Classes
Click on the course title to register (except for my workshops, in which case you’ll need to email me directly)
July 12 (Saturday)
Writing Flash Nonfiction: A One-Day Zoom Intensive
We all know flash fiction, the super-short story form that leans on voice and image to capture a moment of imaginitive inspiration. But what about flash’s nonfiction counterpart, sometimes called the micro-essay or the micro-memoir? Just a page or two in length, flash nonfiction is perfect for the memoirist looking to capture a telling moment of lived experience, or the essayist bent on making a point in the most concentrated form possible.
This one-day online intensive course is designed for writers who want to start exploring the creative possibilities of flash nonfiction. We will talk about how the genre works, read a variety of published examples displaying different approaches to form, and generate work of our own through in-class exercises, sharing our writing with the group as time permits.
July 19-20 (Weekend)
In person on campus at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City: This weekend intensive course is designed for writers who want to explore the creative possibilities of flash fiction. We will talk about the origins of flash and how it works, read a variety of published examples, and generate work of our own through in-class and take-home exercises. By the end of the weekend, you will take away at least six new works of flash fiction and a list of ideas for ten others.
July 21-25 (Monday-Friday)
In person on campus at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City: This weeklong intensive course is designed for writers beginning a novel. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and in-class creative exercises, we will explore the desires that drive your most important characters to act; understand how the conflict that starts with your protagonist creates your plot; experience how scene works as a dramatic unit, and how it combines with exposition to cover large spans of time; make decisions about which parts of your story to tell in scene; and explore the idea of character arc, in which characters struggle and change in response to events.
August 4 (Monday Evening)
Mastering Sense of Place: a Multigenre Craft Seminar on Setting
Effective setting does many kinds of narrative work. It helps convince us of the physical reality of the story, but it also expresses emotion, engages our senses, reveals character, shapes the action, and connects to theme, the big idea hovering unspoken behind events.
Through a mixture of lecture, discussion and creative exercises, this two-hour multigenre craft talk will show you how to create effective setting. We will start by reading outstanding examples of place description from a variety of great writers analyzing the ways they use setting to deepen character and story. Afterwards, we will do a series of exercises designed to help you explore and develop your own use of setting.
August 8-10 (Friday evening through Sunday)
Weekend Workshop in New York
In person in Midtown Manhattan. Email me at ranthonysiegel@gmail.com to learn more or register: Join us August 8-10 in Midtown Manhattan for a jam-packed weekend discussing your work in progress, generating new material, listening to craft and publishing talks, and connecting with other writers in one of the greatest literary cities in the world.
This weekend workshop is multigenre, open to fiction writers, essayists, and memoirists. Registration is limited to ten students, to assure close personal attention. The writers Karen E. Bender and Robert Anthony Siegel will be team teaching, so you will get written feedback from both. Writers will also receive a thirty-minute Zoom conference with Karen the week after the conference to dig deeper into workshop feedback and help them formulate a revision strategy.
Tuition of $695 includes workshop, talks, generative writing session, two lunches, and a 30 minute follow-up Zoom conference. A $50 nonrefundable deposit will reserve your seat.
August 30 (Saturday)
Writing Flash Fiction: A One-Day Online Zoom Intensive
Just a page or two in length, flash fiction is quick and easy to learn, yet endlessly rich and challenging to practice. This one-day online intensive is designed for writers who want to explore the creative possibilities of flash fiction. We will talk about how it works, read a variety of published examples, and generate work of our own through in-class exercises, sharing our writing with the group as time permits.
September 22 (Monday evening)
The Ethics of Memoir: A Two-Hour Craft Talk
Every memoirist knows that honesty is the great force that powers memoir. But what if that honesty causes distress to family and friends? What does the writer owe to others who appear in their story? And what does the writer owe to the story itself?
Though at first glance the ethics of memoir can feel fraught, even intimidating, the truth is that thinking about the people in your story is always a positive step, a way of adding richness and complexity to your understanding of your memoir. Ultimately, this seminar will help you write the story you need to write with greater confidence and freedom.