MFA Org Presents: Local & Visiting Writers Series with August Thompson

In addition to a short reading, August Thompson will present a craft talk, “Step by step: from drafting to editing to revising to submitting.” In this craft survey, we’ll discuss how to draft, finish, revise, revise again, query agents and go on submission for your novel, short story collection, nonfiction manuscript, or poetry collection.

We’ll explore different writers’ approaches to writing and revision—from Zadie Smith to George Saunders to Ocean Vuong and beyond—to see the similarities in approaches and the differences, helping writers learn what to steal elegantly and what to ignore. We’ll also focus on being honest with oneself about when it’s time to leave a project behind, when it’s time to make a fundamental change (a POV switch, character folding, etc.) and when a project is working.

Much of the goal of this seminar is to demystify the publishing process from start to finish. At times, the industry as a whole can seem purposefully obscure. More than a survey of the technical steps, this seminar will aim to help writers build their own personal guidelines in order to build a sustainable process with an eye on traditional publishing.