This workshop was offered in 2025. Sign up for our email list to receive updates for this year’s conference.

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Our Many Voices:
Persona in Creative Nonfiction

Writing Workshop in New Jersey
January 17-20, 2025
Led by Heather Lanier

Writing instructors often talk about “finding your voice.” The truth is, we have many voices—ones that can tell different stories, engage new audiences and reveal surprising insights. In this workshop, you’ll explore the various versions of yourself, and how you might authentically render them on the page. You’ll also discover how those voices shape the deeper meaning of your stories. For inspiration, you’ll read a range of excellent contemporary creative nonfiction examples, experiment with a variety of generative prompts and share work in a supportive environment. Bring the first few pages of something you’ve written but struggled with, or start a few pages of something new.

*Limited to just 10 participants.*

 

“The workshop was an extremely supportive environment that yielded a lot of awesome writing for me. I loved the personality of everyone in the group and how welcoming and attentive everyone was to each other’s creative ideas.”
~ Chris, Brick, NJ

 

Heather Lanier

Heather Lanier is an essayist, poet, educator and thrift-store shopper. She is the author of the memoir, Raising a Rare Girl, which was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. She has also published two award-winning poetry chapbooks and the full-length poetry collection, Psalms of Unknowing, which Kirkus Reviews calls “a powerful poetic reckoning with motherhood and religion.” Her essays and poems have appeared in The Atlantic, TIME, The Sun, Longreads, The Southern Review and elsewhere. A recipient of a New Jersey Artist Fellowship, she works as an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Rowan University. Her TED talk has been viewed three million times. Read an essay by Heather and learn more on her website.