On Saturday, July 20 in Boothbay Harbor, the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA) presents a new fiction workshop focused on developing characters, led by Hollins University associate professor and award-winning author Elizabeth Poliner. 

In Poliner’s “Developing Character/Building Plot” workshop, participants will explore methods for creating believable and complex characters through discussion and in-class exercises. After developing characters through various techniques, participants will learn how an understanding of character can generate a story’s plot. They will leave the workshop with enough material to begin a new short story, or, if they have a work of fiction already in-progress, a deeper understanding of their characters and plot.

The workshop takes place at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration closes on July 15; advance registration is required. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library; the MWPA is proud to offer one full scholarship to this workshop for a Boothbay Harbor Library patron. More information at www.mainewriters.org

Elizabeth Poliner is the author of the novel “As Close to Us as Breathing” (Little, Brown & Co), winner of the 2017 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction and an Amazon Best Book of 2016, and the linked story collection ”Mutual Life & Casualty” (Permanent Press). Her stories have appeared in many journals, including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Story, The Common, Colorado Review, and TriQuarterly. She is an associate professor in the Hollins University MFA and undergraduate creative writing programs, and the director of the Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins.

For more information, contact Hannah Perry,  MWPA Program Director: perry@ mainewriters.org