The Writers’ Academy at the Kravis Center
The 2019 Writers’ Academy begins with the popular Kickstart Your Writing Ability, a two-hour immersion program to be held on Thursday, January 3rd, letting aspiring writers “dip an exploratory toe” into the craft and power of writing, says instructor Julie Gilbert.
Writers’ Launch, beginning on January 7th, is just that – a pad from which to jump up and grasp the tools needed to begin. Gilbert views the Launch as a program “for anyone who loves reading and has questioned their ability to write. It is also for those who have relished writing once upon a time and found that life has galloped by without pursuing more of it.” The cost for the Writers’ Launch series is $325.
“I urge new writers to ‘lend me their ears and write me their words,’” says Gilbert, a National Book Critic’s Circle Award nominee for her biography Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle, which chronicled the life of Gilbert’s great-aunt and fellow author of such acclaimed American novels as Show Boat, Cimarron and Giant. Gilbert was recently contracted by Penguin Random House to write a new book about her great aunt, with the working title Giant Love: A Personal History of the Classic Novel, Movie and the Elegant Dame Behind it All.
This year, Writers’ Academy will have three new technique courses. Evolving Technique begins on January 8th and is designed for writers honing their craft, working toward a substantial project, starting a first draft or beginning a rewrite. The cost is $325. Evolving Technique II begins on February 19th and is a course for writers who have previously attended Writers’ Launch and/or Evolving Technique. The cost is $325. Advanced Technique begins on January 9th and is an invitation-only course for dedicated writers who have worked with Gilbert in establishing voice, technique, style, work habits, projects and durability. Students will work on one prompt and one project per writer. The cost is $525.
“The new Evolving Technique courses provide more opportunities for growing writers,” said Gilbert, who also received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard. “The writers I work with at the Kravis Center are a funny, wise, intelligent and sophisticated bunch. But what has separated them from the myriad writers I have worked with is that they are daring. After a while, trusting that a solid amount of technique and the discipline of writing steadily would be their safety net, they have ventured up on the high wire.”
Gilbert is also known to Kravis Center fans as a co-presenter of popular lectures, including this season’s Kravis Film & Literary Club presentation of Love in the Afternoon on February 21 and Sabrina on March 14, both at 11 a.m.
To learn more about The Writers’ Academy, please call 561-832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org/performance-calendar/writersacademy.