Hurston/Wright Writers' Week 2008

Sunday, July 20 – Saturday, July 26, 2008 American University, Washington, DC

Hurston/Wright Writers’ Week is the nation’s only multi-genre summer writer's workshop for writers of African descent with a tuition-free component for high school students. Since the first workshop in the summer of 1996, over 850 writers have attended the weeklong program of classes and presentations by publishers, agents, and writers.

The Week brings together Black writers from around the United States, as well as Black writers from the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, who create a nurturing, safe space to discuss their work, its meaning, and unique aesthetics. Hurston/Wright Writers’ Week is distinguished by the diversity of the writers it attracts: published, unpublished, college students, high school students, seniors, retirees, professionals - all chosen to participate in the Week on the strength of their writing.

Perhaps the highest accolade given to the workshop is the number of participants who have returned to their communities, and inspired by Hurston/Wright Writers’ Week, have formed community workshops and support groups for Black writers.

Testimonials:

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Workshop Schedule:

Classes meet Monday-Friday for three hours. Individual conferences with workshop leaders take place at times agreed upon by workshop leaders and participants.

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Admission

HOW TO APPLY

• Submit two copies of your writing sample with your application.
  
• You may apply to only one workshop.
  
• Applications must be received by April 21, 2008 . Applications received after April 21 will be considered only if space is still available.
  
• Include with your application a $20 nonrefundable application fee (in the form of a money order only).

Letters of acceptance will be mailed the first week in May.

Manuscript Requirements:

Facilities and Housing

American University will be the host site for Hurston/Wright Writers’ Week. The university is located in Northwest, Washington, D.C., on a tree-lined 144-acre campus, approximately three miles north of the U.S. Capitol.  There are numerous monuments and museums, free concerts, and international dining, as well as many important African American cultural institutions close. Double occupancy housing and all meals are included in tuition. The campus library and computers will be available to participants.

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Workshop Fees

High School Students will receive a Full Scholarship including room & board.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Payment Schedule

The full amount of the fees due must be paid by June 20, 2008.

Those admitted to the workshop must submit a non-refundable deposit of $100 to reserve their space.

Scholarship recipients will be notified of the amount of their award and balance due.  Make all tuition payments by money order or major credit card* payable to the Hurston/Wright Foundation.

Cancellation Policy: In order to receive reimbursement of tuition payments minus the required deposit of $100, participants must cancel registration at least three weeks before the workshop begins. Cancellation after that date will result in pro-rated reimbursement.

*Plus 3% service charge for all credit card charges

Sponsorship

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Published Workshop Alumni

• Michele Andrea Bowen: Second Sunday and Church Folk, Walk Worthy Press
• Carol Parrott Blue: The Dawn at My Back, University of Texas Press
• Anita Doreen Diggs: The Other Side of the Game, Dafina Books; A Mighty Love and A Meeting in the Ladies Room, Kensington Books
• Patricia Elam: Breathing Room, Simon and Schuster
• Dwight Fryer: E. Landon Hobgood: Songs of the Zodiac: In Doo-Wop America, Harlem Writers Guild
• E. Landon Hobgood: Songs of the Zodiac: In Doo-Wop America, Harlem Writers Guild
• A. Van Jordan: Macnolia, W.W. Norton & Company; Rise, Tia Church Press/The Guild
• Crystal E. Wilkinson: Water Streetand Blackberry, Blackberry, Toby Press

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Workshops

Memoir

A workshop designed to focus on the autobiographical narrative and creative nonfiction techniques for structuring a compelling personal story. Open to writers in the beginning and advanced stages of work on their memoirs. Among the topics to be addressed are interviewing, research, and privacy issues unique to the memoir.

Workshop Leader Faith Adiele is the author of Meeting Faith, a memoir about becoming Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, which received the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir of 2005; writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home (PBS), a documentary about growing up with a Nordic-American single mother and then traveling to Nigeria as an adult to find her father and siblings; and lead editor of the forthcoming international anthology, Coming of Age Around the World. She currently resides in Pittsburgh, where she is Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh. For more information about Faith Adiele please visit http://www.pitt.edu/~adiele/meetingfaith/home.html

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Poetry

This workshop will focus on poetic structure as cinematic movement and will approach the poem as a visual art form. We will discuss the metric, rhythmic, and tonal architecture of the poem as it relates to the movement of imagery within the poem, which will establish a working vocabulary to discuss the poetry of the participants in the workshop. The sessions will be split between discussions of the participant's work and discussions of poetic structure.

Workshop Leader Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Her books have won many awards, including the Annisfield-Wolf Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, the Flora Steiglitz Straus Award, the L.E. Phillabaum Award, and Newbery Honors, Coretta Scott King Honors, Michael J. Printz Award Honors, and Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honors; one was a Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist,  three have been finalists for the National Book Award. Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers' colony; and the former (2001—2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. For more information about Marilyn Nelson please visit http://www.soulmountainretreat.com/marilyn_nelson.html

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Introduction to the Novel

Open to beginning writers. A workshop designed for writers in the early stages of outlining, researching or writing a novel. The course will introduce the basic elements that differentiate the novel from other forms of writing and cover technical aspects of the novel such as character plot development, pacing, scenes, dialogue. In-class writing exercises and close, critical reading of published writing samples are part of the course.

Workshop Leader Michael H. Cottman is an award-winning journalist and author, is a Senior Correspondent for BlackAmericaWeb.com, a division of REACH Media/Radio One, the nation's largest black-owned media company. Cottman, a former reporter for The Washington Post, Newsday and The Miami Herald, is also a lecturer in the Department of Journalism at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Cottman is presently covering the 2008 Presidential campaign and also offers political commentary and news analysis for several national REACH/Radio One stations, which are owned by radio personality Tom Joyner and businesswoman Cathy Hughes. He was a 2007 recipient of a newly-created political journalism fellowship sponsored by the Knight Foundation and The University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. For more information about Michael H. Cottman please visit www.michaelhcottman.com

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Building the Novel

A workshop designed for writers who have completed 75-100 pages of a novel, and who are familiar with the technical aspects of fiction writing. The course will be conducted as a workshop with in-depth critique and analysis of a selected portion of the manuscript, as well as discussion of the broader issues and challenges inherent in writing book-length fiction.

Workshop Leader Crystal Wilkinson is the 2002 recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature and is a member of a Lexington-based writing collective, The Affrilachian Poets. Crystal's latest work, Water Street was recently a long-list finalist for the prestigious Orange Prize and short-listed for a Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Legacy Award in fiction. She has presented workshops and readings throughout the country including the Sixth International Conference on the Short Story in English at the University of Iowa and the African American Women Writers Conference at the University of the District of Columbia. Crystal graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a B.A. in journalism and an MFA from Spalding University. For more information about Crystal Wilkinson please visit www.crystalwilkinson.com

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Advanced Novel

A workshop designed for advanced writers who have completed a novel manuscript or are near completion. This workshop will provide a close reading and discussion of 50 pages from the novel. In addition to technical aspects of the novel, issues such as how to end a novel, ensuring thematic consistency, and turning personal experience into fiction will be addressed.

Workshop Leader Elizabeth Nunez is a CUNY Distinguished Professor and award-winning author of six novels: Prospero's Daughter (New York Times Editors’ Choice and 2006 Novel of the Year, Black Issues Book Review); Grace; Discretion (short-listed for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Independent Publishers Book Award);and When Rocks Dance. She has published several monographs of literary criticism and is co-editor with Jennifer Sparrow of the anthology Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad. BBC America published the audio books of Grace and Prospero’s Daughter. Nunez is executive producer of the 2004 NY Emmy nominated TV series Black Writers in America.  For more information about Elizabeth Nunez please visit www.elizabethnunez.com

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Creative Writing For High School Students

A workshop designed to introduce the basic elements of creative writing to sophomore, junior, and senior high school students. This workshop ignites high school students' love for writing and enhances every facet of their communication skills. Students selected for this workshop will receive a full scholarship, which will cover tuition, room, and board.

Workshop Leader Christopher Chambers is a Professor at Georgetown University; author of the Angela Bivens series of mystery novels, two anthologies, published short fiction and comic books, including an upcoming graphic anthology. Movie lover. Former US Department of Justice lawyer. Faculty: University of Maryland/UMUC.

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ONE-DAY WORKSHOP

Class Schedule: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9 am - 5 pm
Thousands of excellent children’s books are published every year. Ever wonder how yours could be one of them? Sign up for this one-day workshop and get hands on experience on how to write a children’s book that will get published. During the workshop you will learn how to develop your idea, themes, plot, write, and prepare your manuscript for submission. There will also be discussions about:

• How to get started.
• What children’s books are and who reads them. 
• What to do once you have written the greatest idea whose time has come. 
• Where to send your manuscript. 
• How to find a publisher.  
• What publishers feel about simultaneous submissions. 
• If you should you get an agent first.

Tuition: $200 

Workshop Leader Jerdine Nolen is the author of Plantzilla, Plantzilla Goes to Camp, Thunder Rose, Lauren McGill’s Pickle Museum, Max and Jax in Second Grade, Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life, Pitching In For Eubie, Big Jabe, In My Momma's Kitchen, Raising Dragons which won the Christopher Award and Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm, which won the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award, the Kentucky Bluegrass Award, the Delaware Blue Hen Award, the Arizona Young Readers Award, the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award, and the Indiana Young Hoosier Award, and was named both an ALA Notable Book and an IRA-CBC Children's Choice. Jerdine writes fantasy, tall tales, and family stories.

Seminars/Panels/Discussions

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FAQ

• What does the workshop cost?
  Base tuition $675, advanced course $825, and room & board is $620.



• Where is the workshop going to be held?
  American University, Washington, D.C.



• How many people are in each course?
  Basic courses up to 12 students; advanced courses up to 9 students.



• How many pages of my work am I supposed to submit?
  Requirements for manuscripts are controlled by the genre in which you are applying.  See Manuscript Requirements.



• Do you offer scholarships?
  Yes, but scholarships are given on a per request/per needed basis and are limited based on the amount of financial support we receive from our supporters.



• When is the submission deadline?
  April 21, 2008.



• What is the registration fee?
  $15, money orders only.



• When are the classes held?
  Classes are held between 9am – 12noon unless other wise specified.



• When is full tuition due?
  A $100 nonrefundable deposit is due upon acceptance into the workshop and the final payment is due June 20, 2008.



• When will I be notified of the status of my application?
  Letters will be mailed the first week of May stating whether you have been accepted or not

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