In addition to the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction classes happening as part of the 39th annual Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, the Alaska State Writer Laureate, Peggy Shumaker, will be on hand July 15-22 to lead a workshop for writers of all genres.

Class Description:
“Personal Stakes and Wider Concerns: Upping the Emotional Ante”
In this open-genre workshop, we’ll focus on generating new material. We’ll write every day. We’ll challenge ourselves to craft pieces that have emotional depth for the writer and for readers. We’ll look at examples in poetry and prose. Participants may write in any genre–poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or some combination. Experience with writing is valuable but not required. Everyone is welcome. We’ll read as writers, noticing tools and techniques we can adapt for our own work. We’ll look at pieces that blur the boundaries between genres–lyrical nonfiction, for instance, or narrative poems. We’ll generate new assignments for ourselves, ones that will allow us to use our strengths and to stretch and grow. Writers will leave the workshop with fresh options for their work–both the pieces under discussion and writing not yet on the page. Register.

Additional cross-genre writing workshops can be found on our afternoon-workshop page.