Brass Tacks: A Workshop on the Nuts & Bolts of Building a Writing Life is an afternoon session which will be hosted by writer Naomi Jackson at Fresh Milk on Saturday, July 16, 2016 from 2-5 pm. Naomi will lead participants in conversations and activities designed to help refine their writing goals, support the creation of productive and satisfying writing lives and address the commercial aspects of breaking into the business.

Some topics to be addressed include:

✔ Setting and achieving goals for your writing
✔ Developing writing routines
✔ Preparing writing submissions (i.e., drafting query letters)
✔ Approaching potential editors, agents, and/or publishers
✔ Building a community of support and trusted readers to advance your work

To register, please send a letter of interest to freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com. This one-page statement must outline your current writing projects, your short and long term writing goals, and why you wish to participate in this programme.

There will be an attendance fee of $15.00 BBD, and spaces will be limited to 12 participants.

________________

About Naomi:

Photo credit: Lola Flash

Naomi Jackson is author of The Star Side of Bird Hill, published by Penguin Press in June 2015. The Star Side of Bird Hill was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize as well as the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It was also selected for the American Booksellers Association’s Indies Introduce and Indies Next List programs. The book has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Kirkus Reviews, NPR.org and Entertainment Weekly, which called Star Side “a gem of a book.” Publishers Weekly named Jackson a Fall 2015 Writer to Watch.

Jackson studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of residencies and fellowships from the Kelly Writers House, Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and the Camargo Foundation.

Jackson has taught at the University of Iowa, University of Pennsylvania, and The City College of New York. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College for spring 2016 and will be Visiting Writer at Amherst College beginning in fall 2016. Jackson was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents.