Aspen Writers’ Network
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In keeping with Aspen Words’ commitment to working writers, AWN was formed to provide mutual support and networking opportunities for writers and aspiring writers in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond.
AWN is geared towards writers seeking to take the next step in their writing and/or to further their professional careers. It also provides a networking group for encouragement, support, camaraderie and inspiration.
Our monthly, informal meetings provide an opportunity to connect with other writers to share work, writing tips and inspiration. Each quarter will feature exceptional writer-focused content to foster connections and bring stimulating programming to members. AWN members also enjoy priority access or reduced admission to other popular Aspen Words programs.
Thanks to general underwriting support for the program, AWN membership is just $150/year. Financial assistance is available if this annual membership fee presents a barrier to participation.
- Access to monthly, informal, AWN-exclusive meetings (typically on the third Thursday of the month).
- Access to quarterly AWN-exclusive events with a specific program and guest speaker.
- Access to the AWN Facebook group.
- Highly discounted rate for a one-day writing workshop hosted by Aspen Words annually
- 25% discount for all Winter Words author events
- Free admission to all Writer in Residence and Community Read events.
- Invitations to Aspen Words members-only receptions.
- Private consultations with literary agents and editors at the Summer Words conference in June 2024.
Events
2024 Fall Writing Workshop with Mary Robinette Kowal (Two Workshops in One)
General Admission: $95 | AWN Member: $35
Learn more about the Aspen Writers Network (AWN) and become a member today!
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man,The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the Nebula and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com.AN EVENING WITH MARY LOUISE KELLY MODERATED BY BREEZE RICHARDSON
The event is currently at capacity, if you are interested in attending plan to arrive when the doors open at 5:30 p.m.
DOORS: Open at 5:30 p.m. EVENT: Conversation 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. SEATING: General admission and available on a first come, first served basis. Come early and purchase a drink at the TACAW bar. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mary Louise Kelly is a host of “All Things Considered,” NPR’s award-winning afternoon newsmagazine. Previously, she spent a decade as national security correspondent for NPR News, and she’s kept that focus in her role as anchor. That’s meant taking “All Things Considered” to Russia, North Korea, Iran and beyond. She’s published two novels, “Anonymous Sources” and “The Bullet,” as well as the New York Times bestselling memoir, “It. Goes. So. Fast. The Year of No Do-Overs.” Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, among other publications, and she serves as a contributing writer at The Atlantic. ABOUT THE MODERATOR Breeze Richardson joined the Aspen Public Radio team in June 2021. Highly-respected in public media for her strategic planning and communications background, she has a passion for telling stories and producing community-focused programming. Since arriving in the Roaring Fork Valley, Breeze has been on stage exploring disability and inclusion with 1A’s Jenn White, discussing the importance of local journalism for Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows, and in conversation with Tockukwu Okafor, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, and 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize winner Jamil Jan Kochaifor Aspen Words. In February 2023, she took the stage at the Wheeler Opera House with NPR's Ailsa Chang to lead a conversation about making big career changes, representation in media, and the impact of investigative journalism. Breeze currently serves as President of the Rocky Mountain Community Radio coalition, and is an elected member of the Western States Public Radio Board of Directors. In 2024, she completed the Public Media Diversity Leaders Initiative (PMDLI) hosted by the Riley Institute at Furman University, and is a proud alumni of the Aspen Institute Hurst Leaders Forum.2024 Community Read Beyond the Book: Hamlet Movie Weekend
2024 Community Read Beyond the Book: Hamlet Movie Weekend
2024 Community Read Book Pick-Up
Drawing to a Close: Sustaining Inspiration Beyond the Conference
Craft Talk: The Plot Thickens: Creating Narratives that Hook Readers
Craft Talk: Conversation in Motion: Dialogue & Gesture in Character Development
Craft Talk: From Life to Page: Harnessing Experience to Inform Your Writing (no matter the genre)
How Stories Stand: Crafting Narrative Architecture through Structure, POV, and Time
Publishing Pathways: Understanding the Industry
AYC: The Wordplay & Expression Summer Camp
The Wordplay & Expression Summer Camp
Open to incoming 6th-9th graders July 22-25 10 am- 2:30 pm Join Aspen Words and Jess Barnum at Aspen Youth Center Monday, July 22 – Thursday, July 25 for a Wordplay & Expression Summer Camp. This workshop will provide a place for you to focus on everything wordplay, writing, voice, creativity, and expression. You’ll self-discover, empower, and manifest your own creativity, confidence, intuition, success, and other magical magic that pops up for you along the way. You’ll engage in a variety of activities such as wordplay writing, reading for inspiration, and stage performances. There will be time to learn and create together as a group, and there will be time to independently create and showcase what you self-design. This camp is a place for you to be the inspiration that you are! Plan to pack a water bottle, snacks, SPF, a long sleeve top layer, a hat, sunglasses, a journal, and a laptop (optional). Registration is required! Price: $100 – Scholarships available *Registration is limited* CLICK HERE TO SIGN UPAWLP Ceremony Watch Party: Pitkin County Library
AWN: Holiday Party
AWN: Fairytales with Kim Bussing | Third Thursday in November
Thursday, November 21 at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Kim Bussing will ask AWN members to look at the psychology and craft of fairy tales to sharpen your manuscript, weave magic into both the fantastic and the mundane, and overcome roadblocks for captivating stories. CRAFT TALK DESCRIPTION Fairy tales are the most honest forms of storytelling. Through magic and metaphor, they confront what is otherwise unspeakable. Many of the stories we tell are built off the bones of fairy tales, from how we imagine characters, create intrigue, conjure settings, and confront what haunts us. Whether you’re writing memoir or science fiction, a children’s novel or a sweeping multigenerational drama, the tenets of fairy tales are integral to our approach to stories. This class will look at the psychology and craft of fairy tales to sharpen your manuscript, weave magic into both the fantastic and the mundane, and overcome roadblocks for captivating stories. It will both teach elements of craft while providing opportunities to generate new work in your prose genre of choice. ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR Kim Bussing is an author of fairy tales for children and adults. Her first series, The Princess Swap, is forthcoming from Penguin Random House beginning in 2025. Her short fiction has won several grants and awards, and she’s helped tell stories for brands including Hilton, Marriott, Audi, and more. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona, where she taught creative writing and was co-editor of Sonora Review. She regularly speaks on the power of storytelling, leads creative workshops, and coaches writers and entrepreneurs. Email Mallory Kaufman for more information on becoming a member.AWN: 45 Ways to Turn up the Tension with April Henry | Third Thursday October
AWN: Member Reading with Feedback
AWN: Summer soiree and open mic at the Village Smithy Restaurant
AWN: State of the Publishing Industry
AWN: Summer Soiree
AWN: Local Bookstore Panel
AWN: Nisi Shawl teaches Writing the Other
Summer Words
Book Ball
Aspen Words’ 2024 Book Ball promises to be a real page turner! Join author and keynote speaker Michael Lewis for an unforgettable experience with fellow literature lovers while enjoying cocktails and dinner at the historic Hotel Jerome. Book Ball raises critical funds to support Aspen Words programs including writers in the schools, scholarships for aspiring writers and community talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors.
BOOK BALL
Thursday, June 20, 2024
5:30-9:30 p.m. MT
ASPEN WORDS ANNUAL BENEFIT DINNER
Featuring
Michael Lewis
Thursday, June 20, 2024 Hotel Jerome Grand Ballroom
Leadership award to be presented to Tom Bernard.
Thank you to our host committee!
Lisanne and Jim Rogers Andrea and Chris Bryan Erin Lentz Ellie Knaus and Adam Sztykiel Sue and Ron Hopkinson Suzanne Bober and Steve Kahn
TICKETS ON SALE IN APRIL 2024 Sign up for our newsletter to get a notification when tickets go on sale
Aspen Words Literary Prize Ceremony
A conversation with the prize finalists and announcement of the 2024 winner.
Details:
Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 Program: 6:30-7:30 p.m. ET & Livestreamed!FREE Registration:
https://support.aspeninstitute.org/event/2024-aspen-words-literary-prize-ceremony/e568007/register/new/select-tickets
Finalists:Winter Words with Abraham Verghese – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes
IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80 Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt
VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40 Join all four Winter Words events via livestream
INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30 Join any of the four events in-person
MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” Abraham Verghese wraps up the 2024 Winter Words season, presenting his latest work, “The Covenant of Water,” also a New York Times bestseller, as well as an Oprah’s Book Club selection and the subject of a six-part podcast series hosted by Oprah Winfrey. This mystical work of fiction follows three generations of a family which experiences mysterious tragedy on the South Indian coast. Verghese will talk about his inspiration for the novel and how his deep and knowledgeable background in the medical field influences his work.
Moderator: Elisabeth Egan, author and a New York Times books editor Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited. Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, is Professor and Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He is also a bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” and the recently released “The Covenant of Water” as well as a physician with a reputation for his focus on healing in an era where technology often overwhelms the human side of medicine. He received the Heinz Award in 2014 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama, in 2015. Born in Addis Ababa in 1955, the second of three sons of Indian parents recruited by Emperor Haile Selassie to teach in Ethiopia, he grew up near the capital and began his medical training there. When the emperor was deposed, Verghese briefly joined his parents in the United States, working as an orderly, or nursing assistant, in a series of hospitals and nursing homes before completing his medical education in India at Madras Medical College. His experiences of civil unrest and his time as a hospital orderly were to leave a significant mark on his life and work. After graduation, he left India for a medical residency in the United States and, like many other foreign medical graduates, he found only the less popular hospitals and communities open to him, an experience he described in a 1997 New Yorker article, “The Cowpath to America.” Abraham Verghese’s early years as an orderly, his care of terminal AIDS patients and the insights he gained from the deep relationships he formed and the suffering he witnessed were transformative. Though he wrote a seminal scientific paper, he felt the sometimes cold and unimaginative language of science could not begin to capture the nature of the experience for patients and families, nor did it convey his own feelings as he witnessed their journeys. These were the cumulative experiences around which his first book, “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story,” is centered. As his interest in writing grew, he took time off from medicine to study at the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he earned an MFA in 1991. Since then, his work has appeared in the New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Atlantic, The New York Times, The New York Times magazine, Granta, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, among others. After leaving Iowa, Verghese became professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas, where he lived for the next 11 years. In El Paso, he finished his first book, chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by TIME and later filmed for Showtime as “My Own Country,” directed by Mira Nair and starring Naveen Andrews. His second bestselling book, “The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss,” explored his friend and frequent tennis partner’s losing struggle with addiction. “The Tennis Partner” was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In his writing and work, Abraham Verghese continues to emphasize the importance of bedside medicine and physical examination in an era of advanced medical technology. He contends that the patient in the bed often gets less attention than the patient data in the computer. His December 2008 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Culture Shock: Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient,” clearly lays out his viewpoint. In speaking about his novel, “Cutting for Stone,” he also addressed the issue: “I wanted the reader to see how entering medicine was a passionate quest, a romantic pursuit, a spiritual calling, a privileged yet hazardous undertaking. It’s a view of medicine I don’t think too many young people see in the West because, frankly, in the sterile hallways of modern medical-industrial complexes, where physicians and nurses are hunkered down behind computer monitors and patients are whisked off here and there for all manner of tests, that side of medicine gets lost.” Today, as a popular invited speaker, Verghese has more forums beyond his writing in which to share his views on patient care. He speaks widely on the subject, as well as giving talks and readings from his books. At the Stanford School of Medicine, he has led the effort to establish the Stanford 25, where residents and students are taught techniques and skills to recognize the basic phenotypic expressions of disease that manifest as abnormal physical signs.Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt, Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.
Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer
Thanks also to our local partners:
Winter Words with Safiya Sinclair – TACAW in Basalt & Livestreamed
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes
IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80 Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt
VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40 Join all four Winter Words events via livestream
INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30 Join any of the four events in-person
MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.What is it like to leave everything you know behind? Join Aspen Words at TACAW for Winter Words with memoirist and award-winning poet Safiya Sinclair, as she discusses her new book, “How to Say Babylon.” This Read with Jenna TODAY show book club pick examines the author’s rigid Rastafarian upbringing and her efforts to break free from the patriarchal structure which defined her youth.
Moderator: Mitzi Rapkin, host of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Event location: TACAW 400 Robinson Street Basalt, CO 81621. Parking is limited. Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir “How to Say Babylon,” forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in October 2023. She is also the author of the poetry collection “Cannibal,” winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. “Cannibal” was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Sinclair’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Nation, Poetry, Kenyon Review, the Oxford American and elsewhere.Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt, Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.
Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer
Thanks also to our local partners:
Winter Words with Sasha DiGiulian – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes
IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80 Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt
VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40 Join all four Winter Words events via livestream
INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30 Join any of the four events in-person
MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.World-champion climber Sasha Digiulian joins Aspen Words to present excerpts from her memoir, “Take the Lead: Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs,” her first book on the subjects of navigating a male-dominated sport, dealing with body dysmorphia in the age of social media, and channeling a competitive spirit into entrepreneurship. If you love Tommy Caldwell’s “Push,” this evening of literature, the examination of risk-taking, and stimulating conversation is not to be missed. Moderator: Caroline Tory, Aspen Words managing director Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited. Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sasha DiGiulian is a world champion climber and three-time U.S. national champion. At thirty years old, she’s traveled to over fifty countries and accomplished over thirty first female ascents. In 2016, she graduated from Columbia University with a focus on journalism and business and in 2022 became the founder and CEO of SEND Bars, a superfood nutrition bar company. In addition to being featured in dozens of magazines and new media pieces, she wrote for many publications including Outside magazine, National Geographic, Rock and Ice, Self, Seventeen and Crave. Sasha is an outspoken environmental activist and a global athlete ambassador for Right to Play, Protect Our Winters and Up2Us Sports. She served on the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation for six years and travels globally for expeditions, speaking engagements, sporting events and commercial work.Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt, Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.
Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer
Thanks also to our local partners:
Holiday Party & Book Exchange
An Evening with Adrienne Brodeur, Author of “Little Monsters”
Writing Workshop: Let the Writing Make the Rules – with Kate Milliken
Registration for this workshop is now closed, all available spots have been filled. Please reach out to Mallory.Kaufman@aspeninstitute.org to add your name to the waitlist.
WORKSHOP DETAILS When we talk about (and teach) creative writing we often speak in terms of the rules of craft. While it is important to have a knowledge of what has worked time and again to create compelling stories, in order to write a truly singular story you will need to move beyond convention. Often students of creative writing are so aware of how a story is supposed to be told that they fail to hear the wisdom that is already present in their own writing; its subtle whispers about how it wants to be told. In this one day intensive, through close readings of unconventional narratives, generative writing prompts, and an in-depth discussion of our own projects, we will deepen our understanding of the voice, the shape, and the themes that our work seeks to articulate. Whether you come to our meeting with just an idea of the story you want to tell or you have a full rough draft in your desk, our time together will embolden you to take the next step—from getting the first pages written to embarking on a needed revision—with a deeper connection to the material and a greater authority, moving you beyond crafting a story to making it your very own. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kate Milliken is the Iowa Award winning author of the short story collection “If I’d Known You Were Coming” and the novel, “Kept Animals,” which was long listed for the 2020 First Novel Prize and hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a novel of “deft insights and gorgeous, sensual description.” Kate has written television and commercial advertising and taught on behalf of UCLA, the University of Michigan, and The Center for Fiction. Her work has appeared in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Santa Monica Review, Zyzzyva, and Fiction, among others and her work has been supported by Tin House, the Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers Workshop, and the Ragdale Foundation. Kate is currently a freelance editor and writing coach and she lives with her family in the Midwest.Author Talk with Brittany Penner, August Writer in Residence
Summer Soiree
In-Person at Village Smithy (26 S 3rd St, Carbondale, CO)
Come together with fellow AWN members to celebrate the accomplishments of local writers and enjoy a summer evening. More details to come!
The State of the Publishing Industry – Part of the Summer Words Craft Panel Series
Purchase a pass for $30 to gain access to all events in the series.
Publishing experts will help you navigate the book business, give advice on how to get published, and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. Panelists: Millicent Bennett, Kirby Kim and Dana Murphy This event is free to summer words students! Your student badge serves as your pass. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Millicent Bennett Millicent Bennett, Executive Editor, acquires primarily literary fiction, upmarket book club fiction, and voice-and character-driven narrative nonfiction, including memoir, with an emphasis on marginalized and underrepresented voices. She joined Harper in 2021 as part of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt integration, where she served as editorial director, and after seventeen years as editor at PRH, S&S, and Hachette. Kirby Kim Kirby Kim, a native of Los Angeles, California, attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kirby has worked for Charlotte Sheedy Literary, Vigliano Associates, WME, and Janklow & Nesbit. He represents both literary and commercial authors. He’s most interested in receiving manuscripts that straddle the fence a bit, with upmarket expression combined with a genre element or plot device. When it comes to straight literary work, he’s alternatively drawn to rich, sweeping stories that try to encompass a time or a place or tightly written, narratively innovative stories or voices with award potential. His commercial interests include thrillers, mysteries, and speculative fiction. He also represents a range of nonfiction, working with leaders and journalists in the areas of science, culture, business, and current affairs. Some of his clients include award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Edgar Award winner James A. McLaughlin, Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Lauren Etter, rapper/actor Common, two-time National Book Award winner in the Philippines Gina Apostol, and debut novelists Ling Ling Huang and Adam White. Kirby is currently a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and two kids. Dana Murphy Dana Murphy represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction for both adult and teen readers. She joined Trellis Literary Management in 2022, after a decade building her list at The Book Group. Books by her clients have been New York Times and international bestsellers and chosen as Barnes & Noble Discover, Book of the Month, Read with Jenna, Indie Next and NYT Editors’ Choice picks. Across genre, Dana falls in love at the story and line-level simultaneously. She’s always searching for language and plot that move in equal measure, and novels with a soft heart, a sense of humor, and a deep earnest affection for their characters and story. In non fiction, she loves well-researched cultural criticism — especially if it reckons with “low” and “unworthy” pop culture in a smart, serious way or interrogates the power structures that shape our collective understanding of “good” taste.Practice Your Pitch Workshop
In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)
This is a great opportunity to practice talking about your work. Even if you are not ready to pitch your book/essay/poem to publishers/agents, developing a pitch is a great way to determine what is most important in your writing project, which helps you with editing and even finishing the work. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.
This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.
Member Readings
The How To’s of a Non-fiction Book Proposal
State of the Publishing Industry
Craft workshop with Rachel Weaver
A Conversation About Memoirs with authors Adrienne Brodeur and Courtney Maum
Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide "Before and After the Book Deal" and the memoir "The Year of the Horses," chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach and educator, Courtney's mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which is in development for film. During her 15 years in the publishing industry, she founded the literary magazine “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at Harcourt and HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award, among other literary contests. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue and other publications. She has been with Aspen Words since 2013. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.Member Readings
Practice Your Pitch Workshop
AWN Member Reading
Workshop: The Magic of Sudden, Micro and Flash: Very Short Stories led by Pam Painter
ALL DAY SUNDAY, OCT. 23
Sunday, Oct. 23 @ 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. | Pam will be teaching the workshop in-person. Space is limited. AWN members receive a discount ($40 for AWN members; $90 for non-members). WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: This workshop will explore the elements of stories under 750 words. To begin, we’ll discuss the concept of the unstable situation. Plot and conflict sit like boulders on these tiny stories although the tension in an unstable situation is the only drama necessary. And because first sentences are windows into worlds, we’ll write a lot of first sentences in a short amount of time. Next, we’ll experience the mystery and magic of prompts and how they arrive out of nowhere and immediately will conjure up six or seven new stories. Then we’ll discover how the words “what if” can lead to startling ways to continue and even complete a story. Finally, we’ll ride some of these new story beginnings to satisfying ends. The class will be fast-paced and exciting and most of all productive. I’ll send you home with a list of my favorite Flashanthologies and collections, places to submit your work, and inspiring quotes by writers to serve as future signposts. We have a whole day to write. A luxury. Let’s do it. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.
In-Person at Pitkin County Library (120 N Mill St, Aspen)
Workshop: Writing Dialogue that Works led by Tiffany Tyson
Author Talk with July Writer in Residence Jamaica Baldwin
Craft workshop with Rachel Weaver
State of the Publishing Industry
In-Person Group Meeting: Writer Introductions and Optional Readings
Aspen High School Only – Heather Hansman in the Schools
Presentation by Author Rachel Weaver
The quarterly meetings in 2021, thus far, include a virtual self-publishing workshop; monthly Third Thursday meetings on Zoom; and one-on-one agent/editor meetings at Aspen Autumn words.
AWN – Third Thursdays Zoom Writing Meetups
Agent/Editor Consultations at Autumn Words
Practice Your Pitch
Self Publishing Zoom Workshop
The quarterly meetings in 2020 included a virtual revision focused workshop; access to the virtual “Life of a Book” Summer Words panel presented exclusively to AWN members and workshop students; as well as a two-day virtual personal essay workshop. Monthly community meetups (Third Thursdays) began in January in-person at Here House, Aspen and moved to Zoom in May.
AWN – Third Thursdays Zoom Writing Meetups
Personal Essay Workshop (Virtual Workshop)
The Life of a Book (Virtual Panel)
Writing is Rewriting (Virtual Workshop)
The quarterly meetings in 2019 included a writer-focused marketing talk; a session where members practiced pitching their book; and a one-on-one meeting with an agent or editor at Summer Words.
How to Write a Page-Turner: A Workshop for Fiction, Memoir + Narrative Nonfiction Writers
Agent/Editor Consultations at Summer Words
Practice Your Pitch
Quarterly meetings in 2018 included a writer-focused talk; a one-on-one meeting with an agent or editor at Summer Words; a fall writing workshop; and an opportunity for networking amongst local writers. Detailed event information will be available soon.
Publishing Talk with Novelist Amy Meyerson
Fiction Writing Workshop with Daryl Gregory
Agent/Editor Consultations at Summer Words
Spring Workshop: How to Write Great Dialogue
Thank You
Thank you to the 2024 steering committee: Mark Tompkins, Lisanne Rogers, Eme Cole, and Andrea Chacos. Thank you to our program sponsor Bonfire Coffee Company.