Date: Apr 11, 2013

Dive Into Writing This Summer

Hofstra University's English Department and Creative Writing Program Present the 39th Annual Summer Writers Program, July 8 to 19, 2013

The Summer Writers Program includes guest speakers, and exposure to award-nominated and winning authors. Often, agents, editors and publishers make presentations during the program, and authors and students read from published work and works in progress. These presentations offer additional opportunities to meet informally with participants, master writers and guest speakers.

Courses are offered concurrently from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. each day and may be taken on a noncredit or credit (graduate or undergraduate) basis. Non-credit participant tuition is $650 for the two-week, 10-session course. Students wishing to take the program for course credit should contact Professor Pioreck at the number above for more information.

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This year's workshops and mentors include:

SHORT FICTION WRITING, taught by Paul Zimmerman
Character and plot are inherently intertwined; it is often said that character IS plot. In this short fiction workshop, character is closely examined in order to better understand story, focusing particularly on how a character’s need or desire is the driving engine of the narrative. Other key components of fiction, including structure, dialogue, style, language and theme, are also explored as we create new short stories, or revise old ones. The class is conducted in the classic workshop manner, where the writer is offered a thorough but always constructive, always supportive discussion of her or his work. Besides in-class exercises, reading and discussing illuminative published stories serves to add to the student’s understanding of craft. A writer’s life can be a solitary one, but by participating in a writing workshop, an author can be both fueled and grounded by helpful feedback.

Paul Zimmerman currently teaches creative writing at Hofstra University and NYC’s Gotham Writers’ Workshop. He wrote the screenplay for A Modern Affair (Audience Award winner at the Long Island Film Festival). As well as spending several years as writer-in-residence for Tribe Pictures, he has written screenplays for many other production companies, and is a contributor to Gotham’s book Writing Movies (Bloomsbury Press). As a playwright, he is a grant winner from the New York Public Theater. His play Pigs and Bugs has been produced by the Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles and the Phantom Theater in Vermont. His plays Reno and The Founder have been seen in New York City and Los Angeles, and at colleges and performance spaces nationwide. His fiction recently appeared in the journal Confrontation.

WRITING THE NOVEL, taught by Reed Farrel Coleman
A novel is more than thoughts and feelings loosely strung together. It is more than a series of stories linked end to end. A novel is about characters, setting, theme, tone, point of view, dramatic structure, narrative, pacing, entertainment value and a thousand other things. A good novel is a test of more than the author’s talent or vision. Mostly, a novel is about questions and choices. Through lectures, in-class exercises and daily writing, students develop their editorial ears and authorial muscles. They come to understand how each choice a writer makes has a cascading effect on the work at hand. By the end of the term the student will have gained a sense of competence and confidence in their process and routine.

Reed Farrel Coleman has been called a “hard-boiled poet” by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the “noir poet laureate” by The Huffington Post. He has published 14 novels. Mr. Coleman is a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year and is a two-time Edgar® Award nominee. He has also won the Macavity, Anthony and Barry Awards. He was co-editor of the poetry journals Poetry Bone and The Lineup, as well as editor of the short story anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn. His essays, poetry and short fiction have appeared in The Long Island Quarterly, Wall Street Noir, The Darker Mask, Brooklyn Noir 3, and several other publications. He is also the former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. The New York Times said of his latest novel, Gun Church, that “his narrative voice shows his character’s earned redemption.”

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution of higher education where more than 11,000 full and part-time students choose from undergraduate and graduate offerings in liberal arts and sciences, business, engineering, applied science, communication, education, health sciences and human services, honors studies, the Maurice A. Deane School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.
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