Rosemont Writer’s Studio
The Writers' Studio courses are non-credit offerings of Rosemont College’s MFA Program. Our mission is to offer MFA graduates, from any program, and other members of the larger Philadelphia writing community an opportunity to take focused writing and publishingworkshops at a reasonable cost.
space is limited: register today
Fall II
Writing Creative Nonfiction and Memoirs (On-Campus)
October 28-December 9
Thursdays, 6-8 p.m. with Richard Bank
This course will explore the craft of writing Creative Nonfiction and its sub-genres
including memoir, personal and literary essays, opinion pieces, reviews, travel articles,
and narrative nonfiction. The course will include an overview examining the components
of creative nonfiction writing; samples will be read and discussed; ethical issues
unique to the genre regarding how far one can stray from fact and the use of literary
license; research techniques; and written exercises designed to develop specific skills
needed to write effectively in the genre. Relevant legal issues such as libel and
privacy will be reviewed. Students will submit work within the genre that may be short
complete pieces or a portion of a larger even book length project which will be workshopped
by the class. Potential markets for creative nonfiction will be suggested.
Bio: Richard D. Bank, Esq. is the author of nine books including Feig and I am Terezin, which along with The Tree of Sorrow, comprise his Holocaust Trilogy. He has written one play and has published over 100 articles, essays, short stories, and book reviews. He is a past president of the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference and has taught writing courses at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Rosemont College, and other venues.
Manuscript Preparation for Publication (Online)
October 27- December 1
Wednesdays, 6-8 pm. with Stacey Kucharik
Once a manuscript is completed, the author must prepare for publication.
There are several important steps to make a manuscript desirable to agents, publishers, and readers. This transitionary preparation can be difference between a successfully published book and a discarded manuscript that collects dust on a shelf.
In this course you will learn:
- Key “self-editing” practices
- Manuscript organization and flow
- Industry standards and expectations for manuscripts
- Summary and synopsis writing
- Step-by-step process to querying publishers
- How to transform your rough draft into a manuscript ready for querying
Bio: Stacey began her editing company, Polished Print, fourteen years ago. She has worked with hundreds of authors to polish their manuscripts into publishable novels. Though her background began with academic editing, Stacey works with fiction authors exclusively and edits between ten and fifteen novels per year and recently celebrated the 300th novel in her professional career. Stacey holds two bachelor's degrees in English with a focus on creative writing and Communications as well as a master's degree in Publishing with a focus on editing from Rosemont. Polished Print aspires to educate authors and posts frequent educational videos about the publishing process and improving writings on Facebook. Stacey has participated in multiple writing and publishing conferences in the past five years and has taught collegiate-level courses on editing and self-publishing. For more information about Stacey, visit Polished Point's website or find the company on Facebook.
Deepening Elements of Fiction (On-Campus)
October 26-November 30
Tuesdays, 6-8 p.m. with Sawyer Lovett
Reading a good story is like getting caught in the magic of a powerful wizard. In
this course, we’ll read the work of various word charmers and work on honing our own
craft. Each week we’ll focus on a different element (clarity, character, plot structure,
setting, prose, and theme) with the goal of readying work for placement. Each week,
we’ll focus on a different element of craft. We’ll read a couple of short stories,
talk about how they teach us to deepen the elemental magic of our own writing. There’s
no main sourcebook, course materials will be provided. We will look at a variety of
from a wide range of authors.
Bio: Sawyer Lovett is a writer living in Philadelphia. He teaches at UArts and reads fiction for Cleaver magazine. He has written zines for more than half of his life and been an organizer and activist in Philadelphia for more than ten years. He won thesis of the year when he graduated from Rosemont College’s MFA program and his work has appeared in Lambda Lit, Briar’s Lit, and Impossible Archetype, among other places. He is mostly just always happy to be here.
Reverb: Writing the Resonant Poem (Online)
October 26-November 30
Tuesdays, 6-8 pm with J.C. Todd
We’ll focus on writing resonant poems that reverberate with language, image, incident,
and sound. We’ll practice empowering strategies that access associations stirring
below the surface of conscious thought, moving from grievance, for instance, to buried
grief or from quick thrill to underlying love or joy. It’s a wonderfully messy process
that we will navigate with free writing, revising, experimenting with strategies,
and discussing model poems by poets such as Jericho Brown, Rita Dove, Seamus Heaney,
Cynthia Dewi Oka, and Daisy Fried. The required course text is The Strategic Poet, Terrapin Press, 2021. ISBN: 978-1-947896-48-2. Available at Amazon, book stores,
and the publisher here.
Bio: J. C. Todd’s recent books are Beyond Repair (2021), selected for an Able Muse Press Book Award, and The Damages of Morning (Moonstone Press 2018), an Eric Hoffer Award finalist. Winner of the Rita Dove Poetry Prize and twice a finalist for Poetry Society of America annual awards, she has received fellowships from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Leeway Foundation. She has taught poetry at Bryn Mawr College and the Rosemont MFA in Creative Writing Program.