In-Person and Virtual Adult Writing Workshops: Spring 2023

**Writing workshops are offered live in-person at Thurber Center and virtually on Zoom. Dates and times vary and are listed in Eastern Time (Columbus, OH).**

Workshops are designed for adults of all levels of writing experience. To view all upcoming Thurber House programs, visit .

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You may choose to attend our workshops either in-person at Thurber Center (91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215) or virtually on Zoom, unless otherwise noted. Regardless of the format you choose, all attendees will receive Zoom access information before their scheduled workshop(s). Zoom is free and does not require an account to use.

If you choose to attend any in-person workshops:

1. Masks are optional but strongly encouraged for everyone's safety.
2. Spots are limited for our in-person workshops. If an in-person class is full and you wish to be added to the waiting list, email [email protected]. Meanwhile, we encourage you to sign up for the virtual option instead.
3. If you choose in-person and wish to change to virtual, please contact us at [email protected] right away so we can offer your seat to someone else, if there is a waiting list.

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Hybrid = this workshop is offered both in-person at Thurber Center (91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215) AND virtually on Zoom

Virtual Only = this workshop is ONLY offered virtually on Zoom

What’s the best way to start a story—dialogue, setting, a knock-down argument? Bring a short story or novel opening you’re having trouble with or would like to re-envision…and get ready to revamp! We’ll look at various story opening styles across genres to give you ideas before you tackle your own work. You’ll walk away with at least one new version of your story opening and a fresh perspective.

INSTRUCTOR: Tina Tocco is a Pushcart Prize nominee for fiction. A writer for both adults and young readers, Tina has published short stories in many magazines and journals, including Highlights, Cricket, New Ohio Review, River Styx, Crab Creek Review, and Italian Americana. Her work has also been featured in The Best Small Fictions 2019, Best Nonfiction Food (2020), and other anthologies. Tina earned her MFA in creative writing from Manhattanville College, where she was editor-in-chief of Inkwell, the college’s national literary journal. She teaches for Hugo House, GrubStreet, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Arts Escape, Kids Short Story Connection, SCBWI, and other organizations.

Back by popular demand! This class is for anyone who has faced the blank page and the blank mind at the same time. We will experiment with prompts and exercises to kick-start your writing and discuss practices to adopt long term to help defeat the infamous writer’s block. You’ll walk out of this session with tips, tools, and tricks to get and keep your creativity flowing again.

INSTRUCTOR: Andrea Taylor is a Columbus-based writer whose work has appeared in Allegory Ridge, Sad Girls Club, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and Blue Penny Quarterly. She’s written for (614) Magazine and received her MFA from Lindenwood University, where she was an Editorial Assistant for The Lindenwood Review.

Creativity isn’t just “making something new.” It is transformation. In this two-session class, we will use images, metaphors, and the written word to explore deeper understandings of ourselves and the challenges we have faced. Through prose and/or poetry, we will memorialize our searches and transformations, thus enriching our perspectives on writing and life.

You may register for one or both sessions, although participation in both is strongly encouraged to get the most out of this workshop.

• Session One (March 13, two hours) will include foundational information and thinking/writing exercises. At home afterwards, each participant will complete a piece of writing to be shared at the next session.

• Session Two (March 23, one hour) will include sharing of participants’ original prose or poems and exploration of the transformations that may have occurred during the writing process.

INSTRUCTOR: Nicole Gnezda, Ph.D. is a creativity consultant, artist, writer, speaker, and a retired art teacher. She earned a Ph.D. in Creativity Studies from The Ohio State University. She is the author of Teaching Difficult Students: Blue Jays in the Classroom (Rowman and Littlefield) and a picture book entitled Create. Nicole has been featured in NEA Today, The School Administrator, OWU, and Enacting Change (The National Art Education Association). Her website is https://compassioncreativityandteaching.com.

Using practical and thought-provoking plot templates, begin or continue a work of crafted nonfiction, constructing memoir from memory and connecting to personal and historic events or timelines. Play with ideas for the prologue or introduction for your work of heart. Use practical and thought-provoking plot techniques to begin or continue a work of crafted nonfiction or memoir connecting memory to personal and historic events or timelines. Cellphones, laptops, and other tech welcomed as research tools in this session.

INSTRUCTOR: Lyn Ford is fourth-generation, nationally recognized Affrilachian* storyteller (*a person of African American heritage and history from Appalachia). She is a mentor and teacher at Thurber House, and a teaching artist and workshop facilitator with the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education. As a writer, Lyn is published in storytelling magazines and newsletters, as well as teachers' enrichment books and story anthologies. Lyn is also a Laughter Yoga Teacher and breath mechanic, a recording artist with award-winning CDs, and a storytelling, creative writing workshop, and interactive keynote presenter.

Creativity isn’t just “making something new.” It is transformation. In this two-session class, we will use images, metaphors, and the written word to explore deeper understandings of ourselves and the challenges we have faced. Through prose and/or poetry, we will memorialize our searches and transformations, thus enriching our perspectives on writing and life.

You may register for one or both sessions, although participation in both is strongly encouraged to get the most out of this workshop.

• Session One (March 13, two hours) will include foundational information and thinking/writing exercises. At home afterwards, each participant will complete a piece of writing to be shared at the next session.

• Session Two (March 23, one hour) will include sharing of participants’ original prose or poems and exploration of the transformations that may have occurred during the writing process.

INSTRUCTOR: Nicole Gnezda, Ph.D. is a creativity consultant, artist, writer, speaker, and a retired art teacher. She earned a Ph.D. in Creativity Studies from The Ohio State University. She is the author of Teaching Difficult Students: Blue Jays in the Classroom (Rowman and Littlefield) and a picture book entitled Create. Nicole has been featured in NEA Today, The School Administrator, OWU, and Enacting Change (The National Art Education Association). Her website is https://compassioncreativityandteaching.com.

This workshop is about breaking creative blocks that can arrive when exploring tough subjects on the page. We'll begin with a short talk on emotional resonance and how to decide what, how, and when to share. There will be a short reading, discussion, and two prompts (come prepared to write!). This will be a safe and brave space to capture stories you may have been avoiding. It will offer writers an opportunity to deepen the emotional resonance of any genre, discuss holistic ways to tap the emotional truth that fuels our best writing, and go home with new tools for exploring the work that we've been avoiding.

INSTRUCTOR: Jen Knox is an educator and storyteller who teaches writing, leadership, and meditation. Her books include the short story collections The Glass City, After the Gazebo, and Resolutions: A Family in Stories. Jen was the 2020 Editor's Choice recipient for the Flash Fiction Magazine's competition, and her writing has been nominated for the Pen Faulkner, The Best of the Net, and a Pushcart. Her work has been featured in textbooks, classrooms, and over one hundred publications around the world, including The Adirondack Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and NPR. Jen co-owns Unleash Creatives, a holistic arts organization that provides writing, mind-body coaching, and art services.

Spark your creativity and improve your manuscripts by playing with theater improvisation techniques! Join equity actress Elaine Miracle and creative writer Melissa Weber in a theater improvisation class. Participants will learn about relaxation, observation, and character development through improvisation exercises and scene practice. We’ll work on dialogue, world-building, and the infamous “show don’t tell” advice we’ve heard and may struggle to achieve. Plan to learn, have fun, and maybe stretch outside your comfort zone.

INSTRUCTORS:

Melissa L. Weber is a freelance writer focused on science, medicine, the environment, and kids. Her publication credits in the past year include a personal essay in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Finding Me Time; articles in Cricket Media’s ASK, and Muse, stories for temblor.net, alumni publications for Ohio State, and a farm safety guide for OSU Extension. A lifelong Ohioan, with degrees from Bowling Green State University and Ohio State, she is delighted to share some of her experience with other writers and wannabe-writers.

Elaine Miracle has worked professionally in the Columbus theatre community for many years. A graduate of Ohio University with a BFA in Theatre, Elaine has performed with many of the local theatre troops including Actors Theatre, SRO Theatre, CATCO and FabAct Productions, as well as being a 12-year cast member of Reality Theatre and a founding member of Arden Shakespeare Company and Stage 5 Rep. In addition to her many stage credits, Elaine also has numerous commercial and training film credits on her resume. She is a proud member of the Actors Equity and SAG/AFTRA unions.

This workshop is for those who either wish to or have started writing a novel. We will go over how to hook a reader with an opening, how to keep going through the murky middle, and ideas for sticking the ending. We will touch on the basics: character, plot, structure, and how to avoid common pitfalls. Come with your current or potential novel ideas so that you can complete a few writing exercises with your story in mind. Open to any genre!

INSTRUCTOR: Andrea Taylor is a Columbus-based writer whose work has appeared in Allegory Ridge, Sad Girls Club, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and Blue Penny Quarterly. She’s written for (614) Magazine and received her MFA from Lindenwood University, where she was an Editorial Assistant for The Lindenwood Review.

Who doesn’t have a food memory? The Thanksgiving turkey that went awry…a spicy meal that recalls the end of a relationship…the cheesy carb comfort go-to that shakes the blues. The food memoir—or essay—can be a juicy kitchen drama or a nostalgic stir of memory. In this workshop, we’ll have fun with food, using writing exercises and prompts to get that memorable scene on the page. We’ll read excerpts from various writers and from chefs whose food stories seduce, tantalize and comfort. We’ll take a recipe—whether it’s from a family cookbook or in your head—and start to make a story, scene or essay from it. Join this mac ‘n cheese lover for some tips to get you started!

INSTRUCTOR: Lisa Lopez Snyder’s essays and short stories have been featured in 34th Parallel, Adelaide, Gravel, The Raleigh Review, The Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, and other magazines. Her essay, “In Transit,” won The Chattahoochee Review’s 2011 Lamar York Prize for Nonfiction and she was named the 2015 Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence.

Do you have untold stories churning in your mind, but don’t know where to start? Are you drawn to the idea of writing, but just need to start somewhere? Or are you stuck, and just need some ideas to help keep you going? Wherever you are in the writing universe, “Getting Started” will help you with tips and techniques for getting your pen to the page and for keeping you writing. In this workshop, we’ll have fun exploring writing in several genres to help us explore the creative process. We’ll use writing prompts for poetry, memoir and fiction to guide our process. We’ll read excerpts from various writers. But most of all, we’ll let go and play and see what happens. By session’s end, you’ll have some pieces to work with and ideas on how to keep going.

INSTRUCTOR: Lisa Lopez Snyder’s essays and short stories have been featured in 34th Parallel, Adelaide, Gravel, The Raleigh Review, The Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, and other magazines. Her essay, “In Transit,” won The Chattahoochee Review’s 2011 Lamar York Prize for Nonfiction and she was named the 2015 Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence.

So you've written a short piece, but how do you get it published? Instructor Andrea Taylor has tips and tricks galore! Learn the behind the scenes of literary journal submissions. We'll go over how to know which journals or magazines are right for you and best practices and tips for making your submissions shine. We'll also discuss some reasons pieces get rejected and bust some submission myths.

INSTRUCTOR: Andrea Taylor is a Columbus-based writer whose work has appeared in Allegory Ridge, Sad Girls Club, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and Blue Penny Quarterly. She’s written for (614) Magazine and received her MFA from Lindenwood University, where she was an Editorial Assistant for The Lindenwood Review.

Join 2009 Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurie Notaro for an epic master class on humor!

In Laurie Notaro’s words, “It’s taken 30 years of writing humor for me to understand some aspects of it—what does pacing and rhythm, word choice and voice have to do with it? And what, exactly, is humor? What makes one thing funny while something almost identical misses the mark?”

In this class, Laurie will walk you through methods that took her decades to figure out. Drawing on her experience as a reporter, non-fiction, and fiction writer, she will teach you how to build story structure, fit the pieces of a story together, and find hints for a great ending. Using real writing examples, you’ll dissect the elements to see what works best in a humorous work as well as in “straight writing,” and determine what you need to develop a full piece. Laurie will also show you how to retain your humor during the editing and publishing process when working with editors and others who aren’t as funny as you are (it happens!).

INSTRUCTOR: Laurie Notaro is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the humor memoirs The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, I Love Everybody, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death (2009 Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist), and Housebroken, among others. She is also the author of three works of fiction, including the historical novel Crossing the Horizon. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she spent the remainder of her formative years in Phoenix, Arizona, where she created something of a checkered past. Laurie now resides in Eugene, Oregon, has a cute dog and a nice husband, and misses Mexican food like it was her youth.

We will read and write tiny personal essays (1,000 words or less), learning to create lasting depth and impact in few words with the help of craft approaches, flash nonfiction examples, and generative exercises that will leave participants with a bunch of fresh ideas and ways into their own mini-essays. We will read and discuss essays by Brenda Miller, Jaquira Diaz, Ira Sukrungruang, Daisy Hernandez, and more. At the end of class, Lizzie will provide additional readings and exercises for participants to try on their own.

INSTRUCTOR: Lizzie Lawson is a writer, editor, and educator from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, The Sun Readers Write, Redivider, Wigleaf, Atticus Review, Identity Theory, and others. She earned a B.A. in marketing from University of St. Thomas and an M.F.A. in creative writing from The Ohio State University, where she served as Nonfiction Editor for The Journal. She currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is working on a collection of essays about family, faith, and belonging.

You've likely heard Frost's writing axiom—no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. Letting the unexpected into your writing is essential for creating something that feels fresh and original to readers. But how? In this two hour class you'll get an overview of the history of contemporary experimental writing from the modernists through dada and up into hypertext and electronic experimentation. We'll read some examples to inspire us, and then we'll get to work with a variety of guided prompts and chance-based techniques to unlock new avenues in our writing. You'll leave the class with a repertoire of new techniques that you can carry forward and employ any time you could use a little extra inspiration. Appropriate for creative writers in all genres and skill levels.

INSTRUCTOR: Kamal E. Kimball is a queer poet currently living in central Ohio. On the editorial team for Muzzle Magazine, her work has been published or is forthcoming in Crazyhorse, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Colorado Review, Thimble, New South, Salamander, JuxtaProse, Juked, Rattle, Phoebe, Tahoma Literary Review, Hobart, Sundog Lit, Bone Parade, Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Forklift Ohio, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, The Mouth That Sucks the Bone, came out with Pitymilk Press in July 2022. She has served as a guest judge for Writers Digest and taught poetry classes at OSU, University of Cincinnati, Chase Public, The Loft Literary Center, and in a variety of community settings. She is a member of the Ohio Poetry Association and completed her MFA in Poetry at The Ohio State University in 2021. She works as a grant writer for a nonprofit and continues to teach poetry.

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HAVE QUESTIONS?

Email [email protected].

USING ZOOM

Virtual Adult Writing Workshops are held on Zoom, which is free and you do not need an account to use it. You will receive Zoom access information prior to the time of your scheduled workshop(s). Please familiarize yourself with Zoom and download the desktop or mobile app so you are ready to join your workshop(s) when you receive your access information. You can learn more and get the app here: https://zoom.us/download.

PREFER TO REGISTER OVER THE PHONE?

Online registrations are strongly encouraged, but if you prefer to register over the phone, call 614-464-1032 ext. 1.

REFUND POLICY

Unless Thurber House cancels the workshop, tuition is non-refundable.

PROCESSING FEES

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Host or Publisher Thurber House