Writing is making sense of life. Nadine Gordimer
The Creative Writing Program at CCCC offers continuing education credits for courses in fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and creative inspiration.  Class and workshop participants will write creatively, read their work aloud, study other writers, and above all engage in a dialogue about writing. Beginning and experienced writers are welcome.  Writers of all levels will find motivation, energy, and creative insights in these classes. Instructors are professional writers who have published and taught extensively. They will help you get started, shape your ideas, be productive, and improve your writing.  You'll learn the craft and business of writing in a supportive and stimulating environment.  Browse the listing below and imagine yourself enjoying, learning, talking, being inspired.	Eight classes and six workshops are being offered in the Spring 2013 term. All classes meet on the Pittsboro campus. Fall registration begins Wednesday December 5 through class start date To register, call Continuing Education: 919-545-8044 Earn a Certificate in Creative Writing from CCCC Details and Forms
One extends one's limits only by exceeding them.       M. Scott Peck

Ongoing CLASSES meet multiple times, weekly Sorted by start date Instructor bios are below the class listing	One-Day Saturday WORKSHOPS Sorted by date Instructor bios are below the class listing
Fiction Writing I This class will include some readings, prompts, writing exercises. There will be in-class discussions of readings, short in-class writing from prompts; short (1-3 page) weekly writing assignments. Students will work toward completion of new works of fiction or works in progress. Students may take this class with our without registering for Fiction II which occupies the same time slot and begins when this class ends. This course is suitable for fiction writers at any level. Tuesdays, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Jan 8 – Feb 26 Cost: $136.25 Instructor: Melissa Delbridge Finding Your Poetic Voice By walking in the footsteps of other known poets, students will discover their own unique voice. In this 12 workshop, students will learn about study, and emulate the work of 10 different poets. By using these 10 poets as models, students will write and revise their own 10 original poems. Students will write 10 new poems and learn how to revise. Tuesdays, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm, Jan 8 – Mar 26 Cost: $211.25 Instructor: Maureen Sherbondy Memoir Writing I Writers at every stage of their careers benefit from regular contact with a larger community of writers. This class will provide a forum for the exchange of feedback about memoirs of any length, new or in progress. Students may take this class with or without registering for Memoir Writing II, which occupies the same time slot and begins when this class ends. Thursdays, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Jan 10 – Mar 7 Cost: $136.25 Instructor: Melissa Delbridge Dark Gothic Romance The fiction of dark gothic romance encompasses elements of horror, erotica, and romance. In this exploration of the genre, students will examine the reasons for its current popularity and learn to incorporate the conventions that constitute best practices in their own writing. Wednesdays, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Feb 13 - Mar 20 Cost: $76.25 Instructor: Kim Overcash Mentored Workshop: Polishing, Revising, and Submitting Work for Publication This is a required course for the CCCC Creative Writing Certificate Program. Certificate Program participants must have completed 120 hours of the Creative Writing Program classes in order to count this class toward completion of certificate. Alternatively, Those writers not participating in the Certificate Program are eligible to take this class if they have completed at least 20 hours of CCCC Creative Writing Classes or have 20 pages of final draft material as a prerequisite for this class. Class is limited to 8 students. Textbook required: The Writing Habit, by David Huddle. Wednesdays, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm, Feb 27 – May 8 Cost: $196.25 Instructor: Marjorie Hudson Fiction Writing II This class will include some readings, prompts, writing exercises. There will be in-class discussions of readings, short in-class writing from prompts; short (1-3 page) weekly writing assignments. Students will work toward completion of new works of fiction or works in progress. Students may take this class with our without registering for Fiction I which occupies the same time slot and ends when this class begins. Suitable for fiction writers at any level. Tuesdays, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Mar 12 – Apr 30 Cost: $136.25 Instructor: Melissa Delbridge Memoir Writing II This class will include some readings, prompts, writing exercises and suggestions for revision, but will mainly be a roundtable critique of work submitted and ready by class members. Suitable for memoir writers at any level. Students my take this class with without having taken Memoir I. Thursdays, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Mar 14 – May 2 Cost: $136.25 Instructor: Melissa Delbridge Spring 2013 Short Poetic Form and Impact This course will look at several formal sources such as haiku, tanka, epigram and limerick, and explore how these short forms achieve their impact (and perhaps mystery.) There will be in-class exercises as well as opportunities to share your own work. Tuesdays, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Apr 2 – Apr 30 Cost: $106.25 Instructor: Tom Dow	Writing Fast Fiction Fast Our lives, our days are lived often with short bursts of time and reading. The short story is coming into its own the form of I-stories. There are markets and contests daily for the very short story. This class will teach students the writing techniques for capturing those bits and pieces that fly away without notice. January 19, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm Cost: $46.25 Instructor: Ruth Moose Sounding It Out: Developing Character and Setting Through Fiction This workshop will cover the sensuous particularities of fiction with an emphasis on the aural sense. Infusing your fiction sounds is not simply a way to bring setting to life; it can also be a way to explore characters and discover how they listen to their world. The workshop will include in-class exercises as well as provide examples of how sound functions in the works such as Tony Morrison, Michael Chabon, and James Joyce. January 26, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Cost: $56.25 Instructor: Paul Mihas Writing Short Fiction: Re-exploring Storytelling The short fiction genre is perhaps the most innate: from our cultivation of deeply engrained cultural mythos to the stories we invent in a few moments while in line at the bank, we clearly have an impulse for story making. Owing to the usefulness of experimenting with the theoretical lives of others, we broaden our own lives-at relatively low risk– through exploration of fictions. This course will investigate this story-making mechanism vis a vis polished written work. February 2, 10 AM – 4:30 PM Cost: $51.25 Instructor: John Wells Diving Into the Image This six-hour class will focus on major techniques of imagery for the 2nd half of the 20th century, with a close look at some master poems, a series of poetic exercises, and workshop session on the participants’ own poems. February 9, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Cost: $56.25 Instructor: Ralph Earle Strategies for the Writing Life: A Pathway to Success This workshop reveals the secrets of success. New writers get their bearings in the writing world, intermediate writers refine and act on goals from writing schedules to skill building to publication – and all participants find communities of ongoing support for their work. February 9, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM Cost: $51.25 Instructor: Marjorie Hudson Dream Poems This six-hour workshop will look at some master poems about dreams through history, talk about different types of dreams and the different poems that can be based on them apply some of the techniques in a prompt-based exercise, and feature a workshop session of participants on poems. Participants will gain familiarity with the ways in which dreams can be used as poetic materials. Participants will also improve their skills at participating in constructive poetry techniques. March 23, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Cost: $56.25 Instructor: Ralph Earle
Creative Writing Program INSTRUCTORS Sorted alphabetically
Melissa Delbridge (“…honest, funny, and fiercely Southern…” – Poets & Writers Magazine) has won awards from the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Southern Humanities Review and the Southern Women Writers Conference for her nonfiction and fiction. Her essays have won special mention in Best American Essays and the Pushcart anthologies. In her essay collection, Family Bible (University of Iowa Press, 2008), she explores themes of race, gender, and sexuality as they impacted her life in the 1960s and 1970s.	Tom Dow's poetry has appeared in numerous journals.  He has taught English and creative writing courses in North Carolina and Japan and published a book of poems, Different Gates.
Ralph Earle is a long-time Chatham County resident whose poems have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, The Sun, and many other publications.  He has taught poetry workshops at UNC-CH, CCCC (both Pittsboro and Sanford campuses) and the Arts Center of Carrboro.	Marjorie Hudson’s debut story collection, Accidental Birds of the Carolinas, garnered a 2012 Pen/Hemingway Honorable Mention, and her creative nonfiction book,  Searching for Virginia Dare, was a North Carolina Notable Book. A recipient of a 2012 NC Arts Council Fellowship, she lectures and teaches at universities, libraries, literary festivals, and her own Kitchen Table Workshops. Her MFA is from Warren Wilson College. Stay up-to-date on Marjorie's activities at marjoriehudson.com, and follow her blog at www.kitchentablewriters.wordpress.com.
Paul Mihas has taught creative writing in the Triangle for over ten years, including classes at the continuing education departments of Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the recipient of the 2008 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers Network, and the 2008 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. His fiction has been published in Prairie Schooner, Nimrod International Journal, Pindeldyboz, Talking River, and Northwoods Anthology.	Ruth Moose, an award-winning poet and short-story writer, was on the UNC creative writing faculty for fifteen years.  She’s published three collections of short stories with individual stories in Atlantic, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, LHJ as well as in the UK, Denmark, Holland and S. Africa.  Moose has had a MacDowell Fellowship, stories read on NPR, stories anthologized in various textbooks, an NEA Fellowship and most recently the Chapman Award for teaching.  Her sixth poetry collection, The Librarian, is into a third printing.
Kim Overcash earned her B.A. in English at UNC-Chapel Hill and her M.A. in English-Creative Writing at NCSU and has published her fiction in independent gothic publications. She teaches English full-time for Central Carolina Community College’s Humanities Department and is working on a dark romance short story collection.	Maureen Sherbondy's poetry books are After the Fairy Tale, Praying at Coffee Shops, Weary Blues, and Scar Girl. The Year of Dead Fathers and Eulogy for an Imperfect Man are forthcoming. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in literary journals. Find out more at www.maureensherbondy.com.
John Wells is a native Ohioan and has taught in North Carolina colleges since 2007. John romanticizes his childhood in the American 1980s, relative to the present day, in a way that borders on delusion: an incongruity often evident in his poetry and prose. His current work includes a novelization of his years as a marginally unsuccessful musician, a new collection of poetry, and continuing work in Icelandic poetry translation. John received his MFA from West Virginia University.