Upcoming January workshops
From Page to Stage: That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It w/Marc Moritz ($65.00 /$55.00 for members)
Saturdays, January 14th – February 4th, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Gordon Square Arcade, 6516 Detroit Ave.
With the motto of “Good stories don’t happen to good storytellers, good storytellers tell good stories,” this four-week workshop will focus on creating one short story/piece sourced from personal experience and putting it on its feet and on paper. Workshop participants will engage in theatre games/acting exercises that will focus on bringing and sharing their own funny, sad or maddening experiences which inspire their work. If you find yourself in love with The Moth, DNTO, This American Life and the myriad of storytelling shows out there, this workshop will get your hands dirty and leave you with your very own oral/written piece.
Shameless Self-Promotion w/Ken Schneck ($15.00 /$12.00 for members)
Wednesday, January 25th, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Gordon Square Arcade, 6516 Detroit Ave.
If a writer pens something in the woods and no one is around to read it, does it make a sound? No. No it does not. Marketing your work is essential to building an audience. Whether you want to become a social media personality, describe yourself on your website, or simply answer the question “What do you do?” you need to know how to talk about it. Get inspired to share your work as we talk about the basics of self-marketing from social media to websites to that ever-important elevator pitch. We’ll look at examples of successful author marketing and developing our own marketing ideas.
Speculative Fiction: Divorcing the Tropes ($18.00/$15.00 for members)
Saturday, January 28th, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Loganberry Books, 13015 Larchmere Blvd.
Speculative fiction is not just dragons and vampires and spaceships. In this workshop we will discuss how to write stories that broaden the definition of the genre and approach more closely our personal visions of science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, and dystopia. We’ll follow up with some exercises as a way to open up the fictional world to a sense of surprise and invention.
Charles Oberndorf is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. His three science fiction novels were published by Bantam Spectra, and his short fiction has appeared in Full Spectrum, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His novelette, “Another Life,” was reprinted in Years Best SF #15. He’s the Chi Waggoner Chair in Middle School Writing at University School and has moderated the Public Fiction Writing Workshop at Cleveland State University.
Mary Grimm has had two books published, Left to Themselves (novel) and Stealing Time (story collection) – both by Random House. She teaches fiction writing at Case Western Reserve University.
Call for submissions — Crossing the Border: Immigrant Narratives in Cleveland
Literary Cleveland is seeking submissions of original work by Cleveland area writers on the theme of immigration. We especially encourage submissions from individuals who may not consider themselves writers but have a story to tell. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, February 15th.
Selected works will be included in an original staged reading on Saturday, March 18th and Sunday, March 19th as part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival, which this year will explore “the challenges and opportunities caused by the movement of people.” These events will be produced in collaboration with Cleveland State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and will be held in the CSU student center ballroom.
Submissions can be in any genre and ideally should be less than 2,500 words. Writers are encouraged to interpret the theme. Submissions will be reviewed by a committee comprised of Lit Cleveland board members and community members.
Payment for accepted works will be in two free tickets to the staged performance as well as recognition on stage and in the program. Unpublished and previously published pieces are eligible. Adult and teen writers are welcome to submit original work.
Lit Cleveland will engage a director who will work with actors to provide a dramatic interpretation of the selected works. To garner additional community responses and educate the community, Lit Cleveland will organize a free workshop on researching and writing about family history and immigration on Saturday, February 4th.
The deadline for submissions is February 15th, 2017. Please send submissions to litcleveland@gmail.com and use “Crossing the Border: Immigrant Narratives in Cleveland” as the subject header. If you have questions, please send them to litcleveland@gmail.com and we will respond within 3-4 days at most.
This event is cosponsored by the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and Cleveland State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. For more info click here.
