Cambridge. She is currently writing I WON’T LET YOU DIE ALONE\, a reported memoir from the trenches of modern elder caregiving for Bloomsbury. \n\n\n\nQuestions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com \n\n\n\nBefore the replay is sent\, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee. For a refund\, EMAIL us at info@WritingCraft.com. Canceling your Zoom invite will not initiate this process. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration Info\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEvent Organizer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLocation
URL:https://writingcraft.com/event/blurb-clinic/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinars
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://writingcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Cutler.png
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