Note from the Director: This workshop was offered in 2016. Learn more about this year’s workshops.

Research for Writers Workshop

Writing workshop in New Jersey
January 15-18, 2016
Led by Thomas Peele

In this workshop we will explore the theory that research is a writer’s best friend. We will examine ways to ground our creative writing in fact, such as military records for a family history or memoir, FBI profiles of gangsters for a crime novel or how to accurately describe a city from the distant past.

We will practice the technique of deep digging, study some of the best research-driven fiction and nonfiction and get feedback on our writing with an emphasis on improving research skills and answering specific questions. Whether you are starting from scratch or are already working on a project, this workshop will give you the tools to write a research-based narrative that reads like a story rather than a dissertation.

Note to participants:

• After registering, you will receive a suggested reading list which will help you benefit even more from the workshop.
• Have the following ready to submit by Dec. 15 (or if registering after that date, submit within a week of registering). In mid-December, we will provide instructions where to email your submission:
  • Your top 3 research-related questions
  • A page synopsis of your project, no more than 1 page
  • If you have already started working on your project, you may also submit a 2-3 page excerpt, double-spaced with 1″ margins and a 12 point font
• Bring to the workshop:
  • A laptop or tablet that can connect to the venue’s free wi-fi
  • Your project if it is already in progress
  • Research you have already collected

 

“We want to thank Tom for his help with our book and let him know about our success. Not in a Tuscan Villa has made the Amazon Bestseller list several times for Travel Writing and has gotten great reviews, including one from Rick Mellerup in The Sandpaper, where he called it one of the best things he’s read in his career as a journalist. Thanks again.”
~ Nancy, Participant in Thomas Peele’s Workshop

 

Biography

Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter and author. He has won more than 50 journalism awards during a career on both coasts and also teaches journalism and writing at University of California, Berkeley and University of San Francisco. His first book, Killing the Messenger, an examination of Black Muslim cults and the 2007 murder of California journalist Chauncey Bailey, was published by the Crown Books division of Random House in 2012. One reviewer called it “a masterpiece of contemporary historical narrative.” Peele’s essay about San Francisco chef Dennis Leary, “The Final Redoubt,” appeared in the book The Cassoluet Saved Our Marriage (Roost Books, 2013) and was a preliminary selection for Holly Hughes’s Best Food Writing 2013. In 2006, his essay on the collapse of the Knight Ridder newspaper company, “Oligarchies I Have Known,” was published in Controlled Burn and won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Intro Journals Award. His work has also appeared in Columbia Journalism Review, Newsday, Huffington Post and San Francisco Bay Guardian. Peele holds an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco and lives in Oakland, California with his wife and twin daughters. You can read an excerpt of Killing The Messenger on his website www.thomaspeele.com. Read an excerpt of his writing.