Sonoma County Writers Offering Workshops and Consultation
Many Sonoma County writers offer their expertise and writing support through local workshops, classes, and consultations. Some are day-long, some are ongoing, and some are retreats. A list of workshop leaders and their contact information appears below, followed by a more complete list and description of current and upcoming workshops.
Feel free to use the links to contact writers about workshops or consultations they may be offering in the future.
If you have a workshop you’re offering, send a short description (150 words or less) to tehret99@comcast.net.
Stephen Altschuler www.firstpersonwriting.com
Catharine Bramkamp, Writing Coach, www.YourBookStartsHere.com
Guy Beiderman www.lowfatfiction.com
Susan Bono sbono@tiny-lights.com
Margaret Caminsky-Shapiro harlmarg@sonic.net
Dan Coshnear dan@coshnear.org
Sher Christian poetrytalks@neteze.com
Marlene Cullen www.thewritespot.us/ or mcullen@comcast.net
Georgette G. deBlois GGdeB@aol.com.
Nancy Dougherty and Geri Digiorno ncaversd@sonic.net
Terry Ehret tehret99@comcast.net
Stefanie Freele Stefanie@stefaniefreele.com
Susan Hagenhagen@womenatgroundzero.com
Eric Johnson iota@sonic.net
Suzanne Murray suzmurr@yahoo.com
Laure Reiche p.reiche@comcast.net
Pauline Reif paulineerh@yahoo.com
Clara Rosemarda rosen@sonic.net
Scott Reid Serkes www.sonic.net/poetry/albany/workshop/intro.html>http: //www.sonic.net
Lisa Shulman www.lisashulman.com.
Shelley Singer http://www.shelleysinger.com
Andrew Todhunter workshops@andrewtodhunter.com
Centa Theresa, m.a.,Writing & Creative Projects Coach
creatvitycoaching@centatheresa.com
Pat Tyler www.writetoday.net
Stephen Altschuler’s Coaching Service for Non-fiction Writers.
My speciality is personal experience writing, but cover all aspects of the non-fiction genre. I’ve been writing and getting published since 1969. My latest book is The Mindful Hiker (2004), and have written four other books. My website which tells more of my work and this service is www.firstpersonwriting.com .
Stephen Altschuler
stephenaltschuler@mac.com
Margaret Caminsky-Shapiro’s Sonoma County Writing Practice
Margaret Caminsky-Shapiro teaches eight week long writing semesters out of her Santa Rosa downtown office. Three different class times are offered each week. Margaret uses poetry and meditation for inspiration and writers are encouraged to read their work in a supportive atmosphere. The memoir is a valuable form for dropping deeper into the self allowing memories to come forth. This process allows space for self-knowledge to occur. For more information or to receive a flyer call (707)575-8820 or email Margaret at harlmarg@sonic.net. The website for Sonoma County Writing Practice is www.handwritingonline.net
Sher Christian’s Intuitive Coaching
Sher Christian offers coaching for writers, plus proofing, & editing. For books on audio: voiceover, recording, organ/accordion/keyboard tracks. Demos available. Sher Lianne Christian. poetrytalks@neteze.com, www.lusciouspoetry.typepad.com/
C.B. Follett, Susan Terris, and Rebecca Foust
POETRY PUBLICATION WORKSHOP
($50)
Saturday, November 07, 2009 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415) 927-0960
(800) 999-7909
Sign up at http://www.bookpassage.com
Learn what to do to get your poetry published in literary journals and other publications. Two experienced poets and editors and one newcomer to the poetry scene will address questions related to WHEN, WHERE, HOW, and WHAT to submit, and will focus on how to get your work out in the world without stress, fear or rejection, or wasting valuable writing time. When is your work ready to submit? Where should you send it? What is the most efficient way to get the work out? What goes into a submission? Sample cover letters, lists of how-to’s, and website resources will be provided on class handouts, and a large inventory of resource books and sample literary journals will be available for review. For seven years, CB Follett was publisher and co-editor, with Susan Terris, of the highly acclaimed Runes, A Review of Poetry, an annual themed anthology. Her Arctos Press has published 16 poetry collections. Both poets have authored several collections and have published hundreds of poems in literary journals. Rebecca Foust’s chapbooks won the Robert Phillips Poetry Prize in 2007 and 2008, and her full length manuscript recently won the Many Mountains Moving Prize.
Fiction Writing – Stefanie Freele
This new class is open to the new, the curious and the comfortable short story writer. Prompts and freewrites will generate new and unexpected writing in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. Freele’s goal is to encourage turning ideas into stories. Students will read and discuss examples of stellar short fiction—prim arily stories under 1000 words, fine-tune workshop pieces, and explore the craft of writing: plot, dialogue, point-of-view, descript ion, setting, and voice.
Requirements: a sense of humor, a pen, and a few pieces of paper.
Stefanie Freele is the Sonoma County author of the short story collection, Feeding Strays, published by Lost Horse Press (2009). Her recent and forthcoming work can be found in Glimmer Train, American Literary Review, Night Train, The Pedestal Magazine, Necessary Fiction, Boston Literary Review, Literary Mama, and Hobart. Stefanie has an MFA from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts: Whidbey Writers Workshop. Stefanie is an editor with Smokelong Quarterly and is also the Fiction Editor for the Los Angeles Review.
4 Week session $100
9-11 am Fridays: 10/23, 11/6, 11/13 and 11/20
Location: Plaza Arts Center – Healdsburg
Contact Stefanie – Stefanie@stefaniefreele.com – 707-889-0473
Suzanne Murray
The Heart of Writing – Four-Week Classes & One-Day Workshop with Suzanne Murray
Tuesday Mornings, 9:30 am to noon, November 17 to December 8
$100 paid by 11/10, $115 after, west Santa Rosa
register early limited to 12
Tuesday Evenings, 7:00 to 9:30 pm, November 17 to December 8
$100 paid by 11/10, $115 after, downtown Sebastopol
register early limited to 12
One-Day Writing Workshop
Saturday, November 21, 10 am to 4 pm, $75 paid by 11/13, $85 after
register early limited to 12
Small supportive group. Good for beginners and experienced writers as well as all styles of writing.
Learn simple, powerful techniques to find your voice, tell your stories, calm your inner critic, enter the creative flow, jumpstart your writing and support your creative self. Find support and encouragement and an understanding of the craft of writing and the joyful heart of the creative process.
For more information call or email Suzanne at 707.360.7776 or suzmurr@yahoo.com or website:www.creativitygoeswild.com
Gwynne O’Gara’s Writing Workshops
Lighting Our Own Flames —Writing That Frees Our Genius
How do we address the gift of writing? Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, Genius is the power for lighting your own flame. The Romans believed genius (or for women, juno) to be a guardian spirit that comes to us at birth with the fullness of our undeveloped powers, which it offers to us as we grow. A sense of gratitude moves a person to labor in the service of their genius, which finds freedom through our work.
Each week we’ll warm up with a different poet—T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Kevin Young, Gabriela Mistral, Sylvia Plath and Eavan Boland. We’ll write and share our own work, and explore how to keep our individual flames burning. Excellent for prose writers as well as poets.
Tuesday Nights, 7—9, Oct. 20—Nov. 24. All levels, genders, and ages are welcome, $75 for all six classes. For more information and to register, contact Gwynn O’Gara at gwynn@sonic.com or call (707) 823-2993.
Gwynn O’Gara is the author of Snake Woman Poems, Fixer-Upper and Winter at Green Haven. Her poems have been published in the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, The Evansville Review and Yellow Silk, and will appear in future issues of Calyx, Sage Woman and descant. Her personal essays have been published in Image Magazine and Tiny Lights.
For more information and to register, call (707) 823-2993 or e-mail gwynn@gwynnogara.com.
The workshops will be held at the Sitting Room, 170 East Cotati, Cotati, CA.
Petaluma Writers Forum
Writers Forum of Petaluma proudly presents Gretchen Giles
November 19, 2009 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Petaluma Community Center, 320 No. McDowell Blvd. Petaluma
$15 at the door
Gretchen Giles Tell Your Story
This workshop will be a hands-on critique for those interested in magazine-style journalistic narrative. Learn to love the power of the
rewrite! Bring your 500-word piece, telling your own story or that of someone else, to the workshop and we’ll read it, red-line it, discuss it and
perhaps even “fix” it.
GRETCHEN GILES is the editor of the North Bay Bohemian, the award-winning alternative newsweekly serving Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties.
For more information: www.thewritespot.us
Marlene – mcullen@comcast.net
Laurie Reiche ‘s Writing Soiree
Laurie leads writing workshops the third Sunday of every month, 3-6 PM at her home.
The focus is generating new work, both poetry and prose. Sliding scale. For more information, call 415-892-9430 or e-mail p.reiche@comcast.net.
Lessen-Reiche has facilitated workshops for many years. She was the 2006 Winner of Lilith Magazine’s Second Annual Charlotte Newberger National Poetry Award. Her work has also appeared in magazines such as SUNY Upstate Medical Journal: The Healing Muse, and The Southern Poetry Review.
Scott Serkes Reid
Updraft: An Online Poetry Workshop to Ignite Your Imagination
This long-distance learning adventure is for all ages and levels ofexperience. All you need is the desire to make better poems and a willingness to study the craft of poetry. In this workshop, you have the opportunity to:* Meet poets from around the world * Make new friends * Write a new poem every week * Take a class that fits into your schedule * Have fun We meet online Saturday mornings for guided writing exercises. Studentsengage in brainstorm techniques and writing assignments that focus on various aspects of poetry. Upon finishing the first draft, we post ourwriting to a private discussion board and then
critique follows. Throughoutthe week, we revise and post our second drafts. Students receive peerfeedback as well as individual mentoring from the instructor. Class begins Late October, 2009 and runs for six weeks.
Instructor Scott Reid, MA presents poetry writing classes for children in Sonoma County with California Poets in the Schools. His poems have appeared in Blue Unicorn, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Melic Review, Sow’s Ear and The Dickens, and he has received writing fellowships to the Squaw ValleyWriters’ Conference, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. As presenter of poetry for adults since 1989, he
hastaught many classes in poetry at the Albany Adult School. The Updraft poetry workshop is starting its tenth year.For information about the class, please visit: http://www.sonic.net/poetry/albany/workshop/intro.html
Clara Rosemarda’s Write Mind™ Workshops
CREATIVE WRITING AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
6 sessions begin
Wednesday, November 11th, 7 – 9:30pm OR
Thursday, November 12th, 10am – 12:30pm
fee $180 ($170 if paid by November 2nd) Space is limited.
These classes will be conducted in a comfortable environment near Downtown Santa Rosa.
Contact Clara: 707:579-2081 rosen@sonic.net
Strong attention allows us to drop into deep writing. Creative writing propels the writer into the unknown. Whether you write prose or poetry, letters or fiction, this workshop will inspire your muse to write from a core place. Through meditation, visualizations, and other exercises that quiet the mind and expand the imagination, you will access and activate your creative muse. A comfortable, safe environment is provided for the writer to emerge. Open to beginning as well as seasoned writers.
WRITE ON! A Revision Workshop
3 Tuesdays: November 10, 24, & December 8
10am to Noon. Fee $90
Have you been filling notebooks with writings that get tossed in a box and are crying to get out? Are you ready to pull some of your prose and poetry out of those voluminous notebooks, polish them up, and take them to the next level? Do you want to continue with your novel or memoir? Then, this is the workshop for you. We will meet every other week for three weeks. (A new class will begin
after the holidays.) Class size will be limited. Contact Clara: 707:579-2081 rosen@sonic.net
Private consultations with writers by appointment.
CLARA ROSEMARDA, MA, writer, writing coach, counselor, and workshop leader, has been working with writers for over twenty-five years. A memoirist and poet, Clara works with beginning and emerging writers as well as mainstream authors, and teaches workshops internationally. In 2008 she was nominated for the Sonoma County Artists Awards Program in Literary Arts. She is co-creator and coordinator of The Writer’s Sampler, of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Her essays and poetry have been published in literary journals and anthologies including Tiny Lights; The Dickens; ZEBULON NIGHT; JASMINE NIGHTS & MONKEY PLUCK. She is co-editor and co-author of the anthology, STEEPED: IN THE WORLD OF TEA. Clara has been in private practice in Santa Rosa, California as a counselor and healer for thirty years.
Centa Theresa: Creative Projects Coaching/Consultation for Artists & Writers
THE POD: ART & WRITING
workshops & monthly creative projects coaching circle…
Centa Theresa, M.A.
www.centatheresa.com 707-478-5903 vicenta@sonic.net
CREATIVE PROJECTS COACHING: Whether you have a manuscript in the making that
you can¹t seem to finish, a body of artwork that needs more of your time, an
idea you¹d like to see manifest but have no plan, etc., I help you to
clarify the vision, identify challenges, claim successes and keep
accountable for stated intentions. Private sessions held in my home
office/studio in Santa Rosa. Call for further inquiry.
ART/WRITING PROCESS: Through dialogue, meditation, free-writing exercises
and the exploration of various art media, focus on a question or theme of
present concern and let the process unfold. Come one time or for a
predetermined series of private sessions in my home studio. Call for further
inquiry.
Call for free consultation. 707-478-5903. www.centatheresa.com
<http://www.centatheresa.com> . vicenta@sonic.net
Centa Theresa M.A. has exhibited her art in Bay Area galleries & had poems
appear or are forthcoming in such journals as Harpur Palate, Eclipse, The
Hurricane Review, Tiny Lights, and DrumVoices Revue. Centa has authored the
letterset edition, Blameless Recognition of Natural Light. She currently
teaches art at Napa State Hospital and has trained in ³creativity coaching²
with Eric Maisel.
Lindsay Whiting Workshop on Publishing
SEBASTOPOL CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Saturday, November 7, 2009
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Fee $50.00 Non-member: $55.00
Get Published: Independent Publishing and Self-Publishing Today
With author and publisher Lindsay Whiting
Paper Lantern Publishing
Half-Day Seminar (3 hours)
Limit 18 attendees
With the help of today’s technology there are now more affordable ways than ever to publish your own book. The purpose of this publishing seminar is to help attendees make informed decisions about their own publishing options, including the economics, current business models, and changing technology. Learn about the promise and pitfalls of traditional publishing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, and e-books.
Join other professionals and writers in a setting where you can ask questions to learn more about the possibilities of publishing. The seminar includes a presentation, interactive discussion, and a question and answer session, with handouts for all participants.
Writing a book is the single most effective tool for entrepreneurs, specialists and artists to market their work and to gain credibility, visibility, and income. By sharing your special expertise, or telling a story through a book, you position yourself as an author and an expert-and can gain new opportunities.Marketing your business through your book will attract speaking engagements, consulting possibilities, and new clients and customers. Published authors can increase their value by bundling books with their other products and services.
Facilitator Lindsay Whiting
Drawing from over twenty years of experience in print production and
publishing, author and publisher Lindsay Whiting consults with individuals
who have written information to share and want to self-publish their material
in book or electronic formats.
Paper Lantern Publishing
707-935-7001
