May 2007 - New
   Pie-making Video!

NEW
New York Times: Escapes — MARCH 28, 2008
Away: Guatemala as Muse and Base for a Writer

Want to experience this escape for yourself? You can rent Joyce's house.

TO FIND OUT MORE about Joyce's Lake Atitlan workshops (how to get there, what to bring, how workshops will be run), email Joyce and she'll send you the complete Lake Atitlan Information Package (by email).

COMING UP: Lake Atitlan Writing Workshop, February 7-14, 2009
Mill Valley One-Day - April 5
Mill Valley Ongoing - May 5
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Lake Atitlan — July 5-13, 2008 (7/6 -13 w/o Antigua stay)
                     with Ann Hood & Dorianne Laux

Due to the success of Joyce's February 2008 workshop with Jane Hirshfield and Bob Bausch, she'll be back at Lake Atitlan to host a new group in July. This time Joyce will be working in tandem with Dorianne Laux (poetry) and Ann Hood (fiction and memoir), for what promises to be another terrific week.

Join us for a week of inspirational instruction and quiet time to work, in one of the most beautiful places on the planet...

Once again, I'm offering a weeklong writing workshop at my favorite place in the world: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Every year I have told myself, as the the workshop drew to a close and I waved goodbye to our group, that no week I could spend with writing students, in the future, could ever again be as perfect as the one we just spent. And each successive year, another new group of writers have made their way to the lake to work, talk, drink margaritas, share manuscripts around the fire at night, and prove me wrong. I’ve taught hundreds of students in many places, over the years. No place else I’ve ever come to write or to teach matches this one, for bringing out terrific work. And simply, for instilling in all who attend a sense of tranquility, good health and well being.

Click for full details, as well as instructor bios and course descriptions, recent testimonials (updated), and photo slideshow.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS — Joyce's Annual February Lake Atitlan Writing Workshop will take place February 7-14, 2009, with Robert Bausch. Other faculty (definitely including a poet and possibly another writer) to be announced.

Mill Valley Workshops —

  1-Day intensive on memoir and personal narrative

April 5,2008 — 9am - 5pm — $250 tuition

A FEW PLACES LEFT!

Personal narrative and memoir (both book-length, or shorter essay/column). Issues explored include: locating your story, creating a structure, the difference between chronological and emotional storytelling, point of view, point of entry, language, pace, how to end an essay, the revision process. Participants are asked to submit hard copy of a piece of first person writing, no longer than 2500 words (shorter is fine).

All students will receive the email addresses of other members of the group, to give everyone an opportunity to familiarize himself or herself with the others' writing. We’ll workshop each student’s manuscript in a way that will prove instructive not only for that student, but for all in the group. Maximum students: 9.

Cost of this workshop is $250, lunch included. To reserve a place in the group, send your check to Joyce Maynard, 500 Edgewood Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. If workshop is filled, your check will be promptly returned. Students wishing to continue working with Joyce may be considered for an ongoing weekly writing workshop to begin in the fall. Email Joyce for more information and manuscript submission deadline date.

New testimonials from recent attendees of Joyce's 1-day Mill Valley Intensive Workshop

Ongoing Writing Workshop

6 Successive Monday Nights - 6:30-9:30pm
Beginning May 5 — $300 tuition

In the past, when I’ve had the opportunity to work with a writer over a period of time, I’ve seen enormous growth and development in the work. I look forward to helping a new group of writers move forward in the process that has given me so much joy over the years.

Though this is the very first time ever that I've offered an ongoing workshop in my home, I believe that those considering joining me might benefit from reading what some recent attendees of one of my one-day intensive workshops have had to say: Mill Valley Workshop Testimonials.

The format of these workshops will be different from the one-day workshop, naturally. We’ll meet here at 6:30 pm, for three hours of reading and discussion of your work, with each writer in the group having a chance to share what she’s been up to each time we meet, but focusing in greater depth on one or two particular pieces of work each session. Over the course of the weeks I’ll also make time for some over-arching discussion of particular issues of the writing process likely to apply to everyone. (Those include story structure, voice, point of view, language, dialogue, character development, pace and the overall discipline of the writer, among other things. ) And of course, no evening like this would be complete (in my book, at least) if it didn’t feature some nice homemade baking to sustain us, as we work. No doubt pie will be featured, somewhere along the line. Also my poppy seed cake.

Traditionally, my classes have tended to focus on personal narrative and memoir, but I want you to know that if it’s fiction that interests you, I’ll be open to working with you writers of fiction as well. I tend to believe that the questions that every writer faces -- whether it’s fiction or nonfiction she or he is tackling -- are largely the same, and so many of them come down to the simple but endlessly complex topic of how to tell a story in a way that moves one’s readers or listeners, and possibly in such a way as to reveal to them something they didn’t know or understand before. That’s the central question we’ll be exploring, over the weeks ahead.

The group will be limited to ten students (but I will need commitments from six students to run the workshop.) Cost of the six sessions will be $300.

With my other workshops, I have periodically been able to offer scholarships, but for now at least, I have to limit this particular group to full paying students. Down the line, that may change.

To reserve a space in the workshop, send your check for the full amount to me at Joyce Maynard, 500 Edgewood Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. I won’t cash your check until I’m sure we’ve got a quorum, though I don’t anticipate this will be an issue. Of course, you're always welcome to email me for more information.

For more information on any of the above workshops, or to suggest/request another, email Joyce.

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