Novel Writing Workshop (12-Week Term)

Facilitator: Sylvia Clark
When: Tuesdays, 6–8pm
Where: The Well CDC, 647 E. Market Street, Akron OH
Group size: 6–12 writers (minimum 6 to run; capped at 12 for intimate paired critique)

Fall Term Sept 15 · Sept 29 · Oct 13 · Oct 27 · Nov 10 · Nov 24 Capstone reading: Dec 1
Spring Term Jan 12 · Jan 26 · Feb 9 · Feb 23 · Mar 9 · Mar 23 Capstone reading: Mar 30

Tier A:
12 weeks of Facilitated
Group Sessions · $180

Six biweekly sessions, paired critique, capstone reading, and access to our private Discord community for off-week check-in meetings.

A generative novel writing workshop for writers ready to commit to sustained, supported progress on a manuscript. Each session runs two hours: an hour of generative writing, an hour of paired reading and critique. The group meets six times in person: every other week over twelve weeks, with an optional 30-minute check-in call on Discord during off weeks to keep momentum. The term closes with a capstone reading open to the public.

Tiers B and C are add-ons to the group workshop and are only available with a Tier A enrollment. Private feedback or sessions are not available as a standalone product.

About the Facilitator: Sylvia Clark (s. clark, she/they) is a writer, educator, artist, and musician from Akron, Ohio. Her work has been featured in CrayfishMag, Fusion Magazine, and Light Enters the Grove: Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park Through Poetry from The Kent State University Press. They have a BA in English from Kent State University. She lives in joyous company with her partner and four cats.

Workshop: Writing for the Tangible
Date: Saturday, October 24, 12-2pm
Location: The Well CDC, 647 E. Market Street, Akron, OH 44304
Audience: Writers of all levels, geared toward those with less experience in playwriting.

Scripting a live performance is a rewarding, if under-explored, form of creative writing, one shaped entirely by the practical realities of the stage. In this workshop, participants will learn to write within those constraints. From adapting fiction, poetry, and nonfiction into scripts or staged readings, to shaping scenes around limited space, props, and costumes, explore how constraint becomes a creative tool. Participants will be guided through a writers' room exercise and a table read, reflecting on how a piece shifts when it moves from page to voice.

About the Facilitator: W. Reid Kennedy (he/him) is an absurdist playwright and second-year student in the NEOMFA program at the University of Akron, where he teaches Composition I as a T/A. After writing his first play in 2019, he honed his craft performing stand-up comedy in the Greater Cleveland area. In 2023, he established Lunar Sun Theatrics, an independent theatre company in Akron producing new works. He is a member of The Rubbertop Review and The Dramatists Guild of America.

Workshop: Veterans' Voice
Date & Time: Saturday, September 19, 12-2pm
Location: The Well CDC, 647 E. Market Street, Akron, OH 44304
Audience: Veterans and/or family members of veterans, all levels.

Some experiences are carried quietly, in a language few outside of service ever learn to speak. Veterans' Voice gives that language room on the page, inviting Veterans and their family members to write about military experience, whether lived firsthand or witnessed through a loved one's service. From Walt Whitman's writing on war and duty to an exercise for reshaping military jargon, participants will explore how service finds its way into story and poem. Participants will have a chance to share their work, offering their words the same weight they once carried in the field.

About the Facilitator: Mansa Lamont Bey is an American poet and writer from Cleveland, Ohio. His artistic stance centers on the experience and expression of identity and indigeneity, drawing together the literary and performance arts into a body of work emblematic of the connection between cosmos and community. As a combat Veteran, Mansa found his love for poetry as a soldier at war during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since returning home from the Army, he has honed his craft as a poet and writer, transforming that therapeutic release into a profession — earning his MFA from Cleveland State University in spring 2026. Over the years, Mansa has folded his love of poetry into community service; his work has appeared in local publications and community-based anthologies, and he facilitates creative writing workshops for Veterans and the wider community.

Workshop: The Poem and the Body: Borrowing Form
Date & Time: Thursday, October 8, 2026 6-8pm
Location: Artisan Coffee, 662 S Canton Rd, Akron, OH 44312
Audience: Intermediate writers. Teens and adults

The content of a poem tells as much a story as the appearance of the poem, much like a body and what's held inside. In this generative workshop, participants will invoke the body using the structure of the poem. From concrete poems, to sonnets, Venn diagrams to glossaries, explore traditional and experimental methods of shaping a poem into a visual and textural expression of the body. Participants will be guided through prompts and examples of formal experimentation, and will have a chance to respond with their own poems.

About the Facilitator: Carrie George is a co-editor of Light Enters the Grove: Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park Through Poetry, Kent State University Press. Her chapbook Unbecoming won the 2024 Flume Press chapbook prize. She is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her work has appeared in Best of the Net, DIAGRAM, Hayden's Ferry Review, and elsewhere.