Franny Billingsley
Franny writes middle-grade and young-adult fantasies. Her most recent novel, Chime, was nominated for the National Book Award. Her novel The Folk Keeper won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Mythopoeic Award.
Laura Ruby
Laura is the author of the children’s mystery Lily’s Ghosts, the children’s fantasy The Wall and the Wing, and a sequel, The Chaos King. She also writes contemporary fiction for older teens, and her debut young-adult novel, Good Girls, was a Book Sense Pick for fall 2006 and an ALA Quick Pick for 2007.
Anne Ursu
Anne is the author of several books for young readers. Her book BREADCRUMBS was a Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, BCCB, and Amazon.com Best Book of the Year.
Christine Heppermann
We’re pleased to welcome Christine as a Teaching Assistant for this course. A long-time reviewer for the Horn Book Magazine, Christine has a nonfiction book, City Chickens, Houghton Mifflin, 2012.
Cheryl Pientka
Cheryl Pientka always wanted to work in book publishing but took a slightly different route to get there. She spent her twenties working at trade magazines and for the Associated Press in Washington, DC, and New York.
Deborah Kovacs
Deborah Kovacs is editorial director of Walden Pond Press, a joint imprint of HarperCollins and Walden Media, specializing in middle-grade fiction. Notable recent and forthcoming books on the list include Breadcrumbs…
Workshop Description
Founded in 2006, this session of the Whole Novel Workshop is specifically designed for those working in the fantasy genre. This unique program offers the one-on-one attention found in degree programs, but without additional academic requirements, lengthy time commitments, or prohibitive financial investments. Our aim is to focus on a specific fantasy work in progress, moving a novel to the next level in preparation for submission to agents or publishers. Focused attention in an intimate setting makes this mentorship program one that guarantees significant progress.
Our novel mentorship program includes:
- focused, one-on-one response to your entire novel-in-progress from an accomplished author, agent, or editor currently working in the genre of fantasy;
- group discussion and feedback;
- faculty seminars on technique, craft, query letters, and agent/editor submissions; and
- ample time to write and revise.
The Whole Novel Workshop offers writers the rare opportunity to have the entire draft of a novel read and critiqued prior to the workshop, followed by a week of intense, one-on-one mentoring.
The Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshop Difference
AN INTIMATE PROGRAM Each Whole Novel Workshop is limited to sixteen students. Each faculty member will work with only four students, providing undivided attention and several one-on-one sessions as well as a reading of your complete manuscript prior to the workshop.
A PLACE TO WRITE Each attendee has a rustic but comfortable cabin, complete with its own bathroom, coffee maker, and refrigerator. You will have your own quiet place in which to write and revise.
TIME TO FOCUS During your workshop, you’ll be able to focus—maybe for the first time—on nothing but your novel. You won’t hear a TV in the background or have kids demanding attention. You won’t have to stop to do laundry or cook or clean. You won’t be distracted by a constantly ringing phone.
A BEAUTIFUL SETTING Tucked in the northern Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, the mid-nineteenth-century farmhouse, home of the Founders of Highlights for Children, has played host to numerous creative spirits. The brand-new Barn at Boyds Mills, built from local wood and fieldstone, provides a revitalizing space for writers to work and confer.
Workshop Information
Begins with dinner on Sunday, May 12, and ends Saturday, May 18, after breakfast.
Event Cost: $2665
