Classes

Click on the course title to register (except for NYCWriting Intensive—for that one, you’ll need to email me directly to enroll)

January 23-25 (in-person weekend)

NYCWriting Intensive: A Weekend Workshop in New York co-taught with Karen E. Bender

Join us January 23-25 in Midtown Manhattan for a jam-packed in-person weekend discussing your work in progress, generating new material, discussing the world of publishing, 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. Karen and I will be team teaching, so you will get written feedback from both of us. Writers will also receive a thirty-minute Zoom conference with Robert or Karen the week after the conference to dig deeper into workshop feedback and help formulate a revision strategy.

Email me at ranthonysiegel@gmail.com to register or ask questions.

February 9 (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.

February 28 (Saturday)

Writing Flash Nonfiction: A One-Day Zoom Intensive

This one-day online intensive course is designed for writers who want to start exploring the creative possibilities of flash nonfiction—sometimes called micro-memoir or the micro-essay. 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. We will also discuss further reading and publishing opportunities.

March 7 (Saturday)

Writing Flash Fiction: A One-Day Zoom Intensive

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.

March 24 (Tuesday evening)

Mastering Sense of Place: a Multigenre Craft Seminar on Setting

Through a mixture of lecture, discussion and creative exercises, this 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 way they use setting to deepen character and story, regardless of whether the genre is fiction or nonfiction. Afterwards, we will do a series of exercises designed to help you explore and develop your own use of setting.

April 7 (Tuesday)

Making Your Characters Physically Present on the Page: A Two-Hour Multigenre Craft Talk

How do you make your characters vividly, physically present in your writing? How do you use their looks to reveal their personalities? Through a mixture of lecture, discussion and creative exercises, this two-hour multigenre craft talk will show you how to capture a character’s physical presence on the page, using all aspects of appearance to convey the thought and emotion underneath.

April 28 (Tuesday)

Find Your Fiction Voice: A Two-Hour Craft Talk

Writers talk a lot about voice, but what is it, exactly? Why is it so important? How does it work? And how is it constructed? We’ll look at several examples of voice from great published stories, and then explore how to create a range of distinctive voices in our own writing through in-class exercises.