How to Choose a Writing Workshop:
Does the leader have an MFA in Writing from a renowned program?
When you practice and study writing with a graduate of a well-established Master of Fine Arts degree program, that instructor passes on a wealth of wisdom and artistic skill to you—whether you are a beginning writer or an MFA graduate yourself. An instructor with an MFA maintains connections to such programs, has insider know-how on publishing and winning contests, and can help counsel you wherever you may be on your own writing journey. Vanessa Blakeslee is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, one of the oldest programs of its kind. Atlantic Monthly has named VCFA’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program among the top five strongest low-residency MFA programs in the United States. She also attends some of the nation's top literary conferences each year, including the Sewanee Writers' Conference and AWP.
Is the leader a practicing, published writer and gifted teacher?
A published instructor has reached a level of professional expertise both in the honing of her own craft as well as the business of publishing based on first-hand experience. Vanessa's short stories and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in well-known literary publications like the Cimarron Review, The Madison Review, The New York Quarterly, Illuminations, Georgetown Review, and other places. Her poetry chapbook, “The Woman-Beast,” was named a finalist in the 2008 YellowJacket Press Chapbook Award for Florida Poets. Her short story collection, “Bistro Girls” was recently named a finalist in the 2008 Sol Books Prose Series Contest. She was also a recipient of a 2009 United Arts of Central Florida Professional Development Grant and fellowships to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow.
A gifted teacher has worked with diverse groups of students and consistently pursues advancement of teaching credentials through workshops, conferences, or training programs. Vanessa has taught expository and creative writing classes from introductory to advanced. She has completed extensive training in the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method developed over twenty-five years ago by Pat Schneider. Vanessa is also a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), Pen America, and the Florida Writers Association. The Performing Arts of Maitland selected Vanessa Blakeslee to serve as the Executive Director of its new branch, Maitland Poets & Writers, which serves the Central Florida community.
Do the workshops strike a balance of encouraging, innovative exercises plus the opportunity for critical feedback on longer works, fostering your growth as a writer? Craft workshops can often get stuck in a rut of delivering more negative feedback rather than constructive, helpful comments, and they can focus more on revising older work rather than pushing the writer into fresh territory. In The Art of Fiction, famous writer and teacher John Gardner suggests “freeing up” with exercises as a way to “tap into” real-life people and infuse fiction with life because while writing an exercise, “the writer is in the ideal artistic state, both serious and not serious.” Our AWA workshops use a similar method: we write in response to prompts stemming from fiction, poetry and memoir. The writer’s true voice is captured in a supportive community. We then invite writers to submit longer works for insightful feedback and constructive criticism in the second half of the workshop session. And our Book Project Workshops use insightful critical discussion to take book-length works to the next level—whether you’re an emerging writer with a manuscript that needs to stand out for an MFA in Writing application, or an established writer who needs to nail a grant project application, win a fellowship, or polish your novel in order to secure an agent or editor.
Do the workshops provide a proven, nuts-and-bolts approach to getting your work published sooner rather than later, or possibly never?
We offer workshop sessions on how to dramatically increase your acceptances at literary magazines and presses, query letter do’s and don’ts, and other tips for getting your work published. Our database system and record-keeping template is an indispensable user-friendly tool that has a proven track record.
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. ~Flannery O'Connor
