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Workshop Description
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Date: October 20–24, 2010
Arrive Wednesday, October 20, at 3 PM for a tour of HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN® and Boyds Mills Press.
Depart Sunday, October 24, after lunch.

Designed For: Writers who are ready to discover and develop their authentic voices, so that their work will be deep and real enough to stand out from the competition.

Maximum Capacity: 9 participants

  
 

WORKSHOP FOCUS
Our greatest writers write from their guts, from their own truths. They dig deep until they reach a vein within themselves that is pure gold. And then they tell the stories that only they can tell, as only they can tell them.

It often takes years for a writer to find his or her authentic voice. This intensive activity- and writing-based workshop has been developed to break writers through to their authentic voices. Through a series of activities and writing exercises, participants will learn how to discover and write their own stories.

Exercises will include

  •  daily focused freewrites
  •  point-of-view exercises
  •  sensory-image activities
  •  mind-mapping activities
  •  found-poem walk
  •  fireside self-expression circles

Critiquing
Each participant will receive a one-on-one critique with the workshop leader on the first full day, and a one-on-one on the last day to evaluate progress and offer ways to continue to move forward. Throughout the five days, group writing sessions will be followed by sharing and feedback sessions.

Special Guests
On several nights, published authors and experienced editors will join us for a predinner talk about how they found their own writing voices.

Preworkshop assignment: Each participant is encouraged to submit a manuscript of up to ten pages to arrive two weeks before the workshop begins. If submitting a novel, please also include a synopsis.

Workshop Fee of $895 includes cozy, individual cabins; all meals (provided by a top-notch chef); airport pickup service, if needed; and an intimate teaching setting in the living room of the Founders of Highlights for Children!
Request an Application for this Workshop General Workshop Information
  Workshop Leader


Kim T. Griswell

Kim T. Griswell
Kim is a senior editor for Highlights, Inc. and works with the Highlights Foundation and Boyds Mills Press. She served as the coordinating editor of Highlights for six years and Highlights High Five for a year. Her work in the children’s literature field has spanned the worlds of publishing and teaching, leading her to positions as senior editor of Bookbag magazine, book development manager for The Mailbox Book Company, a university and community college instructor, and a teacher with the Institute of Children’s Literature. She holds master’s degrees in teaching writing and in literature from Humboldt State University. She has taught writing workshops across the country on such topics as Focusing Nonfiction, Mystery Writing, Creating a Sense of Place, Writing for Children’s Magazines, Nature as Muse, and The Hero’s Journey. A prolific writer and committed editor, Kim has published more than two hundred short stories, articles, and columns. Her books include Carnivorous Plants, Nonfiction Reading Practice (Grade 3), and many stories in the four-book series, Short Short Stories for Reading Aloud. In 2008, Kim was awarded a two-month writing residency at the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology in Oregon. www.kimgriswell.com.