Program Details

For each writer, the Summer Writers Colony consists of a writing workshop, three literary salons, and a variety of additional activities. The schedule of organized activities is Monday through Thursday, with optional Friday activities.

• 12:00-1:30 p.m. Supplemental Session (craft seminars, panels, and readings)
• 1:30-4:30 p.m. Workshop
• 5:30-7:30 p.m. Literary Salon

2019 Writing Workshops

The writing workshop is the core of the Writers Colony program. Workshop classes are limited to 12 students. An experienced writer-teacher focuses on students' manuscripts, guiding each student in the creative acts of self-editing and revision through class exercises and private conferences.

You register for the Summer Writers Colony by selecting a workshop. After you've registered, choose one literary salon (see below) per week and email your salon choices to summerwriters@newschool.edu.

Workshop Choices

• Fiction (credit—NWRW3596 Section A; noncredit—NWRW0596 Section A)
  Sharon Mesmer
  
• Nonfiction (credit—NWRW3596 Section B; noncredit—NWRW0596 Section B)
  Jessie Sholl
• Multi-genre (credit—NWRW3596 Section C; noncredit—NWRW0596 Section C)
  John Reed
• Poetry (credit—NWRW3596 Section D; noncredit—NWRW0596 Section D)
  Kathleen Ossip

Literary Salons Week One

• Poetry

  Cornelius Eady, The War Against the Obvious

  Instructor: TBA
  Class Meetings: June 3-5, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Poet, librettist, co-founder of Cave Canem, and author of numerous books including The War Against the Obvious, Cornelius Eady is the recipient of numerous honors, including, most recently, the Strousse Award from Prairie Schooner, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, and individual fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

  Please read The War Against the Obvious before the start of this literary salon.

• Nonfiction

  Eileen Myles, Afterglow: A Dog Memoir 

  Instructor: TBA
  Class Meetings: June 3, 4, and 6, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Poet, writer, and author of more than 20 books, including Afterglow: A Dog Memoir, Eileen Myles has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lambda Literary, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and others.

  Please read Afterglow before the start of this salon.

Literary Salons Week Two

• Nonfiction

  Dawn Raffel, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies

  Instructor: Andrew Zornoza
  Class Meetings: June 10-12, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Author of short stories, a novel, a memoir, a biography, and The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies, Dawn Raffel was a fiction editor for many years. She helped launch O, The Oprah Magazine, where she served as executive articles editor for seven years, and subsequently held senior-level at-large positions at More magazine and Reader's Digest. She has taught in the MFA program at Columbia University, at the Center for Fiction, and at Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; in Montreal; and in Vilnius, Lithuania. She is also a certified yoga instructor and teaches embodied writing.

  Please read The Strange Case of Dr. Couney before the start of this salon.

• Poetry

  Chelsea Minnis, Baby, I Don't Care

  Instructor: Ben Fama
  Class Meetings: June 10, 11, and 13, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Chelsea Minnis is a poet and the author of several books, most recently Baby, I Don’t Care. Her collection Zirconia (2001) won the Alberta Prize. “Minnis frequently tackles the world of poetry and its conventions as her subjects, reclaiming unfashionable gestures such as the frequent use of ellipses, exclamation marks, and cantilevered similes” (PoetryFoundation.org).

  Please read Baby, I Don't Care before the start of this salon.

Literary Salons Week Three

• Nonfiction

  Mary Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays

  Instructor: Sharon Mesmer 
  Class Meetings: June 17-19, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Novelist, essayist, short story writer, and author of many books, including Somebody with a Little Hammer, Mary Gaitskill is the recipient of honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and a PEN/Faulkner Award nomination for Because They Wanted To in 1998. Veronica (2005) was a National Book Award nominee, as well as a National Book Critics Circle finalist for that year. 

  Please read Somebody with a Little Hammer before the start of this salon.

• Fiction

  Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You

  Instructor: TBA
  Class Meetings: June 17, 18, and 20, 6:00-7:50 p.m.

  Garth Greenwell is a poet, fiction writer, literary critic, educator, and the author of What Belongs to You. His first novella, Mitko, won the Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

  Please read What Belongs to You before the start of this salon.