This super interactive workshop will inspire its participants to embrace a sense of place in their work, while creating their own private Idaho…or Winesburg, OH. Which is to say, in this workshop we will channel the spirit of Sherwood Anderson, Raymond Carver, Elizabeth Crane, Christine Maul Rice, the B'52s and Gus Van Sant to generate the ideas and foundation needed to build a linked short story collection all your own. Activities will include a series of individual and group exercises that will encourage participants to look within and examine their own experiences, the people and places they know, and where they've lived, both physically and emotionally. We'll also write (and edit) a lot! Full-stop.

A lovely lunch is included with this workshop and guests are welcome to request overnight stay the night before, for a reasonable fee, to fully absorb Ragdale's creative atmosphere. 

Ben Tanzer is an Emmy-award winning trainer, creative strategist, podcaster, writer, teacher and social worker who has been helping nonprofits, publishers, authors, small business and career changers tell their stories for 20 plus years. Ben is also the author of several acclaimed books, including the short story collection Upstate, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space: A Father's Journey, There and Back Again and Be Cool - a memoir (sort of). And he is a lover of all things book, run, Gin and street art.