Creative Writing Workshops

This course is a deep dive into the use of the writing craft element of setting to heighten emotion, enhance character development and drive plot in works of fiction. The element of setting is sometimes overlooked or viewed as the least important component of a writer’s toolkit. In reality, setting – time, place, location, and the stuff of life are valuable tools to help writers improve their work and connect with readers. Each weekly workshop will build on the previous class resulting in a rich understanding of setting as an effective tool for the writer. Content includes concept reviews, writing exercises, small group discussion, and special guest authors.

Laurie Stephens Hunter earned an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing, Fiction from Wilkes University. She is currently shopping her first novel, written during her time as a student at Wilkes, to agents and publishers. Laurie’s children’s book, Together Again, was published by Boutique of Quality Books in 2011 and she has authored several articles for the now defunct, Adoption Today magazine In addition to writing, she reads obsessively, especially fiction featuring strong female characters, and books with a splash of magical realism.

Laurie lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband whose blended family includes five children and an elderly black lab. She works for Emory University in the field of alumni engagement and fundraising. When not working, writing, teaching, reading, or parenting, you will likely find her dreaming of her next travel adventure, or in the kitchen up to her elbows in flour and sugar. Baking and travel are her favorite pastimes.

From lines like “There’s no place like home” to “I’ll be back” dialogue has a way of staying with you long after the play or movie is over. In this six-week course, we’ll examine the techniques used by some of the industry’s top writers and “boldly go where no one has gone before,” putting those techniques into practice. If you’ve ever struggled with dialogue or just looking to get your feet wet in playwriting or screenwriting, this class is for you!

Lori Coughlin is a Texas-based writer and the Executive Director of Parker County Theatre Company, a nonprofit mobile community theatre. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Texas Wesleyan University and MA in Screenwriting from The Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing from Wilkes University.

An avid playwright, Lori has had a handful of her work produced in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, including Dime Store Dinos, Psychic Sidekick (Theatre Off the Square New Works Winner, 2022), Home on the Range: Tales and Tunes of the Old West, as well as adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, Lewis Carroll's Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.

Her love of writing and the arts has led Lori to share her years of experience with students at Wild Wonder Collective, where she currently serves as a Theatre, Choir, Journalism, and Reading Teacher.

Your life is full of stories worth telling—but how do you shape lived experience into compelling narrative? This six-week creative nonfiction workshop guides you through fundamental storytelling structures and narrative techniques that transform personal experience, observation, and research into powerful prose.

We’ll explore a variety of story forms and craft tools -- including lyrical experimentation, literary journalism, and personal essay -- that can help you find your voice, explore your memories from a new point of view, and effectively tell true stories that resonate.

Mandy Pennington is the Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Strategic Initiatives at Wilkes University and teaches courses in communications at both Wilkes and Marywood University. Her coming-of-age memoir, Gateways, is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press.

Mandy is also an award-winning actor and playwright with performance credits in the U.S. and Ireland. Her solo play adapted from her memoir, Girl Walks Into a Movie Theater, has been produced in Pennsylvania and New York. Her first play, My Condolences, premiered at the 2018 Scranton Fringe Festival, where she currently serves as a board member and active performer.

Her writing can be found in Currents in the Electric City: A Scranton Anthology (Belt Publishing), 2022 American Writer’s Review (San Fedele Press), and Hippocampus Magazine. Mandy holds a MA and MFA from the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Learn more: @mandybpenn or mandybpenn.com.