Where Memory Catches Fire: A Lyrical

Séance
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In many ways, the lyrical essay is a

séance on the page. While traditional

memoir often relies on the sturdy

architecture of "what happened," the

lyrical essay is interested in what

remains—the ghost of experience,

the echoes of time and place, and

the persistence of an image that

won't let go.

In this workshop, we will treat

the page as an altar and the line

as an incantation– a wish, a spell,

a prayer. Our goal is to move from

telling to showing using the rhythms,

fragmentations, and sensory

musings of lyrical forms to

conjure a truth that traditional

prose alone cannot reach.
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Jennifer Rieger is a public educator

and college professor in the

Philadelphia area. Jen has been

honored with the Franklin Institute

2020 Teaching Award, the 2021

Philadelphia Phillies Teaching Award,

and was a finalist for the

Pennsylvania’s Teacher of the

Year. Along with a nomination

for the 2020 and 2022 Pushcart

Prize for Literature, Jen has also

been published in Chautauqua

Literary Journal, Wisconsin Review,

Philadelphia Stories 15th Anniversary

Anthology, and Minerva Rising’s

10th Anniversary Now and Then

Anthology, among others. In 2022,

Minerva Rising Press published

her lyrical essay collection,

Burning Sage— a woman’s quest of

learning when to hold onto the past,

and when to let go. Jen holds a BA

in English, an MA in English Literature,

an MFA in Creative Writing and lives

in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of

Philadelphia. After mending her

crushed heart, Jen intends to rise

from the ashes and be a fierce warrior

in the battle against the newly

emboldened patriarchal regime.

The Creative Notebook: How

to Get Unstuck, Break Through

Blocks, and Take Your Writing to

the Next Level

(A Multi-Genre Workshop)
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The writer and artist Melissa Sweet

advises writers: “Go out and play!”

How do we reclaim that sense of

play in our work? How do we access

new ideas and make our work feel

alive? This class will show how a

fresh, blank notebook can serve

as a life-changing creative

space: a place that can generate

ideas for fiction, memoir, essays,

poetry, and articles; a place where

we can dive more deeply into our

work; and a place where we can

break rules. Every day, we will do

writing and creativity exercises,

and read poetry and prose for

inspiration. Weather permitting,

the class will take place partly

outdoors; we’ll discuss how

writing in nature can inspire

ideas and help us revise. The

class will also include advice

on submitting our work for

publication, navigating the process

of finding an agent, and strategies

to manage interruptions and get

our creative work completed.
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Margo Rabb’s essays, journalism,

book reviews, and short stories

have been published in The New

York Times, The Washington Post,

The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine,

Slate, Salon, The Rumpus, Zoetrope:

All-Story, Best New American Voices,

New Stories from the South, One Story,

Poets & Writers, and Marie Claire,

and have been broadcast on NPR.

She is the author of the novels Lucy

Clark Will Not Apologize, Kissing in

America, and Cures for Heartbreak,

all published by HarperCollins; all have

been named to multiple best-of-the-year

lists. She received the grand prize

in the Zoetrope short story contest,

first prize in The Atlantic fiction contest,

first prize in the American Fiction

contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction

Project Award. Margo grew up in

Queens, New York, and now lives

in the Philadelphia area with her

family. Visit her online at

www.margorabb.com.

Writing Small Stories
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If you write poetry or fiction, or even

if you’re not sure what you want to

write, this class is for you. If you

want to restart writing habits, find

new ones, or dip your toe in the writing

world, try flash fiction. In this

workshop, we will read, write, and

discuss short-short fiction. We’ll

look at what’s been published

and what is being published. This

class will be a supportive environment

where you’ll receive feedback on

your writing. And, of course, we’ll write.
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Word Count Limit for Creative

Submissions: 1500 words

due by July 1, 2026
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Trish Rodriguez received her B.S.

in Systems Engineering from the

University of Pennsylvania and

her MFA in Creative Writing from

Rosemont College. She has served

as the Managing Editor of Rathalla

Review, a prose editor at Typehouse,

and a fiction editor and fiction contest

coordinator at Philadelphia Stories.

Currently, she is the Editorial

Director of Philadelphia Stories.

She teaches creative writing at

Rosemont College. Her writing

has been published in

The Green Sheath, Awakened

Voices, Healing Visions, and elsewhere.

The Poet’s Toolbox for Writers

of All Genres 
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What is a prose poem?  A flash CNF

piece?  Poetic prose?  Who cares?

Should you care? Rita Dove, a former

U.S. Poet Laureate defines poetry

this way:  “Poetry is language at

its most distilled and most powerful.”   

Emily Dickinson said “If I feel physically

as if the top of my head were taken

off, I know that is poetry.”  In this

workshop we’ll look at your writing

with poetry eyes and ears, approaching

your drafts using the poet’s favored

tools of concision and precision of

language, musicality of language

and vividness of description, or as

I like to say, painting and collaging

with words. Come spend a weekend

creating and revising pieces that

would blow the lid off of Emily Dickinson.  

Poets and prose writers welcomed! 

Plentiful prompts provided.   
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Liz Abrams-Morley’s newest collection

(including many prose poems!) is

due out from Seven Kitchen’s Press

in 2026, having been named

“Editor’s Prize” in the 2025

Keystone Poetry Contest. 

Because Time was published in 2024.    

Other collections include Beholder, 2018,

Inventory, 2014 and Necessary Turns,

2010, winner of an Eric Hoffer

Award for Excellence in Small Press

Publishing.  She was named Passager

Journal’s  Passager Poet in 2020.   

Liz’s poems and her stories have

appeared in nationally distributed

anthologies, journals, and have been

read on NPR. Former Rosemont

faculty member, poet, professor,

gramma and activist, Liz wades

knee-deep in the flow of everyday

life from which she draws inspiration

and, occasionally, exasperation.You can

find her at www.lizabramsmorley.com   

Short Fiction Immersion
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This workshop is for short story

writers of any level looking to receive

thoughtful feedback on drafts-in-

progress and generate ideas for

new work. Our daily sessions will

focus on discussion of participants’

fiction, supplemented with exercises

designed to offer strategies for

creating tension, complicating

characters, writing realistic dialogue,

and more. By July 1, please submit

one story with (at the end) three

questions you have about your draft.
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Word Count Limit for Creative

Submissions: 5000, due by

July 1, 2026.
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Elise Juska’s novel Reunion, 

published in 2024 by HarperCollins,

was named a New York Times 

Editors’ Choice and one of People 

Magazine’s Best New Books. Her 

previous novels include If We Had

Known and The Blessings, a 

Barnes & Noble Discover Great 

New Writers selection and one

of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s best

books of the year. Juska’s short 

fiction and nonfiction have

appeared in numerous outlets

including The Gettysburg Review, 

The Missouri Review, Good

Housekeeping, Electric Literature, 

Lit Hub, The Hudson Review,

Harvard Review, Ploughshares,

and elsewhere. She is the

recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize,

and her short fiction has

been cited by The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize 

anthologies. Juska was the

founding director of the undergraduate

Creative Writing program at the University

of the Arts, where she received

the Lindback Award for Distinguished

Teaching, and is currently a

Visiting Professor of Creative

Writing at Bryn Mawr College.

Going the Distance: From Chapter

One to “The End” 
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“It is a truth universally acknowledged

that starting a novel seems easy

enough but finishing a novel is hard as hell.”  

Jane Austen didn’t say that. But

she and other authors have long

grappled with the problem of taking

initial inspiration through the marathon

process of realizing a finished work. 

This workshop, which welcomes

novel writers of all levels and genres,

will address key issues that must

be confronted if you are going to

go the distance. These issues

include the question of finding a

shape for your story; how to treat

plot and character not as distinct

problems in a narrative but as

interdependent and generative

features; and how to avoid common

pitfalls when writing about family,

morality, faith, or sex.  

We’ll also consider the nuts

and bolts of writing dialogue

and how to represent internal

thought. There’s a lot to unpack

when considering successful prose,

and we will take the time to do so,

piece by piece. 

Participants will be encouraged to

bring short samples of work from

home, and also to do writing exercises

during the week. I’ll also supply reading

materials from eminent writers to

illustrate key issues. Ideally you

will go home with practical revisions,

new material, and a firmer understanding

of what it takes to reach “The End.” 

In this workshop, we will generate

new writing through guided exercises

and prompts; offer feedback/first

impressions on writing you produce

in our week; workshop writing you

bring from home. 
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Word Count Limit for Creative

Submissions: 2,500-5,000 words

(including one-page synopsis) -

Due July 1, 2026
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Charles Holdefer is a writer based in

Brussels, Belgium.

Author of six novels and four collections

of short stories, his fiction has

appeared in New England Review,

Chicago Quarterly Review, North

American Review, Los Angeles Review,

Brooklyn Review and many other

magazines. His story "The Raptor"

won a Pushcart Prize.

He also writes essays and

reviews which have appeared

in The Antioch Review, World

Literature Today, New England

Review, Dactyl Review, The

Collagist, l'Oeil du Spectateur,

New York Journal of Books,

Journal of the Short Story in

English and elsewhere.

Excavating Meaning from the

Mundane: A Generative Hybrid

Poetry & CNF Workshop Based 

on Life’s Inspired Moments 
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Join me for this workshop where we

will identify impactful events that

define our worldview but often go

unexamined. Once excavated, we

will weave this raw material into

meaningful narratives. 
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Artress Bethany White is an

award-winning poet, essayist,

and literary critic. Her third 

poetry collection, A Black Doe in the Anthropocene: Poems (University

Press of Kentucky, 2025), chronicles

her family’s history of enslavement

in America. She received the Trio

Award for her poetry collection 

My Afmerica: Poems (Trio House

Press, 2019) and is co-editor of

the anthology Wheatley at 250:

Black Women Poets Re-imagine t

he Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters 

(Pangyrus, 2023). White has received

scholarships and residencies

from the Bread Loaf Writers’

Conference and the Sewanee

Writers’ Conference. She is

associate professor of English

at East Stroudsburg University.