Dzanc Books

Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions

Dzanc Books - the award winning, trend setting, culturally cutting-edge nonprofit press, yes 'that'  Dzanc – is pleased to announce the opening of our newest inspiration:  the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions.   This letter is designed to introduce you to our program and invite you to sign up for what we believe is one of the most innovative online writing workshops being offered today.

The DCWS is founded on the principle that many authors’ lifestyles do not afford them the opportunity to obtain feedback on their writing – be it where they live, their work schedule, or finances.  We feel that all authors deserve the opportunity to have their work reviewed.  Unlike most of the current workshop opportunities – MFA programs, Low-Residency programs, colonies, online classes, etc. - the DCWS is unique in that it allows the writer to determine the parameters for their own review sessions.  With the DCWS, you sign up for what you want and need, not some pre-determined program. 

The DCWS is set up to provide a one-to-one working relationship with a published author, allowing you the benefits of their experience, in many cases both writing and teaching.  Nearly 100 great authors have already agreed to volunteer their services as mentors in our DCWS program.  The names you’ll find in our database include award winning authors and teachers such as:  George Singleton, Myfanwy Collins, Dawn Raffel, Peter Markus, Leora Skolkin-Smith, Katrina Denza, Laura van den Berg, Kevin Wilson, Nancy Cherry, Jeff Parker and Mike Czyzniejewski. From this list, writers paying to participate in the DCWS may select an available author to work with. Participating writers will then have their work critiqued and can discuss in detail their writing and any other areas of writing in general they wish to explore with their DCWS author. 

The DCWS will utilize email to reduce the difficulties writers such as yourself have when looking to find feedback on your work.  Our workshops  remove the limitations of both time and distance as you’ll send your work and questions to your mentor when and where you have access to the internet.  Each participant will determine how many hours of mentoring they need, as well as how to progress – you asking specific questions about your work, or you asking for your manuscript to be edited (10 pages per hour), or simply looking for a back and forth conversation about your work after the mentor you select has read the work. 

The program is being offered at an extremely low rate – many of the instructing authors volunteering their time to Dzanc do similar work as freelancers and charge much greater rates than are being offered here through the DCWS.  Other workshops and writing programs charge a lump sum of several hundred dollars up front.  Not only does the DCWS allow you to control and target your expenses, but 100% of the money brought in by Dzanc by our DCWS goes to supporting the writing programs we run for students grades 4-12.  These additional programs – currently being run nationally by Dzanc - are offered free of charge to students who would not otherwise be able to afford and experience these sort of writing programs.

The DCWS sessions are set up in hourly blocks and can be ordered as follows:

1 hour   - $20
2 hours - $30
4 hours - $50

The DCWS eliminates your need to travel to a university.  It also eliminates your need to lay out a few hundred dollars up front for an 8 or 10 week online course.  It allows you to jump in and out when you are available, and also allows you to select from the list of authors that have generously volunteered their time to this project.  A full list is available at our website.  This list includes published novelists, short story writers, flash fiction writers, poets and non-fiction writers. If you don't feel the need to select a specific author, we'll simply assign a writer to you.   

For more information on our Creative Writing Sessions program, please send an email to [email protected].

In order to sign up now, head over to visiting the DCWS page at our website and select your author.  After deciding how many hours to work with your mentor, click on the Paypal button that corresponds to that number, and fill in the mentor name in the appropriate field and we’ll get you started.  

Sincerely,

Steven Gillis
Dan Wickett
Dzanc Books
www.dzancbooks.org

Making it all worthwhile

Last night, at Shaman Drum Booksellers in Ann Arbor, MI, we (Steve Gillis and Dan Wickett) had the pleasure of attending a reading.  The individuals reading last night were the fifth and grade class of Ms. Leslie Lawther from the Open School at Mack in Ann Arbor.  The moderator of the evening's events was Mr. Scott Beal. 

Scott ran one of the four DWIRP's that Dzanc sponsored this past school year.  His was a full effort and he attended the class once or twice per week, each and every week of the school year from September through this past week.  He taught the children creative writing and reading.  As Scott is a poet, poetry is what the class concentrated on, eventually putting together a 160 page anthology of poetry from 25 students, which Dzanc published, making sure each student, as well as Scott, Ms. Lawther, the school's principal, Ms. Naomi Zikmund-Fisher, received a free copy.

Last night, 22 of the 25 students were able to make the reading, and the each stepped up to the table, leaned into the microphone and confidentally read one of their poems.  They read to as packed a house as I've seen at Shaman Drum in some time.  There may have been as many people there recently to see Li-Young Lee, but I'm not sure.

A similar, though smaller class size, program was also run this past year by Diane Goettel at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, NY.  Between 12 students, they were able to put together a fantastic 70 page anthology of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, and also did a reading, which unfortunately, neither Steve nor I were able to attend.

The hour plus that last night's reading lasted was more than a small reminder as to why Dzanc Books is in existence.  We love to publish, make no mistake about that.  And Dan loves the need for one of us to attend things like AWP and BEA and readings and meetings, and Steve loves that Dan loves doing those.  But, all of that is done so that we can run our educational programs.  The networking as a publisher helps us find authors to pay to run these DWIRPs for us.  The publishing gives us the credibility to approach schools and suggest they put their students in our hands for an hour a week.

Seeing just how excited these students were about the book in their hands, the pride in reading their own work to a crowd, and just as huge - seeing many of them wandering through the stacks of literary fiction and poetry with interest - again, way more than a small reminder.

Many thanks to the Meijer Foundation, the Community Foundation of SE Michigan, and about a dozen private donors, that contributed to Dzanc Books last year and made it possible for us to run more than a single DWIRP this year.  Those of you believing this to be a worthwhile venture might consider visiting our Support page.

DWIRP Reading - Community H.S. at Shaman Drum

Just returned from our first ever DWIRP (Dzanc Writer in Residence Program) reading.  The students from our first such program, at Community High School in Ann Arbor, MI, read from their work at Shaman Drum Bookstore. 

Led by the WiP, the great Paul Toth, student after student walked up to the table, and calmly read their stories as if they've been reading in front of crowds their entire lives.  The work was at a much higher level than that from which I recall coming from high school students from my own days (long ago as that may have been).  It was great knowing that we had something to do with this, and very obvious from both the work, and the comments from the students, that we'd made a great selection in Paul Toth.

It was also great to see Shaman Drum packed, and many thanks go out to those like Elizabeth Ellen and Tamara Christie-Glynn, those not affiliated with Dzanc Books, nor with Community High School or its students, yet showed up to support the work that Dzanc is doing - it was much appreciated.

First Program Being Discussed

We are in the mid-stages of setting up our first Writer in Residence!  We have been in conversation with a high school in Ann Arbor about setting up a writer (who we've also been in discussion with) to teach a full blown creative writing class for their second semester (Winter/Spring 2007) with the goal of helping students their develop their writing skills, and possibly help them earn a place in the school's literary magazine come May.

More on this as we finalize details.