Coming soon: The Able Muse 30-Day Writing Program

Dear Eratosphereans,


As all of you who observe or participate in our Distinguished Guest events already know, I’ve been successful in approaching and convincing celebrated poets and writers to appear and give us of their time free of charge. Thus, the DG forum has recently been graced by such renowned guests as Charles Martin, Michael Juster, Rachel Hadas, and Dorianne Laux to name a few. None of that is going to change, and I will continue to bring acclaimed Distinguished Guests to volunteer their times and insight for our edification and enlightenment.

However, in a new development, I have been looking into the option of enhancing that experience with a more intensive and targeted interaction with a Distinguished-Guest caliber instructor. Or, let’s just call it a new option for a mini-conference in an online setting, with most of the benefits of its brick-and-mortar equivalent and little of its drawbacks of cost and time away. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve worked out the technical infrastructure that will facilitate such online instruction to the point where it will be as close as possible to a physical classroom experience.

The first online course will be conducted by our forthcoming Fiction Workshop Distinguished Guest, Nina Schuyler. I have scheduled it such that Nina will segue from the end of her Distinguished Guest Fiction workshop straight into teaching this 30-day writing program (for poetry, fiction and nonfiction). Nina also teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco, and as many of you already know, she’s the fiction editor of Able Muse (complete bio and details here). Here are some of the features of this program:

• this will be a poetry, fiction and nonfiction writing program.
• even though it will be online, we will provide as close to a physical classroom experience as possible
• a forum will be set aside for participants to discuss the assignment, or other issues or interest, and the instructor may drop in as warranted
• a weekly lecture/interview session will be provided, which will include computer-based online interactive tools for workshop members. The technology will allow voice and video interaction with the instructor and between participants comfortable with such an interaction. Your web browser will be the only software tool needed to join in! Those who are technology-challenged will be able to link into the conversation from their regular home phones.
• for thirty days, you’ll receive a series of triggers: a writing exercise trigger, a sentence trigger, and random words trigger.
• weekly interview with a published author about his or her process.
• weekly craft lecture.
• and much more, as detailed here.

All this will be for the minimal stipend of less than one buck daily! Now, compare this to the cost of traveling to a brick-and-mortar workshop venue for just a couple of days for a comparable course! A normal brick and mortar conference or workshop usually runs for a few days and costs several hundreds of dollars in registration fees, not including travel and other expenses. However, for a comparatively tiny contribution to help defray the cost of the course infrastructure, and for the instructor’s time and effort, you too can partake in the 30-day Able Muse Writing program!

Register now to reserve your space because there’s a quota to the size of the virtual classroom that will be leased for this program. Full details including Nina’s bio and registration information is now available here.

Cheers,
…Alex