Mt. Washington Writers' Workshop
“Judith Dancoff is a writing instructor and creative guide of uncommon insight. She'll get you right down to it without savaging you in the process. You'll emerge from the experience with a stronger voice and direction for your work. That's certainly what she did for me.”
- Anath White, Workshop Member
“I was a nervous, unsure beginner when I first joined Judith's workshop. She has a wonderful gift for creating a supportive yet critically astute environment. Through her intuitive and generous guidance, I became confident enough to get my MFA.
“We writers need a community, a place where we can hear our words aloud, where other writers can nudge us along, tell us what works, and let us know those places we need to revisit. The Mt. Washington Writers' Workshop provides this comunity--a nutrutring, generous space for writers, whatever your level of experience.”
- Marlene McCurtis, Workshop Member
MFA Creative Writing
Selected Writers' Resources
Awards, Contests, Publication, Conferences & more
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs
The Poetry Resource Page - It's not just for poets! A wonderfully informative page of listservs, reference books, writing centers, and more. You'll also find submission guidelines here.
Listserv from the Poetry Resource Page - Link to crwropps, a creative writing tool that will inform you of submission deadlines and teaching opportunities.
Programs from the Poetry Resource Page - Creative writing programs, contests, writers' colonies, fellowships and more.
Word Hustler - Easy to use site for on-line submissions and to find out about agents and submission dates for both literary and commercial publications.
Alliance of artists communities worldwide
Blogs and Networking sites
The Pulitzer Project – A Reading Blog
The Virtual Studio from American Zoetrope – To network and receive feedback on-line
Web del Sol - all you really need to keep you very busy writing, or not writing at all. This website guarantees a day's worth of procrastination if not more!
The House of Blogs from Web del Sol
Tools & Research
The best of the web from the NYPL
Manuscript format for plays and screenplays
Preparing a non-fiction book proposal
Reference Books from Poetry Resource - A comprehensive list of reference books and magazines for writers. No links, but everything on and about writing that's out there, resource books as well as books on writing craft and technique.
Local Arts Organizations
Ave 50 Studio - The heart of the arts scene in Northeast Los Angeles.
Center for Cultural Innovation - A downtown non-profit that offers workshops on everything from marketing and time management to how to do your taxes, geared for writers and artists.
Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock
Cost: $120 a month on-going — students accepted at the first meeting of each month, as space allows.
Class size never exceeds ten.
Tuesdays, 7-9:30pm – at a private residence in Mt. Washington, close to several freeways, and about 10 minutes from Silver Lake, Pasadena, or downtown Los Angeles.
Email:
323-225-5633
About the Workshop
The Mt. Washington Writers' Workshop is an on-going, weekly workshop for writers of fiction and creative non-fiction, that provides a consistent, supportive atmosphere to workshop your writing and refine technique. Beginners are welcome. In addition to getting and giving feedback on works-in-progress and completing exercises, the class will examine theories and examples of the best in fiction and autobiographical writing and will also discuss publication. PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS WILL BE GIVEN EVERY THREE MONTHS. Situated in the heart of Los Angeles, the Workshop is close to several freeways and about ten minutes south of Pasadena or east of Silver Lake.
Approach
Writing is never ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but simply ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ at various techniques. Once the techniques are understood, improvement is possible. Writers are also encouraged to tackle their most important material. All good writing, like all art, requires courage. Occasional in-class exercises will help you locate what you really want to write about.
Writing is taught in workshop format, so you can receive feedback from many readers, and most important, sensitize your own writer's eye. You will hear many comments on your work, but the most important benefit will be the honing of your own sensibility. Since the business of writing is about communication with others, over time you will gain a clear sense of how your words are heard by readers, and thus, through a process of slow navigation, find your voice.
Techniques Covered
| Character development/central conflict | Scene development |
| Story/plot/theme | Dialogue |
| Point-of-view/voice | Setting |
| Language | Use of time/flashbacks |
Exercises to ignite You
Good writing also requires an adept imagination and the ability to write from different emotional states and ideas. As time permits, the Workshop will use inventive writing exercises to help you discover your voice and find material for longer work.
Last Words
Part of the journey of discovering your voice, is to discover where you fit, or don't fit, in the many streams of American and World literature. Because Los Angeles is so diverse, the voices in the Workshop often reach into many continents and ethnicities, even if we all strike each other as so-called "typical" Americans.
For this and so many reasons, stylistic diversity is encouraged, to help students discover their own voice and style.
About Judith Dancoff
The director of the Workshop is Judith Dancoff, who has published both fiction and literary nonfiction, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and an MFA in filmmaking from UCLA. She was a finalist special mention for the Heekin Award and a finalist for the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship in Provincetown. Judith's short stories and essays have appeared in The Alaska Quarterly Review, Other Voices, Creative Nonfiction, the L.A. Weekly, and other journals. She currently teaches writing and literature at Los Angeles City College.
Selected Writing
"Vermeer's Light", The Alaska Quarterly Review, chosen by the Sommerset Review in their list of best, recommended stories
"A Merging of Head and Heart", Creative Nonfiction, reprinted in the anthology Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution, Southern Methodist University Press