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Upcoming workshops:
- The Speculative and the Fantastic: Novel Workshop with Stanford Continuing Studies — March 31–June 2, 2026. Online & asynchronous.
- Strange Places (Online Craft Intensive with McCormack Writing Center/formerly Tin House) — Sunday, May 17, 11 AM – 2 PM PT/ 2 PM – 5 PM ET. Online.
- Spotlight on the Middle of Your Novel: A Generative Retreat with Boyds Mills — June 11–14, 2026. In-person. Co-led with Emily X.R. Pan.
Stanford Continuing Studies
The Speculative and the Fantastic: Novel Workshop
with Nova Ren Suma
Registration is currently full, but you can…
JOIN THE WAIT LIST!
Online asynchronous (10 weeks)
March 31 – June 2
Tuition: $1,000
Optional Zoom meeting for live writing exercises, discussion, and Q&A: Tuesdays, 12–1 p.m. Pacific (recordings posted within 24 hours!)
These days, readers are craving fantasy, horror, and dystopian novels not just to escape but to confront and illuminate the deepest questions of our time. This course invites you to indulge your imagination and write a speculative novel of your own. Assignments will include exercises and experiments in world-building, mood and atmosphere, nighttime logic, and the suspension of disbelief as well as writing a novel opening (up to 5,000 words) to be workshopped in small peer cohorts. Excerpts for models of inspiration may include work from authors such as Charlie Jane Anders, Marie-Helene Bertino, Tananarive Due, Mariana Enríquez, Kazuo Ishiguro, Laila Lalami, Victor LaValle, and Madeline Miller. Writers in all speculative genres are welcome, as are those writing for adult, YA, or crossover audiences. Come with a project in mind—new or in progress—and a readiness to take bold, creative leaps.
Preliminary Syllabus (subject to change)
Registration is full, but people’s plans do change and there is a good chance we’ll go to the wait list to fill all the spots as we did in the previous quarter. Sign up to be notified when a spot opens here:
More info about course waiting lists with Stanford Continuing Studies can be found here.
McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House)
Strange Places with Nova Ren Suma
Sunday, May 17
11 AM – 2 PM PT/ 2 PM – 5 PM ET
Online
Register today with mccormackwritingcenter.org
This generative fiction intensive will delve into crafting fantastical, haunted, hallucinatory, or just simply strange settings that stem from the world around us and the world of untapped ideas inside your own mind. Through sensory-infused worldbuilding exercises, spot-lit excerpts from mentor texts, and generative writing opportunities, we will explore magical, unsettling, and uncanny settings on the page and consider the ways they can be used in fiction to heighten tension, reveal secrets, suspend disbelief, and illuminate characters. From the infamous places found on maps to those lifted from the depths of your imagination, we will look into how setting can act as a character, and how to choose details that bring an unfamiliar place to resonant life. If you want to ground your stories with strikingly memorable settings and journey into more unusual places in your work, this class is an opportunity to forage for ideas, experiment with possibilities, and turn the otherworldly into a tangible place that serves your story. Fiction writers of all genres and those writing for all age levels are welcome. A brief collection of reading will be shared before class, and writers should come to the session ready to write.
Scholarship
There is one scholarship available for this intensive. Scholarships are assigned via a random lottery that is held at least one week before the craft intensive. Please use this form to submit your name.
Boyds Mills (formerly the Highlights Foundation)
Spotlight on the Middle of Your Novel: A Generative Retreat
with Nova Ren Suma and Emily X.R. Pan, and special guest Meera Trehan
In-person retreat
June 11 – June 14, 2026
Tuition: $1299
Are you in the “messy middle” of a novel-length project? Join celebrated authors Nova Ren Suma and Emily X.R. Pan (and their guests) for a boost of creativity to help you move through the murky and into the exhilarating.
In-person 4-Day/3-Night Workshop and Retreat
Aimed at YA & MG novelists writing in all genres, this retreat is ideal for writers of all levels—including published and pre-published authors—who find themselves somewhere in the messy middle of a novel-length project. Join celebrated authors Nova Ren Suma and Emily X.R. Pan (and their guests) for a boost of creativity to help you move through the murky and into the exhilarating.
This retreat offers a blend of inspiration and generative writing opportunities: craft conversations, engaging Q&As, and optional writing prompts. Alongside, daily writing stretches that prioritize deep, uninterrupted retreat time so that you’ll have the space to make real progress to move through the middle of your novel towards completion.
Our hope is that you’ll leave more connected to your story, and connected to a supportive community of novelists who truly get what you’re going through.
- This is an in-person workshop at the Boyds Mills retreat center with discussions, writing exercises, and Q & As.
- We include ample time to relax, retreat, and work on your writing.
- Lodging and meals are included.
- Begins with dinner 5:30pm Eastern on Thursday, June 11, 2026.
- Ends with lunch on Sunday, June 14, 2026.
SPOTS ARE LIMITED!
Past Workshops:
2025
- Winter 2025 Prompt Hour: live generative workshop in Zoom for newsletter subscribers: January 26, 2025.
- Spring 2025 Prompt Hour: live generative workshop in Zoom for newsletter subscribers: April 27, 2025.
- Tin House Craft Intensive: Strange Places with Nova Ren Suma (Online): July 2025.
- The Writing Barn (Austin, Texas): Compelling Characters in YA and Coming-of-Age Fiction craft webinar: August 22, 2025.
- Stanford Continuing Studies: Speculative Novel Workshop: The Unreal, the Surreal, the Fantastic: 10-week online asynchronous course: Sept. 23–Dec. 2, 2025.
- Tin House 2025 Autumn Online Workshop (speculative fiction focus): October 2025. Workshop faculty and lecturer.
2024
- Tin House Online Seminar: Character Craft in YA Fiction with Nova Ren Suma: April 21–June 20, 2024.
- Fall 2024 Prompt Hour: live generative workshop in Zoom only for newsletter subscribers: October 27, 2024.
- Fine Arts Work Center/24PearlStreet Workshops: Crafting the Young Adult Novel (Asynchronous, with live elements): Fall Session November 11–December 8, 2024.
2023
- Crafting the YA Novel Creative Lab at the Winter 2023 SCBWI Conference: Weekend intensive, Feb. 10–12, 2023, New York City.
- Tin House Craft Intensive: Memory Trove: A Generative Fiction Workshop with Nova Ren Suma (Online): May 2023.
- Tin House Craft Intensive: Haunt Your Fiction: Writing Ghost Stories with Nova Ren Suma (Online): September 2023.
- Tin House Craft Intensive: Haunt Your Fiction: Writing Ghost Stories with Nova Ren Suma (Online): October 2023.
- Making Magic: Writing and Refining Fantastical and Otherworldly Stories at the Highlights Foundation, October 2023, Honesdale, PA. Co-led with Anna-Marie McLemore and featuring special guests Alison Green Myers, Alexandra Villasante, and Kat Brzozowski.
2022
- Fine Arts Work Center/24PearlStreet Workshops: Crafting the Young Adult Novel (Asynchronous, with live elements): Summer Session July 18–August 12, 2022.
- Fine Arts Work Center/24PearlStreet Workshops: Crafting the Young Adult Novel (Asynchronous, with live elements): Fall Session Nov. 7–Dec. 2, 2022.
2021
- Tin House 2021 YA Fiction Workshop (Virtual): Feb. 11–15, 2021. Second annual YA fiction workshop directed by Tin House. Faculty: Jennifer De Leon, Mason Deaver, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Yamile Saied Méndez, Mark Oshiro, Ben Philippe, Nova Ren Suma, Ashley Woodfolk.
- Paranormal Fiction Workshop with the Manhattanville College MFA in Creative Writing Program (Virtual): October 23, 2021.
- Canceled due to COVID-19:
—2021 Djerassi YA Novel Workshop
2020
- Postponed or canceled due to COVID-19:
—Making Magic at Highlights Foundation (postponed to 2023)
—Ghosts, Witches, and Craft: A Salem Writing Retreat (canceled)
2019
- Blue Stoop YA Novel Weekend Intensive: April 6–7, 2019. Indy Hall, Philadelphia, CA. Sponsored by Blue Stoop.
- Djerassi YA Novel Writing Workshop: May 4–10, 2019. Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- Ghosts, Haunts, and Haints: Paranormal Writing Weekend: June 28–30, 2019, Charleston, South Carolina. Co-led with intuitive and medium Holly Raychelle Hughes.
2018
- Djerassi YA Novel Alumni Reunion Workshop: April 16–21, 2018. Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
2017
- New England SCBWI Conference: April 21–23, 2017. Sheraton Monarch Place, Springfield, MA. Conference faculty. Workshop leader of two first pages workshops.
- Djerassi 2017 YA Novel Writing Workshop: June 19–24, 2017. Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- SCBWI 46th Annual Summer Conference: July 7–10, 2017. JW Marriott at LA LIVE, Los Angeles, CA. Conference faculty. Workshop leader of two Monday intensives.
- Highlights Foundation Books with Bite Workshop: October 4–8, 2017. The Highlights Foundation, Honesdale, PA. Co-taught with Micol Ostow.
2016
- Djerassi 2016 YA Novel Writing Workshop: March 6–12, 2016. Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- Djerassi YA Novel Alumni Reunion Workshop: March 17–23, 2016. Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- Highlights Foundation Books with Bite Workshop: October 19–23, 2016. The Highlights Foundation, Honesdale, PA. Co-taught with Micol Ostow.
2015
- Djerassi 2015 YA Novel Writing Workshop: June 21–26, 2015, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- Columbia University Young Adult Novel Writing Workshop: July 6–August 12, 2015. Columbia University, School of the Arts Writing Program, New York, NY.
- Highlights Foundation Books with Bite Workshop: September 16–20, 2015, The Highlights Foundation, Honesdale, PA. Co-taught with Micol Ostow.
- A Week in Residency with Nova Ren Suma Workshop: November 8–14, 2015, the Writing Barn, Austin, TX.
2014
- Djerassi Writes: YA Novel Workshop: Feb. 9–14, 2014, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- Djerassi Writes: YA Novel Workshop (second session): June 22–27, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA.
- The Craft of Creativity: The Inaugural Showcase Featuring the Master Class Room Instructors: Sept. 8, The Writers Room, New York, NY.
- Highlights Whole Novel Workshop with Sarah Aronson and Nancy Werlin: Sept. 10–11, Highlights Foundation, Honesdale, PA. Special guest author.