The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
Writers Conference

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Advanced Conference Workshops

Deeper engagement with conference faculty

Beyond panels, craft talks, and the rest of the regular conference schedule, the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference features a number of advanced workshops that provide individuals with opportunities for deeper learning, closer feedback, and more personalized relationships with conference faculty.

By participating in advanced workshops, writers form tight-knit bonds with each other and become part of an intimate cohort ahead of the larger activities. Each workshop takes place the day before the conference (Thursday) and is about three hours long.

Advanced workshops are open to the public with a $25 discount for conference attendees. (Please note: advanced workshops are not included in the conference registration. Discount codes will be sent to attendees upon registration.)

Advanced workshops for the 2020 Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference will be announced in Fall of 2019.

In the meantime, you can view past advanced workshops, meet our faculty, view the schedule, or find upcoming classes and workshops through the Piper Writers Studio.

View Past Advanced Workshops

Picture of Ramona Ausubel in front of Old Main

How to Survive Your Novel
Ramona Ausubel
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Type: Generative Workshop, Lecture, Workshop
Genre: Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Hybrid, Novels
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Starting a novel is hard. Finishing a novel seems nearly impossible. And the middle, well, the middle is a thousand years long. But! But! There are things you can do to turn walls into doorways and keep you moving forward. Join award winning novelist, Ramona Ausubel, in a course on discussing strategies for survival in writing your novel and for keeping the process fun, inventive and full of life. This workshop consists of both moments of lecture and exercises, so be prepared to learn, talk, engage, and put your thoughts and ideas on the page!
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Multiplying Language: The Art of Codeswitching and Bilingualism in Creative Writing
Achy Obejas
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Type: Advanced Workshop, Generative Workshop, Workshop
Genre: Mixed Genre, Translation, World Literature
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How do you approach creative writing in a multilingual landscape? Join critically acclaimed author, translator, and educator, Achy Obejas, to explore how authors use codeswitching, bilingualism and multiple languages in the same text to highlight culture, the necessity of home languages, and to demonstrate new creative paths for their writing. When and how do we codeswitch? To what to end do we use codeswitching in our art? What does it mean for our single language readers when these techniques are employed?

Writing Down the Demons
Deborah Miranda
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2019, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Type: Advanced Workshop, Generative Workshop, Workshop
Genre: Poetry
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How do we summon creative power in the face of our personal and/or global demons? How can we speak of beauty when our world seems full of loss, grief, climate change, and political turmoil?  Thich Nhat Hanh says that the work of meditation is to transform “compost into flowers”; that is also the work of poetry.  This generative workshop will help you to re-see your demons as a form of poetic compost.
Picture of Hanif Abdurraqib in front of Old Main

Writing Away from a Good/Evil Binary
Hanif Abdurraqib
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2019, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Type: Advanced Workshop, Generative Workshop, Workshop
Genre: Poetry
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We too often rely on a “good/bad” binary to shape our characters and considerations in our stories. How do our complexities as human beings find their way to the page? In this generative workshop, join poet, essayist, and cultural critic, Hanif Abdurraqib, on an exploration on empathy and the dynamics of character in popular culture. The group will use an empathy tree in which participants figure out which characters in popular culture they find empathetic or non-empathetic.