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Creative Writing Workshops
Creative Writing Workshops at Miami Book Fair are non-credit courses, offered throughout the year, that give aspiring writers the opportunity to receive critique and encouragement from published authors with extensive teaching experience.
*Creative Writing Workshops Refunds Policy
For courses that meet more than three times, full refunds will be given to participants who notify Miami Book Fair by e-mail or fax at least THREE BUSINESS DAYS before the first day of class that they wish to cancel. No refunds will be given once class begins. Allow at least two weeks for refunds to be processed. If a course must be canceled for any reason, you will receive a complete refund.
Upcoming Events
March 2023
Workshop: Other Worlds Than These: The Business of Writing Genre Science Fiction & Fantasy
In order to enhance the security of our website, purchasing a workshop on the Miami Book Fair website now requires you to create an account and enter a password as you complete your checkout. Saturday, March 18, 1:00 p.m. EST Registration: $15 (workshop access provided after registration) Open to writers of all experience levels, this class will guide participants through pitching and selling their work in the wide world of genre science fiction and fantasy. With longer manuscripts like novels,…
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Past Events
October 2022
Finger Exercises for Poets with Dorianne Laux
4 weeks: Thursdays, October 6, 13, 20, 27 | 7 – 9 p.m. EST Online | Register to receive link | Registration: $200 Write new poems and receive in-depth feedback from poet Dorianne Laux. Poet Dorianne Laux will lead participants in five writing prompts, or “finger exercises.” Writers will generate new poems and receive feedback on work drafted during this workshop. Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection, Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.…
September 2022
Nonfiction Workshop: Writing About Family Without Making Them Hate You with Dawn Davies
This workshop has sold out. To be placed on the waitlist, please email Marci Cancio-Bello at mcanciob@mdc.edu Thursdays, September 1, 8, 15, 22, 2022 (4 weeks) 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. ET | Online via Zoom | Register to receive link Learn strategies to help you decide when and how (or if!) you should write about family through craft lectures, deep discussion, and writing practice. Writing about family dynamics and experiences can help us reveal truth in our lives,…
June 2022
REFUSE TO BE DONE: Rewriting and Revision at Every Stage with Matt Bell
Wednesday, June 22, 7 – 9 p.m. EST Online | Register to receive link | Registration: $85 Shake up your writing with practical strategies in this interactive workshop. In this interactive workshop, novelist Matt Bell details a practical and straightforward approach to writing fiction, focusing on specific tactics for generating a strong first draft of a novel, including creating compelling characters and structuring a fine-tuned plot, and for polishing your final manuscript to prepare it for submission and publication.…
April 2022
Taller de escritura: “Escribir desde la infancia” con Fanuel Hanán Díaz
SOLD OUT! Lamentablemente, ya no hay cupo para el taller. Para apuntarse a la lista de espera, por favor registre sus datos en esta página: https://forms.gle/YGM39zfBVPnv2Zva8. Le informaremos si surge una oportunidad de que participe. Gracias por su interés. Taller de 4 semanas, los sábados de 10:00 a.m. a 12:00 m. Del 9 al 30 de abril. El taller tiene como objetivo estimular la creación de textos narrativos breves a partir de los recuerdos de infancia, la mirada que podemos rescatar en un viaje al pasado para narrar una escena cercana a nuestros recuerdos,…
February 2022
Taller de apreciación literaria: El rol de la mujer en la novela japonesa contemporánea con Tana Oshima
La mujer en Japón: una mirada crítica a través de la literatura ¿Qué tiene que ver una madriguera con una suegra? ¿Dónde cae el origami cuando se lo lleva el viento? En este taller leeremos y escucharemos con mucha atención lo que nos cuentan dos novelas japonesas contemporáneas para ver qué pasa cuando una mujer está encajonada en su rol de mujer, y qué pasa cuando lo pierde. Taller de 4 semanas, los sábados de 10:00 a.m. a 12:00 m. Del 5 al 26 de febrero.…
October 2021
Writing with Feeling: Affect and the Body in Prose with Lee Mandelo
Tuesday, October 26, 7 – 9 p.m. EST Online via Zoom | Register to receive link | Registration: $60 How do we translate bodily experiences, with all of their messy feelings and emotions attached, into words on the page? What makes you describe a piece of writing as powerful, visceral—and how does an evocative description reach out to grab you while you’re reading? In this workshop we’ll look at how writers construct “feeling bodies” in their prose,…
August 2021
Taller de escritura: “Los desafíos de la imagen en la literatura” con Ena Columbié
SOLD OUT! Lamentablemente, ya no hay cupo para el taller. Para apuntarse a la lista de espera, por favor registre sus datos en esta página: https://forms.gle/UUeFPdwgT7jzuuDK6. Le informaremos si surge una oportunidad de que participe. Gracias por su interés. Taller de 8 semanas, los sábados de 10:00 a.m. a 12:00 m. Del 28 de agosto al 16 de octubre. Dentro del espacio literario se denomina imagen al lenguaje gráfico de las palabras para crear figuras mentales que evocan los cinco sentidos y disparan respuestas emocionales al lector.…
Poetry Workshop: I Am Here: Affirmation as a Form of Resistance with Gabriel Ramirez
Thursdays, August 5 – 26 (4 weeks) 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. EST | Online | Register to receive link Pay-What-You-Can Pricing: To ensure that these special workshops facilitated by our Emerging Writer Fellows are as accessible as possible to the widest audience possible, we’re putting it into your hands to pay what you can for this workshop. Choose a ticket price, ranging from $25 to $100, based upon what feels right to you. “Not being who I am is unacceptable.” —Nikky Finney “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence,…
Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Subject, Yourself with Joseph Earl Thomas
Tuesdays, August 3 – 24 (4 weeks) 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. EST | Online | Register to receive link Pay-What-You-Can Pricing: To ensure that these special workshops facilitated by our Emerging Writer Fellows are as accessible as possible to the widest audience possible, we’re putting it into your hands to pay what you can for this workshop. Choose a ticket price, ranging from $25 to $100, based upon what feels right to you. This creative nonfiction workshop will focus on reading the self,…
June 2021
Fiction Workshop: Kind of a Ghost Story: Haunted by the Unresolved with ‘Pemi Aguda
Thursdays, June 3 – 24 (4 weeks) 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. EST | Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link Pay-What-You-Can Pricing: To ensure that these special workshops facilitated by our Emerging Writer Fellows are as accessible as possible to the widest audience possible, we’re putting it into your hands to pay what you can for this workshop. Choose a ticket price, ranging from $25 to $100, based upon what feels right to you.…
May 2021
Publishing Seminar: The Ins and Outs of the Book Deal, with Literary Agent Allison Hunter
Wednesday, May 26 (1 day) 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST | Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link An experienced literary agent will walk you through every step of the book publication process, from the art of an excellent query letter to the nitty gritty details of a book deal. Topics will include genre definitions, what’s working in the market, what to look for in an agent and editor relationship, and much more. Come with all your questions!…
Manuscript Consultations with Allison Hunter
May 17 – 21 (1 week) Various times, as appointed (Mon. – Fri., May 17 – 21). All appointment times in EST. Consultations are limited to 30 people. Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link Once you have registered online, please email your 1-page query letter and 10-page manuscript to Marci Cancio-Bello at mcanciob@mdc.edu by 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, May 10, 2021. Genres Accepted: Adult Fiction and Adult Narrative Non-Fiction (No prescriptive,…
Transforming Memory into Story: A Memoir and Personal Essay Workshop with Jaquira Díaz
Tuesdays, May 4 – 25 (4 weeks) 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. EST | Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link In this workshop, we’ll start by reading pieces that use memory and personal narrative to tell a story. We will examine how memories can be crafted as memoir or personal essay and speak to something larger, more expansive, and how personal stories are connected to the larger world. Each day we will discuss your crafted pieces of memoir or personal essay: workshop will be a conversation that encourages and prioritizes the centering of underrepresented voices,…
Get Your Story Off the Ground with Rebecca Makkai
Mondays, May 3 – 24 (4 weeks) 8 – 9:30 p.m. EST | Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link There are decisions we make (about entry point, tone, point of view, conflict, stakes, and more) in our opening pages that set us up for stories that practically write themselves, or for ones that are bound to run quickly out of steam. In this four-week class, we will examine and edit student work (on a volunteer basis) in class,…
April 2021
Taller de ciencia ficción “La Revolución de los Reinos” con Giovanna Rivero
2 sesiones intensivas de 2 horas cada una Abril 26 y 29, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. En este taller de ciencia ficción y de escrituras de lo fantástico desarrollaremos una mirada panorámica a las manifestaciones contemporáneas del género en Hispanoamérica para reconocer la mitología del siglo XXI que emerge de esos mundos. La actual ciencia ficción ha volcado la mirada hacia la interioridad humana y hacia la corteza más íntima del planeta, a diferencia de las pulsiones del siglo XX que la arrojaron a las galaxias.…
Combining Magic and Intention in Poetry with Victoria Chang
Tuesdays, April 6 – 27 (4 weeks) 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. EST | Online via Google Meet | Register to receive link Some people believe that a poem comes from some magical place, the unconscious, the muse, the ether. Other people believe that a poem comes from the writer’s intention. Still other people fall somewhere in between. In this workshop, we’ll explore both the mysterious magical place where poetry might come from and learn about craft—the writer’s intention.…