Science, health, engineering, your uncle's (boring) tales of all the big fish he never caught, trips that didn't turn out the way you had hoped, memories that just don't seem very exciting or sufficiently engaging to include in your memoir ... Often, what at first seems to be a dull subject has a golden tale at its core. This workshop will explore ways to find the hidden story and to use literary devices, including details, dialogue, descriptions and suspense, to bring that story to life. This class is open to anyone keen to write lively and creative nonfiction--whether the subject is hard science, natural history, travel, in-depth journalism, or personal memoir.

Virginia Morell is a correspondent for Science and a regular contributor to National Geographic Magazine; she has also written for Smithsonian, the New York Times Magazine, Discover, Outside and other publications. Her articles are often about travels or expeditions with scientists exploring the natural world. She is also the author of Ancestral Passions: The Leakeys and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings (a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year") and Blue Nile (a San Francisco Chronicle "Best Travel Book"). She is currently at work on a book tentatively titled "How We Know Animals Think," for Crown.

Learn the secrets behind getting published (and getting paid for it) from award-winning freelance writer Rebecca Skloot. This workshop will teach you to write irresistible query letters, and how to sell them--from finding and contacting editors and agents, developing marketable ideas, and more, including many useful handouts and candid tips you won't hear elsewhere. Skloot's proposal-writing workshops are widely attended nationwide and have helped many participants break into national publications, including New York Times Magazine, Discover, Harper's, and Elle.

Rebecca Skloot is a freelance writer and contributing editor at Popular Science. She writes for The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is forthcoming from Crown. Skloot teaches creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Memphis, where she directs the River City Writers Series.

Dialogue is one of the great tools nonfiction writers can use to develop characters and create captivating scenes that bring stories to life. But how is it done? This course, taught by writer and actor David Prete, will teach you how to use dialogue as a storytelling tool through in-class exercises and discussion of readings.

David Prete is a writer, actor and teacher who lived and worked in New York City for 15 years and currently teaches theater and fiction at the University of Memphis. His dramatic experience and training strongly influence his dialogue, his characters' voices, and the structure of his scenes. His first book, Say That to My Face, was published by W. W. Norton in 2003.

Journalistic writing can often be detached and dry, while the best creative nonfiction provokes an emotional response. In this workshop we'll examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction, learning how to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story without sacrificing the accuracy and truth of the material. With a focus on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques, we'll discuss the use of dialogue, the creation of scene, attention to style and crafting structure from true events. We'll also touch on the particular ethical responsibilities that come with writing creative nonfiction. Paying close attention to which facts and observations are most essential to your work, we'll discuss how to transform these into a vivid, compelling literary narrative--whether in memoir, essays, profiles or in-depth journalism.