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Certificate Program in Creative Writing

Writing is generally a solitary activity. Allow the Certificate Program in Creative Writing to provide you with a network of new and experienced writers and skilled, supportive writing instructors. Learn about the creative writing craft as you draft and present for workshop critiques. While writing and revising several pieces you will have the opportunity to develop a habit of regularly reading published and unpublished work as you focus on your writing. Gain exposure to and practice in additional genres and forms as you develop your personal writing style and increase your knowledge about marketing finished work.

Learn from the best

The instructors of this program are all practicing writers and bring a wide variety of experiences to their teaching. Among them are published authors, award winners, members of professional and creative writing programs, conference participants and workshop presenters. Most importantly, they all bring a deep and motivating passion about words and their endless possibilities.

Who benefits

New and experienced writers will benefit from this program. You will improve your critical vocabulary and writing craftsmanship through technically-focused workshops. You will critically read the work of other writers—published and unpublished—and respond with thoughtful feedback. You will have opportunities to work closely with instructors and fellow students, developing valuable creative and professional communities for the future, while challenging and nurturing your own personal voices and projects in new and engaging ways.

Quarterly schedule of courses

		UNITS	F	W	SP	SU
REQUIRED COURSES	Tools of the Writer's Craft	2.5
	Advanced Fiction: Writer's Craft Workshop	2.5
	Reading Contemporary Fiction as a Writer	2.5
	Creative Nonfiction	2.5
	Poetry Workshop	2.5
	Screenwriting	2.5
ELECTIVE COURSES	Dialogue	1
	Elements of Scene	1
	Metaphor and Detail: Showing and Telling	1
	Point of View	1
	Structure: Beginnings and Endings	1
	The Tomales Bay Workshops	3.5
	Write in Style	1.5
	Classroom format

Important note: To successfully complete the requirements of this certificate program, you must take Advanced Fiction: Craft Writers' Workshop twice. Also, choose one of the following alternate genre courses to apply toward the required coursework: Creative Nonfiction, Poetry Workshop or Screenwriting.

Scheduling note: Elements of Scene and Structure: Beginnings and Endings will be offered in even-numbered years only; Point of View and Dialogue will be offered in odd-numbered years only.

Required Courses

Tools of the Writer's Craft

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.7.

When writers move past the initial inspiration the act and the art of writing gives them, they often find themselves developing an interest in craft, and craft is the emphasis of this workshop. How do we develop character and reveal plot without resorting to dull exposition? Render autobiographical incidents into useful fictional material? Reveal character motivation while maintaining plot momentum? Subtly but effectively sound thematic concerns? With the help of published examples and a discussion of how these writers are effective, weekly assignments give you opportunities to put theory into practice. These assignments are discussed in a workshop forum, which further enhances your ability to discern what goes into a piece of effective writing.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Advanced Fiction: Writer's Craft Workshop

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.8.

You’ve learned basic tools for fiction writing and are ready to tackle more advanced writing techniques. Hone and finesse your writing skills by exploring point of view and sense of place, crafting a scene, using narration techniques and creating compelling dialogue. Discuss effective ways to infuse manuscripts with your personal style. Enhance your weekly writing assignments through guided exercises and workshop discussions of student and published work. Learn to critically read the writing of others and how to respond with thoughtful feedback. Suggestions and encouragement are emphasized to help you build confidence and push your writing to the next level.

Prerequisites:

Tools of the Writer's Craft, or equivalent. Basic writing skills, some writing experience and a good command of the English language.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Reading Contemporary Fiction as a Writer

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.5.

The best writers are the best readers. They read everything. Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Richard Ford said: “It’s a short step from admiring to emulating; reading good writing can move us to try to duplicate it. And close study can help teach us how to duplicate it.” Read and think critically as you analyze, dissect and deconstruct fiction produced by a variety of contemporary writers. Discover how reading stimulates thought, generates ideas, invites discussion and inspires your own writing.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Creative Nonfiction

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.20.

One of the most popular and marketable writing genres is literary nonfiction, also often called creative nonfiction. Explore what it is and how it differs from conventional journalism and from pure fiction. Study examples from the work of accomplished authors like Annie Dillard, John McPhee and Peter Matthiessen to gain insight into this genre. Learn the basic tools of literary nonfiction through in-class exercises and outside writing assignments as well as discussions on dialogue, setting, character and narrative thread. You'll also receive recommendations on how to conduct interviews and gather primary data. The course will cover how to combine the journalist's eye for detail and need for accuracy with the novelist's sense of storytelling and love of language, and guide you in using literary skills in your nonfiction writing.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Poetry Workshop

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.21.

Even T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings didn't get it right the first time. Crafting poetry that's compelling, effective and emotive takes hard work and the ability to critically evaluate your drafts along the way. In this hands-on workshop, you'll begin by examining the elements that distinguish poetry from prose. You and your fellow classmates will workshop poetry in each session and make revisions based on critiques. You'll improve your use of image, metaphor and symbolism, mechanics such as line breaks and pacing, rhythm, sound, making meaning and poetic forms by studying published examples. Use this workshop to propel your work as a poet toward discovery, breakthrough and, ultimately, publication.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Screenwriting

2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.16.

Receive an introduction to the basics of narrative film and television film writing. Learn standard formatting, story structure and scene development. Study examples of various genres and perform guided exercises and assignments to develop familiarity with these forms including long and three-act. Read scenes from successful scripts, watch the filmed versions of these written scenes and engage in discussion about them. Workshop your original scenes, as well as learn to structure and outline longer form works. No previous screenwriting experience is required.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Elective Courses

Dialogue

1 quarter units academic credit, X410.11.

Learn how to make characters "talk" in your writing. This essential aspect of writer's craft -dialogue - is often where even the best writing falters. Discover how to avoid the pitfalls of overused adverbs; characters who speak in clichés, or who lack gesture, emotion or activity; and long paragraphs of dialogue-as-exposition. With the help of published examples, we'll discuss the forms effective dialogue can take. Put theory to practice with a number of short exercises, in-class and take-home. Find ways to improve characterization, focus your scenes, and in the process make the voices of your characters distinctive and true.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Elements of Scene

1 quarter units academic credit, X410.14.

The building blocks of every story, whether it's one page long or four hundred, are scenes. With the help of published examples and writing assignments, discover what goes into creating an effective scene and how scenes add up to stories. Understand how scenes add up to chapters and longer story arcs. Explore character and character needs, sense of place and point of view and sharpen your dialogue skills. This workshop is particularly useful for writers who already have a sense of their characters and story, however it will also be helpful to those just beginning to put the elements of a story together.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Metaphor and Detail: Showing and Telling

1 quarter units academic credit, X410.13.

Learn to enhance your writing with metaphor and the use of detail. Understand how imagery, word choices and the portrayal of detail can give your writing specificity and vigor. Learn to examine everyday objects and activities, and employ them as vehicles for larger themes and underlying meaning. Develop a deeper understanding of how to make your work resonate on both the practical level of your characters' lives and on the larger themes you are addressing. The use of active verbs, sensory perceptions, and other "showing" techniques will also be presented. A discussion of how a writer implies and a reader infers will reveal the importance and connection of scene, and how the choice of showing or telling will improve the sense of place, action, characterization.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Point of View

1 quarter units academic credit, X410.12.

Examine point of view and how to use it as the lens through which readers see the action in your story. Use hands-on writing exercises to explore the benefits and pitfalls of first person, third person and omniscient narrators. Learn techniques to create effective, believable voices for your point-of-view characters. Short assignments, discussed in a workshop forum, provide opportunities for you to put theory into practice. Understand what works (and what doesn't) in your own writing and learn from your fellow writers as they employ these essential tools.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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Structure: Beginnings and Endings

1 quarter units academic credit, X410.9.

What comes first - the structure or the story? Explore ways to help a story find its most effective structure, and investigate the way structure determines the story. Along the way you may discover a story you didn't know you had. You will consider where and how a particular story might begin and how it could end. Fiction is not necessarily linear; this course helps you evaluate traditional structure and determine when to move beyond it. You will learn about building tension, creating momentum, compelling the reader to continue and leaving the reader satisfied, but wanting more at the end.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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The Tomales Bay Workshops

3.5 quarter units academic credit, X400.31.

University of California, Davis Creative Writing Program
October 22-27, 2008

Tuition: $1,450 (includes the $150 application fee).

Space is limited, so please apply as early as possible. Deadline is July 1, 2008 or until full.

Four and a half days of working with an established author, receiving constructive feedback and generating new material.

What Past Participants Are Saying

Download 2008 brochure (858 KB)

Download 2008 workshop descriptions (23 KB)

Download 2008 application (72 KB)

Download 2007 schedule (61 KB)

The Tomales Bay Workshops bring aspiring writers into close community with nationally-known poets and writers, and respected editors and agents. Workshops limited to 12 participants ensure an intimate setting. In addition, participants have the opportunity to purchase one-on-one tutorials with a publishing professional.

The workshops are held at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California, on the eastern shore of pristine Tomales Bay, just north of San Francisco in Marin County. The Marconi Center sits on a wooded hillside that overlooks serene water and mountains beyond. The center offers comfortable rooms, excellent food and inviting hiking trails. Come to relax, learn and explore.

The Workshops

There will be six workshops, which meet each morning for four consecutive days. Workshop are:

• Fiction/Nonfiction: Listening and Dreaming and Writing Along the Way—Audacity and How We Get Words on the Page (Dorothy Allison)
• Fiction: Finding a Form (Vikram Chandra)
• Poetry: Vision and Revision—Investigating Poetic Strategies (Camille T. Dungy)
• Nonfiction: Writing from the Inside—the Power of Personal Essay (Gary Ferguson)
• Mixed Genres: Poets, Prose Writers and Cross—Genre Writers Welcome (Greg Glazner)
• Fiction: Soul—Four Ways to Reveal Essence (T. M. McNally)

Please indicate your workshop preference on your application form.

Publishing Consultants

Laurie Fox is the West Coast associate partner for the Linda Chester Literary Agency, which has its home office in Manhattan. Fox acquires, develops and markets books in the areas of literary and quality fiction, memoir/biography, popular culture, spirituality and cutting-edge science. With Linda Chester, Fox co-agented two-time Oprah Book Club novelist Wally Lamb's novels She's Come Undone and I Know This Much is True. She is also a published author of fiction and poetry.

Jay Schaefer is an editorial director at Chronicle Books in San Francisco, where he has worked for 20 years. He edits fiction by both new and established writers, including Robert Olen Butler, Craig Ferguson, John Nichols, Senator Barbara Boxer and two UC Davis graduates—Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum and Jodi Angel. Schaefer also has published memoirs, including Under the Tuscan Sun, humor/pop culture books, including The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series.

Anika Streitfeld is a senior editor for the Random House Publishing Group. She primarily acquires and edits fiction for the Random House and Ballantine lists, but is also interested in narrative nonfiction. Her authors include Gayle Brandeis, Dan Chaon and Amanda Eyre Ward. She is based in San Francisco.

The Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Keynote Speaker

Jane Smiley, M.F.A., Ph.D., was born in Los Angeles and grew up in St. Louis. She graduated from Vassar College and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has written twelve books of fiction and four books of nonfiction, including A Thousand Acres, for which she won a Pulitzer in 2002, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, an anatomy and history of the novel. Her most recent novel is Ten Days in the Hills. She writes frequently for magazines and also blogs at the Huffington Post. She lives in California.

The Tomales Bay Workshops Faculty

Dorothy Allison is the author of Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller (a New York Times Notable Book), Two or Three Things I Know for Sure and the forthcoming She Who. She was awarded the 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction. Allison lives in Northern California among redwood trees and unpredictable rivers—though she is often to be found on various campuses trying to encourage more people to write down their dreams.

Vikram Chandra is the author of Sacred Games, Love and Longing in Bombay and Red Earth and Pouring Rain. He is the winner of the Hutch Crossword Prize, a Salon.com Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Eurasia region), the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, the David Higham Prize and the Paris Review Discovery Prize. He currently divides his time between Bombay and Berkeley, where he teaches creative writing at the University of California. Listen as Chandra speaks of India and his novel Sacred Games in a recent Sacramento Bee Book Club audio.

Camille T. Dungy is the author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Dana Award and Bread Loaf and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA 2007 Literary Award and the Library of Virginia 2007 Literary Award. Dungy is associate professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

Gary Ferguson is the award winning author of Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone, which won both the Pacific Northwest and Mountains and Plains Booksellers Awards in 2004. He has also written the critically acclaimed The Great Divide: The Rocky Mountains in the American Mind. His freelance work includes articles for Vanity Fair, Outside, Sierra, Modern Maturity, Field & Stream, Big Sky Journal, E, Men's Journal, the Los Angeles Times and publications of New York's Children's Television Workshop. His commentaries and essays can be heard on National Public Radio affiliates throughout the country, including NPR's Living on Earth.

Greg Glazner's books of poetry are From the Iron Chair, which won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Singularity. His awards and honors include a 2005 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Bess Hokin Award from Poetry magazine, the Fairfax Award for Excellence in Teaching and residencies from the Lannan and the Ucross foundations. He is currently completing a multi-genre novel, Zeno's Cure, and working on a music/poetry project with his band, Zeno's Run.

T. M. McNally is the author of the novels: Until Your Heart Stops (a New York Times Notable Book), Almost Home (a St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of the Year) and The Goat Bridge (a Booklist Editors' Choice). His most recent book is a collection of stories, The Gateway. He is also the author of the short story collections Low Flying Aircraft and Quick. He has received the Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, Yale Review's Smart Family Foundation Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Howard Foundation at Brown University. McNally teaches at Arizona State University.

Program Director

Pam Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys are My Weakness, which was the winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and Waltzing the Cat, which won the Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and her story The Best Girlfriend You Never Had appeared in Best American Short Stories of the Century. Her first novel, Sight Hound, was published in January 2005. She is the Director of Creative Writing at the University of California, Davis, and teaches at many writers conferences and festivals in the U.S. and abroad. When not in Davis, she lives in Colorado at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. For more information on Houston visit www.pamhouston.net.

The Format

Morning workshops offer participants the opportunity to work closely with an established writer, to receive constructive feedback from peers, to spend five intensive days dedicated to creative work and to generate new material.

Afternoons will be devoted to craft talks by conference presenters, UC Davis creative writing faculty members and panels comprised of visiting editors, agents and members of the larger Davis writing community.

Evenings will be devoted to readings by conference presenters and UC Davis creative writing faculty.

The Setting

The workshops will be held at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California, on the eastern shore of Tomales Bay. The conference center, located on a California State Historic Park, sits on a wooded hillside that overlooks serene water and the mountains beyond. Inviting hiking trails offer a chance to see white fallow deer among the foliage or venture down to the coastline where locals harvest oysters.

Accommodations

The Marconi Conference Center provides comfortable lodging nestled in the pine trees. Double or triple rooms are available. Each smoke-free room has a private bath, study desk and wireless Internet access. Rooms are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. There are a limited number of single rooms available for a supplemental fee of $800. Disability-accessible and equipped rooms are available. Please let us know ahead of time if you require these accommodations. For additional information, visit http://www.marconiconference.org/index.htm.

Participants should bring comfortable walking shoes, as many Marconi Center walkways are not paved and run over small hills. Also, please bring warm clothes, in case the fog rolls in.

Frequently asked questions

Albert and Elaine Borchard Fellowships

Three Borchard Fellowships will be awarded to workshop participants (one each for poetry, fiction and nonfiction/personal essay). Fellowships cover the cost of tuition, room and board, but do not cover transportation or the $150 application fee. To apply for a fellowship, you must fill out the conference application form, pay the application fee and include a cover letter and writing sample (10 pages of fiction or nonfiction/personal essay, or five poems). Indicate that you want fellowship consideration on the top left of the cover letter and on the application form. Please apply in one genre only. Deadline for fellowship consideration is April 15, and awards will be announced May 1.

Professional Consultations

Participants will have the opportunity to confer privately with publishing industry professionals. Acceptance for these sessions will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a $100 fee for each half-hour consultation.

Requirements

Acceptance to the program is based upon review of a writing sample (10 pages of fiction or nonfiction/personal essay, or five poems). Applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, and you will be notified of acceptance. Please note: Those who have attended the Tomales Bay Writers' Workshops during a prior year do not need to submit a writing sample.

Fees

Enrollment in the Tomales Bay Workshops is $1,450 ($1,300 tuition + $150 application fee) and covers one four-day workshop, admittance to all panels and readings, opening and closing banquets, all meals (dinner on Wednesday; three meals Thursday through Sunday; breakfast on Monday) and lodging for five nights. Vegetarian meals are available upon request.

The application fee of $150 must be submitted with your application and writing sample. If you are not accepted, your application fee will be returned. If you are accepted, you will be notified of your workshop placement and asked to confirm your intention to attend by submitting a minimum deposit of $650. The remaining balance of $650 is due July 16.

Supplemental fees are due July 16. These include:

• the single room supplement ($800)
• a private session with publishing professional ($100)
• the optional UC Davis fee for 3.5 units of academic credit ($180)

Please note: There are a limited number of consultation sessions and single rooms available, and they will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Please submit any optional fees as early as possible after acceptance into the program to guarantee your request. Full participation in the Tomales Bay Workshops and events is expected. No discounts are available for lodging or meals on your own.

If space is still available after July 16, applications must include the full payment of $1,450, which includes the $150 application fee. All fees will be fully refunded if applicant is not accepted.

Cancellation Policy

If you cancel by August 15, 2008 your tuition will be refunded minus a $30 processing fee and the $150 application fee. Once you have enrolled, the $150 application fee is not refundable. Refunds for cancellations made after August 15 are contingent upon filling your place and will be made only if your place is filled. In the unlikely event that we must cancel a workshop and you do not wish to transfer to another workshop, you will receive a full refund.

For more information, email us at tomales.bay.workshops@gmail.com

Getting to the Marconi Center

For driving directions and a map, visit http://www.marconiconference.org/maps.htm.

Sections of this course open for enrollment:

• The Tomales Bay Workshops    starts October 22

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Write in Style

1.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.10.

Increase your enjoyment of the writing process by learning to improve the way you arrange words into sentences, paragraphs and scenes. Participate in discussions and exercises on English usage and style and examine published work. Learn what works and what doesn't in your own writing, and how to organize words to clearly express yourself and reveal your ideas and creative voice. Gain confidence in your ability to improve your writing and have a greater appreciation of the art of writing.

This course is not currently scheduled.

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