Critique Sessions

Receive a professional critique performed by a professional writer.

Critique Session - maximum of five people per group.

Cost - $20 per person.

If you'd like to audit a Critique Session. (Listening only.) The cost is $10 at the door.

State your genre - fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry during registration. (Registrtion buttons coming soon.)

Reservations are on a first come, first served basis.

What will happen in the Critique Session?

Your writing will be workshopped on the spot.

*We don’t guarantee a particular workshop leader, but we will ensure your selected genre.

How to Prepare

Bring six copies of a brief piece (350 word maximum for poetry, 650 word maximum for prose).

You will read their work aloud and receive brief feedback from the other group participants.

Listen carefully while others read, offer feedback and suggestions.

Each Critique Session leader will summarize the comments as needed, use examples from the piece to illustrate key points about the genre, highlight possibilities for revision, and provide individual feedback for the participant.

Critique Session Genres & Leaders

*Note: Each critique leader will tweak session guidelines to fit their workshop method/teaching style

Poetry Critique Session with Gene Berson - Blacken Thy Page with Fried Shoes

It’s an exciting step for a writer to advance onto a more public stage by presenting his or her poems for others to critique. This session will give poets the essential chance to receive serious, supportive critiques on their work— from others engaged in the same process.

Fiction & Memoir Critique Session with Sands Hall

Both fiction writers and memoirists are welcome in this critique session. Whether we are creating a story (fiction) or re-creating memories (memoir), these two genres share many aspects of writing craft. For instance, we need to establish who is telling the story, and how we get that narrator across to the reader; we must know what a character wants, and what is in the way of achieving that want; we need to know how to build scenes. Please plan to read aloud 500 words (it’s a good idea to practice). A discussion will follow, with commentary from your fellow writers and me. You will be surprised and delighted by how much is revealed, from a brief excerpt, about your writing: those aspects of it that are working well, and those that could use improvement; ideas that will apply not only to the pages under examination, but to your work as a whole.

Fiction Critique Session with Catharine Bramkamp

Work with Catharine to figure out the plot lines, syntax and focus for your work in progress. This is a collaborative effort to improve and expand the novels and stories brought to the class. The environment is supportive and non judgmental. Stories and experiences all have merit, what we will work on is how to best convey the meaning of the story, and the point of the plot.