Workshops
Our popular workshops give members and nonmembers a chance to develop their craft. We offer workshops in a variety of genres (poetry, prose, memoir, plays, etc.) and on a variety of topics — all with experienced, published workshop instructors.
We offer our popular Three-in-a-Row online workshops for three consecutive for three consecutive Saturdays in January, plus additional workshops in the Spring
and Fall.
Upcoming:
January Three-In-A-Row (Zoom)
Jan.11, 10 a.m. to noon, EST
“Critiquing and Revision”
Jan. 18, 10 a.m. to noon, EST
“Dialog”
Jan. 25, 10 a.m. to noon, EST
“Writing Short Plays”
Registration Opens Dec. 1
Members: FREE, Nonmembers: $25 per event
Generative Workshop
Recurring Monthly, 2nd Wednesday
Forsyth County Central Library Reading Room
660 W. 5th Street, Winston-Salem, NC
Generative Workshop is Free and Open to All.
No Registration Required.
Spring Workshops (Zoom)
April 26, 10 a.m. to noon, EST
“A Writing Journey”
Registration Opens Feb. 1
Members: $15, Nonmembers: $25 per event
Generative Writing Workshops (Recurring)
Monthly, 2nd Wednesday | 6:30pm-8:00pm EST
by Barbara Greenbaum
These new workshops meet on the second Wednesday of every month and are meant to give writers of any genre and experience level a time to generate new writing together. Bring a piece you are working on or start something new. This isn’t a critique session.
Our hope is you’ll come away with a piece you can develop, but if nothing else, this is a time for us to practice and to share ideas and our passions for the work we do. Please bring your preferred method of writing. All writers welcome, including non-members of WSW. This workshop can be attended in person at Forsyth County Central Library Reading Room.
For Generative Workshop questions, email Barbara Greenbaum at barbarapgreenbaum@gmail.com.
Barbara P. Greenbaum has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine, Stonecoast and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Hartford. She taught creative writing at a public magnet arts high school in Willimantic, Connecticut for twelve years and served as an adjunct professor at Eastern CT State University. In 2011, she was awarded a Teaching Arts Fellowship from Surdna. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in American Writer’s Review, Eclectica, Forge, Hog River Review, and others. She is the author of The Last Thing, a book of poetry published by Main Street Rag Publications in November 2022. A long time Connecticut resident, she now lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina with her husband. More information and links to her work can be found on her website, barbaragreenbaum.com.
Upcoming Workshops
The January Three-in-a-Row Workshops offer a jumpstart into the new year.
“Critiquing and Revision”
with Kat Bodrie
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Opens Dec. 1
WSW Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Jan 8. Midnight
Limited to 40 Participants
Critiquing and revising are complementary skills: the better we are at critiquing others’ work, the better we are at critiquing — and revising — our own. If writing a first draft is writer-centered, critiquing and revising are reader-centered, the stages when we consider how our work lands with an audience. But how often do we spin our wheels? How often do we struggle to determine what changes to make, or disregard good feedback? And how many of us obsess with getting our first drafts “perfect”? In this workshop, we’ll discuss techniques for critiquing, whether in a group, with a partner, or solo, and we’ll approach revision as a time for play, invention, and discernment — a way to stretch ourselves as writers, disregard our pride and insecurities, and use others’ feedback to hone our craft and better accomplish our intentions for our work.
Kat Bodrie is a writer and editor in Winston-Salem. She is President of Winston-Salem Writers, Book Editor for BleakHouse Publishing, and Host City Coordinator for Poetry in Plain Sight. Her poetry has appeared in North Meridian Review, Poetry South, Rat’s Ass Review, and elsewhere. She has also written for Winston-Salem Monthly and Triad City Beat. Her poem “Injections” was a finalist for the NC Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award, and her chapbook When the River Takes Us was a finalist in Black Mountain Press’s quarterly chapbook contest. Kat also works with incarcerated individuals on their creative pieces and often collaborates with George T. Wilkerson, who lives on Death Row. More at katbodrie.com.
“Dialog”
with Spencer KM Brown
Saturday, January 18, 2025 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Opens Dec. 1
WSW Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Jan. 22, Midnight
Limited to 40 Participants
This workshop will explore the basic elements of dialogue as it relates to story and characters. It will begin with a recap of basics in form and style, and move to higher-level elements of what makes dialogue ring true and elevate a story’s emotion, tension, and pacing.
Spencer K. M. Brown was a finalist for the 2023 CMA National Book Award for Hold Fast. He’s also the winner of the 2016 Penelope Niven Award, the 2018 Flying South Fiction Prize, and a finalist for both the 2019 Doris Betts Fiction Prize and the 2019 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. His short fiction and poems have four times been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in numerous publications. He lives in North Carolina, with his wife and two sons. He is also the author of the novels Move Over Mountain and Hold Fast, and one chapbook of poetry, Cicada Rex.
“Writing Short Plays”
with Emily Emerson
Saturday, January 25, 2025 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Open Dec. 1
WSW Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Jan. 22, Midnight
Limited to 40 Participants
This workshop is sponsored by
Winston-Salem Writers' 10-Minute Play Festival.
This is a generative workshop for anyone wanting to learn techniques on writing 10-Minute plays. While only a short amount of time, these plays challenge writers to compress the traditional play structure. We will learn how to distill plot, character, and dialogue down to the essential points, and look at some plays that do exactly this. This workshop is for any and all writers, not just playwrights.
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Emily Emerson (she/her) is a writer and actress originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her plays include The Field (off-Broadway premiere with the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, 2018; Barter Theatre's Appalachian Festivals of Plays & Playwrights 2020), Patient Endeavor (Ruby Slipper Fringe Festival participant, 2015), and Blue Whale. Awards include being chosen as a Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival 10-Minute Play Finalist with her play, Secrets Don't Make Friends, as well as the recipient of the Region V Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award in 2024. She served as a producer with Paper Lantern Theatre Company from 2012-2015 and coordinated the 10-minute play festival for the company. Emily is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, London Playwrights, and she has studied with Jessica Dickey, Brooke Berman, Alice Eve Cohen, and Carson Kreitzer. MFA (Playwriting), Augsburg University.
Looking ahead to Spring:
“A Writing Journey”
with Rioghnach Robinson
Saturday, April 26, 2025 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Open Feb. 1
WSW Members: $15
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: April 23, Midnight
Limited to 40 Participants
This will be a conversational event, with time for lots of Q&A, with the author of seven YA novels. Outside the YA fiction world, she recently signed with an agent for her first novel for adult audiences. She is also the writer of the WEBTOON Originals series Angel of Death, and she's written for The Onion, America's Finest News Source.
Rioghnach Robinson was raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. During her senior year at R.J. Reynolds High School, she began writing what would become her debut YA novel, Seven Ways We Lie. Since then, six of her books have been published, most under the pen name Riley Redgate.
Prior Workshops
“555 Story Challenge Mini-Lessons”
with Nicole Breit
Saturday, October 5, 2024 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Open NOW through October 2nd
WSW Members: $15
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Oct. 2, 11:55 p/m
Limited to 40 Participants
This workshop is for creative writers of all levels and genres who want to ignite their creativity and develop essential craft skills as they shape their memories into 100-word stories. Topics will include: Origin Stories * why 100 word stories are the perfect form for exploring memoir * prompts to explore early memories, family + ancestry, beginnings + firsts * how to write a powerful ending * “listing” pre-writing exercise + techniques for revision The Emergent Self * prompts to explore discoveries about our identities, the individuation process, setting out to find our path * how to create mood and tone – and the importance of varying sentence length * story-mapping as a pre-writing technique * the “solve for x” revision challenge Nature + The Spirit * prompts to explore experiences of mystery, awe and wonder; encounters with the natural world; supernatural + unexplained phenomena * how to write an irresistible first line and Lynda Barry’s “X page” exercise And, depending on time, perhaps another one or two topics…
Nicole Breit (she/her) is a queer, award-winning essayist + the creator of The Spark Your Story Lab. Her writing has been widely published in journals + anthologies including Brevity, The Fiddlehead, Room, Hippocampus, Event, Swelling with Pride: Queer Conception and Adoption Stories + Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Nicole’s essay about first love and loss, “An Atmospheric Pressure”, was selected as a Notable by the editors of Best American Essays 2017. Learn more at nicolebreit.com.
“Publishing Biz ABCs”
with Leslie Pietrzyk
Saturday, October 19, 2024 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Open NOW through October 15th
WSW Members: $15
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Oct. 15, 11:55 p/m
Limited to 40 Participants
Yay! You’re ready to send your work out into the wide world of publishing…but where? Out of the zillions of journals, contests, presses & agents, how do you find the right place for your words? This session will offer resources to help you sort through your options, tips for evaluating opportunities & guidance about the whole process, including query letters. Plenty of time for your questions!
Leslie Pietrzyk’s collection of linked stories set in DC, Admit This to No One, was published in 2021 by Unnamed Press. Her first collection of stories, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her other works include: Silver Girl, Unnamed Press; A Year and a Day, William Morrow/Perennial; and Pears on a Willow Tree, Avon/Perennial. Short fiction and essays have appeared in, among others, Ploughshares, Story Magazine, Hudson Review, Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, The Sun, Cincinnati Review, and Washington Post Magazine. Awards include a Pushcart Prize in 2020.
““How to Craft a Compelling Pitch”
with Dr. Rowena Kirby-Straker, WFU Department of Communication
Saturday, October 26, 2024 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
Registration Open NOW through October 22nd
WSW Members: $15
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: Oct. 22, 11:55 p/m
Limited to 40 Participants
This workshop will include: • Brief description of different types of pitches • What research says about the what, why, who, and how regarding the effectiveness of pitches • How writers can apply outcomes from pitch research to their own pitches • Crafting and debriefing 3-sentence pitches. • Q & A
Dr. Kirby-Straker joined the Department of Communication at Wake in 2016 after serving as the Director of the Oral Communication Center (OCC) at the University of Maryland College Park for four years. From 2017 to 2024, she served as the founding faculty supervisor of the Wake Speaks Speaking Center, which hosts community speech events each semester. Dr. Kirby-Straker teaches Persuasion, Environmental Risk and Crisis Communication, and Community Narratives of Environmental Justice. She has also taught Public Speaking, Listening, and other courses.
“Attention & Astonishment: Poems Inspired by Mary Oliver” with Sarah Ann Winn
Saturday, April 6, 2024 | 10 a.m. to 12 noon EST
On Zoom
WSW Members: $15
Nonmembers: $25
Deadline to Register: 5pm, Thursday, April 4th
Limited to 40 Participants
“Pay attention, be astonished & tell about it.” Writes Mary Oliver in her beautiful poem, “Sometimes.” In this interactive and generative workshop, we’ll use Mary Oliver’s work for inspiration, instruction, and as a starting point to “tell about it” in our own poems. We’ll consider brief readings by Mary Oliver, placed in conversation with equally brief works from a variety of other writers and artists. Expect to draft poems inspired by and in a state of interbeing with the natural world.
Sarah Ann Winn’s first book, Alma Almanac (Barrow Street, 2017) won the Barrow Street Book Prize, judged by Elaine Equi. She is also the author of five chapbooks, most recently, Ever After the End Matter (Porkbelly Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in Five Points, Massachusetts Review, Nashville Review, Quarterly West, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. Sarah has led workshops at the Poetry Foundation, the Writer's Center in Bethesda, and the Loft Literary Center. In 2022, she was awarded the MISA Excellence in Teaching Fellowship. In 2015 she founded Poet Camp, a creative community where she leads online classes, jumpstarts and cozy writing retreats. Join her at http://PoetCamp.com.
Memoir: Bringing Past Worlds to Life
Julia Ridley Smith is the author of a memoir, The Sum of Trifles (University of Georgia Press, 2021), and a story collection, Sex Romp Gone Wrong (Blair, forthcoming). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, the New England Review, and The Southern Review, among other places. Her work has been recognized as notable in Best American Essays and supported by the Sewanee Writers Conference, the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, and other arts
When writing a memoir or personal essay, how do we bring our past worlds—and selves—to life on the page? For this class, we’ll read a couple of short, memoir-based essays that illuminate how to give readers a rich sense of places that have played important roles in our lives. Together, we’ll do several writing exercises designed to help us see those places with fresh eyes and describe them in vivid language.
Participation limited to first 40 registrants.
Saturday, April 29, 2023 | 10am-12noon EST
by Julia Ridley Smith
organizations. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Find her at
juliaridleysmith.com and @JuliaTrifles.