Practical Magic: Writing And Publishing the Short Story
With G.K. Wuori

The main emphasis in this class is going to be: How to publish your work. We’ll start with some exercises that will open us up to the various kinds of short stories that are being published today within the world of literary fiction. From realistic, memoir-ish types of fiction to what is often described as magical realism, we’ll explore various types of publications and the kinds of stories they seek. From there we’ll move on to the practical realities of preparing a piece for submission, writing the submission letter, and then determining what kind of publishing venue might be most open to what we’ve written. Since the main emphasis in the class will be on publishing, it will be suitable for writers at any stage in their writing, from beginner to advanced. The author will also share some of his experiences in the publishing world, both successes and failures, along with practical tips on how to avoid common mistakes.

G.K. WUORI writes primarily novels, short stories, and plays. His first novel, An American Outrage, was ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year, and his story collection, Nude In Tub, was a Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award nominee. His most recent book is a novella, Now That I’m Ready To Tell You Everything. He has been named an Illinois Arts Council Fellow, and he has published over a hundred short stories in such literary journals as Prairie Schooner, Kenyon Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Barcelona Review, The Missouri Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Five Points, Other Voices, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Dublin Review. His work has been anthologized numerous times. He has appeared on Iowa Public Radio, Maine Public Radio, NPR, and WGN, and has been on numerous panels at writing conferences as well as on the faculty of the Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers. He has also been a recipient of the prestigious Pushcart Prize, and currently serves as associate editor of the literary magazine, Kippis.

The Place Of Place In Your Fiction: It Can Be A Whole Lot More Than Scenery
With Marshall Cook

At some point, you probably had an English teacher who just loved the way you described things, and the more adjectives, the better. Her encouragement might even be one of the reasons why you’re a writer, and if so, you owe her big time. (What you owe her depends on how you feel about being a writer, of course.) But she may have misled you a bit. She may have appreciated all that description, with its fabulous verbiage, primarily because you actually knew and cared about all those words, not because the description was especially helpful to the essay or story you were writing. It isn’t the amount of description that makes it effective. It’s quality, not quantity, that counts, and the most important quality your description needs is purpose. Effective description has a job to do, helping the reader visualize the story, creating mood and tone, even helping establish theme and character. We’ll look to a few master writers for examples, visiting places like:

Barbara Kingsolver’s coastal island off Mexico (The Lacuna) James Agee’s Knoxville, Tennessee (A Death in the Family) Harper Lee’s Macomb, Alabama (To Kill a Mockingbird) WIlliam Faulkner’s Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi (multiple novels and stories) Ken Kesey’s Wakonbda Auga River on the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal Range (Sometimes A Great Notion)
Willa Cather’s ruins of a lost civilization in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona (The Song of the Lark) These aren’t just the settings for some of our finest novels; they’re active characters in the
conflicts that make for good storytelling.We’ll apply these lessons to your own stories, so come ready to write and to discuss your work. Brings questions, something to write with, and something to write on. We’ll take care of the rest.

MARSHALL J. COOK has published 30 books and hundreds of articles and short stories. His fiction includes the Monona Quinn Mystery Series (Bleak House Books), the baseball novels The Year of the Buffalo and Off Season (Savage Press), and Walking Wounded: a wartime love story (CreateSpace). Marshall is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught writing for over 30 years. He edits and publishes Extra Innings, a newsletter for writers, and is a contributing editor to The Writer’s Magazette. He holds his BA in creative writing and his MA in communications from Stanford University, where he studied under Wallace Stegner. He has been married to Ellen since 1968, and they have one son, Jeremiah, who is married to the former Kimberly Zunker. When not writing or teaching, Marshall likes to read, exercise, and listen to old time radio shows, He’s a passionate minor league baseball fan, drives the back roads, and eats in small town cafes.

Miniature Madness: A One Day Workshop in Three Genres
With Jesse Lee Kercheval

I admit it. I’m crazy--I write fiction, memoir and poetry. I want to encourage other writers to go a little mad and work in more than one genre too. To this end, I have invented a workshop that uses in-class exercises to write miniature, but whole short-short stories, memoir pieces and poems. This workshop is designed to be supportive, productive and helpful for every level of writer--beginner to advanced--and is especially suited to writers who want to explore a new genre or to shake up and revitalize their writing by taking on new challenges. A one page writing assignment (along with a helpful set of examples to read and inspire you) will be sent to you in advance so we can hit the ground running (and writing), then we will take off from there!

JESSE LEE KERCHEVAL is the author of eleven books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Her most recent books include the short novel Brazil, winner of the Ruthanne Wiley Novella Memorial Contest; the poetry collection Cinema Muto, winner of a Crab Orchard Open Selection Award; and The Alice Stories, winner of the the Prairie Schooner Fiction Book Prize. Her first story collection The Dogeater won the Associated Writing Programs Award in Short Fiction. Space, her memoir about growing up near Cape Kennedy during the moon race, won an Alex Award from the American Library Association. Her other books include The Museum of Happiness, Dog Angel, World as Dictionary and the writing textbook Building Fiction,. She is the Sally Mead Hands Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the founding director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing.

From Finished to Published: Preparing, Pitching, and Selling Your Manuscript
With Erin Celello

You’ve labored over every word for days, weeks, and years. You’ve thought about your characters and your story during most waking moments, and even some when you weren’t awake. You have completed something many people only dream or talk about: a book-length manuscript.

So now what?
How do you know when your manuscript is ready to send out? And once it’s ready, how do you find the right agent? What are some easy things you can do to boost the odds of your manuscript being read? What makes a good query, and are there better times of year than others to submit your work to agents and editors? What can you expect from the publishing process and what is your role as an author? This session will cover these, and any additional, questions attendees might have about how to take a manuscript from finished to published. It will concentrate primarily on fiction manuscripts, but will include discussions on how to prepare and pitch nonfiction as well.

Specifically, we’ll talk about:
•How to tell when your manuscript is ready, and the top things to do – and not do – to ensure an editor or agent will keep reading your sample pages;
•The query process – from honing your elevator pitch to finding an agent, and everything in-between;
•Working with agents and editors – what the publishing process is like after you find an agent and/or sell your book and what you can do now to start preparing to be a published author. In addition, students will leave with a go-to packet of resources to guide them through the publishing process.

ERIN CELELLO is the author of two novels from Penguin/NAL: Miracle Beach (2011) and Learning to Stay (winter 2012). She was born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she earned an MFA in fiction from Northern Michigan University. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, newborn son, and two unruly Vizslas. An avid triathlete and marathoner, Erin also enjoys competing with her American Quarter Horse, Gino. To keep the lights on, Erin has worked at a trucking company, in lingerie sales, and as a political speechwriter, and today is a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The Electrified Joy of Poetry
With Ellen Kort

If you hunger to play and have fun writing poetry and publishing your poetic skills, this is the workshop for you. Writing poetry is an essential act of the human heart. It nourishes the mind and helps us celebrate who we are and how we can reach out to the world. Come and join the circle as we discover new pathways of writing and exploring different aspect of poetry. Together, we will share the joy of experimenting and shaping new ideas as we spill our words onto paper. We will give voice to our own wisdom and the surprising ways poetry invites us to be amazed!

ELLEN KORT served four years as Wisconsin's first Poet Laureate and has traveled throughout the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, offering poetry workshops and readings. She has authored 14 books, has been featured in a wide variety of journals and anthologies, and has received several literary awards. Her poems have been architecturally incorporated in buildings throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota and included in the Hospice Poetry Recording Project of Seattle. Ellen believes poetry is a "healing art" and facilitates poetry workshops at medical conventions for physicians and psychologists. Her poem, "Light," has been put to music by Philadelphia composer, Jennifer Higdon, and performed at the Weidner Center by the Green Bay Symphony.

The Poetic Obsession—Writing a Character Series
With Lisa Cihlar

Who is this character living in my head and why won’t she leave me alone?
This class will help you define your character and look at ways to write a series of poems that echo each other without being carbon copies. We will do exercises, brain storming, and character mapping. Lisa’s own Swampy Woman would not slink back into the algae green waters. She had to have her say and to hear what others had to say about her. Bring along five to ten character based poems and let’s see who shouts the loudest.

LISA J. CIHLAR’S poems have been published in The South Dakota Review, Corium, Green Mountains Review, In Posse Review, Bluestem, and The Prose-Poem Project. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has published two chapbooks, “The Insomniac’s House,” from Dancing Girl Press, and “This is How She Fails” from Crisis Chronicles. She lives in rural southern Wisconsin.