Faculty
Travel
Schedule
Apply
The Writing By Writers Manuscript Boot Camp is for the writer who has a full, book-length manuscript (novel, memoir, short story or essay collection) and would like to engage with a small group for a serious and productive response. The long weekend will include an intimate manuscript workshop, craft talks, readings, and individual meetings – the perfect pre-publication boot camp for any manuscript. Classes are limited to 5 participants.
When: November 11 - 14, 2021. Boot Camp is currently scheduled at Granlibakken Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, California. In the event it is unsafe to meet in person due to COVID-19, we will bring the workshop fully online at a reduced cost to reflect that no room or board will be needed.
Tuition: Full tuition is $3,250 which includes a manuscript review of up to 300 pages ($100 for every additional 25 pages), 3 days of workshop, admittance to all craft talks, panels and readings, and all meals and lodging in a shared room for three nights. Writing By Writers would like to thank the faculty for generously reducing their standard reading fees (which range from $5,000 to $10,000 for a full manuscript) so that we may offer this workshop to you at a significantly reduced rate.
Lodging & Meals: Granlibakken is a family-owned resort, occupying 74 wooded acres in a picturesque mountain valley just minutes away from Lake Tahoe. Each room features cable television with DVD, direct dial phone with voicemail and wired/wireless internet access, in-room coffee maker, and free access to all resort amenities (outdoor heated pool, outdoor hot tub, indoor sauna, hiking and biking trails, and gym). Single rooms are available for a supplemental fee of $500. If you would prefer to stay off-site, tuition is reduced to $3,000 which includes everything listed above except for lodging. Please let us know if you require an ADA accessible room. Meals include dinner on Friday; three meals Saturday and Sunday; breakfast, and lunch on Monday). Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free meals are available upon request.
Format: Classes are limited to 5 participants each and one workshop session is set aside for each manuscript. Each participant will have their manuscript read by their faculty member and their four peers. In addition, they will have a one-on-one session with their faculty member.
Faculty: Kim Barnes, Mark Doty, Pam Houston & Sunil Yapa.
Faculty
Fiction
Kim Barnes
Kim Barnes is the author of In the Kingdom of Men, named a best book by San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, and The Oregonian, and long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, A Country Called Home, winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction, was named a best book by The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, and The Oregonian. She is a recipient of the PEN/Jerard Award in nonfiction for her first memoir, In the Wilderness, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including The New York Times, WSJ online, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, Fourth Genre, The Oprah Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. She is a University of Idaho Distinguished Professor of English Emerita.
Memoir & Personal & Lyric Essay Collections
Mark Doty
Mark Doty is the author of nine books of poetry, including Deep Lane (April 2015), Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2008 National Book Award, and My Alexandria, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the T.S. Eliot Prize in the UK. He is also the author of four memoirs: the New York Times-bestselling What Is the Grass, Dog Years, Firebird, and Heaven’s Coast, as well as a book about craft and criticism, The Art of Description: World Into Word. Doty has received two NEA fellowships, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Award, and the Witter Byner Prize.
Fiction, Memoir, Short Story & Essay Collections
Pam Houston
Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, which won the 2019 Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award and the Reading The West Advocacy Award and more recently, Air Mail: Letters of Politics Pandemics and Place coauthored with Amy Irvine. She is also the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness, Contents May Have Shifted, and four other books of fiction and nonfiction, all published by W.W. Norton. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level on a 120-acre homestead near the headwaters of the Rio Grande and teaches creative writing at UC Davis and at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers and fiction editor at the Environmental Arts Journal Terrain.org. She raises Icelandic Sheep and Irish Wolfhounds and is a fierce advocate for the Earth.
Fiction, Memoir & Short Story Collections
Sunil Yapa
A finalist for the 2017 PEN/Faulkner award, Sunil Yapa’s debut novel Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist was named one of the best books of 2016 by Amazon, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Bustle, and others. Set during one day of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, the novel was described as “fast-paced and unflinching” by The New Yorker, “a genuine tour-de-force” by the Seattle Times, and “protest poetry, pure and simple” by MacLeans. Yapa has been a frequent guest on NPR, appearing on Morning Edition, as well as public radio in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and Australia. He also appeared on NBC as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers. The winner of the 2010 Asian American short story award, Yapa’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in American Short Fiction, Guernica, O Magazine, Poets & Writers, The Margins, Hyphen, Slice, LitHub and others. Yapa received his MFA in Fiction from Hunter College in New York City. He currently divides his time between New York City and Montreal, and teaches in the low-residency MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe.
Travel Information
Granlibakken is a family-owned resort, occupying 74 wooded acres in a picturesque mountain valley just minutes away from Lake Tahoe. Each room features cable television with DVD, direct dial phone with voicemail and wired/wireless internet access, in-room coffee maker, and free access to all resort amenities (outdoor heated pool, outdoor hot tub, indoor sauna, hiking and biking trails, and gym).
Arrival: Workshop registration for Fall Session is on Friday, November 11, 2021, from 3 to 3:30pm in the Big Pine Room at Granlibakken Resort. At 3:30pm we will have a mandatory orientation for all participants. The week will end on Monday, November 14, 2021 with workshops from 9:00 – 11:00am followed by lunch and farewells from noon until 1pm.
Travel Information & Directions: The best information for getting to Granlibakken Tahoe can be found on their website here. They list options for driving, flying and ground transportation.
Ride Sharing: If you wish to coordinate rides with other workshop participants please use the comments section below.
For additional information please contact us at . We look forward to seeing you in the always gorgeous Lake Tahoe!
Workshop Schedule
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11
3:00 – 3:30 pm Registration, Big Pine
3:30 – 4:00 pm Welcome & Orientation
4:00 – 4:30 pm Meet Your Workshop
4:30 – 5:00 pm Check Into Rooms
5:00 – 6:00 pm Craft Talk
6:00 – 7:30 pm Dinner
7:30 – 10:00 pm Faculty Reading, Reception & Dessert
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12
7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 – 11:00 am Workshop
11:15 – 12:15 pm Agent/Editor Talk
12:15 – 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 – 3:30 pm Workshop
3:30 – 6:00 pm On Your Own/1-on-1s
6:00 – 7:30 pm Dinner
7:30 – 8:30 pm Craft Talk
8:30 – 10:00 pm Reception & Dessert
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13
7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 – 11:00 am Workshop
11:15 – 12:15 pm Craft Talk
12:15 – 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 – 3:30 pm Workshop
3:30 – 6:00 pm On Your Own/1-on-1s
6:00 – 7:30 pm Dinner
7:30 – 8:30 pm Craft Talk
8:30 – 10:30 pm Student Readings, Reception & Dessert
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14
7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 – 11:00 am Workshop
11:00 – 11:30 am Check out and Faculty 1-on-1s
11:30 – 1:00 pm Lunch, Book Signings and Goodbyes
Application Details
Acceptance to the workshop is based upon review of a writing sample. Please submit the first chapter/story/essay of the full manuscript that you plan to workshop (roughly 15-20 pages). Writing samples must be double spaced, using a size 12 Times New Roman or similar font. If accepted to the workshop, your final draft must be submitted by September 15th.
An application fee of $25 is required. If you are accepted to the workshop, your application fee of $25 will be applied to your tuition. Applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Once you apply you will receive an immediate email confirmation of your application. Sometimes these go into your junk or bulk mail folder. If this happens, please add to your safe senders list to make sure you get our acceptance notification!
If you are accepted, you will be notified of your workshop placement via email and asked to confirm your intention to attend within two weeks by enrolling and submitting a minimum deposit of $1,000. The remaining balance is due February 1 (spring session) or September 1st (fall session).
Cancellation Policy: If you cancel by September 1 for the Fall Session, your tuition will be refunded minus a $150 cancellation fee. Refunds for cancellations made after September 1 are contingent upon filling your place and will be made only if your place is filled. If we have to bring the workshop online due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19, you will have the option to cancel at that time without penalty. In the unlikely event that we must cancel a workshop and you do not wish to transfer to another workshop, you will receive a full refund.