Writing Seminars
Get up close and personal with best-selling authors and industry experts at the Festival’s ever-popular writing seminars. Three intensive two-hour workshops will provide aspiring writers unprecedented access to some of the best and brightest minds in the literary world. Seats are limited to 50 per seminar at $100 each. Tickets go on sale at noon on April 14, 2011 — click the links below to purchase!
Writing Seminar Details
Working with Editors and Publishers
Day: Saturday, April 30th
Time: 11:00am-1:00pm
Once an author has secured a book deal, there usually remains a lot of work to be done. On the editorial level, there is often the challenge of seeing a manuscript through to completion in tandem with an editor at the publishing house. What should an author expect from their editor in this process, and what is expected of them? Then, after the edit is complete, there is the task of promoting and selling the book. How can an author best support their publishing house on this level? This seminar, led by independent publisher Johnny Temple of Akashic Books in Brooklyn, will be divided into three sections—editorial, promotion, diplomacy—each followed by a group discussion.
Making a Life for Writing
Unlike dancers and physicists, writers of fiction have long working lives during which their wisdom and talents build cumulatively (as the recent books of Philip Roth and Alice Munro demonstrate,) so it is a matter of utmost importance to figure out how to make a life hospitable to this peculiar endeavor. It’s very hard to teach this aspect of writing, given the many disparate kinds of gifts each aspiring writer brings to the table. The life that will foster each is personal and so to speak, home-made. Mona Simpson, the author of Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy and Off Keck Road will talk about how to inspire and tend a lifelong practice of story making. Simpson will lecture — with questions and answers — and draw examples from her most recent novel, My Hollywood, so familiarity with it will be helpful.
Please bring pens and paper as Ms. Simpson will ask the class to do exercises and read aloud.
Also, please bring your favorite lyric poem, written by any author, living or dead.
Finding and Working with a Literary Agent
Day: Sunday, May 1st
Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm
How do you find the right literary agent for you? What are the dos and don’ts for working with an agent and an editor? Literary agent Bonnie Nadell guides you through the publishing process: you will learn how to research agents, strategies to make agents seek you out, the art of interviewing agents, what makes you an attractive as a potential client and what sends up warning signs to an agent. By the end of the session you will know how to position yourself within the present publishing world and how to ensure a long and profitable relationship for yourself with an agent.
