Opera
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • 2023 Season
        • Sweeney Todd
        • La Tragédie de Carmen
        • 2023 Young Artists
        • 2023 Festival & Guest Artists
        • 2023 Directors & Designers
        • 2023 Opera Conservatory
  • About
        • Mission & History
        • Past Productions
        • Leadership
        • Performance Venues & Accessibility
        • Opera in the Schools
  • Young Artists
        • Young Artist Program
        • Audition FAQs
  • Alumni
  • Opera Conservatory
  • Opera Guild
  • Media
        • Press Releases
        • Chautauquan Daily Articles
        • Opera Virtual Porch Events
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Theater
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • About
        • Leadership
        • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility
        • New Play Development
        • Young Playwrights Project
        • Past Productions
        • Our History
  • Conservatory
        • Acting Conservatory
        • Design & Directing Fellowships
        • FAQ
        • Alumni in the News
  • Your Visit
  • Get Involved
        • Conservatory Application
        • Administrative & Production Positions
        • Friends of CTC
  • Press
        • Press Releases
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Give
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Make a Donation
  • Ways to Give
        • Appreciated Securities
        • Capital Support
        • Chautauqua Fund
        • Endowment/Naming
        • Gift Planning
        • Honor Your Host
        • Honorary/Memorial
        • Matching Gifts
        • Monthly Giving
        • Program Sponsor
        • Scholarships
  • Membership Opportunities
        • 1874 Society
        • Bell Tower Society
        • Bestor Society
        • Daugherty Society
        • Lewis Miller Circle
        • NOW Generation
        • Foundation Membership
  • Foundation
        • History & Mission
        • Board of Directors
        • Foundation Staff
        • Foundation Membership
        • Foundation Publications
        • Contact
  • Advancement
        • Institution Board of Trustees
        • Advancement Staff
        • Advancement Publications
        • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Foundation
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Mission
  • Board of Directors
  • Staff
  • Publications
  • Membership
  • Endowment/Naming
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

Summer

  • Fall / Winter / Spring
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Discover
        • Plan Your Experience
          • Experience Planner
          • 2023 Season
          • Buy Gate Passes and Tickets
          • Ticket Information
          • Vacation Safely at Chautauqua
          • Visit Must-Dos
        • About Chautauqua
          • News & Announcements
          • 150 Forward Strategic Plan
          • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) at Chautauqua
          • Staff Directory
        • Places To Stay
          • Athenaeum Hotel
          • Private Accommodations
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • Nearby Accommodations
        • Explore the Grounds and Gardens
          • Maps and Directions
          • Bus and Tram Tracker
          • Accessibility at Chautauqua
          • Plaza Cam
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
        • Eat, Drink & Shop
          • Dining
          • Heirloom Restaurant
          • Shopping & Services
          • Food Festival at Chautauqua
        • Experience Community
          • African American Heritage House
          • Chautauqua Women’s Club
          • Bird, Tree & Garden Club
          • LGBTQ and Friends
          • “Friends of” Groups
          • CPOA (Property Owners)
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • Chautauqua Cinema
          • Chautauqua Trail
          • CHQ Dialogues
        • Resources
          • The Smith Memorial Library
          • Post Office
          • Chautauqua Bookstore
          • Services & Amenities
          • Business Center
          • Property Owner Resources
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
          • Program Archive
          • Chautauqua Institution Archives
          • FAQs
          • The Chautauquan Daily
          • CHQ&A Podcast
          • Chautauqua Magazine
          • Grounds Policies
  • Schedule
        • Events
          • All Events
          • Weekly Themes
          • Event Calendar
          • Experience Planner
          • Grid Calendar
        • Lectures
          • Chautauqua Lecture Series
          • Interfaith Lecture Series
          • Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
          • Other Lectures
        • Performing & Visual Arts
          • Entertainment and Concerts
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Classical Concerts
          • Galleries
          • Chautauqua Chamber Music
          • Dance
        • Resident Programs
          • Chautauqua Literary Arts
          • Chautauqua Opera Company & Conservatory
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
          • Chautauqua Theater Company
          • Chautauqua Visual Arts
          • Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative
        • Classes
        • Religion
          • Daily Worship
          • Sacred Music
          • Abrahamic Program for Young Adults
          • Mystic Heart Interspiritual Meditation Program
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • CHQ Dialogues
        • Discover CHQ
        • Recreation
          • Chautauqua Health & Fitness Center
          • Sports Club
          • Golf Club
          • Swimming
          • Tennis Center
          • Sailing
          • Youth Recreation
          • CHQ Trail
        • Youth & Family
          • Day Camps
          • Educational Experiences
          • Youth Activities Center (YAC)
          • Youth Recreation
          • Babysitting
          • Family Scholarship Program
  • Groups
        • Book a Group Experience
        • Road Scholar
        • Chautauqua on a Budget
        • Tour Chautauqua County
        • Chautauqua Travels
  • Festival Schools
        • School of Music
          • Conducting Fellowship
          • Instrumental Program
          • Opera Conservatory
          • Piano Program
        • Dance
        • Art
        • Theater
        • Chautauqua Music Camps
        • Alumni
        • Chautauqua Connections
  • Giving
        • Make a Donation
        • Membership Opportunities
        • Ways to Give
        • Chautauqua Foundation
        • Advancement
  • Buy Tickets
  • Give
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

Fall / Winter / Spring

  • Summer
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Discover
        • About Year-Round at Chautauqua
        • Plan Your Experience
          • Experience Planner
          • Vacation Safely at Chautauqua
          • Grounds Access and Operations
          • Visit Must-Dos
        • About
          • 150 Forward Strategic Plan
          • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) at Chautauqua
        • Arts Education
        • Classes
        • Resident Programs
          • Literary Arts
          • Chautauqua Opera Company & Conservatory
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
          • Chautauqua Theater Company
          • Chautauqua Visual Arts
          • Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative
        • Explore the Grounds and Gardens
          • Maps and Directions
          • Accessibility at Chautauqua
          • Plaza Cam
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
        • Eat, Drink & Shop
          • Dining
          • Shopping & Services
        • Resources
          • The Smith Memorial Library
          • Post Office
          • Chautauqua Bookstore
          • Services & Amenities
          • Business Center
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
          • Property Owner Resources
          • Program Archive
          • Chautauqua Institution Archives
          • FAQs
          • The Chautauquan Daily
          • CHQ&A Podcast
          • Chautauqua Magazine
          • Grounds Policies
  • Accommodations
        • Weddings & Conferences
        • Athenaeum Hotel
        • Other Places To Stay
        • Private Rentals
        • Check Athenaeum Hotel Room Availability

  • Recreation
        • Chautauqua Health & Fitness Center
        • CHQ Trail
        • Golf Club
          • Golf Course
            • Membership Rates
            • Pro Shop
            • Scorecards
          • Events & Banquets
        • Golf Instruction
          • Adult Golf Clinics
          • Jr. Golf Clinics & Camps
          • Learning Center
          • Private Lessons
        • Golf Tournaments
          • Upcoming Events & Tournaments
          • Group Outings
          • NJCAA Golf Championship
  • Groups
        • Road Scholar
        • Book a Group Experience
        • Tour Chautauqua County
        • Chautauqua Travels
  • Festival Schools
        • School of Music
          • Conducting Fellowship
          • Instrumental Program
          • Piano Program
          • Opera Conservatory
        • Dance
        • Art
        • Theater
        • Chautauqua Music Camps
        • Alumni
  • Giving
        • Make a Donation
        • Membership Opportunities
        • Ways to Give
        • Foundation
        • Advancement
  • Buy Tickets
  • Give
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

looking for something?

  • Schedule
  • Discover CHQ
    • Attend a Concert
    • New to Chautauqua
    • Plan Your Day Trip
    • Bring the Famliy
  • Events
    • Weekly Themes
      • Week One 2023
      • Week Two 2023
      • Week Three 2023
      • Week Four 2023
      • Week Five 2023
      • Week Six 2023
      • Week Seven 2023
      • Week Eight 2023
      • Week Nine 2023
    • Event Calendar
    • All Events
    • Experience Planner
  • Lectures
    • Chautauqua Lecture Series
    • Interfaith Lecture Series
    • Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle
    • Other Lectures
  • Performing & Visual Arts
    • Entertainment and Concerts
    • Galleries
    • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Classical Concerts
    • Chautauqua Chamber Music
      • Chautauqua Chamber Music: Guest Artist Series
      • Chautauqua Chamber Music: Resident Artist Series
    • Dance
  • Resident Programs
    • Chautauqua Theater Company
      • Our History
    • Chautauqua Opera Company
    • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
      • Concerts & Events
      • CSO History
      • Support CSO
      • Musicians
      • Diversity Fellowship Program
      • CSO Openings
    • Literary Arts
      • Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
      • Chautauqua Writers’ Center
      • Writers’ Festival
      • The Chautauqua Prize
      • The Chautauqua Janus Prize
      • Youth
      • Community
      • Literary Journal
      • Poetry Makerspace
    • Chautauqua Visual Arts
    • Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative
  • Religion
    • Daily Worship
    • Sacred Music
    • Mystic Heart Interspiritual Meditation Program
    • Abrahamic Program for Young Adults
    • Denominations and Religious Organizations
    • Charter For Compassion
    • CHQ Dialogues
  • Classes at Chautauqua
  • Recreation
    • Chautauqua Health & Fitness Center
    • Sports Club
    • Swimming
    • Golf Club
      • Golf Course
      • Golf Instruction
      • Events & Banquets
      • Corporate Membership Packages
      • The Double Eagle Patio on the Green
      • Tournaments, Events and Outings
    • Tennis Center
    • Sailing
    • Youth Recreation
    • CHQ Trail
  • Youth & Family
    • Day Camps
      • Children’s School
      • Group One
      • Boys’ and Girls’ Club
      • Youth and Family Programs Covid-19 Protocols
    • Educational Experiences
      • Young Readers Program
      • Young Writers Institute
      • Classes
    • Youth Activities Center (YAC)
    • Youth Recreation
    • Family Scholarship Program
    • Babysitting
    • Chautauqua Youth and Family Programs Advisory Group
      • Advisory Group Final Report
      • Institution Response: 150 Forward and Youth and Family Programs
      • Institution Response: Status Updates on Advisory Group Recommendations
    • Youth & Family Events
A Writers' Center workshop in Alumni Hall.

Chautauqua Writers’ Center

The Chautauqua Writers’ Center is a lively community of writers at all levels of development who cultivate the craft and vision necessary to grow as artists under the tutelage of highly-accomplished writers-in-residence. Now entering our fourth decade, the original core program of 20 week-long workshops, 9 weekly Sunday readings, and 18 biweekly Brown Bag lectures on poetry and prose during the summer assembly season has grown to include monthly online workshops, a housing scholarship for first-time Chautauquans, and an active support organization, Friends of the Chautauqua Writers Center. Whether you are an accomplished writer looking for peer support on your latest drafts, a novice striving to take your work to the next level or simply an avid reader in love with all things literary, we welcome you and hope to see you at one of our many programs.

2023 writer-in-residence interest form

Contact Information

Sony Ton-Aime
Michael I. Rudell Director of the Literary Arts
stonaime@chq.org
716.357.6255

Emily Carpenter
Education Department Coordinator
ecarpenter@chq.org
716.357.6310

Workshops

Our five-day, Monday-Friday workshops are taught in a small group setting by a different set of extraordinary writers-in-residence each week of our summer season. All workshops are held on the second floor of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall. (Located on the south end of the grounds on Wythe Ave. across the grove from the Hall of Philosophy.)

Weekly prose and poetry workshops have been the core of the Chautauqua Writers’ Center for decades. Writers-in-residence are selected not only for their national reputations and the quality of their work, but also for their ability to equip developing writers with important tools and insights for their writing in just a few days. Interested in joining us as a writer-in-residence? Please complete this interest form.

As workshop descriptions are announced, each will clarify which of these models that workshop will employ:

  1. Generative Workshops: Offered occasionally, these workshops focus on in-class craft analysis, discussion and exercises, as well as (time-permitting) take-home prompts; ideal for writers at any level of experience looking for ways to invigorate or initiate their writing practices. $135. Enrollment capped at 12.
  2. Flexible Workshops: The most frequently-offered option, these workshops first consider work by participants who arrive on Monday with relevant drafts, then workshop participants who’ve generated work during the week, all in the context of regular craft analysis and discussion. $135. Enrollment capped at 12.
  3. Advanced Workshops: Offered once each season in both poetry and prose, these workshops focus on careful reading and response for everyone’s submitted manuscripts, in the context of craft analysis and sometimes alternative revision strategies; ideal for dedicated and experienced writers hoping to make significant headway on their latest drafts; application required. $170. Enrollment capped at 8.

Registration

Participants can register for the Writers’ Center workshops online at learn.chq.org or in person on the grounds during the season. Courses are available for writers at many stages of experience and development, though students must be at least 18 to enroll.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 1

POETRY WORKSHOP
Sound and Rhythm and Music and Noise: Playing with Poetic Form 

June 26–30 • 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Zach SavichZach Savich
Course Description:
This workshop will explore poetic form, with inspiration from many recent poems. We’ll consider the connections between music and meaning, between noise and voice. Participants will write new pieces and receive feedback on older work. The workshop is designed for writers of all backgrounds and interests–including those who’d like to use poetic techniques in fiction, nonfiction, and other genres. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Zach Savich is the author of six books of poetry, including Daybed (2018), and two books of nonfiction. His work has received the Iowa Poetry Prize, the Colorado Prize for Poetry, the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s Open Award, and New American Poet recognition from the Poetry Society of America. It has appeared widely in journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Best New Poets, Boston Review, and Kenyon Review. Savich is the Chair of Liberal Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art and program faculty with the University of the Arts’ PhD in Creativity.


PROSE WORKSHOP
How to Start

June 26–30 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Beth LoffredaBeth Loffreda
Course Description:
How do we begin a story, an essay, a revision, a writing day, a writing practice? How do we find a shape for an empty page, words for an as-yet unarticulated thought? How do we begin a piece of writing so that others want to begin reading it? And how do we start over when we need to? We’ll practice some jump-starts for our own writing, read and discuss some starts you’ve already made, look at some great first paragraphs for inspiration, plan for what comes next, and talk together about how we meet the difficulties and joys of starting each writing day. Flexible. (Ages 18+)

Bio: Beth Loffreda is the chairperson of Writing at Pratt Institute. She attended the University of Virginia and Rutgers. She is the author of Losing Matt Shepard and co-editor of The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. After teaching creative writing for nineteen years in Wyoming, she returned east in 2017 to join Pratt Institute’s new Writing Department as its inaugural chair. Her more recent writing considers loss and persistence in the context of climate change.

Week 2

POETRY WORKSHOP
Lean into Joy

July 3–7 • 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

January Gill O’NeilJanuary Gill O’Neil
Course Description:
Making space for beauty and randomness may seem like an indulgence in our writing. But attending to our astonishments—the extraordinary in the ordinary—is the most important work a poet can do. In this weeklong workshop, we’ll explore opportunities to reach for joy and connection to our work, employ language not often found in poetry, reflect on the difficulty and importance of documenting moments of change, and discuss strategies for honing and revising new and old drafts. This is a generative poetry workshop that will also touch upon revision and the publication process. Generative. (Ages 18+)

Bio: January Gill O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Glitter Road (forthcoming, 2024) Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018, she was the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Her poems and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Sierra magazine, among others. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O’Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. She currently serves as the 2022-2023 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writers Programs (AWP).


PROSE WORKSHOP
Free Write: The Joy of Discovery

July 3–7 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Laura Scalzo

Laura Scalzo
Course Description: In this generative workshop we’ll embrace the exhilaration of words on the page. Yes, writing can be hard, but when we open ourselves and let it flow, it’s a unique kind of joy. Even difficult subject matter can gratify as our writing mind unlocks doors and shows us new ways to think and see. We’ll explore various forms, including flash, creative nonfiction, essay, and the novel. Prompts, short exercises, sharing, and feedback throughout the week. Generative (Ages 18+)

Bio: Laura Scalzo is the author of two novels, The Speed of Light in Air, Water, and Glass (2018), praised as “lyrical and insightful,” and American Arcadia (5/2/23), “a gorgeous riff of a New York City novel.” Her shorter work has appeared in various literary magazines including Had,Ellipsis Zine, Reflex Fiction, and the Grace & Gravity Series. She lives in Washington, D.C. Find out more about her at laurascalzo.com.

Week 3

POETRY WORKSHOP
Mail’s In: The Epistolary Poem

“I love to write to you – it gives my heart a holiday and sets the bells to ringing.” 
—Emily Dickinson

July 10–14 • 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

John HoppenthalerJohn Hoppenthaler
Course Description:
The epistolary poem, also called an epistle, is a poem written as a letter, addressed either to a public or private person, but usually never sent. The form dates to the late 1500’s. The writing of letters may be a dying art, but the making of epistolary poems need not suffer the same fate! This workshop will consider epistles by Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, Pulitzer Prize winners Natasha Trethewey and Claudia Emerson, and other poets, including Richard Hugo, Danez Smith, and Linda Bierds, then focus on the drafting of epistles and subsequent revisions of same, with specific focus on sound, image, sensory details, and the poetic line.  Generative (ages 18+)

Bio: John Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon UP. With Kazim, Ali, he has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P). Professor of CW and Literature at East Carolina University, he also serves on the Advisory Board for Backbone Press, specializing in the publication and promotion of marginalized voices. For nine years, he served as Personal Assistant to Toni Morrison. His poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, New York Magazine, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, The Literary Review, Blackbird, Southern Humanities Review, and many other journals, anthologies, and textbooks.


PROSE WORKSHOP
The Art of the Scene in Memoir

July 10–14 / 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Julie MetzJulie Metz
Course Description:
What gets a reader hooked into a great story? In this workshop, we will explore how to make important moments in a memoir come alive by crafting strong scenes. Memoirs often begin by dropping a reader into a life-changing event, setting up both the narrative arc and point of view that will follow through from beginning to end. Using exercises designed to spark the imagination and self-discovery, writers will develop short scenes with powerful flow and memorable imagery. We’ll talk about how to introduce dialog, which reveals characters and helps a scene ring true. The course will include short readings from classic and more recent memoirs. During our last sessions there will be opportunities to workshop writing you produce in class and any work in progress you wish to share. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Julie Metz is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Perfection and Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother’s Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind. She has written for publications including: The New York Times, Tablet, Salon, Catapult, Next Tribe, Coastal Living, Dame, and Oldster and she is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Julie has been an author guest at The Everett Jewish Life Center. You can find out more about her writing life @juliemetzwriter and at juliemetz.com.

Week 4

POETRY WORKSHOP
Delight in the Details: Writing Poems that Startle and Enchant

July 17–21 • 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Mary BiddingerMary Biddinger
Course Description:
Vivid descriptions help us connect to a poem by recreating experience, from a rhubarb pie bubbling in the oven to the flash of a deer running across a field. But how do poets use descriptive details in a way that conveys experience for readers without overwhelming them? And where do poets find stunning multisensory details in the first place? In this workshop we will discover new methods of generating fresh, compelling descriptions to use in poems. Participants will explore techniques through prompts and sample poems provided by the instructor, and will receive feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Mary Biddinger’s latest poetry collections are Partial Genius: Prose Poems and Department of Elegy, both with Black Lawrence Press. Her poems have appeared in a variety of journals, including Couplet Poetry, The Laurel Review, and Pithead Chapel, and have been featured on Poetry Daily and The Slowdown. Biddinger’s flash fiction has been published in Always Crashing, DIAGRAM, Gone Lawn, and Southern Indiana Review. She has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, and Cleveland Arts Prize. Biddinger teaches creative writing at the University of Akron and in the NEOMFA program and serves as poetry and poetics editor for the University of Akron Press.


PROSE WORKSHOP
Writing the Novella-in-Flash, Fiction and Memoir

July 17–21 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

John BratinghamJohn Bratingham
Course Description:
The novella-in-flash is a way to construct a narrative that allows for greater freedom in storytelling. It focuses on a series of moments as opposed to a longer narrative, but it can capture life in a completely different way. In this workshop, we’ll start by learning about what flash is and what it can do differently from longer pieces. We’ll construct individual stories as we work toward writing the longer work. We’ll work in snapshots and learn how to develop the whitespace between stories in building our narratives. Finally, we’ll look at alternative approaches to storytelling. Flexible. (Ages 18+)

Bio: John Brantingham was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate and a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Mt. San Antonio College for 25 years. His work has been featured in hundreds of magazines, Writers Almanac and The Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2022. He has nineteen books of poetry and fiction including his novella-in-flash Life: Orange to Pear (Bamboo Dart Press) and his upcoming memoir-in-flash Kitkitdizzi with Ann Brantingham (Bamboo Dart Press). He is the founder and general editor of The Journal of Radical Wonder.

Week 5

POETRY WORKSHOP
Looking at Poems of Looking

July 24–28 / 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Jennifer GrotzJennifer Grotz
Course Description:
In this workshop, participants will closely consider five different poems by poets such as Yusef Komunyakaa, Henri Cole, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, and Rainer Maria Rilke engaged in the act of looking. We will consider the way each poem’s sight leads to insight, and then we will practice some looking of our own. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Jennifer Grotz is the author of four books of poetry: Still Falling, appearing May 2023 from Graywolf Press, as well as Window Left Open, The Needle, and Cusp. Also a translator, her co-translations with Piotr Sommer from the Polish of Jerzy Ficowski’s Everything I Don’t Know received the PEN America Best Translated Book of Poetry Award in 2022. Additionally she’s published two books of translations from the French: Psalms of All My Days by Patrice de La Tour du Pin, and Rochester Knockings, by the Tunisian-born novelist Hubert Haddad. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation, she teaches poetry and translation at the University of Rochester and directs the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences.


PROSE WORKSHOP
The Shape of Things to Come: How Playing with Form Can Invigorate Creative Nonfiction Work 

July 24–28 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Randon Billings NobleRandon Billings Noble
Course Description:
The word “essay” comes from the French essayer: to try. In this workshop we’ll move beyond traditional narrative and expository forms to try a more experimental approach: playing with form. We’ll look at some of the many forms creative nonfiction can take, including lyric, segmented, braided, and hermit crab essays. And we’ll write from a variety of prompts to sketch essays and short memoirs in these forms. At the end of the week we’ll try some creative and unexpected ways of revising what we’ve written. This generative workshop will benefit beginners as well as advanced practitioners.  Come prepared to try, to risk, to dare – and to play.  (ages 18+)

Bio: Randon Billings Noble is an essayist. Her collection Be with Me Always was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2019 and her anthology of lyric essays, A Harp in the Stars, was published by Nebraska in 2021. Other work has appeared in the Modern Love column of The New York Times, The Rumpus, Brevity, and Creative Nonfiction. Currently she is the founding editor of the online literary magazine After the Art and teaches in West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA Program and Goucher’s MFA in Nonfiction Program. You can read more at her website, www.randonbillingsnoble.com.

Week 6

POETRY WORKSHOP
The Persona Poem

July 31–Aug. 4 / 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Danielle Legros GeorgesDanielle Legros Georges
Course Description:
This workshop will explore the persona poem, a work in which the writer speaks through an assumed voice, often from history, recent or ancient. With roots in the dramatic monologue, the persona poem privileges voice and often presupposes an audience. We will read exceptional persona poems to learn how effective they can be as tools to engage perspectives, times, and places beyond our own. We’ll try our hand at writing persona poems, considering the questions and visions that emerge through our work. Flexible. (Ages 18+)

Bio: Danielle Legros Georges is the former Poet Laureate of Boston; a professor of creative writing at Lesley University; the creative editor of sx salon, a digital forum for explorations of Caribbean literature; and a contributing editor to the literary magazines Salamander and Consequence Forum. Her most recent books are Island Heart, translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French writer Ida Faubert (Subpress Books, 2021) and The Dear Remote Nearness of You (Barrow Street, 2016). Her literary awards include fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MASS MoCA, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium.


PROSE WORKSHOP
Write Your Book

July 31–Aug. 4 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Mary Kay ZuravleffMary Kay Zuravleff
Course Description:
This generative workshop is for anyone interested in writing a novel, memoir, or short story collection, whether you’re several drafts to the wind or just setting sail. Learn ways to grab a reader’s attention with your first sentence, frame a narrative, craft a unique voice, and bring the past into the present. We will take it from the heart—what is the story you are yearning to tell?—to the desk—how on earth does someone write an entire book? Make progress in a week and leave with plans for the next word, sentence, and chapter! Generative. (ages 18+)

Bio: Mary Kay Zuravleff is the award-wining author of American Ending, which weaves Russian fairy tales and fables into a family saga set in the coal mines of Appalachia. Her third novel, Man Alive!, was named a Washington Post Notable Book, and her essays and short stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, and numerous anthologies. She received the American Academy’s Rosenthal Award, the James Jones Novel Award, and Artist Fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts. She has written extensively for the Smithsonian and has taught writing just about everywhere. More information is at AmericanEnding.net.

Week 7

POETRY WORKSHOP
Hermit Crab Poetry: Finding Form

Aug. 7–11 / 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Philip MetresPhilip Metres
Course Description:
Hermit Crab Poetry is inspired by the name given to creative non-fiction that uses, like a hermit crab, some found form to find refuge in. These forms are as varied as you can imagine: from footnotes to application forms, from questionnaires to autopsy reports, from blackouts to erasures. Poetry is, at least in part, a quest for form, to find the shape that can home our poems and our lives. We will explore this recent burgeoning of new, hybrid, and found forms, as well as working within and in dialogue with received/traditional forms. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Philip Metres is the author of ten books, including Shrapnel Maps (2020), The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance (2018), and Sand Opera (2015). His work has garnered the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lannan Fellowship, two NEAs, seven Ohio Arts Council Grants, the Hunt Prize, the Adrienne Rich Award, three Arab American Book Awards, the Lyric Poetry Prize, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. He is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University, and Core Faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.


PROSE WORKSHOP
Writing Your Way Home: Personal Nonfiction and the Personal Place

Aug. 7–11 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

David GiffelsDavid Giffels
Course Description:The relationship between the personal essayist and his or her place is central to understanding the self and the world. Whether the setting is a Midwestern downtown, a childhood bedroom, an immigrant’s landing spot, a hiking trail, or all of Manhattan, writers possess unique authority, authenticity, and insight when exploring the places that formed them. Through short readings, writing prompts, craft lessons, and workshop exercises, writers will generate ideas and develop them into personal creative nonfiction essays. Generative. (ages 18+)

Bio: David Giffels is the author of six books of nonfiction, most recently Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America, described by Publishers Weekly as a “trenchant mix of memoir, reportage, and political analysis,” and selected as one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2020. His other books include the memoirs Furnishing Eternity and All the Way Home, both winners of the Ohioana Book Award, and The Hard Way on Purpose, a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.” His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Parade, The Iowa Review, Esquire, Grantland, and many other publications. He also wrote for the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-Head. He is a professor of English at the University of Akron, where he serves on the faculty of the NEOMFA creative writing program.

Week 8

POETRY WORKSHOP
Let Us Now Praise the Mutilated World

Aug. 14–18 • 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Ralph BlackRalph Black
Course Description:
The title of this workshop is a mash-up of the nonfiction book by James Agee and the poem by Polish poet, Adam Zagajewski.  The very first poems (in nearly any language) were praise poems, but unadorned lyric praise might seem harder to pull off in an age marked by war, political strife, and climate change than when Wordsworth sang of daffodils.  We’ll read poems by Robinson Jeffers, Terrance Hayes, Campbell McGrath, Rita Dove, Claudia Rankine and others, as a means of generating (and challenging) your work. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Ralph Black is the author of Turning Over the Earth, from Milkweed Editions, and a chapbook, The Apple Psalms.  He is the recipient of the Anne Halley Poetry Prize from The Massachusetts Review and the Chelsea Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The Georgia and Gettysburg Reviews, Orion, and West Branch. His newest collection is Bloom and Laceration, which received the 2017 Hopper Poetry Prize from Green Writers Press. Recently retired from SUNY, Brockport, he lives in Rochester, NY.


PROSE WORKSHOP
A Cross-Sectional Workshop

Aug. 14–18 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Michael MartoneMichael Martone
Course Description:
Participants in the workshop will, instead of looking at one complete story one at a time, look all the stories in the workshop at the same time.  This will be done by focusing on various parts of the stories—titles, first lines, first paragraphs, first pages, middles, endings etc. considering both the specific part before us in the work and what that part is or does or means generally.  To that end, there will not be a gag rule. Every author will be encouraged to speak on their work, the work of the other writers in the room, and how they think about these various parts of composition.  This workshop will be about the process of writing rather than about the product of the writing.  Writing will be considered as a series of problems the writer sets for oneself and the tactics and strategies employed to solve those challenges. Flexible. (Ages 18+)

Bio: Michael Martone’s newest books are Plain Air: Sketches from Winesburg, Indiana (2022) and The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne (2020). He has authored or edited over two dozen editions including recent books The Moon Over Wapakoneta (2018); Brooding (2018); Memoranda (2015); Winesburg, Indiana; and Double-wide (2007), his collected early stories. His memoir Michael Martone (2005) is writing in contributor’s notes like this one. In 2000, The Flatness and Other Landscapes won the AWP Award for Nonfiction. His stories and essays have appeared in over 100 magazines and journals and have been featured or cited in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prize.

He has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. In 2013 he received the national Indiana Authors Award, in 2016, the Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to Midwestern Literature, and in the spring of 2023 was awarded the Truman Capote Award by the Monroeville Literary Festival.

He retired as Professor at the University of Alabama, having taught creative writing classes there since 1996.  He taught creative writing for 40 years, also teaching at Iowa State, Harvard, Syracuse Universities and Warren Wilson College.

He lives in Tuscaloosa with his wife, the poet Theresa Pappas.

Week 9

POETRY WORKSHOP
The Merge

Aug. 21–25 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Poetry Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Michael Waters. Mihaela Moscaliuc

Michael Waters and Mihaela Moscaliuc
Course Description: This workshop will focus on how sound and structure in a poem can convey meaning, and how the line may function as both an individual and integral unit. Each class will begin with a discussion of a single, brief poem by a major poet (Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Kimiko Hahn, Galway Kinnell) that demonstrates the merging of lineation and sound work toward making the poem cohesive and memorable. Then we will consider this aspect of craft (among others) in your own poems. Anticipate a fast-moving and lively workshop! Generative (ages 18+)

Bios: Michael Waters’ recent books of poetry include Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), & The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His coedited anthologies include Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020), Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Knopf, 2019), & Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)). His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, & Gettysburg Review. A 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of five Pushcart Prizes & fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, & NJ State Council on the Arts, he lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.

Mihaela Moscaliuc was born and raised in Romania. She is the author of three poetry collections—Cemetery Ink (2021) and Immigrant Model (2010), both from the University of Pittsburgh Press, and Father Dirt (Alice James Books, 2010) —translator of Liliana Ursu’s Clay and Star (Etruscan Press, 2019) and Carmelia Leonte’s The Hiss of the Viper (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014), editor of Insane Devotion: On the Writing of Gerald Stern (Trinity University Press, 2016), and co-editor of Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020). The recipient of two Glenna Luschei Awards from Prairie Schooner, residency fellowships from Chateau de Lavigny (Switzerland), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and MacDowell, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a Fulbright fellowship. She is the translation editor for Plume and associate professor of English and Graduate Program Directors (M.A. English) at Monmouth University. www.mmoscaliuc.com


PROSE WORKSHOP
Lists, Islands, and Epigraphs: Tricking Ourselves Toward Story

Aug. 21–25 • 1:15–3:15 p.m.
Prose Room, Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall

Lenore MykaLenore Myka
Course Description:
Many of us are taught that stories move chronologically, but this model can sometimes stunt progress and lead to dead ends. In this workshop, we’ll explore some unusual approaches we can adopt to create fresh narratives or reinvigorate old ones. We’ll consider storytelling through the lens of mosaics, islands, lists, and other “tricks,” reading examples in fiction and nonfiction, and experimenting with some of them together. Whether you’re working on a project in need of oxygen, or facing a blank page, this workshop will help you create original stories that captivate readers. Flexible. (ages 18+)

Bio: Lenore Myka is the author of King of the Gypsies: Stories (BkMk Press), the winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize. Lenore’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, Quartz, New England Review, Five Points, and others, and have been recognized by the Best American series. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hawthornden International Writer’s Retreat, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Her current book-in-progress, Where I Want to Be: Reflections on Home, was inspired by a move to she and her husband made to St. Petersburg, Florida. A freelance writing coach and editor, you can learn more about Lenore at www.lenoremyka.com.

Writers’ Center programs at a glance

Readings by our Writers-in-Residence (free) — Each Sunday at 3:30 p.m. the Free Sunday Readings, held in the Hall of Philosophy, feature the week’s writers-in-residence (both poetry and prose) reading from their own work.

Brown-bag Lectures — Each Tuesday and Friday at 12:15 p.m., the week’s writers-in-residence (poetry and prose, respectively) offer a lecture on the porch of the Literary Arts Center at the Alumni Hall.

Friends of the Chautauqua Writers’ Center — Writers and readers alike are invited to support the Writers’ Center by joining Friends of the Chautauqua Writers’ Center.

Save Your Trip

Fill out the form below to save your trip. You will receive a link to your saved list via email.

  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Save Your Favorites

Fill out the form below to save your favorites. You will receive a link to your favorites list via email.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Hidden

Notice!

You have now entered the season. Some website content may differ depending on the current season we are in: Summer or Fall/Winter/Spring. You can toggle between the two season options at any time.

Okay

Subscribe to Chautauqua Institution’s email newsletter

  • About
  • Resources
  • Sustainability
  • Contact
  • Whistleblower Policy
  • Employment
  • Ethics Point
  • Labor Law Notices
  • Privacy Policy
  • ADA Compliance
Chautauqua Institution
P.O. Box 28
One Ames Ave.
Chautauqua, N.Y. 14722

1.800.836.ARTS
  • Privacy Policy
  • ADA Compliance

© 2022 Chautauqua Institution. Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit organization, dependent upon your gifts to fulfill its mission. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience.