Participants in the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival have the option of attending two writing workshops. Our 2026 Schedule page will have details on time and place. Please Register for the festival day to attend writing workshops.
2026 Writing Workshop Leaders
- Fred Bowen
- Nate Brown
- Ron Charles
- Hannah Grieco
- E. Ethelbert Miller
- Margaret Talbot
Fred Bowen
“How to Write for Younger Readers”
In this workshop we will explore how to write for and keep the attention of younger readers. Topics will include Bowen’s Ten Commandments of writing for a younger audience and working with an illustrator.
Fred Bowen is the author of thirty books for younger readers. Bowen has also written three sports history books, including Gridiron: Stories From 100 Years of the National Football League (2020) and Hardcourt: Stories From 75 Years of the National Basketball Association (2022). In addition, he wrote a weekly kids’ sports column for The Washington Post KidsPost page from 2000 to 2023.
Nate Brown
“Writing for Readers: A Generative Prose Workshop for Writers Looking to Publish Their Work”
Led by longtime literary editor and fiction writer Nate Brown, this generative prose workshop explores the elements of craft in contemporary fiction and creative nonfiction while engaging closely with current trends in literary publishing. Through short readings and carefully designed writing prompts, participants will generate new work and receive thoughtful feedback from both the instructor and fellow workshop participants. Together, we’ll explore the current publishing landscape, discussing corporate publishing, indie presses, and the universe of literary magazines. The workshop will emphasize best practices for writing, editing, and revising with an eye toward preparing work for submission. Further discussion will focus on identifying appropriate prose markets, working productively with editors, and developing a meaningful, sustainable revision practice.
Nate Brown is a fiction writer, editor, and senior lecturer in the University Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in journals and periodicals including One Story, the Iowa Review, Mississippi Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Publisher’s Weekly, LitHub, the Rumpus, and elsewhere. He is the editor-at-large of the award-winning literary journal American Short Fiction in Austin, TX, and is an advisory editor at the Hopkins Review, JHU’s arts and culture journal. He lives and writes in Baltimore, MD.
Ron Charles
“From Page to Judgment: Writing Compelling Book Reviews”
In this workshop we will explore the art of book reviewing, from selecting the right book and reading with a critical eye to crafting compelling reviews that resonate with readers.
Ron Charles, formerly a full-time writer for The Washington Post, where he covered books and produced the weekly Book Club newsletter, is now writing about books on Substack (subscribe here). He came to the Post in 2005 and became the editor of Book World in 2016. In 2010 he began a series of video book reviews for the Post called “The Totally Hip Video Book Review,” a satirical look at current books in the news and the art of book reviewing which sometimes features his wife, high school English teacher Dawn Charles. Once a month, he also hosts “The Book Report” on CBS TV’s Sunday Morning. A native of Missouri and a graduate of Washington University, prior to coming to the Post, for seven years he was editor of the book section of The Christian Science Monitor; and from 2013 to 2020, he hosted “Life of a Poet,” an interview series co-sponsored by the Library of Congress. In 2008, he received the National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Citation for book reviews and 1st place for A&E Coverage from the American Society for Features Journalism; in 2014 he served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; and in 2018 he won the Louis Shores Award for excellence in reviewing from the American Library Association.
Hannah Grieco
“Expressive Writing for Caregivers”
How storytelling helps us navigate complicated experiences PTSD and/or mental and physical symptoms related to the act of caring for others. One of the most effective ways to work through complicated caregiving experiences is the act of expressive writing. In this short workshop, we’ll discuss why we write about these experiences and the many ways it helps us, the people we love, and the larger world. We’ll briefly explore the research behind expressive writing and PTSD, and then move into short readings and generative exercises. Participants will leave with a strong beginning of a personal essay or poem, as well as a clear understanding of the next steps toward publication.
Hannah Grieco‘s debut short story collection First Kicking, Then Not is out now from Stanchion Books. She teaches writing at Marymount University, works as a private book coach and editor, and writes a literary column for Washington City Paper. Read more of her work in The Washington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Brevity, Wigleaf, Poet Lore, Shenandoah, Fairy Tale Review, and more. Find her online at www.hgrieco.com and on most social media @writesloud.
E. Ethelbert Miller
“Upclose and Still Living: How I Wrote 2 Memoirs and Have 7 Lives Left.”
E. Ethelbert Miller will be reading excerpts from his two memoirs. He will be explaining his writing process in order to help workshop participants discover their own.
E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist and author of two memoirs and several poetry collections. He hosts the WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and hosts and produces The Scholars on UDC-TV, which received a 2020 Telly Award. He is Associate Editor and a columnist for The American Book Review. He was given a 2020 congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism, awarded the 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and named a 2023 Grammy Nominee Finalist for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. His How I Found Love Behind the Catcher’s Mask was published by City Point Press in 2022.
Margaret Talbot
“The Art of the Interview”
Whether you are writing a profile, talking to relatives to create a family history, researching historical fiction or even writing a memoir, interviewing skills that elicit rich insights and stories can be key to the process. We’ll discuss the elements that make for a successful interview, and try out some techniques and approaches.
Margaret Talbot has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2004 and was formerly a Contributing Writer at The New York Times Magazine and Executive Editor of The New Republic. Her articles and essays have been anthologized in collections including The Best of the Best American Science Writing and The Art of the Essay. She is a recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and was a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. Her memoir/biography of her father, stage and screen actor Lyle Talbot, and his times, The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century, was published in 2012. USA Today called The Entertainer a “fascinating social history of America…at the same time, a warm father/daughter story;” and according to Slate, “Talbot has woven a tale as romantic and vivid as any film could hope to be, while still seeing every bit of it plain. She is as clear-eyed about her father as she is about history—no easy feat.” Her book profiling 1960s and 1970s radicals, By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution, written with her brother David Talbot, was published in 2021 by HarperCollins.
