Writing Workshop with Brooke Shaffner and Lulu Sylbert

MARCH-MAY BETWEEN THE LINES FICTION AND NONFICTION WORKSHOPS

Between the Lines is offering two 8-week workshops at Park Slope’s 440 Gallery this spring, a nonfiction workshop starting Tuesday, March 15th; and a fiction workshop starting either Wednesday, March 16th or Friday, March 18th, depending on student availability. The fiction workshop will be co-taught by Between the Lines director Brooke Shaffner and writer Lulu Sylbert (instructor bios below). Contact Brooke Shaffner at brshaffner@hotmail.com if interested.

Description: Writers in these workshops will investigate and discuss aspects of craft—plot structure, scene development, point of view, pacing, characterization, conflict, setting, tone, language, imagery, dialogue, beginnings, and endings—in both student submissions and published works. Optional writing prompts for inspiration and developing craft techniques will be offered. By sharpening their ability to discern and evaluate the stylistic and structural choices in the work of others, students will develop the ability to better manipulate craft elements in their own work.

Workshops will be capped at 8 writers. Each writer has the opportunity to submit up to 25 pages twice (stories, essays, articles, flash fiction, novel excerpts, etc.) and receives written critiques from the instructors and the other workshop members, as well as an individual conference with the instructors. We will meet from 8 pm--10 pm weekly at the 440 Gallery at 440 6th Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Fiction Workshop Dates: Starts either Wednesday, March 16th or Friday, March 18th, depending on student availability, and meets from 8-10 pm eight times.
Cost: $450 (The cost of the fiction workshop is slightly more as students will receive detailed feedback from two instructors.)

Nonfiction Workshop Dates: Meets from 8-10 pm eight times, weekly on Tuesdays: March 15th , 22nd, and 29th; April 5th, 12th, and 26th; May 3rd and 10th.
Cost: $350

To see student testimonials and find information about private consultations and other services that Between the Lines offers, see www.betweenthelinesnyc.com.

Instructor Bios:
Brooke Shaffner has led fiction and nonfiction workshops through The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop and Between the Lines, and at Northwestern University. She received her MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Dean’s Fellow. Her memoir, Between That Body and This One, is represented by Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. and currently under submission, and she is at work on a novel, Borderlands. An excerpt of her memoir appeared in The Hudson Review, and her personal essays were included in Lost and Found: Stories from New York. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Albee Foundation, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, and the I-Park Foundation; and scholarships from VCCA-France, Summer Literary Seminars, and the Prague Summer Program. She curates the 440 Gallery’s reading and artist talk series.

Lulu Sylbert received her BA from U.C. Berkeley and Columbia University, where she studied with Maxine Hong Kingston, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Gordon. She has been awarded fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Corporation of Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and The Millay Colony. Her screenplay, Swimming Sweet Arrow, is represented by Sandford Gross Agency, and her novel, Greedy Street, by The Wylie Agency.