The Discipline of the Writer's Life
with Joyce Maynard

In this three-hour lecture (with plent y of room for questions and participation), longtime journalist and fiction writer Joyce Maynard will examine the skills necessary -- separate from those of actually constructing first-rate work -- for a person to realistically pursue the life of a full-time freelance writer, as she has managed to for over 30 years. Areas Maynard will examine include establishing a writing routine, a writer's tool box (eight items a writer can't be without), confronting so-called "writer's block" (Maynard doesn't believe in it, which is why it's not a factor in her daily life).

Drawing on plentiful examples from her own long and productive career, Maynard will look at the frequently unlikely origins of ideas, the pacing of a writing day, useful emergency methods for a writer's most desperate, hopeless or simply empty-headed moments, and the difference between constructive alternatives to sitting at the computer, and sheer avoidance.

Participants in this evening lecture need bring nothing but a familiarity with the challenges of spending one's day writing-or the fantasy that no challenges exist.

Instructor Bio:

Joyce Maynard has been a journalist and fiction writer for over thirty years, beginning her career while still in her teens, as a writer for Seventeen, and with the publication of a New York Times Magazine cover story, "An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life" that formed the basis for her first book, Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties.

Since then, she has been a reporter and feature writer for The New York Times, an on-air commentator and essayist with CBS Radio, and, for eight years, published a weekly column, "Domestic Affairs, with The New York Times Syndicate, which ran in over fifty papers nationwide. Author of over a dozen "Hers" and "Lives" columns in the New York Times, she has also published personal essays in O, the Oprah Magazine, More, Mademoiselle, Newsweek, Self, The San Francisco Examiner, Redbook, and in Harrowsmith and Parenting magazines (where she had monthly columns) and numerous other publications.

On radio, her essays have appeared for many years on NPR's "All Things Considered". She has also appeared a number of times as a performer with the New York-based storytelling collective, The Moth. Author of four novels (including To Die For, later adapted into a film starring Nicole Kidman, and the recently-published novel, The Usual Rules), she has also published a collection of first- person essays, Domestic Affairs, and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World, now translated into seven languages.

A frequent teacher of writing at workshops and schools around the U.S., currently at work on her fifth novel, Maynard describes herself as "having reached the point in my own writing life where one of the greatest sources of fulfillment is helping other writers find their own best voice and tell their story." She would like to add-not for the purpose of showing off, she says, but as a way of providing hope and inspiration to those who may feel discouraged or even totally stuck in their own writing lives-- that the first drafts for each of her four novels, as well as her four- hundred -page memoir, were completed in the space of four solid weeks of writing-a fact only partly attributable to her legendary speed as a typist.

Recent Classes

Writing and Revising Poetry with Priscilla Becker

If the process of writing poems has ever seemed mysterious to you, and revision still more elusive, it may be time for a de-briefing. True, writing poems is not the same animal as writing other forms; however, it is an animal—which means that we can mark its odd language, identify its mercurial behaviors, and tame certain of its habits so that it no longer masters us.

This course will take a close look at selected successful and not-so-successful efforts; discuss selected poems in their first and then revised versions; mark the progress of selected poems from their inception to their finished forms; and introduce techniques and ideas for getting the most from your composition process. Be prepared to discuss your own poem and to compose in class. In this class, you'll learn where and how to publish your poetry; theories of the line, voice, and form; the writer's own struggles with gaining control of his or her poetry; techniques for titles, beginning poems, carrying poems through; overcoming mid-composition hurdles; ending poems.

Winner of The Paris Review prize, Priscilla Becker's book of poems, Internal West, was published last year. A recent graduate of Columbia's MFA program, Priscilla Becker has taught composition and creative writing at Queens College and The Florentine School. Her poems have been published in Raritan, Western Humanities Review, and The Paris Review. She and her poems were featured in an article and interview in Poets & Writers magazine, and an interview that she conducted with the poet and translator, Richard Howard, is forthcoming in The Poetry Society of America's journal, Crossroads. She lives in Brooklyn and is a classically-trained musician which she feels has provided her the ear training that poetry requires. She currently writes pop music reviews for The Nation. You can listen to her poetry on Salon at http://archive.salon.com/audio/the_paris_review/2000/12/05/becker/.

Elements of Fiction Writing with Jonathan Ames

Humorist, memoirist, and novelist Jonathan Ames will lecture on fiction-writing, do in-classes exercises, and offer practical advice for getting your work published. With a focus on the type of gripping narrative that will make any fiction you write an automatic page-turner, you will learn helpful and practical tips on character development, plot, point-of-view, dialogue, setting, and revision. You will discover sources of inspiration and methods for getting work done, and a practical path to getting published will be discussed. There will be hand-outs that pertain to the above elements of craft, as well as sheet of writing exercises to try at home.

Jonathan Ames is the author of I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, What's Not to Love? and My Less Than Secret Life. A new novel, Wake Up, Sir!, will be published by Scribner in July 2004. He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has written for The New York Times, Slate, New York Press, McSweeney's, Village Voice, GQ, and numerous other publications. The Extra Man is in development for the cinema with Killer Films, and What's Not to Love? is in development as a TV series with Showtime. Jonathan performs frequently as a storyteller, has been on The Late Show with David Letterman, and is a frequent contributor to Public Radio International's 'The Next Big Thing.' Mr. Ames's one-man show "Oedipussy" was produced off-off-Broadway and has been presented in obscure European cities and at pleasant American colleges. You can visit his somewhat amusing website at www.Jonathanames.com.

Advanced Fiction Workshop with Elizabeth Gaffney

You've taken your manuscript as far as you can, but you know there's another level. This workshop is for writers who are seeking to do the serious kind of revision that can bring a good idea to its fullest realization. In this workshop, novelist and Paris Review editor-at-large Elizabeth Gaffney will talk with you about story arc, character, setting, voice, point of view, level of diction and above all, the text that you have written. Class will also read some published short stories together and talk about how they achieve their effects.

Elizabeth Gaffney is editor at large of The Paris Review, where she has worked for fifteen years. Her first novel, Metropolis, is forthcoming from Random House. At The Paris Review, she edited the work of Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem, Andrea Barrett, Lorrie Moore, and more. Her short fiction has been published in the Colorado, North American and Mississippi Reviews, Reading Room and can be read online at epiphanyzine.com. Her most recent translation from German is The Arbogast Case, a literary thriller by Thomas Hettche, to be published in fall 2003 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

The Discipline of the Writer's Life
with Joyce Maynard

In this three-hour lecture (with plent y of room for questions and participation), longtime journalist and fiction writer Joyce Maynard will examine the skills necessary -- separate from those of actually constructing first-rate work -- for a person to realistically pursue the life of a full-time freelance writer, as she has managed to for over 30 years. Areas Maynard will examine include establishing a writing routine, a writer's tool box (eight items a writer can't be without), confronting so-called "writer's block" (Maynard doesn't believe in it, which is why it's not a factor in her daily life).

Drawing on plentiful examples from her own long and productive career, Maynard will look at the frequently unlikely origins of ideas, the pacing of a writing day, useful emergency methods for a writer's most desperate, hopeless or simply empty-headed moments, and the difference between constructive alternatives to sitting at the computer, and sheer avoidance.

Participants in this evening lecture need bring nothing but a familiarity with the challenges of spending one's day writing-or the fantasy that no challenges exist.

Instructor Bio:

Joyce Maynard has been a journalist and fiction writer for over thirty years, beginning her career while still in her teens, as a writer for Seventeen, and with the publication of a New York Times Magazine cover story, "An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life" that formed the basis for her first book, Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties.

Since then, she has been a reporter and feature writer for The New York Times, an on-air commentator and essayist with CBS Radio, and, for eight years, published a weekly column, "Domestic Affairs, with The New York Times Syndicate, which ran in over fifty papers nationwide. Author of over a dozen "Hers" and "Lives" columns in the New York Times, she has also published personal essays in O, the Oprah Magazine, More, Mademoiselle, Newsweek, Self, The San Francisco Examiner, Redbook, and in Harrowsmith and Parenting magazines (where she had monthly columns) and numerous other publications.

On radio, her essays have appeared for many years on NPR's "All Things Considered". She has also appeared a number of times as a performer with the New York-based storytelling collective, The Moth. Author of four novels (including To Die For, later adapted into a film starring Nicole Kidman, and the recently-published novel, The Usual Rules), she has also published a collection of first- person essays, Domestic Affairs, and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World, now translated into seven languages.

A frequent teacher of writing at workshops and schools around the U.S., currently at work on her fifth novel, Maynard describes herself as "having reached the point in my own writing life where one of the greatest sources of fulfillment is helping other writers find their own best voice and tell their story." She would like to add-not for the purpose of showing off, she says, but as a way of providing hope and inspiration to those who may feel discouraged or even totally stuck in their own writing lives-- that the first drafts for each of her four novels, as well as her four- hundred -page memoir, were completed in the space of four solid weeks of writing-a fact only partly attributable to her legendary speed as a typist.

Intermediate Short Fiction Workshop
with Chris Napolitano

If you're serious about creating good fiction. Maybe you'd eventually even like to submit it to a magazine or short story collection for publication. In this 8-week class, taught by Playboy's fiction editor, Chris Napolitano, you'll learn how to hone your narrative instinct to make your prose a real page-turner. Mr. Napolitano has edited and worked with a wide range of writers, including Neil LaBute, John Gray, Vince Bugliosi, Toby Young, T.C. Boyle, Thom Jones, Pete Dexter, Ethan Coen, Bob Schaccochis, Scott Smith and Amy Sohn.

As Senior Editor at Playboy, Chris Napolitano writes and edits the front of the book (Playbill, After Hours) and frequently writes articles for the magazine on such subjects as music, pop culture, and sex and dating. Along with his in-house writing duties, Napolitano also assigns and edits a variety of non-fiction, from "Air Sick," (an investigative piece on the Federal Aviation Administration) to "How to Date a Woman Smarter Than You." In addition to helping steer the overall direction of the magazine's content, Napolitano also contributes to the magazine's visual style by overseeing the production of Playboy's Fashion pages. Because of his vast experience with Playboy he is a regular 'Relationship Expert' on the Oxygen networks Pure Oxygen as well as Good Day New York. Napolitano began his career with Playboy in 1988 as an Editorial Assistant in the fiction department. In 1997, he was named Senior Editor for Playboy magazine. Chris holds a BA in Religion from Columbia University. He lives in New York with his wife, Sarah and daughter, Clara, and his son, Reynaldo..