Although I have a bachelor’s degree in English with some graduate-level classes, I didn’t become a serious student of the craft of writing until 2001. Since then, I’ve been able to learn from authors and other publishing professionals (editors, agents, publicists, etc.) through classes, conferences, seminars, and craft lectures.

2016 Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA)

• Benjamin Percy, The Refiner’s Fire, week-long seminar (6 participants)

Loft Literary Center (Loft.org)

• Peter Geye, Master Monday: Fiction, 12-week workshop, 2016 (12 participants); On the Hook, half-day workshop, 2016
• Donald Maass, Writing 21st Century Fiction, one-day seminar during the two-day Loft Pitch Conference, 2015
• Linda White, Publicity for Writers, half-day workshop, 2015
• Joey McGarvey, Lonely Arts: Seeking Critique Partners, half-day workshop, 2015
• Janet Burroway, Where the Wild Things Are: Getting to the Plot, half-day workshop, 2014 (10 participants)
• Brian Malloy, Fiction Basics: The Five-Parts of Story, one-day workshop, 2014; Publication: What to Expect, half-day workshop, 2010; and Chapter One, six-week class, 2009 (6 participants, juried)
• Sally Franson, Unreliable Narrators and the Art of Dissemblance, half-day workshop, 2014
• Scott Edelstein & Patti Frazee, What Every Writer Needs to Know about Ebooks, one-day workshop, 2012
• Dale Gregory Anderson, Advanced Fiction, twelve-week class, 2011 (20 participants, juried)
• Loft Nonfiction Conference, two days, 2011
• Loft Novel Writing Conference, two days, 2010
• Robert McKee, The Story, three-day seminar, 2010
• Ian Graham Leask, Advanced Book Preparation, twelve-week class, 2010 (12 participants, juried)
• Alison McGhee, Tense and Point of View, half-day workshop, 2010; and The Order in Which It’s Told: Chronology in Prose, half-day workshop, 2005
• Jonathan Odell, The Fictional Dream: Grounding Your Work in the Material World, one-day workshop, 2009
• Faith Sullivan, Developing Memorable Characters, weekend retreat, 2007; Developing Characters and Setting, weekend retreat, 2006; and Life after the First Draft: Editing and Revising Fiction, one-day workshop, 2005
• Alicia Conroy, Exploring Experimental Structures, six-week class, 2006
• Mary Gardner, Working on Your Novel, twelve-week class, 2005 & 2004 (24 participants, juried)
• Nolan Zavoral, Self-Editing: A Plan, one-day workshop, 2005
• Jonis Agee, The Novel: Fame, Glory…and Writing It, one-day workshop, 2004
• Paula Granquist, The Spirited Writer, six-week class, 2002
• Betsy Amster, Finding and Working with a Literary Agent, half-day workshop, 2002
• John Olive, Intermediate Screenwriting, twelve-week class, 2002; and Plays and Screenplays for Beginners, twelve-week class, 2001
• Selected craft lectures: Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, Charles Baxter, Kate DiCamillo, Erin Hart, David Housewright, Pam Houston, C.J. Hribal, Lorna Landvik, E. Ethelbert Miller, Benjamin Percy, John Reimringer, and Lydia Yuknavitch

2015 North Woods Writers Conference (Bemidji, MN)

• Mat Johnson, week-long seminar (10 participants, juried); and one-hour individual manuscript critique
• Craft lectures: Matt de la Pena, Mark Doty, David Gessner, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Joni Tevis

2015 North Shore Readers and Writers Festival (Grand Marais, MN)

• Workshops: William Durbin, Heid Erdrich, and Erin Hart
• Craft lectures: Judith Guest, Lorna Landvik, Sarah Stonich, Faith Sullivan, and Linda White

2015 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference (Minneapolis, MN)

2011 Writers Institute Conference (Madison, WI)

• Christopher Mohar, manuscript workshop (6 participants, juried)
• Patrick Corbett, Keeping Your Curiousity Cabinet Full, session
• Manuscript critiques (individual, one hour): Christine DeSmet and Christopher Mohar
• Second place in the “first page” contest

Other Major Learning Events

• Craft lectures: Junot Diaz 2013 and Sherman Alexie 2012

In addition to these classes and seminars, I’ve also read extensively about the craft and business of writing, including:

• Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction and The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot &mdash’ Charles Baxter
• The Art of Description: World into Word — Mark Doty
• Writing Fiction: A Guide to the Narrative Craft — Janet Burroway
• Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction — Benjamin Percy
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft — Stephen King
• Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling — Donald Maass
• From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction — Robert Olen Butler
• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life — Natalie Goldberg
• Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting — Robert McKee
• The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers — John Gardner
• Aspects of the Novel — E.M. Forster
• The Constant Art of Being a Writer: The Life, Art & Business of Fiction — N.M. Kelby
• The Passionate, Accurate Story: Making Your Heart’s Truth into Literature — Carol Bly
• If You Want to Write — Brenda Ueland
• The Writing Life — Annie Dillard
• Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath — Dr. Linda Seger
• Unless it Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing — Roger Rosenblatt
• Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life — Elizabeth George
• This Year You Write Your Novel — Walter Mosley
• Writing a Novel and Getting Published — Nigel Watts
• You Can Write A Novel — James V. Smith
• The Forest for the Trees — Betsy Lerner
• So You Want to Write: How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and the Personal Narrative — Marge Piercy and Ira Wood
• The Elements of Style — William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
• 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why it Just Might — Pat Walsh
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print — Renni Browne and Dave King
• Writing Your Life: Putting Your Past on Paper — Lou Willett Stanek
• The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes — Jack M. Bickham
• Characters and Viewpoint — Orson Scott Card
• How to Write & Sell Your First Novel — Oscar Collier
• Writing the Screenplay: TV and Film — Alan Armer
• Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences — Kitty Burns Florey
• The Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed — Karen Elizabeth Gordon
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation — Lynne Truss
• Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English — Patricia T. O’Conner