Book Proposal/Query Letter Book Camp

A day-long writing class

An effective query letter followed by a skillfully written book proposal is the key to getting a literary agent’s attention. Your query letter or book proposal is one of hundreds that a typical agent will read in an average month. The first sentence, paragraph or page of your submission can capture an agent’s attention and curiosity or doom your project to the reject pile.  This day-long class is for writers who want to learn the secrets of writing an irresistible query letter and a book proposal that seals the deal.      You will learn: Why the query letter is more about what you are offering than what you are asking for. What a query letter is intended to do and what a query letter should never do. Why researching the market and literary competition in your genre is a key element of your book proposal. Why strong writing trumps everything. This is a hands-on class which will include in-class writing of query letters and portions of book proposals, as well as critique of participants existing letters and proposals. We will examine and discuss successful book proposals, as well as how to conduct research for your proposal. Participants can be at any stage in the development of their writing project. Participants will be asked to submit a brief statement describing their writing project and if relevant, a history of submission to literary agents. The class will be taught by author/master teacher Marita Golden. Ms. Golden is the award-winning author of over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction and a veteran teacher of writing. Register Now! Where: Home of Marita Golden - Prince Georges County, MD (upon registration you will be sent the complete address) subway accessible via Largo Town Center stop on the Metro Blue Line When: Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 10:00AM to 5:00PM (EDT) Registration Fee: $159

Next Generation of Black Writers

From Left to Right - Abdul, Nkenge, Marita, Stacia, & Jalal

Remember these names-Abdul Ali, Jalal Naeem, Stacia Yearwood, and Nkenge Feagin. These are writers who represent the best of the next generation of Black writers. Each one has been accepted by the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Program at American University and will begin the program in September. There writers, two poets and two fiction writer are symbols of the promise and healthy of the future of African American writing.

I am exceedingly pleased that the creative writing program at my undergraduate alma mater, American University has the singular distinction of accepting four Black writers in the same class. Four students may not sound like a large number, but many MFS programs accept only a dozen or so writers into their programs each year, so these students will be a significant presences in the program and symbolize A.U.’s commitment to creating a writing program that makes a place for the real diversity of contemporary American letters.

This is an achievement that these writers should and do feel justly proud of. But I am also very proud of them because I had the honor of mentoring or teaching each of them. Abdul, Jalal, Stacis, and Nkenge are dedicated to mastering the craft of writing beautifully and powerfully and in their work have already shown the requisite courage required os the writers whose work will be remember. So I urge you to remember their names, you WILL hear from them.

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Summer Writing

These are just some of the benefits of attending a summer writer’s workshop. Many range from weekend to week-long or longer in duration and can be held in bucolic, back-to-nature settings or in urban areas. If you think you might want to attend a writer’s workshop next summer, now is the the time to start serious research and planning. Poets & Writers website is a good place to start your search for the right writers workshop for you.

Tips for finding the best workshop:

• Research the faculty and the published writers who are alumni of the workshop
• Determine if your focus is primarily on writing or on writing and making contacts with editors and agents
• Begin saving money to cover the cost of the workshop several months in advance. Most writers overestimate the amount of scholarship money available for attendees and underestimates the number of writers vying for scholarship support.

African American writers have several well established and excellent workshops to consider:

Hurston/Wright Witers’ Week

Voices of Our Nation

Cave Canem

North County Institute for Writers of Color

Attending a writer’s workshop is a great way to spend part of your summer vacation.

Poets – Politics – Jazz

April is the month devoted in Washington, D.C. to a month-long celebration of jazz. It’s also National Poetry Month. Two art forms distinguished by what appears to be a dynamic, almost spontaneous beauty, but that in reality, result from wedding discipline to inspiration. Last month I attended the Split This Rock poetry festival, which brought together poets from all over the nation and all over the world, to celebrate the poetic imagination and the need to continually work for peace, justice and equality.

Poets from Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Asian American and African American poets and poets of every race and nationality it seemed, came together to offer spiritual nourishment for the hunger in our souls. I was engaged and energized by the festival’s ability to break through the cultural barriers that so many of our political “leaders” often seek to perpetuate. More than ever, in 2010 as a world, as a globe, as a planet, we’ve got to become a rainbow coalition. Visit Split This Rock’s website www.splitthisrock.org, to find out about the literary and cultural work they do and sign up to receive a poem of the week.

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Favorite Poets

One of my favorite poets, Lucille Clifton, recently died, and she will be sorely missed. She was the author of eleven books of poetry, a National Book Award winner and a former poet laureate of the state of Maryland. She once said that “poetry teaches us that everything is connected. There is so much history that we have not validated.” Clifton was an exceptionally generous teacher and a poet of the first rank. Known for the brevity of her poems, she said that she perfected that style when as a housewife and mother of six children in her early days of writing, she composed poems between her children’s naps and feedings and housework. Her poems were often short but they were also finely cut polished diamonds.

Sonia Sanchez, another poet/prophet has a new book of poetry called Morning Haiku. At a recent reading from the book. Sanchez showed that a haiku, a Japanese poetic form that consists of three short lines, can tell any story and can do anything. Check out this excerpt from her poem 10 haiku (for Max Roach)

1.
Nothing ends
Every blade of grass
Remembering your sounds

2.
Your sounds exploding
In the universe return
To earth in prayer

3.
As you drummed
Your hands kept
Reaching for God

In her reading/talk, Sanchez praised young people, our future leaders, for the vision they often possess, and which adults often ignore/overlook, and she said to the young people in the audience, “This is your century, the last century was mine, this one is yours.” I loved that statement because it recognizes that young people have to claim ownership of their personal and political futures. Celebrate National Poetry Month by buying Lucille Clifton’s books of poetry or Sonia Sanchez’s new book, which will make you rethink completely the power and beauty of haiku.

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Marita’s Birthday

April is also the month of my birthday. How will I celebrate? With champagne and birthday cake and a weekend in the Big Apple with my soul mate and husband Joe. We’ll be seeing the musical FELA (inspired by the life of the great Nigerian musician/activist Fela Kute) for the second time. I can’t imagine anything more fun and I’ll probably be reading poetry on the bus ride to Manhattan.

Till next time,

Marita

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Tell Your Story True: A 2-Day Memoir/Autobiography Intensive

If you would like to tell your unique personal story through a memoir or autobiography then the Tell Your Story True workshop is for you. During this workshop you will:

• find the courage to tell your story and find the meaning in your life
• learn how to defeat the fear of criticism and rejection
• discover the writing techniques that are most effective for telling YOUR story
• learn how to honor the truth of your unique personal story and master techniques that make it memorable

~Fri. June 18 & Sat. June 19, 2010

Apply Today

This fiction writing “bootcamp” will show you how to plunge your characters into the deep end of the ocean of your imagination, and create a plot that surprises and satisfies the reader.

February is Black History Month. What better time to think about writing your story? In February we officially honor African American trailblazers. Prominent among those honored are writers. Writers like Frederick Douglass, born into slavery, a man who put language at his command. Douglass used words as an orator and a writer to change his personal history and in support of societal change for us all.  We honor Zora Neale Hurston, best-known as the author of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. But Hurston was also an anthropologist, whose groundbreaking field work in the American South, Haiti and the Caribbean shaped the future of anthropology. We look at and interpret history, the past and the present in a much more complex and rich way, because of the contributions of Douglass and Hurston. To paraphrase lines from a poem by the  Persian bard Rumi, they went in the direction where there was no direction, and there they found themselves and all of us at the end of their journey.

If you write, your story could make history too. I invite you to consider my February I Want to Write workshop, which will open doors to new levels of creativity no matter your passion or primary endeavor.

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Thank You

I’m always reading and currently I’m finishing On The Line, Serena Williams’ autobiography. The world’s number one women’s tennis player tells a fascinating and compelling story of her rise. Like all good stories, at it’s center is a strong main character who gets us on her side rooting for her. I found it especially interesting that despite her God-given talent, drive, training and enormous ambition, Serena talks in the book of regularly using affirmations and positive self-talk to keep her focused and winning and playing her best. She also writes about how she focuses much more on herself and her game when she is facing an opponent than figuring out the other player’s weaknesses or strengths. At one point she says “The more I play the better I play.”Productive writers do all the things Serena talks about in her book. They think positively, focus on themselves and not what other writers are doing and they write a lot, in order to become better writers. I’m sure Serena would endorse my suggestions for flipping that annoying negative self-talk about what you can or can’t do as a writer into a positive conversation. We’re heading into the end of the year and thinking about a new year with new possibilities. What better time to revise that tape playing in your head?

~ I don’t have the talent to write becomes
I have all the skill, and creativity I need to tell my story

~ It will take too long, it will be to difficult to complete this writing project becomes
I have infinite patience with the realization of my writing goals and I will overcome anything I perceive as an obstacle to my success

~ I don’t have the material or spiritual support I need to write becomes
All the people, ideas and resources to support my writing life are made manifest in my life

Marita

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Marita Golden Honored with a Street Sign

Marita Golden was honored recently as part of the unveiling of the Columbia Heights Heritage Trail in Washington, DC.  Marita is cited on this sign for her literary achievements. The sign is located at 14th and Harvard Street, NW which is where Marita grew up.

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Articles – Interviews & More

A Black Woman Writer in Israel: My Own Piece of the Middle East
Marita talks with E. Ethelbert Miller about her trip as a literary and cultural ambassador to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Grandmothers Unplugged: The pleasures and perils of being a grandmother

“Eye of My Heart,” a book of essays by 27 grandmothers whose experiences are as varied as their grandchildren, teaches us that this role brings with it a whole new set of rewards, challenges, and questions. Among the contributors Marita Golden writes an essay inspired by her 4 year old grandson, called “Angel Baby.”

Get a glimpse into the world of the modern grandmother as Marita is interviewed by the book’s editor, Barbara Graham.

Marita Golden’s Writing Life

An interview with Marita about how she became a writer and her latest books.

You Grow Girl! As Chris Rock Airs the Secrets of the Salon, Black Women Untangle Feelings about ‘Good Hair’

Marita is featured in this article discussing how she embraces the beauty of her natural hair.

On Web, A Most Novel Approach: With Promotion Money Tight, Authors Take to Online Sites to Toot Their Own Horns

Marita suggests reading this article for tips on how to guerrilla market your book.

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Tell Your Story True: A 2-Day Memoir/Autobiography Intensive

In this workshop you will learn how to honor the truth of your unique personal story and master techniques that make it memorable. Have you ever wondered:

• How to find the courage to tell the story of your life?
• How you can defeat the fear of criticism and rejection that blocks your authentic writers’ voice?
• What writing techniques are most effective for telling your story?

Then this is the workshop for you. These and other often asked questions will be answered through in-class writing exercises, close reading of published work and analysis of participants’ in-progress memoirs. You will gain the confidence and the tools you need to write about your life with power and conviction.

~ Sat. January 30 & Sun. January 31, 2010

Apply Today!

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I Want to Write!

If you are having difficulty getting your words from your head and heart onto the page then  this is the workshop for you. This workshop is for writers of any genre: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or journalism. This workshop will:- guide you through writer’s block
- help you complete projects you began

This popular 2-day workshop has helped hundreds of writers get un-blocked and take the leap into their story and start writing. Beginning and veteran writers create a supportive community and learn techniques to write through fear, anxiety and self-censorship.

~ Sat. February 27 & Sun. February 28, 2010

Apply Today!

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Imagi-Nation: A 2-Day Fiction Writing Intensive

If you are writing a novel or short story then this is the workshop for you. This workshop will teach you:

• how to create fascinating characters
• how to build tensions, conflict, and effective pacing
• what the elements of an interesting plot are

This fiction writing “bootcamp” will show you how to plunge your characters into the deep end of the ocean of your imagination, and create a plot that surprises and satisfies the reader.

~ Sat. March 20 & Sun. March 21, 2010

Apply Today!

I’ve been asked quite a lot this summer if I’ve purchased a Kindle, the electronic reading device sold by Amazon that’s all the rage. While I remain old school in my reading habits, preferring the feel of paper to molded plastic, I think the Kindle is a great idea. In fact the Kindle is an idea whose time has come and one of these days I WILL buy one. As long as people are reading books be it on a cell phone, a computer screen or an electronic book, I’m happy. We live our lives through stories and all the new technology is an adaptation of inventive genius to our instinctive need for narrative. Yes, newspapers are folding and bookstores are closing but books are as popular as ever, that’s what the Kindle proves to me! Marita

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I Want to Write! Workshop/Retreat

Release the writer in you! Let Marita Golden – bestselling author and master teacher – show you how to get your words from your head and heart onto the page. This two-day workshop offers a nurturing, safe space where writers at all levels from beginning to published find and create a supportive community. Participants learn techniques to write through fear, anxiety and self-censorship. ~ October 2/3 2009 Classes fill quickly, so apply early.
Apply Today!

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Imagi-Nation: A 2-Day Fiction Writing Intensive

This fiction writing “bootcamp” will show you how to plunge your characters into the deep end of the ocean of your imagination, and create a plot that surprises and satisfies the reader. ~ Sat. October 31 & Sun. November 1, 2009 ~ Sat. February 27 & Sun. February 28, 2010
Apply Today!

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Tell Your Story True: A 2-Day Memoir/Autobiography Intensive

In this workshop you will learn how to honor the truth of your unique personal story and master techniques that make it memorable. Have you ever wondered:

• How to find the courage to tell the story of your life?
• How you can defeat the fear of criticism and rejection that blocks your authentic writers’ voice?
• What writing techniques are most effective for telling your story?

Then this is the workshop for you. These and other often asked questions will be answered through in-class writing exercises, close reading of published work and analysis of participants’ in-progress memoirs. You will gain the confidence and the tools you need to write about your life with power and conviction. ~ Sat. October 24 & Sun. October 25, 2009 ~ Sat. January 30 & Sun. January 31, 2010
Apply Today!

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Marita Golden’s Upcoming Events

One Maryland One Book Kick-Off Program – An Evening with Marita Golden Join Marita Golden as she discusses the literary and historical significance of the book Song Yet Sung by James McBride. Date:Wednesday, September 9, 2009 Time: 7:00pm Location: White Oak Library – Silver Spring, MD

A Black Woman Writer in Israel: My Own Piece of the Middle East Marita Golden will discuss her trip to Israel and the complex society she found, that defies most of what we think we know from media images and reports. Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Time: 6:30pm Location: MLK Library – Washington, DC

Congressional Black Caucus Author Pavilion Marita Golden will moderate the panel Back Writers as Cultural Activists & Gatekeepers of History featuring authors David Levering Lewis, Howard Dodson, Annette Gordon-Reed and Ralph Eubanks Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009 Time: 4:00pm Location: Washington, DC

Baltimore Book Festival Marita Golden will be on a panel with Barbara Graham discussing Eye of My Heart: 27 Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother Date: Friday, September 25, 2009 Time: 2:00pm Location: Baltimore, MD

Capital Bookfest Marita Golden will be reading and discussing her book It’s All Love: Black Writers on Soul Mates, Family and Friends. Date: Saturday, October 3, 2009 Time: 2:40pm Location: Largo, MD

A Black Woman Writer in Israel: My Own Piece of the Middle East Marita will discuss her trip to Israel and the complex society she found, that defies most of what we think we know from media images and reports. Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Time: 6:30pm Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library (Central Library) – Baltimore, MD

22nd Annual Literary Luncheon Series Marita Golden will be reading and discussing her book It’s All Love: Black Writers on Soul Mates, Family and Friends. Date: Thursday, October 22, 2009 Time: 11:30am Location: Strathmore Mansion, MD

An Afternoon with Marita Golden Marita Golden will be reading and discussing her book It’s All Love: Black Writers on Soul Mates, Family and Friends. Date: Saturday, November 14, 2009 Time: 12:00pm Location: Newark Public Library, NJ