Getting Published: The Art and Craft of Creative Writing

No charge. Open invitation for aspiring writers of fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry, plays, screenplays.

To paraphrase Wallace Stegner, the founder of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University, "the art of writing cannot be taught, but it can be learned" -- by studying the craft in writing workshops.

At 7:00 p.m., we'll begin with sharing our reader-responses to a craft example from Janet Burroway's "Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft." Next, we'll work on our individual writing projects and, toward closing time, share (optional) excerpts from our works-in-progress.

Organizer: A recent MFA in Creative Writing, I've published humorous stories in literary magazines such as San Francisco's ZYZZYVA, Berkeley Fiction Review, Ishmael Reed's Konch. My current projects: "Seven Rivers, a novel" and blog. I started by studying Burroway's "Imaginative Writing, first edition" and doing its "Try This" Exercises. This facilitated my writing an application-story for admission to a competitive MFA program. It also prepared me to make better-informed comments in the MFA Writing Workshops and, later, in consulting with professional editors.

To participate, all members must have access to Janet Burroway's IMAGINATIVE WRITING, FOURTH EDITION, as the examples of craft will be chosen from the book. It's the required textbook at Stanford and UCBerkeley courses. See my detailed review on amazon.com.

(Earlier, I received a Ph.D. degree in Psychology at Stanford, specializing in Organizational Behavior.) -- C. J. Singh