We want to help you with your writing needs.

We invite you to schedule a free 15-minute conference call consult to describe your writing situation and focus. During the call, we listen to your writing situation and help you out -- sometimes writers will register for an upcoming workshop. Other times, after a consult, writers will initiate a formal Introductory Consult through our Individual Consult Group to find a writing coach selected specifically for your project.

To initiate a Free Consult, e-mail us -- and when you do, please let us know specifically what you're working on and want to discuss. Then we'll get back in touch and begin to talk together about your writing.

 

Register for a free consult

 

David Biespiel

By appointment only.

Telephone Conference Call

Free.

Platform to Publish

The Hawthorne Fellows is a five-month program for writers to focus on establishing your writing goals and publishing regularly. It's part seminar, part editorial team, and part literary assembly line. Leading the Hawthorne Fellows is New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Lauck whose experience with writing, agents, and publishing is extensive.

Fellows meet twice a month for five months — and share work through e-mail with other fellows regularly — as a means to refine individual pieces. Some meetings are specifically designed to include literary professionals -- agents, publicists, and editors. The goal of the Fellows Editorial Meeting is to help writers make final decisions to prepare their work for publication. Fellows also publish regularly in The Boulevard, the online magazine of the Hawthorne Fellows.

Acceptance as a Hawthorne Fellow is a major confirmation of your ambition and focus as a working writer. In considering you for acceptance into the Hawthorne Fellows program, we consider the needs of writers for time and attention beyond the short traditional workshop. Hawthorne Fellows are committed to sharing their knowledge and writing and are focused on helping each other make the best decisions before readying pieces for publication.

Application Period and Deadlines
Writers may apply anytime for the upcoming fellowship period. To apply, please e-mail up to 25 pages of writing plus a written statement about your writing and publishing goals during your Hawthorne Fellow period. New, current, and past fellows are welcome to apply. Ideal for writers looking to take the step toward publication and publishing regularly.

For October 1 - February 28 fellowship period: Apply by September 25

For April 1 -  August 31 fellowship period: Apply by March 25

Important Note: In 2013, the Apr-Aug session of Hawthorne Fellows will meet on the following dates: April 8, 22, May 6, 20, June 17, 24, July 1, 15, 29, Aug. 5.)

 

Apply to the Hawthorne Fellows

Jennifer Lauck

Monday

Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm, meets every two weeks

Attic Institute, 4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard

$770 (cash/check); $793 (credit card). Plus, there are payment plans available.

$225 upon acceptance.

Weekly workshop that runs throughout the year that is designed to formalize an extended study of poetry

 

The Poets Studio is open to all writers, and poets can join with permission at anytime. Poets make ten week commitments to join the Poets Studio -- either as members or as auditors and can renew with permission anytime thereafter. All new members and auditors receive David's private reading list called "The First One-Fifty," which is comprised of 150 poems from anonymous to Auden that all poets in the studio are asked to read. By joining the Poets Studio, poets confirm that writing and publishing poetry is a practice that calls for extended and sustained study. Read more about the Poets Studio.

 

The Poets Studio is led by Attic Institute president David Biespiel. David is the author of five books of poems, including The Book of Men and Women, which was named one of the Best Books of the Year in 2009 by the Poetry Foundation and was awarded the Oregon Book Award. His column on poetry in the Oregonian is the longest-running newspaper column on poetry in the U.S. He writes the Poetry Wire blog for The Rumpus.

 

Join the Poets Studio

David Biespiel

Wednesdays, 5:30-8pm

Attic Institute, 4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard

The Poets Studio meets all year. Both members and auditors make five payments a year in ten-week increments. Registration for Members: $395/ten weeks if paid by check; $407/ten weeks if paid with credit card. Registration for Auditors: $250/ten weeks if paid by check; $258/ten weeks if paid by credit card. [When space is available, poets can join the Poets Studio as a member or auditor, depending, at any time. And when space is filled, we maintain a wait list and writers are invited in order.]

The essentials of fiction writing

This will be one of the most supportive four-hour fiction workshops you've ever been to. We'll start with Ellizabeth Tallent's amazing short piece of fiction, "No One's a Mystery." Then I'll give you some prompts to write your own flash fiction. The thing to know is that you can have a complete story in a very small space if you really make the dialogue, action and setting work harder. And, of course, there is the matter of story structure. We'll focus on those important elements without getting caught up in describing everything in the room or some interior thoughts so the readers end up with some static sort of stories.  Instead, we'll find the very small thing that can break your story wide open. Of course, we'll be using "No One's A Mystery," though the workshop is open to all fiction writers, not just those interested in short fiction or flash fiction. A short story can be expanded from within, not just extended.  (For example, my first novel, Quilt, was originally a 24 page short story.) If you're game to refocus your sense of how to tell a story, come on up.

Also, because this class is Wait List Only, please check out Whitney Otto's longer Novel-in-Progress workshop and Short Fiction workshop. There is still room in both. And: When you sing up for Novel-in-Progress or Short Fiction, you'll eligible for a free Spring Writing Festival class.

Register for the Wait List

Whitney Otto

Saturday, February 23, 10-2pm, four hours

Attic Institute, 4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard

$54 (cash/check); ($57 credit card)

Visual Arts Assemblage

Need a nudge in a new creative direction?  This 8 week course’s main focus is to help you conquer creative ruts and delve into new ways to approach your creative process.  There is not just one technique in which to get back on the proverbial studio horse, but each artist is capable of a myriad of ways to bring to yourself the ability to embrace new ideas from which to work. Whether you’re a painter or a video artist, we’ll emphasize cutting through barriers. Through class discussion and varied technical processes that all artists can practice, we’ll work together on universal creative problem-solving.

Register for this class

Margaret Eccles Yost

Saturdays, 1-4pm, Mar 9 - Mar 30, 4 weeks

Attic Institute, 4232 SE Hawthorne Boulevard

$200 cash; $208 credit. Some assemblages also require an additional $25 materials fee to be paid at the beginning of the first meeting.

Join Attic Institute president David Biespiel for the 3rd Annual Renewal Weekend for Writers in Dufur, Oregon at the historic Balch Hotel.

Refocus on your writing process with proven strategies that are eye-opening and fun. Renew your habits with new ideas drawn from David's little book for writers, Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces. Reward yourself with lively conversation, great meals — and get scheduled "secret" time to write on your own. And, finally, re-emerge from the retreat new energy for your creative and writing life. The 3rd Annual Creative Renewal Weekend at the Balch Hotel promises to lift your creative spirit with inspired time to write, friendly company of fellow writers, delicious prepared meals at the historic Balch Hotel in spectacular Wasco County, Oregon.

The Balch Hotel: In addition to the workshops and writing time, when you come to the Creative Renewal Weekend you get to enjoy the elegance of the Balch Hotel, the restored 1907 histo