The cost for each class is $25, or $20 for college students or members (those who have made a charitable contribution in 2009). A package of all five workshops is also available. Converse College is our partner in this program.

REGISTER FOR ALL FIVE

January 11

Poetry Workshop with Peter Meinke

How do you find the best shape or form for your poem? The distinguished Florida poet, whose visit is sponsored by Converse College, will lead a session based on his book The Shape of Poetry. He will present examples, both formal and informal poetry, and students will work on their own. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker and dozens of literary magazines; and has received numerous awards, including two NEA Fellowships, three prizes from the Poetry Society of America, two O'Henry Awards, and many others. He directed the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College for several decades, taking early retirement in 1993. Before and since then, he has been writer-in-residence at Hamilton College, Davidson College, the University of Hawaii, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Old Dominion University, Wichita State University, and other schools. Students should bring one poem to this class.

7-9 p.m.

$25 ($20 for college students and members) REGISTER

February 1

Fiction workshop with Scott Gould

Without conflict, you don't have a story. Using examples from published stories and in-class exercises, Greenville short story writer Scott Gould will help students learn to generate a conflict quickly in their fiction. Gould directs the creative writing program at the SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. His poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published in magazines and anthologies including Kenyan Review, Kansas Quarterly, New Stories from the South and others. He has received the Literature Fellowship from the SC Arts Commission and is a multiple winner in the SC Fiction Project. He has an MFA from Warren Wilson College.

7-9 p.m.

$25 ($20 for college students and members) REGISTER

March 15

Fiction workshop with Erin McGraw

This class will focus on revision-the ability to re-see and more deeply comprehend our own work, and to make changes based on that new comprehension. She will lead students through the creation of an outline, and then how to fiddle with that outline to see how it might be profitably changed. The point is to help students work with flexibility, not always the easiest thing in the world. McGraw grew up in California and teaches at Ohio State University with her husband, the poet Andrew Hudgins. Her newest novel, The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard, was published in 2008 by Houghton-Mifflin. Before that she published The Good Life (stories), The Baby Tree (a novel), Lies of the Saints (stories, and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996), and Bodies at Sea (stories). . Her visit to Spartanburg is sponsored by Converse College.

7-9 p.m.

$25 ($20 for college students and members) REGISTER

April 19

Poetry workshop with Susan Meyers

Crucial to the art of a poem is its syntax, how the words are put together for the sake of ideal phrasing. In this workshop we'll focus on the role of syntax in orchestrating a poem's music-how it affects pacing, tension, and tone. We'll pay attention to not only what the poem says but also how it goes about saying it. The class (open to poets of all levels of experience) will discuss numerous syntactical approaches, read sample poems, and generate new work. Susan Meyers is the author of Keep and Give Away, winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize, the SIBA Book Award for Poetry, and the Brockman-Campbell Book Award. Her poems have also been published in The Southern Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, jubilat, and other journals, as well as Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. A long-time writing instructor, she has an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte.

7-9 p.m.

$25 ($20 for college students and members) REGISTER

May 17

Memoir workshop with Joni Tevis

The Furman University creative writing professor will lead a session called "If Your Wheels Are Turning, You're Double-Earning: Work Experience as Memoir Material." Using examples, such as Studs Terkel, and exercises to go along with them, she will help students begin a draft based on work experience, paid or unpaid. Tevis, a South Carolina native, earned her PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.  Her work has been published in Isotope, Shenandoah, Conjunctions, Pleiades, The Bellingham Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Plenty, and elsewhere. The Wet Collection, her book of lyric essays, was published in August 2007 by Milkweed Editions.

7-9 p.m.

$25 ($20 for college students and members) REGISTER