Fallbrook’s Writers Read 2011 Winter Workshops

Creative writing workshops for beginning and seasoned writers, because writing is not for sissies — it’s for everyone!

New in 2011 — Creative Texting: A Writing Workshop for 13- to 17-Year-Olds

Creative writing workshops for young people who are inspired to write — poetry or prose, fiction or creative nonfiction — and just need a little encouragement and guidance from experienced authors. We explore the art and craft of writing through a series of writing prompts, sharing and encouraging feedback.

Facilitated by award-winning authors with a gentle touch, the four-session or one-afternoon workshop will:

1. Guide you through the steps of telling your story in poetry or prose.
2. Help you explore your creative process and the writing craft.
3. Encourage you to keep writing!

Four Saturday mornings 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. — $60

Class 1. January 15 through February 5
Class 2. February 26 through March 19

One Saturday afternoon 1 to 5 p.m. — $35

Class 1. February 12
Class 2. March 26

Bring writing materials or a laptop.

Location: 740 W. Fig St, Fallbrook, CA

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Craft, Craft and More Craft

This 10-week fiction workshop is for people who want to learn the basics of the creative writing craft. It is taught in a small group setting and includes two optional field trips to Fallbrook’s Writers Read open mic readings.

We will explore the following elements of craft:

• plot arc
• character development
• dialogue
• action
• setting
• tone •

Fun lessons, encouraging writing prompts and facilitated feedback provide weekly opportunities to practice each element of the craft you are learning, share your writing with the group, and receive supportive feedback.

Ten Wednesday evenings, 7 to 9:00 p.m. — $80

January 19 through March 23

Bring writing materials or a laptop.

Location: 740 W. Fig St, Fallbrook, CA

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Writing Erotic: An Evening of Lust, Love and Literature

Discover words your mother never taught you — and play with them in poetry or prose. This workshop is for folks who don’t write and folks who do, for couples, for singles, for the adventurous, for homebodies, for anyone with a sense of fun!

With a series of simple exercises, we will explore the ways of writing the things our senses tell us, as we engage them in the literature of lust and love — with things sweet and savory, soft and hard, light and dark, funny and sad, lilting and raucous. …

One Friday evening, 7 to 9:30 p.m. — $30

Class 1. January 21
Class 2. February 18
Class 3. March 18

Beverages and other yummy things included.

Feedback from a recent workshop: A very liberating experience. Definitely thought provoking. I found myself writing from hidden parts of my thoughts and yet it felt safe to share…Oooh, the beautiful lines these [people] wrote…such craft with words.

Dress comfortably and come prepared to indulge your senses. Bring writing materials or a laptop. All other materials and yummy things to eat and drink are included in the fee.

Location: 740 W. Fig St, Fallbrook, CA

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Telling Our Tales

Our original four-week creative writing workshop for people who want to write — poetry or prose, fiction or creative nonfiction — and just need a little encouragement from successful writers who know what it takes to get started — and how to keep writing. Telling Our Tales is taught through a series of writing prompts, sharing and encouraging feedback.

Facilitated by award-winning authors with a gentle touch, the four-session workshop will:

1. Guide you through the steps of identifying the key elements of the story you want to tell.
2. Help you begin the writing as we explore the creative process and the writing craft.
3. Encourage you through the creation of your piece.

Four Thursday evenings 7 to 9 p.m. — $60

Class 1. January 20 through February 10
Class 2. February 24 through March 17

Bring writing materials or a laptop.

Location: 740 W. Fig Street, Fallbrook, CA.

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Read and Critique Writers Group

This ongoing weekly writers group is for those who are actively working on fiction — short stories, novellas or novels — or creative nonfiction.

Through short writing prompts and supportive, constructive feedback, we encourage writers’ pursuit of their projects and development of their craft. Writers bring pages to “read and critique” each week.

Eight Wednesday mornings, 10:30 to 12:30

January 12 through March 2 — $80

Bring pages to read each week and writing materials or a laptop.

Location: 740 W. Fig Street, Fallbrook, CA.

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For more information and to register: Call Kit-Bacon at 760-522-1064 or email her at kbgressitt@gmail.com.

Please mail payment to:

Kit-Bacon Gressitt
740 W. Fig Street
Fallbrook, CA 92028

Please send your tuition no later than one week prior to the start of your workshop.

Reimbursement for withdrawal will be made if we are notified prior to the start of the first meeting of a workshop.

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Workshop Facilitators

Kate Harding is a Pushcart Prize nominee in both poetry and prose. Her work has appeared in many journals including Poetry International, California Quarterly, By Line, and Redbook. She is co-author of a chapbook, Maiden, Mother, Crone, and her chapbook What Women Do was a finalist in the Earth’s Daughter’s Chapbook competition. Kate is a winner of the Lucidity prize in poetry and the Julian Poetry Slam. Her movie, A Berkeley Christmas, was produced and aired by PBS.

Kit-Bacon Gressitt is a former political columnist for the North County Times, and recently returned to the paper as a freelance book reviewer. She received first place awards for her columns from the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists, and she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Kit-Bacon’s political fiction and commentary are published by the OBRag.org,  The Progressive Post, San Diego Gay and Lesbian News and her site, www.ExcuseMeImWriting.com. She is also founding editor of award-winning magazine IG Living, co-founder and editor of The Bridge, a literary journal, a second place winner of the Chiron Review annual poetry contest, and her work has been accepted in the 2006 and 2011 editions of the San Diego Poetry Annual.