Revision Is the Story: a six-week short story workshop with Lauren Acampora (In Person at HVWC)

I like to think of a first draft as the block of marble we’ve dragged up from the quarry into our studio. The first draft might be roughly the size and shape of our story but without revision, we cannot bring out the unique qualities that will cause a story to leap off the page and grab a reader by the throat. In this class we will use generative exercises to create new work and lovingly workshop stories so we can learn to flex our revision muscles.

NB:This class will be taught in person and will be capped at 10 students. It will start on Friday Octover 25 and end on Friday December 8. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email misty@writerscenter.org with any questions.

Lauren Acampora is the author of The Hundred Waters, The Paper Wasp, and The Wonder Garden, all published by Grove Atlantic. She is writing a new book of linked stories. The Hundred Waters, published in August 2022, has been named one of Vogue’s best books of the year, a LitHub best book of the summer, and one of The Millions’ most-anticipated books of 2022. Lauren’s first novel, The Paper Wasp was published in 2019 and named a Best Summer Read by The New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Oprah Magazine, ELLE, Town & Country, BBC.com, Daily Mail (UK), Tatler, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, as well as a Best Indie Novel of 2019 by Chicago Review of Books. It was also longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize. The Wonder Garden, a debut collection of linked stories, was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and an Indie Next selection, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2015 by Amazon and NPR. It won the GLCA New Writers Award and was a finalist for the New England Book Award. It was on the longlist for The Story Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize. Lauren Acampora is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her short fiction and other writing has appeared in publications such as The Paris Review, Guernica, New England Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, The New York Times Book Review, and LitHub. She graduated from Brown University, earned an MFA at Brooklyn College, and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, Writers OMI International Residency, and the Ragdale Foundation. Lauren lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, artist Thomas Doyle, and their daughter.