Hurston/Wright 2024 Individual Coaching Sessions

January 2024-May 2024

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The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s mission is to honor, discover and mentor Black writers. We do that by providing services, supports and opportunities that provide community and recognize accomplishments. Our community resources include in-person workshops and classes that have been our signature offering for almost 30 years. Workshops and courses are taught by award-winning authors and serve emerging and midcareer adult writers. More than a thousand Black writers have taken our classes since the first one in 1996, increasing diversity in the cultural community as they have gone on to create books and careers as professors, local cultural workers, and national thought leaders. We look forward to receiving your application. 

For inquiries regarding the application, email us at programs@hurstonwright.org. 

About the coach

B. Sharise Moore is an award-winning author, curriculum developer, workshop facilitator, Poetry Editor for FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, and the 2023 Writer in Residence for The Hurston Wright Foundation. In 2021, she released her YA magical realism novel, Dr. Marvellus Djinn’s Odd Scholars and in 2022, she curated and edited Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students. 

Moore’s forthcoming books include Fangs, Feathers, and Folklore, a middle grade field guide of African mythological creatures from Hachette Book Group/Algonquin Young Readers (2025), Fatimah’s Fantastic City, and Golden: a Story of Yaa Asantewaa from HarperCollins (2025, 2026). She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband and their two children. B. Sharise is represented by Laurie McLean, partner agent at Fuse Literary. 

Coaching description:

A significant portion of the writing process involves shaping a manuscript into a polished piece worthy of presenting to the literary market. As with any product that requires refinement, expert feedback is used as a tool to hone, mold, and produce a quality product. Similarly, coaching sessions with B. Sharise Moore will provide you with an expert review of your children’s, YA, or adult fiction manuscripts in the following stages of your process:

• Editing, development, and revision 
• Composing a query letter
• Outlining publishing expectations
• Finding an agent
• Deciding to self-publish vs. traditionally publish your manuscript

Process

To schedule coaching, participants must have a completed manuscript or 750 words for a children’s book. 

• Submit 750 words of your manuscript to submittable. 
• B. Sharise will review the first 20 pages of your manuscript. 
• An email with a link to schedule will be emailed to you, as well as a needs assessment. The assessment will be used to design a session that is tailored to your writerly needs. 
• The scheduled time will be at the convenience of writer and coach.

Cost 

$250 per hour

Submission Format:

• 20 pages maximum, using Times New Roman, 12-point type, double-spaced with 1-inch margins.
• Provide a title page with the author’s name and contact information.
• Include a cover letter with information about your writing life and citations of any published work.

Cancellation Policy: Please note that is service is non-refundable. If you must cancel after paying the coaching fee and scheduling, you must provide 48-hour notice to reschedule.  In addition, Hurston/Wright reserves the right to cancel a session based on submission details and policies. Submitters will be notified immediately to reschedule.

2024 Writers Week  
July 8th -July 12th
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Instructors:
 

• Poetry Instructor:  simóne j banks
• Fiction Instructor: Alaya Johnson
• Non-fiction Instructor: Zelda Lockhart
• Screenwriting: Mai Sennaar
   

About Us
   The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s mission is to honor, discover and mentor Black writers. We do that by providing services, supports and opportunities that provide community and recognize accomplishments. Our community resources include in-person workshops and classes that have been our signature offering for almost 30 years. Workshops and courses are taught by award-winning authors and serve emerging and midcareer adult writers. More than a thousand Black writers have taken our classes since the first one in 1996, increasing diversity in the cultural community as they have gone on to create books and careers as professors, local cultural workers, and national thought leaders. 

 ABOUT OUR WORKSHOPS AND INSTRUCTORS

 Workshop Highlights 

• 10+ Hours of writing seminars and discussions  
• One-on-one time with an award-winning writer in your genre  
• Constructive, guided feedback on your writing from your peers and workshop leader

Poetry Workshop Description:
The Body is the Land

What does it mean to restage, reimagine and restore the earth as Black? In the spirit of Lucille Clifton, we write so that memory can be as whole as possible. In this 5-day meditative class, professional and emerging writers are welcomed to listen and write towards the conflation of the past and present. The goal for the class is to individually seek to restage, reimagine, and restore our collective and individual memories of the lands we occupy, as sites of memory. What stories will we remember? What traditions were there? What voice(s) do we hear? We will look at poetic form, structure and found materials such as elements of nature and documents to explore the stories we want to tell. Students can expect light homework and exercises for reflection and capture of these memories along with a class share at the end of the week.

Poetry Instructor
 simóne j banks, an Assistant Professor of English at Albright College, is a writer with a deep interest in exploring the spatial, aural, and optical perceptual planes of ancestral and present-day Black ecologies. Her work has been featured in esteemed publications such as the Santa Fe Writers Project, About Place Journal, and eMerge Journal. She is currently working on her debut poetry collection, continuum. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Louisiana State University, where she earned the William Jay Smith Thesis Award in poetry.

Fiction Workshop Description:

As Zora Neale Hurston has told us, "There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." Explore craft, art, and imagination in a supportive workshop environment geared to help fiction writers craft their inner stories. 

This will be a collaborative workshop in which emerging writers with fundamental knowledge of crafting and completing fiction will learn from one another as well as from the instructor. 

Our main goals will be to:

• Learn to give and receive constructive feedback, spotting common issues in our own and others' work.
• Dissect  and discuss craft techniques such as POV, describing characters, dialogue, and building emotion.
• Recognize what makes your voice unique, and honor that spark as you revise your work.

Fiction Instructor 

Alaya Dawn Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and the author of eight novels for adults and young adults. N.K. Jemisin has hailed her recent YA science fiction novel, The Library of Broken Worlds, as "modern epic poetry." Her most recent novel for adults, Trouble the Saints, won the 2021 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Her debut short story collection, Reconstruction, was an Ignyte Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist. Her debut YA novel The Summer Prince was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and the follow-up Love Is the Drug was awarded the Andre Norton Nebula Award. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, most notably the title story in The Memory Librarian, in collaboration with Janelle Monáe. She lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. 

Nonfiction Workshop Description:

The Mirror Exercise--Personal Essay Writing

Join us in a transformative journey as participants delve into crafting personal essays using The Mirror Exercise from Lockhart’s The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript. This exercise, comprising five prompts for writing and reflection, aims to guide individuals towards moments of profound revelation. Through the utilization of jump starters such as music, art, and poetry, participants will find inspiration for their writing.

Outcomes: 

• A structured daily writing practice plan to facilitate consistent progress. 
• Spiritual and emotional guidance for developing pivotal scenes within personal essays. 
• Strategies and techniques for imbuing memoirs of any length with emotional depth and narrative structure.

Personal Growth Outcomes:

• Gain new insights into past and present relationships.
• Acquire tools and practices for navigating emotions surrounding loss.
• Develop strategies for achieving personal desires within a challenging societal context, all through the practice of personal writing.

Whether you're an emerging writer, a seasoned professional, or just starting out, all are encouraged to embark on this journey towards generational healing through the power of writing.

Nonfiction Instructor

Zelda Lockhart is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through Our Stories & Nature. Lockhart holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies, an MA in Literature, and a certificate in film from the New York Film Academy. Her books include HarperCollins 2023 release Trinity (a novel) by Zelda Lockhart, HarperCollins 2021 release Mama Bear: One Black Mother’s Fight for Her Child’s Life and Her Own (by Shirley Smith with Zelda Lockhart),   Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief (by Doris Payne with Zelda Lockhart), and The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life's Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir, or Poetry. Her other novels are Fifth Born, a Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award finalist, Cold Running Creek a Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Fiction Awardee, and Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, 2011 Lambda Literary Award finalist.

Screenwriting Workshop Description

This screenwriting workshop is designed for participants at every stage of your journey, whether you're just starting out or a seasoned pro. Dive into the essential principles of screenwriting, guided by the timeless wisdom of Aristotle's 3-Act structure, the cornerstone of traditional screenplays and Western narrative tradition.

Through interactive sessions, you'll dissect the anatomy of a film of your choice, exchanging insights and feedback with fellow writers. Gain invaluable skills to cultivate a consistent and productive writing routine, setting you on the path to success. With personalized guidance, you'll set ambitious goals tailored to your project, empowering you to bring your vision to life by your own deadline.

As a culmination of your journey, unleash your creativity by crafting an original short script, and bring it to life through the lens of your own short video.

Screenwriting Instructor

Mai Sennaar is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Smithsonian Affiliate Museum of the African Diaspora, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Classical Theatre of Harlem are among the venues that have presented her plays. Her short film Wax Lovers’ Playlist premiered at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and was an Official Selection of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. She is the book writer for Carry On!, a new musical by Broadway composer Diana Wharton-Sennaar, and the creative director of the performing arts company MWPLive. They Dream in Gold is her first novel. She lives between Baltimore and Dakar.

Submission Format:
    Please ensure that your submission aligns with the genre to which you are applying.

For fiction, nonfiction  

• 10 page maximum, using Times New Roman, 12-point type, double-spaced with 1-inch margins.

 For poetry applicants: 

• Submit no more than 3 poems for consideration, no less than 2.

All applicants

• Provide a title page with the author’s name and contact information.
• Include a cover letter with information about your writing life and citations of any published work.
• Applicants may apply to one workshop only.  Previous attendees are eligible to apply.

DISCLAIMER: Applicants must not contact instructors directly about the application process or send queries regarding other projects, unless invited by the instructor directly. If these actions occur, applicants will be ineligible to attend our writing workshops. 

Deadline and Fees:
 

• Deadline: May 3rd
• Application fee: $35
• Tuition: $450
• Apply early. Hurston/Wright uses rolling admissions for a maximum of 10 slots per workshop. All applicants will be notified by or before May 17th.
• A nonrefundable deposit of $150 is due within 1 week of notification of acceptance into the workshop. The remaining balance is due by June 7th. 
• Cancellation Policy: If you must cancel after paying the full tuition, $100 will be returned to you if you notify the foundation at least 1 week before the program starts. After that date, the full tuition is forfeited. In addition, Hurston/Wright reserves the right to close the submission period or cancel a session based on the number of applications. Applicants will be notified immediately, and any payments will be returned if the class is canceled.
   
• Workshops start at 6 pm-8 pm EST. A detailed schedule will be provided upon acceptance.