Jessica Reidy’s short story, “We Rise Up” Short Story of the Week in Narrative Magazine, was nominated for a 2014 Puschart Prize! Jessica will be our Fiction Instructor at the 2014 Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Yoga & Creative Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne. She is a writer, poet, and teacher from New Hampshire with an MFA in Fiction from Florida State University and a B.A. from Hollins University. Her work has appeared in Narrative Magazine as Short Story of the Week, The Los Angeles Review, Arsenic Lobster, and other journals. She’s a staff-writer for Quail Bell Magazine where she writes non-fiction pieces about feminism, Romani (“Gypsy”) rights and representation, social justice, arts and culture, and other topics, plus the occasional poem or short story. She is also part of the Social Media Outreach team for VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts and she’s delighted to be teaching and traveling with The Cambridge Writers Workshop. Jessica is currently working on her first novel about Coco Charbonneau, the half-Romani burlesque dancer and fortune teller of Zenith Circus, in post-WWII Paris, and her quest for vengeance and justice. Read her review of our Summer 2013 Yoga & Creative Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne here.
Tag Archives: fiction
Cambridge Writers’ Workshop 2014 Retreat Featured in Poets & Writers Magazine
Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Elissa Lewis, and Jessica Reidy are featured in the March/April 2014 Writers Retreats Issue of Poets & Writers Magazine for their instruction in the 2014 Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne. In this special issue of Poets & Writers, the “Conferences & Residencies” section features the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop 2014 Summer Retreat in France. The 2014 Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat will be held from August 7 to August 20 at the Château de Verderonne in Picardy, France, located approximately 50 miles north of Paris. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft seminars, art classes, time to write, and daily yoga and meditation classes. Optional excursions to Paris and Chantilly are also available to participants. The faculty includes poets Rita Banerjee and Diana Norma Szokolyai, fiction writer Jessica Reidy, and yoga and arts instructor Elissa Lewis. – P&W
CWW 2014 Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne, France!
The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Annual Yoga & Writing Retreat will be held from August 7 -20, 2014 at the Château de Verderonne in Picardy, France, located approximately 50 miles north of Paris. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft of writing seminars, art classes, free time to write, and daily yoga and meditation classes. Writers of all genres and levels are welcome. Yoga practitioners of all levels are also welcomed (we have experience adapting the yoga sequences to meet the level of beginner-advanced participants). Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring their own long-term projects to work on. Whether writers are beginners or advanced, CWW workshops have a history of success in generating new writing.
Optional excursions to Paris and Chantilly are also available to participants. The faculty includes Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Elissa Lewis, and Jessica Reidy. The cost of the conference is $3,200, which includes lodging, meals, writing workshops, yoga classes and transportation to and from the airport.
CWW Summer 2013 Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne
Come join us for our second annual writing retreat in France. This year, we will stay at the Château de Verderonne (45 min from Paris), in a lovely and spacious 17th century manor house. A French chef will prepare all of our meals on site, and we will dine together in the large kitchen or on the terrace. Enjoy walks through the château at your leisure, take refuge writing in the drawing rooms, or relax in the sprawling gardens. The ancient discipline of yoga directly benefits the creative process. Yoga heals and strengthens posture and chronic tensions common to writers, making writing time more productive. Calm the nervous system through meditation and breathing exercises. Writers & Co-Directors of Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee will be your guides and help you create the space you need to nurture your writing projects. Certified yoga instructor/visual artist Elissa Lewis will guide participants in daily yoga and meditation exercises.
The Art of Fiction Workshop (March 17 – May 26, 2013)
Creating and developing a character, no matter how autobiographical, is difficult. Though writing down one’s experience may seem easier, in the end a writer has to look closely and objectively at her character. A writer has to treat a character as an “other,” although there may be pieces of the writer in each character. This class will introduce various aspects of character development. Students will use contrasting environments and unfamiliar situations, as well as “other” voices and perspectives to understand the deep desires and fears of their characters. Any of the exercises may develop into a longer, well-developed story for the latter half of the class. Alongside workshopping each participant’s stories, we will read and discuss the work of well-known writers, developing and using our descriptive commentary skills for constructive critique and using the class community to give each participant vital feedback about her work.
CWW Summer 2012 Eco-Living & Writing Retreat at the Château de Sacy
The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop hosted a 10-day Writing and Eco-Living Retreat at Château de Sacy in Picardy, France from August 22-31, 2012. The retreat featured craft of writing seminars, intensive writing sessions, daily workshop classes, three organic meals/day and lodging at the chateau as well as trips to Paris, Versailles, and the French countryside
Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Literary Cabaret (Brooklyn Lit Crawl 2012)
On May 19, 2012, the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop hosted a Literary Cabaret at the inaugural Brooklyn Lit Crawl. The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Literary Cabaret took place at 6 pm at Ceol Bar in Brooklyn and featured performances and readings by writers Diana Norma Szokolyai, Rita Banerjee, Gregory Crosby, and Leah Umansky. Audience members were also joined in the dramatic performances! The CWW Literary Cabaret received some wonderful press and was written about in Time Out New York, the PEN American Center, the Village Voice, and the NY Daily News!
On Craft and Writing with the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop (Mass Poetry Festival 2012 Panel)
On April 21, 2012, the CWW held a literary salon conversation at the 2012 Mass Poetry Festival in Salem, MA. The panel entitled On Writing and Craft with the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop took place Saturday April 21 from 2:45-3:45 at the Salem Community Charter School, Room 4, and featured writers Diana Norma Szokolyai, Rita Banerjee, Kathleen Spivack, Arto Vaun, Samantha Milowsky, and Gregory Crosby.
Cambridge Writers’ Workshop AWP 2012 Reading
On March 3, 2012, the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop hosted an off-site reading at AWP in Chicago, IL. The AWP Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Reading included writers Rita Banerjee, Pattabi Seshadri, Jessica Piazza, Brandon Krieg, Rebecca Lindenberg, Marc McKee, Tara Skurtu, Derek JG Williams, Colleen O’Brien, and Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein.
Cambridge Writers' Workshop 
