Monthly Online Workshops
Praise for the Bending Genres Online Workshops
Praise for the Workshop
“I’ve gained a writing community from the Bending Genres workshops.” —Rogan Kelly
“A great experience!” —Kathy Fish
“Extraordinary on so many levels.” —Len Kuntz
“Nearly all the stories I’ve written during the workshops have gotten published.” —Francine Witte
We are excited to welcome you to our active community!
Signup is easy. Click the “Register Now” button below the class you’d like to take. You’ll be directed to PayPal for the course fee (each class is $111), then you’ll receive a welcome message within 48 hours.
Upcoming Classes
March 20-22, 2020
Tommy Dean
Particular, Resonate, Concise: Writing the Micro
April 24-26, 2020
Wendy Oleson
Found in the Forest
May 22-24, 2020
Tyler Barton
Artifact Lit: Exploring New Forms
December 6 – 8, 2019
Bud Smith
strange truth
In Bud Smith’s workshop, participants will write flash fiction or poetry based off prompts pulled from strange but true columns in lousy newspapers, rumors, urban legends, the plausibly implausible.
Bud will explain his method for weaving this odd material into a kind of unique realism. He will also explain the use and importance of off the cuff anecdote about family, coworkers, and interactions with society at large and how it can find its place in intimate works of fiction, and how those anecdotes can bring balance to surrealism.
This will be a workshop focused on idiosyncratic gut feeling, and the idea that there is no such thing as a bad idea. Participants will read craft essays by Bud Smith and others, and will be given a short reading and film list to pursue at their own leisure.
Participants will also receive constructive criticism on their work (multiple stories) and will be guided towards further revisions on that work with the goal of publication. Venues (literary magazines) will be suggested by Smith.
January 24 – 26, 2020
Len Kuntz
Writing what hurt you, writing what haunts you
March 20 – 22, 2020
There’s the idea that anyone can write, especially something short, but it takes a special writerly sensibility to write with brevitic empathy, to build resonance in the crucible of a few words, to create dimensional characters who can enthrall and frustrate. Writing the micro (<400 words) demands that the writer juggle diction and syntax without losing the effect of character, conflict, and setting. How do we create the feeling of story, the movement of narrative, the well-spring of emotion while using the parameters of short word counts?
This generative workshop will take a prompt-based approach to look at different ways to write micro fiction/non-fiction. The prompts will be inspired by fierce and resonate examples from amazing writers who specialize in writing flash and micro stories. We will dig deeper into the writer’s craft decisions and word choices while targeting specific skills we can use to create our own micros. Using these elements of craft, we will create fresh micros full of resonate concision. Having these tools as part of our writing tool kit should enable us to let go of our inner tensions and feel freer to create poignant and exciting micros.
Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to create multiple micros and receive constructive, positive feedback from the instructor as well as their peers. Participants will have the opportunity to revise based on feedback with the goal of possible publication.
April 24 – 26, 2020
In this generative, prompt-based workshop inspired by examples of contemporary, genre-defying work, you’ll find fairy tales, folktales, fables, fabulism, and the fantastic. Bring your non-realist narratives and be ready to break poetic lines like branches, stirring leaves and dropping cones. We’ll also construct sturdy blocks of prose strong enough for building houses and impervious to gusts of wolf. Come to play. Flounder and fly and forget about failure
May 22 – 24, 2020
Prose is written in a series of paragraphs. Poems, in a series of lines, stanzas. But is that it? Not if contemporary writers have anything to say about it. In the last ten years, great works of literature have been told via lists, powerpoints, tweetstorms, hotel reviews, recommendation letters, emails, youtube comments, .gifs—you name it. The first novels ever written were made-up diary entries. One of the best poems published last year was a flowchart. The number of forms your writing can take is endless.
This generative workshop will explore a variety of modern, experimental forms for stories, poems, and essays. You’ll try writing that thing you’ve been working on in a totally new, totally odd way. You’ll try writing under formal restrictions that might bring out lines you never knew you had in you. This workshops is for stuck writers, brave writers, weird writers, and blocked writers. Join us!
Kathy Fish: Getting to the Heart of the matter: Creating Emotionally Charged Flash Fiction
November 9 – 11, 2018
What makes us have to tell the stories we don’t want to? Why do we select flash as the vehicle to use for this? What makes your flash uniquely your own? One of our most venerated teachers of flash, Kathy Fish, who teaches her Fast Flash workshops, will host this powerhouse course. It’s nearly full and you won’t want to miss out! Come prepared to write with a lack of sleep needed!
Currently sold out. Sign up for the waiting list by clicking the button below.
Bud Smith: How to Use a Rocket Pack
December 7 – 9, 2018
How do we clear up time in the average day, and use that window of time to get out of our own way so we can generate flash fiction/ short stories/ poems/ pieces of a novel? How can we arrive at a mindset where no idea is a bad idea, is a silly idea, is a worthless idea? This course will offer practical thoughts about how to write freewheeling first drafts, and how to approach the rewrites of those drafts in a more sober mindset. Participants will leave the workshop with at least two new pieces of work created, with the option to send a third piece to Bud Smith for closer comments on whatever their project is.