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Previous Workshops

 

Moved by the Spirit Writing Workshop June 23, 2022 5-7 pm CDT

I am honored to be asked to lead an online writing workshop on June 23 at 5 pm CDT hosted by the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina.

This workshop is for anyone wanting to write fiction informed by your spiritual life. Susan will discuss the ways in which her spiritual life informs her fiction, and also share examples from other writers, including Flannery O’Connor, Dostoyevsky, Chekov, and several contemporary authors. There will be a discussion about the difference in being an author who writes spiritual or religious fiction vs. being a religious or spiritual writer.

Finally there will be time for a writing exercise, which will involve turning a personal memory into fiction. Participants will write for 15 minutes and then will have an opportunity to share what they have written and comment on each other’s work.

What Will the Class Include?

Susan’s spiritual journey and published fiction.

Iconography

How Susan’s journey influenced her fiction

Flannery O’Connor and Pope John Paul II.

Other sources of inspiration and influence.

Tips for Writing a Short Story or Novel.

Writing exercise (15 minutes).

Cost: $45

Click Here to Register on Eventbrite.

 

Moved By the Spirit Writing Workshop April 1, 2022, 7-8:15 CDT

I am honored to be asked to lead an online writing workshop on April 1 (7-8:15 p.m. CST) hosted by Catholic Literary Arts. This will be a Zoom class, limited to ten students, who will each have the opportunity to submit a manuscript to me for critiquing after the class. The class is for writers at any level who are interested in the junction between their spiritual lives and their writing, especially fiction.

What will the class include?

  1. Susan’s spiritual journey and published fiction.
  2. Iconography
  3. How Susan’s journey influenced her fiction
  4. Flannery O’Connor and Pope John Paul II.
  5. Other sources of inspiration and influence.
  6. Tips for Writing a Short Story or Novel.
  7. Writing exercise (15 minutes).
  8. Information about submitting manuscripts for critique.

When is the class? April 1, 7-8:15 p.m. CST

Read more about the class here.

Registration

CLICK here to register. Maximum of ten students.

 

Middle Tennessee State University

Fall Creative Writing Conference

Campus Scenes James Walker Library at night

October 19, 2019, 9 a.m. – 4 pm.

Susan will be leading a writing workshop at 10:45 a.m. The full schedule is here.

Keynote is Mary Laura PhilpotMississippi Writers’ Guild 2018 Conference

Meridian, Mississippi–July 27-28, 2018

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Using Scenes to Write Memoir (in Books and Essays)

Memoirist, essayist, novelist, and anthology editor Susan Cushman will lead students through exercises to discover the importance of using SCENES to tell their stories—or the stories of others—in both memoir and essays. Using samples from published memoirs and essays, she will show how these scenes move the narrative forward, “showing” rather than “telling” the story. Students will then do a short writing exercise using this technique.

Four Book Deals in One Year: How to Get Published Without an Agent

Novelist, memoirist, and anthology editor Susan Cushman published three books in 2017 and one in 2018. She got all four book deals in one year, without the help of a literary agent. Susan will share her experience working with an agent, and explain why she ended that partnership. Learn how to find small, independent, and university presses to publish your work, and what the experience of working with these presses and their editors is like.

One-Day Writing Workshop at Novel Memphis

Novel Workshop Flyer Cushman