Happy publication day to Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne and her beautiful, dark, devastating book, Holding On To Nothing, which is out today from Blair! Everyone go buy a copy and read it right now and I am not just saying that because ECS thanked me in the acknowledgments (my first time ever appearing in book acknowledgments!?!) but that definitely didn’t hurt.

Congratulations, Elizabeth!

The post Writers You Should Know: Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

Sign up now! Contact me with any questions.

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Creative Nonfiction I
Fridays, September 15 – November 17, 6pm-9pm

• 10-week course.
• Open to all writers.
• Scholarships available!

What defines creative nonfiction? Writers can’t even agree on the name: “Few seem willing to embrace the term,” writes essayist and memoirist Dinty W. Moore, “though by this point, almost everyone uses it.” And yet, the fundamentals of creative nonfiction are as old as Montaigne, and the genre has thrived in recent decades—from the tell-all memoirs of Mary Karr to the online personal essay boom. More readers are feeling “reality hunger,” it seems, craving stories based in fact.
 
In this course, we’ll explore what creative nonfiction is, what it isn’t, and what it might be, examining a mix of published nonfiction works—personal essays, memoirs, lyric essays, narrative journalism—to better understand the array of styles and approaches writers bring to true stories they tell. Focusing on voice, details, perspective and language, we’ll analyze work that fits neatly within nonfiction norms as well as boundary-pushing work that lives on the fringe, and apply this craft awareness to our own writing. Authors may include: Hilton Als, Eula Biss, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Doyle, Roxane Gay, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Maxine Hong Kingston, Maggie Nelson, and/or Mary Roach.

During ten weeks of class, students will submit at least two manuscripts up to fifteen pages each, and learn to critique the work of their peers. You’ll gain a strong foundational knowledge of creative nonfiction, along with a sense of its possibilities and where such work is being published. This class is ideal for novice writers or more experienced writers looking to delve into this ever-evolving and flourishing genre.

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FREE Brown Bag Lunch Writing Series
Wednesday, October 18, 12:30pm-1:15pm

• Open to all writers.
• ***100% COMPLETELY FREE!*** 
• No registration necessary!

Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Join our FREE Brown Bag Lunch Writing Series.

Bring your lunch and come on over to GrubStreet on Wednesday, October 18th from 12:30pm – 1:15pm. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors.

Best of all, you’ll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day and beyond. No need to RSVP — just come!

*Be sure to arrive early, as space is limited!

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Young Adult Writers Program: Playwriting for Drama Queens and Kings
Saturday, October 21, 12pm-4pm

• Open to writers aged 13-18 years old.
• ***100% COMPLETELY FREE!*** 
• Includes free pizza for lunch!

Has someone ever told you to stop being so dramatic? If so, disregard that advice and come take Drama Queens and Kings! Through acting and improv games, you will generate material to create the beginnings of your own play and figure out what it takes to make drama exciting, interesting, and, well, dramatic. In addition to theatre exercises, you will work off writing prompts to help inspire engaging dialogue and read excerpts from great playwrights, both contemporary and classic. By the end of the class, you will have one or more scenes that you will be able expand into a play. Writing notebooks will be available, but feel free to bring your own. For writers age 13 – 18 ONLY.

Join GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area high schoolers. Our students come from a wide variety of high schools in the Boston area and enjoy cool writing exercises, mingling with fellow young writers, snacks, and an optional open mic. After four great years, YAWP has already been recognized by the Boston Globe as Boston’s hub for writing teenagers. You must be 13-18 years to register.

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Writing About Family
Saturday, November 11, 10am-5pm

• 6-hour seminar.
• Open to all writers.
• Scholarships available!

Course description and sign-up link coming soon!

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Young Adult Writers Program: Writing Inspired by Found Objects
Saturday, November 18, 12pm-4pm

• Open to writers aged 13-18 years old.
• ***100% COMPLETELY FREE!*** 
• Includes free pizza for lunch!

Have you ever found an old photograph at a flea market and wondered: who are these people, and what is their story? That’s how Ransom Riggs wrote Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, structuring the plotline entirely around found photographs. Using Miss Peregrine as our model, this course will be all about looking for inspiration for your writing in the objects that surround you, creating narratives out of things that already exist. We will look at an array of items––old photographs, video footage, antique maps, even junk and trash––and find the stories and poems hidden within. You’re welcome to bring in your own items, but objects will be provided––you just need to find their story. We will even take a trip to the antiques store next to GrubStreet for inspiration! This course will also explore the relationship between images and words, looking at examples such as Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck and Tom Phillips’s A Humument. A great course for those who are visual artists in addition to writers. Writing notebooks will be available, but feel free to bring your own. For writers age 13 – 18 ONLY.

Join GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area high schoolers. Our students come from a wide variety of high schools in the Boston area and enjoy cool writing exercises, mingling with fellow young writers, snacks, and an optional open mic. After four great years, YAWP has already been recognized by the Boston Globe as Boston’s hub for writing teenagers. You must be 13-18 years to register.

The post Fall classes at GrubStreet! appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

Kea Krause is a brilliantly talented writer, a genius editor, and definitely one of the best people I know. Her writing is smart and poetic in every subject she takes on––from Great White Sharks to family alcoholism.

I feel so lucky to know her as both a writer and as a friend, and today I am super excited to brag on her behalf: Kea’s essay “What’s Left Behind”––about the largest contaminated body of water in the United States, a flooded copper mine in Butte, Montana––was published in The Believer last fall (read an excerpt here). Her essay was subsequently picked up by the Best American series, and today is the big day––the Best American series 2016 is out now on your favorite local bookstore’s bookshelves!

So go out and buy The Best American Science Writing 2016 right now and read Kea’s essay! Oh, I’m sorry, you’re not really into science writing? That’s okay, because Kea’s essay is also featured in The Best American Travel Writing 2016. No big deal.

Here is Kea in The Best American Science Writing 2016…

… and here she is in The Best American Travel Writing 2016!

Congratulations, Kea! So proud of you!

The post Writers You Should Know: Kea Krause appeared first on E.B. Bartels.