Slated for July 17-20 on the Downtown area of campus, the workshop is designed to give writers at any stage of their careers the opportunity to improve their craft in a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
Participants will work with nationally and internationally acclaimed authors in classes of no more than 14 students. The workshop also features readings, craft talks, writing exercises and a publishing panel.
Joy Priest, a prize-winning poet and novelist, will give a craft talk and lead a writing exercise during the workshop. Priest, the 2020 recipient of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, is the author of “Horsepower” (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020) and the editor of “Once a City Said: A Louisville Poetry Anthology” (Sarabande, 2023).
Also on the faculty this year is Ashley Blooms, novelist and author of “Where I Can’t Follow and Every Bone a Prayer.” Her work has been nominated for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize, Weatherford Award and Judy Gaines Young Book Award. She has also been named a South Arts State Literary Fellow for Kentucky.
Mark Brazaitis, the workshop director and professor of English, will also be on the faculty. The coordinator of the WVU Creative Writing Program, he is the author of three novels, a book of poems and five collections of short stories.
The short stories include “The Incurables,” winner of the 2012 Richard Sullivan Prize and the 2013 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award in Prose, and “The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala,” the winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award.
The workshop’s tuition is priced to be affordable.
Sign up to participate in the workshop.
For questions, contact Brazaitis at 304-276-8846 or Mark.Brazaitis@mail.wvu.edu