Cambridge Writers’ Workshop feat. in VIDA’s “In & Around 2016 AWP in Los Angeles”

Posted on March 30, 2016 by carriganak

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop was recently featured in VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts’ article In and Around 2016 AWP in Los Angeles. The article lists events during AWP from VIDA friends and other events that help support women in the arts.

Listed in this article is our reading at Sabor y Cultura on Friday, April 1st from 4 pm- 7 pm. The event features fifteen readers from all over the world, including Rita Banerjee, Jess Burnquist, Julialicia Case, Ariana Kelly, Gwen E. Kirby, Katie Knoll, Ellaraine Lockie, Ondrej Pazdirek, Heather Aimee O’Neill, Brenda Peynado, Esther Pfaff, Jessica Piazza, Jonathan Shapiro, Emily Skaja, and Emily Smith.

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop will be Table 1157 from March 31st-April 2nd. Come to our table to learn about our upcoming writing retreats in Newport, Rhode Island (April 22-25, 2016) , Barcelona & the South of France (July 18-26, 2016), and Granada, Spain (July 28-August 5, 2016). We’ll also have information on our internships and our CREDO Anthology, as well as some other goodies at our table. We’ll also be tweeting our AWP experience @CamWritersWkshp, so be sure to check that out during the week. We can’t wait to see you all there this week!

Sabor y Cultura: Cambridge Writers’ Workshop AWP 2016 Reading – April 1, 4-7 pm

Posted on March 22, 2016 by admin

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is coming to Los Angeles for the AWP Conference (March 30 – April 2, 2016)! Last year’s AWP was a success with our bookfair table and reading at Boneshaker Books. This year, you’ll be able to find us at Table 1157 and find information regarding our upcoming Spring in Newport, Rhode Island (April 22-25, 2016) , Summer in Narbonne & Barcelona (July 18-26, 2016), and Summer in Granada, Spain (July 28-August 5, 2016) Writing Retreats.

We’ll also be hosting our AWP Reading at Sabor y Cultura (located at 5625 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028) on Friday, April 1, 2016 from 4-7 pm. Featured Readers include Rita Banerjee, Jess Burnquist, Julialicia Case, Ariana Kelly, Gwen E. Kirby, Katie Knoll, Ellaraine Lockie, Ondrej Pazdirek, Heather Aimee O’Neill, Brenda Peynado, Esther Pfaff, Jessica Piazza, Jonathan Shapiro, Emily Skaja, and Emily Smith.

Featured AWP Writers:

Rita Banerjee received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, AWP WC&C Quarterly, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Riot Grrrl Magazine, Poets for Living Waters, The Monarch Review, The Fiction Project, Quail Bell Magazine, Jaggery, Catamaran, The Crab Creek Review, The Dudley Review, Objet d’Art, Amethyst Arsenic, Vox Populi, Dr. Hurley’s Snake-Oil Cure, Chrysanthemum, and on KBOO Radio’s APA Compass in Portland, Oregon. Her first collection of poems, Cracklers at Night, was published by Finishing Line Press and received First Honorable Mention for Best Poetry Book of 2011-2012 at the Los Angeles Book Festival, and her novella, A Night with Kali, is forthcoming from Spider Road Press in 2016. Creative Director of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, she is currently working on a novel and a book of lyric essays.

Jess Burnquist was raised in Tempe, Arizona. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Her work has appeared in Salon, GOOD Magazine, The Washington Post, Time.com, NPR.org, Jezebel, Persona, Education Week, Good Housekeeping and various online and print journals. She is a recipient of the Joan Frazier Memorial Award for the Arts at ASU. Jess currently teaches high school in San Tan Valley, and has been honored with a Sylvan Silver Apple Award. She resides in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area with her husband, son, daughter and three-legged dog, Skipper.

Julialicia Case’s fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Crazyhorse, Willow Springs, Witness, Water-Stone Review, The Pinch, Quarterly West, Confrontation, and other journals. She has received a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, a University of New Orleans Writing Award for Study Abroad, and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She graduated from the master’s program in creative writing at the University of California, Davis, and is currently studying in the PhD program in fiction at the University of Cincinnati.

Ariana Kelly earned a B.A. in Literature from Yale University and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Washington. In September of 2015 Bloomsbury published her first book Phone Booth, a cultural history of phone booths and communication, as part of their Object Lessons series. She has essays, poems and reviews out or forthcoming from The Atlantic, Salon, LA Review of Books, The Awl, The Toast, The Bellingham Review, Salt Hill, and Poetry Northwest, among many other journals. She is currently working on a couple of books, one a collection of essays dealing with health, place and subjectivity, and another about running. Additionally, she is working on a series of erasure poems based on the Wallpaper travel guides published by Phaidon.

Gwen E. Kirby is a native San Diegian. She left her sunny home state to get her BA at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She holds an MFA from Johns Hopkins University and is currently pursuing her PhD in creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. Her stories appear in Southwest Review, Ninth Letter, and Midwestern Gothic and have been finalists for the Zoetrope: All Story, Indiana Review, and Narrative fiction competitions. She is a staff member at the Sewanee Writers’ and Sewanee Young Writers’ Conferences.

Katie Knoll received a BA from Florida State University and is currently a MA student of fiction at the University of Cincinnati. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative, Nimrod, Rattle, Baltimore Review, and Exit 7, among others. Her poetry and prose have been featured as one of Narrative’s 2013 Top 5 Stories of the Year and awarded the George M. Harper Prize for fiction and the Jean Chimsky Poetry Prize.

ellaraine-lockie

Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded author of poetry, nonfiction books and essays. Her chapbook, Where the Meadowlark Sings, won the 2014 Encircle Publication’s Chapbook Contest. Her newest collection, Love Me Tender in Midlife, has been released as an internal chapbook, in IDES from Silver Birch Press. Other recent work has received the Women’s National Book Association’s Poetry Prize, Best Individual Collection from Purple Patch magazine in England for Stroking David’s Leg, the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Contest win for Red for the Funeral and The Aurorean’s Chapbook Spring Pick for Wild as in Familiar. Ellaraine teaches poetry workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh. She is currently judging the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contests for Winning Writers.

Ondrej Pazdirek grew up in Prague, Czech Republic and moved to the U.S. at the age of 17. He holds a B.A. degree in English from Florida State University and is currently in his last semester as an M.A. in Poetry at the University of Cincinnati. He is the recipient of the John McKay Shaw Academy of American Poets Award for 2013. He spent the last summer back in Prague as a Taft Graduate Summer Fellow, completing his first book-length manuscript, which is currently undergoing revisions. Ondrej also translates from Czech into English and his translations of Kamil Bouška have recently been published in B O D Y. His own poems have appeared in Bayou Magazine, Radar Poetry and Euphony, among others.

Heather Aimee O’Neill teaches creative writing at CUNY Hunter College and the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. Her most recent collection of poetry, Obliterations, is co-authored with Jessica Piazza and forthcoming by Red Hen Press. A Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow, her poetry chapbook, Memory Future, won the University of Southern California’s Gold Line Press Award, chosen by judge Carol Muske-Dukes, Poet Laureate of California. Her work has been shortlisted for the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner-Wisdom Award and has appeared in numerous literary journals. She is a freelance writer for publications such as Time Out New York, Parents Magazine and Salon.com. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her partner and two sons.

Brenda Peynado’s stories have been selected for the O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 and received prizes from the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, Writers at Work, and the Glimmer Train Fiction Open Contest. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, Epoch, Shenandoah, Mid-American Review, Black Warrior Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, Cimarron Review, and others. She received her MFA from Florida State University and is currently a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati.

esther4 Esther Pfaff is a Munich based fiction-writer focusing on contemporary stories on personal development and family psychology. Her current projects involve a short story collection and a novel. In daily life, she divides her time between her job as an IP lawyer and her home-based writing studio. Esther is a member of the Cambridge Writers Workshop since 2015 and was a student at a Master Class by Julia Cho, Hedgebrook (Seattle) December 5 to 14, 2015.

Jessica Piazza is the author of the award-winning poetry collection Interrobang (Red Hen Press) and the chapbook This is not a sky (Black Lawrence Press). Her third collection, Obliterations (co-written with Heather Aimee O’Neill), is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. Jessica curates the Poetry Has Value blog, where she and others explore the intersection of poetry, money and worth. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, where she teaches Writing & Rhetoric. She co-founded Bat City Review in Austin, TX, Gold Line Press in Los Angeles, CA and is currently the poetry editor for the Southern Pacific Review. Learn more at www.poetryhasvalue.com, or follow her on Twitter @JessWins.

Jonathan Shapiro received MFAs from Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Washington where he was a Klepser fellow. His poems have appeared in Crab Creek Review, Sow’s Ear, Cranky, Erg, The Laurel Review, The Seattle Review, and more. Jonathan’s manuscript was a finalist in the John Ciardi Poetry Prize for first books.

Emily Skaja grew up next to a cemetery in northern Illinois. She holds degrees in Creative Writing from Millikin University (BA), Temple University (MA),
and Purdue University (MFA). During her MFA, she was the Poetry Co-Editor of Sycamore Review. Emily’s poems have been published by or are forthcoming from Best New Poets 2015, Blackbird, Black Warrior Review, Devil’s Lake, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, The Journal, jubilat, Linebreak, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, PANK, The Pinch, Pleiades, Poets.org, Southern Indiana Review, and Vinyl. Emily was the winner of the 2015 Gulf Coast Poetry Prize for her poem “My History As.” Her poems have been shortlisted for the Indiana Review Poetry Prize, the BoothPoetry Prize, the Sonora Review Poetry Prize, and the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest, for which her work was selected as the runner-up. In 2015, Emily was the winner of The Russell Prize for emerging poets, an Academy of American Poets College Prize, and an AWP Intro Award. In the summer of 2015, Emily taught classes in poetry at the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing. Currently, she lives in Ohio, where she is a PhD student in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry at the University of Cincinnati.

Emily Smith is a Managing Editing and Communications Intern for the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop. Originally from Sarasota, Florida, she currently attends school at the New Hampshire Institute of Art where she studies Creative Writing and Art History. She writes for The Ploughshares Blog, Opposing Views, Highbrow Magazine. Her poetry has been published in Walleyed Press, Essence Poetry, and Ayris.

** How to get to Sabor y Cultura:

If you are driving to the event from the Los Angeles Convention Center, you can access Sabor y Cultura by taking US-101 N to N Wilton Place. From there, take exit 8A from US-101 N. Then continue onto N Wilton Place and drive to Hollywood Boulevard. Or, you can take Georgia St to W Olympic Boulevard. Then follow W Olympic Blvd, S Alvarado St and US-101 N to Hollywood Blvd.

If you are planning on taking public transportation, you can access Sabor Y Cultura by walking approximately four minutes from the convention center to the PicoStation where you will take the Metro Blue Line (801) two stops to 7th Street / Metro CenterStation. From the 7th Street / Metro Center Station, walk approximately one minute to the Metro Red Line (802). Take the Metro Red Line (802) heading towards North Hollywood Station ten stops to the Hollywood/Western Station. From there, it is a four minute walk via Hollywood Boulevard to Sabor Y Cultura.

CWW Interview with Bret Anthony Johnston, Harvard Director of Creative Writing and our Barcelona & South of France Fiction Instructor

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Emily Smith

This year, our Barcelona & South of France Writing Retreat will take from July 18 – 26, 2016. At the retreat, we’ll be hosting a wide variety of craft of writing seminars, creative writing workshops. One of our featured faculty members, Bret Anthony Johnston, sat down to speak with Cambridge Writers’ Workshop’s Emily Smith for an interview. Johnston is the author of Remember Me Like This (2014) and the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard University. Read the interview below, and be sure to register for our Summer in Barcelona & South of France Writing Retreat by March 15, 2016!

Emily Smith: In “Don’t Write What You Know,” you point to a quote from Tim O’Brien’s “Good Form” about “story-truth” and “happening-truth.” I immediately thought of Faulkner’s attempts at truth-telling in The Sound and the Fury – that is, his attempt at objectivity through non-traditional narrative and perspective. How do you think truth functions in your own writing?

Bret Anthony Johnston: Thanks for these good questions, Emily. As a fiction writer, I’m far more interested in emotional truth than quantifiable fact. Another way to say that might be that I’m more swayed by authenticity than accuracy. And yet, of course, there’s a paradox here because fiction, unlike fact or lived experience, has the burden of believability. Fiction has to be rendered with such care that its “truth” is unassailable. Lived experience can be, and often is, utterly unbelievable, but fiction lives and dies by far stricter standards. Fiction answers to a higher truth—or at least aspires to one. There is, I believe, something deeply comforting in that reality.

ES: Your book Remember Me Like This has been described as “an exploration of human morality” and a “moral mystery.” In a New York Times review of the book, Eleanor Henderson wrote that your novel was a reminder of the ethics of narration. Does narrative have an obligation to be moral?

BAJ: First off, Eleanor Henderson is a saint, and I feel so lucky that my book made its way to her. I also feel like I owe her a house or a pony or an island. I couldn’t have asked for a better reader or review and I remain incredibly grateful.

The question of morality is nuanced and probably unanswerable, especially in the space we have here. It’s equally possible that the question is more for the reader than the writer. I will say that I have zero interest in judging my characters; in many ways, doing so feels unforgivable. I don’t think of characters as being moral or immoral, good or bad, X or Y. Really, the word ‘or’ feels too limiting, too judgmental, in my thinking about narrative. I’m interested in reading and writing narratives where there is no “or”, but where “and” and only “and” prevails. I want complexity in characters, in stories. I want capaciousness. I want to give the readers a full spectrum of experience, so if they choose to pass judgment on the characters or view a narrative through a lens of morality, they have enough context to do so. The writer’s job is to present questions not answers.

ES: Many of your stories are set in Texas. Aside from growing up in Corpus Christi, what do you think continues to draw your stories back to the state?

BAJ: One of the things we spend a lot of time talking about in my workshops is the notion that place forms and informs character, action and, of course, story. My deeply held belief is that if a writer has access to a story, lived or imagined, then the writer is obligated to tell it, to write it. Stories use writers to get written. I’m interested in those stories that can only happen in a certain place; as a reader, writer, and teacher, I’m most moved by those stories that would be fundamentally different in a different location. So far, in my own writing, those stories have taken place in Texas. I have no agenda or goal. I’m not at all trying to lay claim to a part of the world or stake out any kind of literary plot of land. Rather, the stories from that place keep elbowing their way into my imagination. They insist on being written and I feel lucky, profoundly lucky, to hear and see them.

ES: I recently finished Infinite Jest, and I know that you read during the release party for The Pale King, so I have to ask: how do you think the two books compare? There’s some discussion that The Pale King would not have been as good as Infinite Jest even if it had been completed.

BAJ: What matters to me is that Infinite Jest exists and people can access it at any time. Likewise, I take comfort that many of his short stories and essays are in the world. How one piece of work stacks up against another in a writer’s career is, to my mind, irrelevant. He wrote some flat-out astonishing fiction and nonfiction. The books reward multiple readings in ways that few others do. What more can a writer want? What more can a reader want? I can think of not one thing.

ES: What’s the best writing advice that you’ve personally received?

BAJ: I’ve benefited from so much advice over the years that it’s hard to choose, so I’ll just go with what first comes to mind, maybe because it’s what I’ve heard most recently. Allan Gurganus said that when a writer has the choice between thinking or trusting her way out of a problem on the page, she should always opt for trust. This feels so inarguably true to me that I wish I’d said it.

ES: Finally, I have to ask: you’re a skateboarding enthusiast, so what’s your favorite skateboard trick?

BAJ: The ones I’m trying to learn!

Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, and author of the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent (London) and The Irish Times, and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.

Cambridge Writers’ Workshop takes on AWP 2016 LA!

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Alyssa

AWP2016Poster2

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is coming to Los Angeles for the AWP Conference (March 30 – April 2, 2016)!! We’ve got some exciting plans for AWP, so anyone who is in Los Angeles for AWP should come see us. Last year’s AWP was a success with our bookfair table and reading at Boneshaker Books.

This year, you’ll be able to find us at Table 1157 and find information regarding our upcoming Spring in Newport, Rhode Island (April 22-25, 2016) , Summer in Narbonne & Barcelona (July 18-26, 2016), and Summer in Granada, Spain (July 28-August 5, 2016) Writing Retreats. We’ll have updates on CREDO and information for those who want to become a member of the CWW or apply for internships. We’ll also be hosting our AWP Reading: Cambridge Writers’ Workshop takes on Los Angeles! at Sabor y Cultura (located at 5625 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028) on Friday, April 1, 2016 from 4-7 pm. Our featured writers include Rita Banerjee, Jessica Burnquist, Julialicia Case, Micah Dean Hicks, Ariana Kelly, Gwen E. Kerby, Katie Knoll, Ellaraine Lockie, Heather Aimee O’Neill, Ondrej Pazdirek, Brenda Peynado, Esther Pfaff, Jessica Piazza, Jonathan Shapiro, Emily Smith, and Emily Skaja.

We hope to see you there!

Cambridge Writers’ Workshop #Live Tweeting from Sanders Rally in Manchester, NH!

Posted on February 8, 2016 by admin

Update:

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop was definitely #FeelingtheBern during a Bernie Sanders Rally in Manchester, New Hampshire this week. The rally took place at the historic Palace Theater, which was filled to capacity with supporters for Senator Sanders and press from around the country. Songs like “Revolution” by The Beatles and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” by Bob Dylan blasted through the theater until Sanders finally stepped onto the stage to thunderous applause.

Sanders explained that his campaign does not represent Wall Street or corporate America and argued that the middle class shouldn’t be subsidizing the top 1 percent of earners.

“Democracy is not about billionaires buying elections,” Sanders said.

The Vermont senator also outlined his policies on education: he emphasized funding for education instead of jail for youth, and that earning a degree shouldn’t be punished with crippling debt. His reputation of authenticity was cemented when he asked questions directly to the crowd about student debt and health care – instead of taking questions formally, he simply had a conversation with individuals in the audience.

Although Sanders talked for over an hour, the crowd was begging for more and chanting “Bernie!” as he waved goodbye and left the stage. Voters were clearly fueled by Sanders’ revolutionary-style rhetoric, since he later won the New Hampshire primary by a huge margin.

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop is currently live tweeting the Bernie Sanders Rally from Manchester, New Hampshire. Follow us on twitter at @CamWritersWkshp for live tweets & updates! And stay tuned to this website for full coverage from the rally from our talented managing intern, Emily Smith!

CWW Managing Editorial Intern Emily Smith for the Ploughshares Blog: “The Place of Zines in Contemporary American Politics”

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Emily Smith

zines-2

Zines straddle the border between Fluxist market-dodgers and the reputably tainted world of self-publishing literary dropouts. The difference between a zine and that 50 Shades of Grey-inspired alien erotica novel is function and intention. A zine works as a platform for writing and art that’s too provocative, political, or honest for traditional newsstand publications. According to Barnard College, which hosts one of the primary zine databases, literary zines are not well received, and that’s because literary works already hold a predominant place in the writing world.

As we wait for the results of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, there’s a sense that momentum is building toward a political explosion. A quiet shuffling, for now, which appears like a whisper on the pages of political zines: the most prevalent and useful of the breed.

Read more.

CWW Managing Editorial & Communications Intern Emily Smith for The Ploughshares Blog: Infinite Jest as Performance Art

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Emily Smith

the_young_lord_hamlet

I was at Punta della Dogana in Venice when I first saw Ryan Trecartin’s Center Jenny. The movie was projected on the wall and brooded over Lizzie Fitch’s sculptures: lawn chairs and picnic benches chained to golf course-quality grass like a scary garden party. The film itself follows a group of sorority sisters with psychedelic skin to the soundtrack of breaking glass; their dialogue is alien English, merely clusters of Internet sound bites. The narrative is still in disconnect no matter how many times I watch the film, not quite something that can be revealed without its own consent, by which I mean that Center Jenny is content in control of itself and aware of its own audience—it’s not just video art, or something to be absorbed, but performance art. The same can be said for David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

Read more.

Happy New Year, Writers! -♥️- Cambridge Writers’ Workshop

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Emily Smith

Happy New Year 2016 from the directors, staff, and board of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop! We hope you’re all as excited for 2016 as we are! We’re planning a delightful, productive year for our writers and artists with plenty of opportunities to travel, write, practice yoga, and network, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at our retreats, workshops, readings, and literary fest events in 2016!

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop had a wonderful year in 2015. Over the last twelve months, we’ve had a chance to hold retreats and readings across America and the world, meet exciting writers, yoga practicioneers, and artists, and have found new ways to inspire our own writing. Our year began with the Brooklyn Yoga, Aromatherapy, & Writing Workshop. We restored our minds with invigorating yoga, learned about Essential Oils, and inspired out writing. In February, we joined the 2015 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At AWP 2015, we got a chance to promote CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos & Sourcebook for Creative Writing, advertise our new literary internships, and discuss our Summer Writing Retreats in Granada, Spain and Paris, France, as well as our Spring Writing Retreat in Newport, Rhode Island. We also hosted our second AWP event at Boneshaker Books. At our Books & Bones event, there were featured readings from authors such as Alex Carrigan, Jonah Kruvant, Dena Rash Guzman, Leah Umansky, Anca Szilagyi, Micah Dean Hicks, Michele Nereim, Bianca Stone, Jessica Piazza, Jess Burnquist, Sheila McMullin, and Brenda Peynado.

After AWP 2015, we were off to our first annual Spring Writing Retreat in Newport, Rhode Island. We were joined by award-winning and internationally-renowned authors such as Kathleen Spivack and Stephen Aubrey, in addition to CWW directors Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai, and CWW yoga instructor Elissa Lewis. The event was a chance for writers to spend a long weekend in historic Newport and near the beach, participating in writing workshops (such as Aubrey’s workshops on theater and Spivack’s workshops on developing manuscripts) and craft of writing seminars, yoga classes, and cultural tours of the historic Newport village. We liveblogged the entire event as well, sharing dozens of photos from our trip while also allowing our writers to share their thoughts on the experience.

During the summer we hosted our Summer in Granada and Summer in Paris Writing Retreats. In Paris, we explored the city and all of its historical, literary, and romantic charm. The retreat included craft of writing seminars and creative writing workshops, literary tours of Paris, daily yoga and meditation classes, and one-on-one manuscript consultations. We were also joined by Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and New York Times bestselling author David Shields, who taught workshops about collage, appropriation, and collaboration. CWW directors Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai taught workshops on stakes and building character, and also led workshops for participants to share their work and use the Liz Lerman method for critiquing writing. We live blogged our Paris retreat on our website, so feel free to check it out and see our workshops, as well as our excursions to Shakespeare and Company, Versailles and Au Chat Noir. We were really happy to experience this with all of our participants, who traveled from all over the U.S, as well as England and Australia, to come write and explore Paris with us.

In Granada, wrote in the city’s winding streets, absorbed its Moorish history, and were inspired by its evocative landscapes. The retreat included craft of writing seminars and writing workshops and yoga classes. We were joined by Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and Pushcart Prize winner Peter Orner, who led a workshop on Spanish literature. Diana Norma Szokolyai led workshops on voice and stakes, while Rita Banerjee led a workshop on narrative development. We also live blogged this trip, so you can see all the exciting things we did on this trip, such as seeing Poeta in Nueva York and shopping for fans.

We hosted a Brooklyn Bookend Reading at Muchmore’s during The Brooklyn Book Festival. Some of the writers had emerged onto the literary scene with a bang, while others had recently published their first or second books, and had received prestigious awards in the past. The event was moderated by Diana Norma Szokolyai and included writers Rita Banerjee, Jonah Kruvant, Brandon Lewis, Elizabeth Devlin, Lisa Marie Basile, Jessica Reidy, Gregory Crosby, Matty Marks, and Emily Smith.

In November, we also hosted our annual Pre-Thanksgiving Writing & Yoga Cleanse. The two day event kicked off with yoga lessons from Elissa Lewis, followed by creative writing workshops and craft seminars from Jessica Reidy. Our Pre-Thanksgiving Writing & Yoga Cleanse was an opportunity for the participants to cleanse themselves mentally, spiritually, and creatively before the bustling holiday season.

In 2015, we continued our work on CREDO Anthology of Manifestos & Sourcebook for Creative Writing. The collection will feature personal writer manifestos, essays on writing advice, and writing exercises to help spur creativity. Our staff has greatly enjoyed critiquing and conversing with writers on this publication, and more information about publication will be announced in the upcoming year.

In 2015, we welcomed our second round of interns to the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, and these interns include the wonderful Emily Smith, Casey Lynch, and Alyssa Goldstein, all of whom have helped the CWW greatly this year. They’ve helped manage our social media and written up posts about our events, shown their talent for graphic design and corresponding with writers and hosts in French, Spanish, and English, and have provided much valuable assistance on our retreats and literary events this year. We’re excited to have Emily, Casey, and Alyssa, on our team, and we can’t wait to show you what they’ve helped us plan for 2016!

This was also a good year for our individual staff members getting published. CWW co-director Rita Banerjee had her poetry published in Quail Bell Magazine, Riot Grrrl Magazine, and The Monarch Review. Her interview with CWW visiting professor and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient David Shields was published in Electric Literature. CWW co-director Diana Norma Szokolyai reported for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts on”The Defensive Male Writer.” CWW Executive Board Member Jessica Reidy‘s “Why the Pyres are Unlit” was released in Drunken Boat’s Romani Folio and her poetry was nominated by The Poetry Blog for “Best of the Net.” Managing Intern Alex Carrigan had his work published in Strike! and Quail Bell Magazine and Managing Intern Emily Smith became a Contributing Blogger for Ploughshares.

While 2015 proved to be a very exciting year for all of us, our staff is quite ready to move on to our next round of exciting events. The CWW will once again table at AWP in Los Angeles from March 30-April 2, 2016, and will be announcing our AWP Reading in downtown Los Angeles shortly!

Join us April 21-24, 2016 for our second annual Spring in Newport, Rhode Island Writing Retreat. Our Newport retreat offers the opportunity for writers of all genres and levels to work alongside award-winning authors & editors to hone their craft and expand their writing skills, while working on new or existing projects. In the past, faculty has included internationally renowned author and writing coach Kathleen Spivack, Stephen Aubrey, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Rita Banerjee, and Elissa Lewis.

The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Summer in Narbonne & Barcelona Writing Retreat will take place July 18-26, 2016. The retreat offers participating writers of all genres and levels to work alongside award-winning authors and editors. Participating writers will hone their craft and expand their writing skills, while working on new or existing projects. There will also be time to explore the city of Barcelona, Spain and the beaches of Narbonne, France. Our past France retreats have included David Shields, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Rita Banerjee, Jessica Reidy, and Elissa Lewis as faculty members.

And from July 28-August 5, 2016, join the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop on our summer writing retreat to the cultural oasis of Granada, Spain. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Andalucía, Granada is one of the gems of Spain and has inspired writers from Washington Irving to Salman Rushdie to Ali Smith. Let the old city stimulate your writing with its winding streets, Moorish history, and evocative landscapes. Or, indulge in delicious Andalucían cuisine and traditional Arab baths. Work with world-renowned authors on your manuscript, or look to the beauty and warmth of Granada to inspire all-new projects. In our past Granada retreat, faculty has included Peter Orner, Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, and Elissa Lewis.

We hope you are all as excited for our 2016 events as we are. Information on our upcoming 2016 retreats and readings will be going live in January 2016! If you have any questions we may not have answered, you can email us at info@cambridgewritersworkshop.org, and for inquiries, please email the CWW Directors, Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai, at directors@cambridgewritersworkshop.org. You can also follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter for more information and updates on any of these events. We look forward to making 2016 a year full of creativity, writing, and renewal, so join us as we make 2016 rock!

— Emily Smith & Alex Carrigan, CWW Managing Interns

Newport Writing & Yoga Retreat 2015 – April 5, 2015

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Emily Smith

Christina Rau & Steph Auteri

Norma making French toast

Stephen & Participant Judy Young

Brunch! French toast, mimosas, & scrambled eggs

While some of the participants enjoyed a session of Energizing Yoga with Elissa, Norma slaved away in the kitchen making French toast for the Farewell Brunch. Rita made red pepper scrambled eggs. Mimosas and fresh fruit made the Farewell Brunch a delicious one.

During the meal, the faculty and writers sat around the table and discussed writing goals for the future. We even vowed to stay in touch and have been hosting mini workshops each week on the Cambridge Writer’s Workshop NING member network (learn more about that here).

We were sad to see everyone leave, but can’t wait to see them at our upcoming retreats in Paris and Granada!

– Emily Smith

Cambridge Writers' Workshop

Tag Archives: Emily Smith