9:30 to 10:30 AM sessions below (sorry this website won’t let us just have a header)

Duke Ellington once said, "there's only two kinds of music--good writing and the other kind." The same is true of writing, even though most of the awards go to "literary writing." This craft workshop will look at what good genre does right and what bad literary fiction does wrong and vice versa. We will investigate examples from Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, George R.R. Martin and then pivot to exercises that can help push the limits of both genre and literary writing.

Workshop Leader: Patrick Crerand

Patrick Crerand is the author of the mini-story collection, The Paper Life They Lead. He teaches writing at DeSales University in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and directs their MFA Program in Creative Writing. His fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, North American Review, and other magazines.

What is the value of genre labels? Some say they provide clarity and context for writers and readers, while others say they are marketing tools that act as cattle chutes to the creative process. What do you say?

A panel of nonfiction writers considers the ways that they have pushed back against the sometimes restrictive labels and the implications this had for them while writing, pitching and marketing their work.

Panelists: Danielle Ariano, Tyrese Coleman, Judith Krummeck

Danielle Ariano was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, but became a Baltimorean when she moved to the city for college. She was indeed charmed by Baltimore’s quirky, artsy vibe. Ariano’s forthcoming memoir, A Requirement of Grief, is a meditation on the complexities of the sister bond and the grief that comes when that bond is broken by a sibling’s suicide. Ariano received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Baltimore. As part of her thesis, she wrote, designed and published her first book, Getting Over the Rainbow, a memoir recounting her humorous and sometimes painful experiences coming out as a lesbian.

Ariano’s work has been published in Salon, Huff Post, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Fishbowl, North Dakota Quarterly, Cobalt Review, and Welter. She is a former columnist for Baltimore Gay Life, and she has been featured on WYPR’s radio show, The Signal.When she is not writing, Ariano works as a cabinetmaker. She has great reverence for the hallowed, dusty smell of a woodshop. She finds it thrilling to see a thing take shape from scratch. She loves trees and all the beautiful patterns that can result in woodgrain from stress, insect damage, or even the loss of a limb. She believes that people are very similar to trees in this respect. She lives in Lutherville, Maryland with her wife, son, and dog.

Tyrese L. Coleman is a writer, wife, mother, and attorney. Her debut collection of stories and essays, How to Sit, was published by Mason Jar Press in 2018 and nominated for a 2019 PEN Open Book Award. Her work has appeared as a notable in Best American Essays 2018 and 2016 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.Tyrese often writes about issues relating to motherhood, family, and pregnancy. Her essays have appeared in Buzzfeed, Brain, Child Magazine and is an occasional contributor for Rewire News. She also writes memoir and personal essays. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Washingtonian Magazine, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She also conducts interview for Electric Literature and writes reviews for Atticus Review.

A 2016 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, Tyrese’s passion is writing fiction. Her stories have appeared in numerous journals, including, The Offing, [PANK], Queen Mob’s Tea House, the Tahoma Literary Review, Hobart, and recognized in Wigleaf’s Top 50 (very) short fictions 2016. Tyrese grew up on a dirt road in Ashland, Virginia, the self-proclaimed “center of the universe.” She received her masters in writing from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland in College Park. A member of the Maryland State Bar, she received her J.D. from the University of Baltimore. She lives in the Washington D.C. metro area but is a country girl at heart.

JUDITH KRUMMECK is a writer and broadcaster living in Baltimore. She has been the evening drive-time host for the classical radio station, WBJC 91.5 FM, for over twenty years, and she is the author of two books. Her memoir in essays, Beyond the Baobab, is about her experience of immigrating from Africa to America. Her biographical memoir, Old New Worlds, intertwines the emigrations of her great-great-grandmother and her own. Judith’s debut novel, The Deceived Ones, is forthcoming from Apprentice House, and her screenplay, Philida, based on the Booker-nominated novel by André Brink, is in development in South Africa. Judith holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore.

You have a first draft of an essay or story. What now? In this session, we'll go through a series of fast and easy exercises to help your work evolve. Leave with tangible editing tools for the future. Bring a flash draft (or excerpt) and get ready to play!

Workshop leader: Hannah Grieco

Hannah Grieco is a writer and editor in Washington, DC. She edits novels and prose collections at the local independent press Alan Squire Publishing, where her recent anthology “Already Gone: 40 Stories of Running Away” was released in November of 2023. Her own writing can be found in The Washington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Brevity, Craft Literary, Poet Lore, Shenandoah, Fairy Tale Review, and more. She is the EIC of two literary journals: The ASP Bulletin and Porcupine Literary. Find her online at www.hgrieco.com and on most social media @writesloud.

Writing in the mode of personal lyric dominates American contemporary poetry. But sometimes we need a break from drawing on the well of the self—so we choose to write as characters from mythology or history, or in voices that belong to inanimate objects and ideas. How do we structure our process so that these persona poems have compelling detail, humor, and heft? What do we do when (gasp) our individual, private concerns surface through these channels anyway? This generative workshop session will include close reading, craft discussion, and prompted writing.

Sandra Beasley is the author of four poetry collections—including most recently Made to Explode, which won the Housatonic Book Award in poetry—as well as Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a disability memoir and cultural history of food allergies. Honors for her work include the 2019 John Montague International Poetry Fellowship, a 2015 NEA fellowship, and six DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities fellowships. She lives in Washington, D.C.

10:45 to 11:45 sessions below (sorry this website won’t let us just have a header)

This generative session will be lead by Lynne Schmidt, a mental health professional who has a focus in trauma informed care and emotion focused therapy. Memoirists and creative non fiction writers should develop skills around grounding when faced with traumatic memories, and how to write through it. Three to four prompts will be offered, as well as space for sharing small segments as comfortable.

Workshop leader: Lynne Schmidt

Lynne is the queer, neurodivergent grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a therapist with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Contest, 2020 New Women's Voices Contest, a 2020 Pushcart nominee, and an eleven time Best of the Net nominee. Their chapbooks include, The Unaccounted For Circles Of Hell, Dead Dog Poems, and Gravity, When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her pack of dogs and one cat to humans.

Finding friends, mentors, partners and colleagues is hard enough, but when you're a writer, pounding away at the keyboard for hours at a time in the solitude of your room, it can seem impossible. Plus: most of us are introverted and frankly kind of strange. How do we find our fellow freaks and join a community that will support us and help us "break in?" We have several very good options for you! The bad news is they all require effort, but the good news is that none of them require selling out.

Panel: MM Carrigan, celeste doaks, Aditya Desai, Eve Ettinger, Michael Tager

Steven Leyva, an award-winning poet and professor, will offer a writing workshop and craft talk, The Poetics of Anime and Transformation.

Like the way Goku reinvents himself to save the day in Dragon Ball Z? Do you never run from a real fight [with a draft] like Sailor Moon? Learn to add invention, creativity, and transformation to your writer's imagination by studying the techniques of anime as a lyric form. This generative workshop will not only give you a model for drawing inspiration from unexpected places, but help you to turn that inspiration into surprising drafts of poems, using anime as the starting place. Part experimental ekphrasis, part nostalgia bomb, this workshop is a fun way to flex the muscle of your imagination.

Workshop Leader: Steven Leyva

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, is forthcoming from Blair Publishing in Spring 2025 Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design.

Mark Twain once said, "All ideas are second hand” and it was the writer’s “superstition that he originated them." The literary critic and writer Viktor Shklovsky said in his essay “Art as Technique” that it was literature's purpose “to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar.'" This class looks to put Shklovsky's theory into practice by creating new pieces in class, using defamiliarization as an essential tool whether they are writing poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, borrowing elements of art pedagogy. This class will orientate participants with the concepts of defamiliarization and estrangement while also refining participants' ability to write descriptively. Anticipate visual writing prompts.

Workshop leader: Ashley Bach

Ashley Bach's childhood was split between rural Pennsylvania and Alexandria, VA. She is a graduate of Temple University's MFA program. Her work has been featured in HAD, Drunk Monkeys, Feels Blind Literary, and elsewhere. She currently works in Philadelphia as an editorial assistant. She still calls it Twitter, and you can follow her there at @al_chem_i_cal. She sometimes updates her WordPress, Alchemical Imbalance.

We'll discuss the pros and cons of enrolling in an MFA program, and we'll talk honestly about what earning an MFA can and can't do for your writing career. You may not need an MFA, but if you really want one, we'll offer candid advice.

Panel discssion with Andrew Bertaina, Kyle Dargan, Lindsey Green-Simms, David Keplinger, Bethanne Patrick, Rachel Snyder

4:00 to 5:00 sessions below (sorry this website won’t let us just have a header)

First pages are like blind dates — a good first impression is everything and can be the deciding factor if the relationship goes any further. But don’t let that stop you from writing that first page—honing a great first page is all in the editing. Author and full-time professional editor Wendy Wimmer will show you what she looks for when selecting work and the kinds of hooks that grab a reader from the first paragraph — or even the first sentence — and keep them invested in reading on. She’ll give you an easy barometer to “Editor/Agent test” your first page and also reveal some of the opening page moves that novice (and advanced) writers commonly make but are nearly impossible to pull off. She’ll share real life examples of first pages from the publishing, classic and literary world.

Workshop leader: Wendy Wimmer

Wendy Wimmer writes from Wisconsin, under the strict supervision of three dogs and a cat. She holds a Master of Arts and PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, respectively. Her work has been published in Barrelhouse, Waxwing, Paper Darts, Believer, ANMLY, Per Contra, Blackbird, and more. Entry Level: Stories won the Autumn House Fiction Prize in 2021, was listed by Midland Authors, Kirkus Top 100 Indie Books of 2022, the Washington Post, People Magazine, and was chosen as a featured title for the 2022 Pittsburgh Conversations and Connections.

This panel will show you easy hacks for promoting your book. With small presses a popular choice for publishing, more writers are looking for ways to market their books when their publishers don’t have the resources. This panel is run by Courtney LeBlanc who has published three full length collections of poetry, runs an independent poetry press, and has experience with grassroots marketing. She has successfully gotten her books included in festivals, author events, into bookstores, and her 2023 book tour included 64 readings in 18 states. The tips she will offer are low/no-cost, which is beneficial for writers on a budget.

Workshop leader: Courtney LeBlanc

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the full-length collections Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize); Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online at www.courtneyleblanc.com.

How and when do you find time to write as parents? Four busy parents with kids aged 4 to 18 discuss when they write and what tools they use (calendars, residencies, patience, flexibility, workshop groups, classes, etc.), as well as what has changed as their kids grow. They will also address accepting when it isn't possible to write (snow days, illness, etc.) and how to face pauses in writing.

Panel: Sara Burnett, Hayes Davis, David Ebenbach and Yvette Neisser

Sara Burnett is the author of Seed Celestial (2022), winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland, and a MA in English Literature from the University of Vermont. She has published in Barrow Street, Copper Nickel, PANK, RHINO and elsewhere. Previously, Sara worked as a public high school English teacher in nearby Columbia Heights, a canoe instructor for kindergarteners, a cocktail waitress, and a barista at a cafe which only sold decaf coffee, but didn't tell their customers! (She quit for ethical reasons). In addition to writing poetry, she also writes picture books. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two kids, ages 4 and 7. Her website: www.sararburnett.com

Hayes Davis is the author of Let Our Eyes Linger (Poetry Mutual Press). He is currently serving as the Howard County (Md) Poetry and Literature Society Writer in Residence, and won a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. His work has appeared in New England Review, Mom Egg Review, and several anthologies. He was a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows. An education administrator and English teacher, he lives in Silver Spring with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis.

David Ebenbach is the father of a lovely 17-year-old boy. Less importantly, he's also the author of nine books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, winners of such awards as the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and the Juniper Prize, among others. (His son has also won awards, but his son gets the credit for those.) He lives with his family in Washington, DC, where he teaches and supports graduate student and faculty teaching at Georgetown University. You can find out more at davidebenbach.com.

Yvette Neisser is the author of two poetry collections, Iron into Flower (2022) and Grip (2011 Gival Press Poetry Award). Her translations from Spanish include South Pole/Polo Sur by María Teresa Ogliastri and Difficult Beauty: Selected Poems by Luis Alberto Ambroggio. Her poems, translations, and essays have appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus, Tikkun, Virginia Quarterly Review, 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium (anthology), and Split This Rock’s The Quarry. Founder of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network, she has taught writing at The George Washington University and The Writer’s Center (Bethesda, MD). By day, she works in international development.

What do editors hate? What do they love? Should you stress out about your cover letter? Is there really a "good rejection?" This panel features veteran editors answering these and other questions and generally pulling back the curtain to show you what really happens behind the scenes.

Editors: MM Carrigan, Taco Bell Quarterly, Michael Tager, Mason Jar Press, Maria Picone, Chestnut Review, more to be named