The Conference
January 14-21, 2023
2024 dates to be announced
Located on the beautiful waterfront campus of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, this writers’ conference features professional writers at the top of their form spending quality time with motivated and talented participants seeking an intimate, unhurried climate for learning…in paradise.
2023 WORKSHOPS
Whether you are working on a personal story, an historical account, a biography, or some combination, your work is going to need a narrative arc, which can be challenging in nonfiction. Our group will work on ways to create an engine for your prose—-on how to turn a situation into a story (especially tricky in memoir). We will spend time devising strategies to create lively prose. A special emphasis will be placed on publication options and on generating future subject matter so that you will leave the conference armed with new ideas and enthusiasm. Your 25 sample pages can be the opening chapter of a longer work or a self-contained article-sized piece of 25 pages or less (plus a 1-p synopsis).
A World of Our Own: Moving Into Your Novel So You Can Finish It
It’s possible the number one reason some of us can’t finish our long-form stories is that we keep trying to write the world of our novels while continuing to live and think only from the perspective of this world. But what if, rather than plotting or outlining, you first created so much of your novel’s world that you could (almost) move right in, live with your characters, and figure out the logical and the magical in what is driving you to write? In this workshop, we will use targeted tasks to uncover and develop your novel’s plot, places, characters, themes, tone, and ambiance, as well as the momentum to propel you toward a solid, well-plotted first draft, a work that can then be revised, rewritten. A whole thing. A dish and not its ingredients.
The class will be primarily a workshop. Students will read one another’s novel excerpts, interrogating character, action, language, ideas and setting with an eye toward revision. Participants admitted to this workshop are asked to read The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies as part of preparation for workshop.
If I teach nothing else in my writing classes, I teach this: do not outline your novel or novella or short story or essay. Do not think out the plot, the narrative arc, the protagonist’s journey, whatever you want to call it. Instead, try to find the story through an honest excavation of the characters’ total experience of the situation in which they find themselves. Do that, and I promise the story will begin to write itself, with little need for the controlling hand of the godly, intelligent, well-read, and ambitious author. But how, precisely, does one go about this “excavation”? And how, technically speaking, can we ignite a story into “writing itself”? Come to this workshop, and I will seek to demystify those writerly tools and skills that time and time again, if they are sharp enough, and if the writer can summon enough daily faith and nerve, can penetrate the mystery of story itself.
Are there really “rules” for crime-writing? Only one: Keep the reader turning pages. Students interested in crime fiction will learn about the specialized challenges of pacing their stories, playing fair with readers and why less is often more when it comes to mysteries.
The workshop is open to both fiction and nonfiction writers who are interested in improving their storytelling and broadening their range of techniques. Focus will be on how the handling of core issues such as character, plot, tension, and emotion are imperative regardless of the form, and demonstrating that fiction writers can benefit from seeing how journalistic techniques can add depth and realism to their own work, while nonfiction writers can benefit from learning how to build scenes, create suspense, and use dialogue. (A properly formatted screenplay opening of up to 25 pp will also be considered.)
In this workshop, we will read and discuss published essays every day to examine what makes a good piece of memoir writing. We will then critique pages from your own memoirs and essays with an eye toward revision.
In addition to manuscript discussion and critique, in this generative workshop, composed of in-class writing exercises and close readings of poems that model risk-taking, we will write exploratory drafts that push us towards next-level thinking and emotional breakthroughs. Students will enter a community of writers whose collective aim is to forward our growth as writers by crafting both our feelings and our language.
We will cover as many matters of craft and art (character, theme, point-of-view, language, structure, and setting) as we can fit into the time allotted with special attention to problems and possibilities that arise from our reading of the students’ manuscripts. Using the manuscripts as prompts, I will suspend discussion occasionally for mini-lectures and demonstrations of key ideas. This class will help participants fashion a better synopsis and sample chapter to send out to agents.
This workshop will focus on the overall conception and structure of book-length projects–novel, memoir, or general interest non-fiction, either completed or in progress. Discussion will center on the clarity and substance of a summary of the project and the efficacy of the opening 25 pp, given the stated intention.
Full manuscript guidelines for submissions are available on our Submittable page.
New for 2023
- Writers in Paradise at Eckerd College is pleased to announce the addition of a series of Pruitt-Meinke Fellowships. For 2023, Conference Co-Directors Dennis Lehane and Les Standiford will award as many as four new fellowships targeted toward writers from traditionally under-supported communities. Each of the awards will cover full conference tuition, 8 nights of housing at the conference hotel, and a stipend for travel and meals. The primary criterion for designation as a Pruitt-Meinke Fellow is the submission of a writing sample judged of excellent quality. In furthering the Conference’s long-standing commitment to inclusion and diversity and to ensure the participation of a rich and varied array of talent from about the country and abroad, special attention will be given to applications from individuals from historically underserved populations as well as individuals who have overcome substantial socioeconomic obstacles. Since its founding in 2005, Writers in Paradise, with an increasingly large applicant pool and high bar for admission, has made it a priority to include a diverse group of mentoring faculty who reflect the ultimate achievement in their genres and who are gifted and generous teachers. The new series of Fellowships is meant to acknowledge and address the challenges of taking time away from family, work, and studies during a week in January not long after the year-end holidays, not to mention the cost of traveling to Florida during peak season. The awards are made possible by generous gifts to the College from Martha Rudy Wallace in honor of Eckerd Professor Emeritus Peter Meinke and from the Pruitt family in honor of the late Dr. Crayton Pruitt. Learn more about how to apply in our application page.
- Writers in Paradise partners with the Residence Inn for participant lodging. For more information about room rate and amenities, click on lodging.
Deadline for Applications to Workshop
Our applications period runs from August 1 to November 1 ( 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time). Apply starting August 1 on Submittable.
For more information on workshop selection, deadlines and conference costs, click on Application.
Co-founded by Dennis Lehane and Sterling Watson, and co-directed by Les Standiford, Writers in Paradise offers an intensive eight-day experience of workshop classes, roundtables, panel discussions, Q&As, readings, book signings, and receptions with our award winning-faculty and guest speakers.
The tranquil seaside landscape sets the tone for this informal gathering of writers, teachers, editors, and literary agents. The size and secluded location of the Eckerd College Writers’ Conference allows you the time and opportunity to share your manuscripts, critique one another’s work, and discuss the craft of writing with experts and peers who can help guide you to the next level.
Why You Should Attend
After eight days of workshopping and engagement with peers and professionals in your field, you will leave with a refreshed understanding of your craft and solid ideas about how to find an agent and get published. At the heart of the conference are six days of workshops led by master faculty in various genres where techniques are discussed and participant manuscripts are closely examined.
Writers in Paradise offers a wide array of Fellowships and Scholarships.
Additional Information
The 19th edition of Writers in Paradise will take place from January 14 – 21, 2023. Esteemed faculty and selected participants workshop for three hours in the morning, attend panels and craft talks in the afternoon, and attend evening readings and events. Participants are actively engaged with our faculty and guests from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information about Writers in Paradise, please visit our FAQ or contact Conference Coordinator, Marina Pruna, at prunami@eckerd.edu.
Testimonials
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Mission Statement
Our Mission
Our mission at Writers in Paradise is to provide talented and hardworking writers of all levels and genres the opportunity to learn from and work with other writers under the guidance of masterful and successful authors. For an entire week, we strive to provide an open, inclusive, and nurturing environment where creativity, critical awareness and writing techniques can be exercised, fostered and encouraged. Every year we try to grow our conference to include new voices and ways of looking at writing and what it means to write in today’s market while maintaining a core faculty of proven authors who are both successful in their genres as well as gifted in the classroom. Our central premise has always been to help talented writers reach their intended audiences. We understand the complexities of putting together effective stories, and this understanding and sensitivity makes our workshops popular and coveted. One of our goals is to create community among our participants which is why our workshops are closed to all but those participants who submit manuscripts and are accepted into workshop—one long time faculty member calls it “having skin in the game.”
We believe that keeping workshops small allows for focus, productive criticism and honesty.
Our commitment to providing a week filled with writing education and sanctuary includes poetry. Nearly every year we rotate a nationally-acclaimed, award-winning poet who teaches as part of our core faculty. In addition to the poetry workshop and craft talk(s), we are honored to have as part of our lineup the poet laureates of St. Petersburg and of Florida, Helen Pruitt Wallace and Peter Meinke.
With the help of our St. Petersburg community and Eckerd alumni, we work with an endowment that affords us the opportunity to help many participants financially. We never want money to be the reason that you can’t come be with us for a week. If you’ve got a story that’s burning to be told, we want to help you add to your set of craft-box tools, so you can effectively tell it. While we are competitive and accept writers based on the strength and potential of their writing, we abide by the notion that good writing is good writing and we all stand to learn from one another no matter where we come from, how old we are, or what we may or may not have studied formally. After a week at WIP, we hope you leave with a new and inspired sense of direction, some good friends who you can share writing with throughout the year, and with confidence you can navigate new writing challenges on your own.
Les Standiford, Conference Director
Marina Pruna, Conference Coordinator
