Cost: $75 – includes participant’s choice of a copy of Cushman’s novel Cherry Bomb or her anthology Southern Writers on Writing. Registration deadline is now closed.

 

Manuscript Critique – participants may submit a writing sample (fiction or nonfiction, no poetry) of up to 15 pages, to be critiqued by Susan. 12 of these manuscripts will be chosen by Susan for discussion during the workshop. All manuscripts will be returned to students with Susan’s written comments. Writing samples are due to Susan by October 6 (three weeks prior to the workshop). Please send them as Word documents, size 12 font, double-spaced with page numbers, as email attachments to sjcushman@gmail.com.  

 

Schedule:

9:00-9:30 a.m.            Coffee, pastries, welcome, introductions

9:30-10:30 a.m.         Craft talk by Susan: “Writing Scenes to Move the Narrative Forward”

10:30-10:45 a.m.       Break

10:45-11:45 a.m.       Workshop Critique Session I

4 manuscript samples from workshop participants will be

                                                critiqued by Susan, with comments from participants

12:00- 1:00 p.m.        Lunch at Libro with Susan (not included in workshop fee)

1:00-3:00 p.m.           Workshop Critique Session II

8 manuscript samples from workshop participants will be critiqued by Susan, with comments from participants

3:00-3:15 p.m.           Break

3:15-4:00 p.m.           Publishing talk by Susan: “How I Got 4 Book Deals In One Year Without an Agent”

4:00-5:00 p.m.           “Happy Hour” – optional time for Q & A and group discussion, with complimentary wine and snacks

 

Susan Cushman was co-director of the 2013 and 2010 Creative Nonfiction Conferences in Oxford, Mississippi, and director of the 2011 Memphis Creative Nonfiction Workshop. She is author of two books: Cherry Bomb (a novel) and Tangles and Plaques : A Mother and Daughter Face Alzheimer’s (a memoir); and editor of two essay collections: A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We Are Meant to Be (Mercer University Press, 2017) and Southern Writers on Writing (University Press of Mississippi, 2018). She has recently been a workshop speaker at the Alabama Writers’ Conclave Conference in Orange Beach, Alabama (June 2018) and the Mississippi Writers Guild Conference in Meridian, Mississippi (July 2018).