This workshop was offered in 2026. Sign up for our email list to receive updates for the 2027 conference.
Stay the Course:
A Novel Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop in New Jersey
January 16-19, 2026
Led by Marina Budhos
Novels have many moving parts, making it easy for us to lose track of the big picture as we write. This workshop will help us stay focused on the driving conflict of our novels while pushing through the messy drafting process. Guided exercises will keep our manuscripts moving forward as we explore “side-writing” for character development and learn how to sustain inner peril in a story. We will use our supportive space to share excerpts with each other, taking notes on how and when we might revise further drafts. You are welcome to bring a novel-in-progress or early outlines, or to start something brand new.
*Limited to just 10 participants.*
“I love the three night time-frame. It allows for deep work and play. The workshops were the right length, and the panels and evening events were lovely. This was my first, but not my last time! Thank you.”
~ Laura, Montclair, NJ
Marina Budhos
Marina Budhos is the author of several books for young adults and adults. Her newest novel, We Are All We Have, was a Best Kirkus Book of 2022. Among her prior books are Watched, which received a Walter Award and an Asian Pacific American Honor, The Long Ride, Tell Us We’re Home and Ask Me No Questions, recipient of numerous honors. She has also published the adult novels The Professor of Light and House of Waiting, and three works of nonfiction, including Sugar Changed the World, an LA Times Book Finalist. She has received an NEA Literature Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers, three Fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts and has been a Fulbright Scholar to India. She is a professor emerita at William Paterson University. View her website and read an essay by Marina.
