Writing

Discover or develop the writer inside you. Our writing faculty and staff are proud of our reputation as the best resource for writers in the Midwest. We make learning how to write convenient with many options including: noncredit workshops (online and on-campus), distance learning, conferences, critique services, and expert advice anytime. Contact us by calling 608-262-3447 or by e-mail.

• Join the mailing list for the writing programs that interest you most!
• Frequently asked questions about our writing programs.

Programs and Services

• Critique Services: We help all types of writers hone their skills and overcome roadblocks on the way to publication, successful freelance writing or writing for pure enjoyment. We critique fiction and nonfiction, including nonfiction book proposals. Call 608-262-3447 or e-mail cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu for more information.
  
  
• Madison Area Classes: Evening and weekend workshops are offered in creative writing, fiction writing, freelance career writing and more.
  
  
Upcoming writing workshops (Visit the catalog online for descriptions and details of all writing workshops.)


• A Weekend with your Novel: Craft and Concept (workshop day, Nov. 3rd 2012, critique groups Nov. 2-4)
  
• From Notebook to New Work: a Journaling Workshop (Wednesdays Mar 28-Apr 11, 2012).
• Novel critique group with Angela Rydell ( Section 2: Sat April 21-May26, 2012).
• NEW Rock and roll journalism (Wed, May 2-16, 2012). Visit the online catalog for descriptions and details.
• Write-by-the-Lake Writer’s Retreat (M-F June 18-22, 2012)
• Writers’ Institute (April 13-15, 2012)
• Writing a nonfiction book proposal: how to get published (new dates TBD)
• Writing compelling creative nonfiction (new dates TBD).
  
  
  
Also available


• Business writing workshops - Training to develop your writing skills. Includes Writing Good Sentences, Workplace writing, and more.
  
  
• Online workshops: Featuring a variety of formats, from e-mail based, shorter workshops, to those that use more detailed web site applications and writing texts. You can start anytime, and there are no deadlines. Instructors are available anytime for these workshops. Teachers note: 30-hour online workshops are included, which may help with your relicensure.
  
  
• The Writers' Institute: This 2-day annual conference for writers covers a variety of topics, from the basics to the business. Novels, TV and motion picture scripts, nonfiction books, freelance writing, book sales, a writing contest and lots of take-home materials are featured.
  
  
• Write-by-the-Lake Retreat: For one week this summer immerse yourself in your own creative development, with the help of our professionals and workshops. Held at the beautiful Pyle Center on Lake Mendota, University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Graduate credits available.
  
  
• School of the Arts at Rhinelander: Held every summer in Rhinelander, Wisconsin with an extensive creative writing program. The writing curriculum includes novel writing, poetry, playwriting and more.
  
  
• Independent Learning: Enjoy the flexibility and convenience of studying at home. Distance education courses in creative writing provide an opportunity to learn at your own pace. Receive detailed professional feedback and your instructor's undivided attention through assignments and critiques.
  
  
• The Writing News is a free, e-mailed newsletter designed to give you news and views from the writing staff at Liberal Studies and the Arts. It gives you fuller descriptions of upcoming events and is usually issued 4-5 times a year. We also tell you about the successes of our participants -- writers like you -- as we hear about them. This is our programming news in a handy format with everything you need to know all in one place. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: join-writing-news@lists.wisc.edu.
  
  
• Gift Certificates: Give a wonderful gift to a writer or aspiring writer. Show the writer in your life that you "share their dream." Surprise them on their birthday, at a holiday, or any day of the week. Explore our website for the choices. You'll find top-notch, award-winning writing instructors and programs for all budgets and types of writers, beginning and advanced, and in the fields of fiction (including screenwriting) and nonfiction writing, freelancing, and poetry. If you need advice on appropriate programs for the skill level of the gift recipient, we can help you make the right selection. Contact us anytime. To find out more details or to order a gift certificate, contact Christine DeSmet, UW-Madison Liberal Studies & the Arts, 21 N Park St., 7th Floor, Madison, WI 53715; 608-262-3447; e-mail cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu
  

Related resources

• Business writing workshops: Offered through the UW-Madison Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies. Noncredit, professional development workshops in topics such as grammar and punctuation for business and letter writing, desktop publishing and grant writing are found here.
  
• The Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies now offers desktop publishing workshops. Check out the currently upcoming programs in the UW-Madison Continuing Studies catalog.
  
• The Department of English: Find credit and degree program information here, including an MFA in Creative Writing. Be sure to check out the Writing Center and its links pages for sites on grammar, punctuation and more information of use to any writer. The Department of English also helps sponsor credit courses for returning adults, such as the credit attached to our Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat. Also of importance in the Department of English,The Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, offers six fellowships of $25,000 for MFA graduates who have not yet published a book.
  
• The Department of Communication Arts: You'll find credit classes in film theory and history, film and video production, scriptwriting and more.
  
• The School of Journalism and Mass Communications: Visit here for credit course degree programs for working in the media.
  
• The Department of Life Sciences Communication: Credit courses and degree programs in agricultural and science writing are offered by this department. You'll find classes in news and feature writing, ag advertising and more.
  
• Independent Learning: Do you want to earn UW credit from home for writing courses in literature and more? Are you a current degree student on campus who can't make the schedule work but need to add a writing credit class? Explore this catalog for a variety of credit courses that use the Internet and your postal mailbox. It's a convenient way to earn credits towards a degree program!
  
• Wisconsin Union Mini-Courses: Perhaps you just want a short course on an evening or two about a certain writing topic? Topics and fees vary. Students, faculty, and the community who are members of the Wisconsin Union (anybody can join) have a potpourri of fun writing courses from which to choose each semester. They're usually held at the student unions and other locations around campus.
  

Also of interest

• The Wisconsin Wrights New Play Project, coordinated by UW-Madison Continuing Studies in Theatre, was created to foster the development of new works by Wisconsin playwrights.  Three playwrights will receive artist residencies at Edenfred Mansion with workshops and readings through the University Theatre.  One play will be selected for further development through the Madison Repertory Theatre's Madison New Play Festival. Submissions are due in January.

News

Cheryl Yeko, Waukesha, Wis., is the recipient of the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for her romantic suspense novel, Protecting Rose.

The award is given annually by the Romance Writers of America and its Southern Magic chapter to honor Gayle Wilson, an author of multiple awards in the romance industry. Cheryl sharpened her dialogue through our online course taught by Christine DeSmet, “The Dialogue Shop.”

Wes Crenshaw, Lawrence, Kansas, gets big endorsements for his new books featuring teens and teen advice!

Wes Crenshaw, writer and psychologist who has attended the Writers’ Institute in the past, is one of our first 2012 success stories. He sent us this news: 

I wanted to share with you two new books we have out based on our weekly “Double Take” newspaper column in the Lawrence Journal World. We've received amazing endorsements from authors Foster Cline (Parenting with Love and Logic) Michael Bradley (When Things Get Crazy with Your Teen), and Rosalind Wiseman (Queen Bees and Wannabes). You can read what they and others have to say at http://www.dr-wes.com/. Titles of the new books are Dear Dr. Wes: Real Life Advice for Parents of Teens, and Dear Dr. Wes: Real Life Advice for Teens.

I'm really proud of these books. They're unique in the field of advice for parents and teens because they combine my nineteen years of professional experience with the wisdom of young people, all of whom were teens when they wrote these columns. As I was reading back over them and editing these books, I was impressed once again with just how smart teens are, and just how smart they have to be to get through this big, complex world we've left for them.  I hope these two books help teens and their parents navigate that world a little better! —Wes Crenshaw, PhD ABPP, Kansas Licensed Psychologist

Participant from 2011 Write-by-the-Lake Retreat gets two-book deal

We’re pleased to announce that Melissa Olson, Madison, Wis., a participant in Lori Devoti’s section in our “Write-by-the-Lake Workshop & Retreat” in 2011 has sold a sci fi/fantasy murder mystery, Dead Spots, to editor Alex Carr at 47 North in a two-book deal done by agent Jacqueline Flynn at Joelle Delbourgo Associates. By coincidence, Joelle Delbourgo will be taking pitches at our upcoming April 13-15, 2012 Writers’ Institute in Madison. Lori Devoti will be leading a new full-manuscript critique Master Class during the upcoming June 18-22 Write-by-the-Lake Retreat.

Instructor Angela Rydell nominated for a Pushcart Prize

Angela Rydell's poem "The Stepmother and the Mosquito Bird," published in The Cleveland Review, was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. You can read the poem here: http://clevelandreview.org/the-stepmother-and-the-mosquito-bird-by-angela-rydell . Angela teaches “Poetry Writing: Getting to Good” and “How to Write Compelling Fiction” for UW-Madison Continuing Studies. Angela also teaches in person for us and will be teaching flash fiction next June in the annual writers’ retreat in Madison.

Instructor Christine DeSmet has a Christmas story published and is featured writer at www.JewelsoftheQuill.com

Christine DeSmet, teacher of many writing courses at UW-Madison Continuing Studies and director of our June retreat, is the author of a new holiday story called “The Christmas Magi of Birch Bay” in the book Christmas Gems, a collection of holiday stories published by Whiskey Creek Press. Christine is also this month’s featured author at the Jewels of the Quill website, where you can read excerpts of her writing. Check out www.JewelsoftheQuill.com

Screenwriting course in Delta Sky magazine
We're high in the sky! The Delta Sky magazine (October issue) took a look at the "Cool Online Courses" being taught across the country and included our very own "Screenwriting: Write Your First Draft Fast," taught by Christine DeSmet. The article said:  "That great movie idea you've been noodling? Give it shape with help from a professional screenwriter." Download the article (pdf).

Instructor Christine DeSmet has new short story in Christmas collection
Christine DeSmet’s holiday short story set in northern Wisconsin called, “The Christmas Magi of Birch Bay,” appears in the new Christmas Gems: A Jewels of the Quill Christmas Anthology,” available now from Whiskey Creek Press in paperback or electronic formats.

Christine’s story leads the collection. Her story is a sweet romance involving a young war widow who finds the loneliness of the holiday lifted by an ordinary Joe venturing into her antique shop to look for an elusive baseball card for his collection.

Past Writers’ Institute speaker Marnie Mamminga’s historic memoir coming in Spring 2012
The Wisconsin Historical Society Press is publishing in spring 2012 Marnie Mamminga’s story of her grandmother’s Wisconsin cabin, called Return to Wake Robin: One Cabin in the Heyday of North Woods Resorts. Mamminga, of Batavia, Ill., has been an instructor at the annual Writers’ Institute conference. Marnie explains about the book’s title, “Wake Robin is the common name for the spring flower trillium that blooms abundantly in Wisconsin and is also the name my grandmother gave our cabin when she had it built in 1929.” The book is a series of essays that focus on the 1920-1960s glory era of camps and cabins.

Check out more writer success stories

Writing programs contact information

Christine DeSmet, 608-262-3447 e-mail: cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu