Classes & Workshops
“Every course I have taken at NOWW has been on point! The teachers all share a passion for creativity! Inspiring indeed.”Isabella Christodoulou on NOWW Teachers
New Year, New Beginnings: Writing with the Tarot Returns!
(All Levels, In-person)
Instructor: Allison Alsup
Genre: Prose
Number of Sessions: 1
Meets: 2-4:30 PM CT
Dates: Sat. , Jan. 11, 2025
Where: NOCCA Foundation
Cost: $70 / Early Bird through Jan. 6: $63 (Optional Critique: $85)
Make good on your New Year’s Resolution to start writing again in this fun, interactive and generative workshop. The tarot is a 500 year old narrative tradition whose depictions of human archetypes and universal situations remain as relevant today as they were in the Renaissance. As such, the cards make for great writing fodder.
Have a glass of wine and nibble as we learn about the tarot and specifically, how to tap it for inspiration and details in building imagery, characters and scenes. Using custom guided exercises and cards drawn by the participants themselves, we’ll generate fresh material for fiction, non-fiction, or poetry starts–the genre is entirely up to you. Writers can expect to leave with multiple starts for further development throughout the year. Or create new material for an existing work-in-progress.
Optional critique (available for Writing with the Tarot participants only) $85
Looking to get a little clarity on your tarot-inspired material? Receive a written critique plus a one on one meeting with Allison–either in person or by phone. If you’d like, we can draw a few cards for fun, just to see what possibilities they suggest for your narrative’s development as well.
With a ten day deadline from the end of class, you’ll have enough time to edit your work before submitting–but not too much to procrastinate. (2500 words max.; 30 minute meeting.)
Allison Alsup
NOWW co-founder Allison Alsup‘s debut novel, Foreign Seed, was published in June 2024 by Keylight Books. Her stories have won multiple contests and her work appears in the O’Henry Prize Stories 2014 and Best Food Writing 2015. She regularly teaches workshops through NOWW and oversees their developmental editing services. Allison holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Emerson College.
your Book is not going to sell itself: planning your publicity strategy
(All Levels, In-person)
Instructor: Elisa M. Speranza
Genre: Prose
Number of Sessions: 1
Meets: 1-4 PM CT
Dates: Sat. , Jan. 18, 2025
Where: NOCCA Foundation
Cost: $80 / Early Bird through Jan. 6: $72
It’s never too soon or late to find your readers.
So you’ve been toiling away on your book, and you’re almost ready to get it out into the world. Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to get an agent and a publisher, or maybe you’ve decided to go the independent route and hybrid or self-publish. Either way, it’s unlikely there’s a marketing team standing by to help you, so how will anyone beyond your friends and family find out about your book?
Elisa m.Speranza
Elisa M. Speranza spent thirty-plus years in marketing and strategic communications before publishing her 2022 historical novel The Italian Prisoner, a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. She’s been a featured author at the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, the Salem (MA) LitFest, and Islanders Write on Martha’s Vineyard, where she co-founded the Washashores Writers Collective. Elisa serves on the New Orleans Writers Workshop board and is an active literary citizen in New Orleans, Martha’s Vineyard, and elsewhere.
fictionalizing your life
(All Levels, In-person)
Instructor: Kate Feiffer
Genre: Prose
Number of Sessions: 1
Meets: 10 AM – 1 PM CT
Dates: Sat. , Feb. 1, 2025
Where: NOCCA Foundation
Cost: $80 / Early Bird through Jan. 6: $72
What is autofiction and why is it both controversial and growing in popularity? This workshop will look at the growing popularity of autobiographical fiction and discuss strategies for fictionalizing the people and the events in your life. There will be writing prompts and time to discuss how fictionalizing your life can keep it real. The workshop is ideal for memoirists worried about revealing too much, and writers who want to draw on their own experiences. It is open to writers of all levels.
kate feiffer
Kate Feiffer is the author of the novel Morning Pages (Regalo Press, 2024) and eleven highly acclaimed books for children, including Double Pink and My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life (both published by Simon & Schuster). Publishers Weekly praised Morning Pages as a “winning adult debut,” and best-selling author Fiona Davis called the book “full of wise observations and a scathing wit.” Feiffer has written essays for NPR, LitHub, the Martha’s Vineyard Times, and other publications. She is also the illustrator of the 2023 parody The Lamb Cycle (Brandeis University Press), the event producer for the Martha’s Vineyard-based writing festival Islanders Write, and a former television news and documentary film producer. Feiffer mines her life for material, yet having grown up the child of two writers who did the same, she has experienced what it’s like to be on both sides of the page (and stage) and tries to bring that sensitivity and awareness to her work. Learn more about her at www.katefeiffer.com.