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In my writing workshops, I create an environment that is nurturing and safe. I am dedicated to rigor and excellence and encourage writers to become fearless in the pursuit of the unique beauty and truth of their story.
Want to be a published writer? Learn how to write and sell your book.
Start, recharge and develop your writing practice.
You want to write but can’t create or sustain a consistent writing life.
Becoming a skilled writer unleashes demons, doubt, fears and anxieties for which writers are often unprepared. Many who want to write fear they lack the talent or tenacity required of the dedicated writer. I lead workshops where these subjects are not taboo, are discussed openly and where writers find and create community. Through writing exercises inspired by my many years as a master teacher, participants break through the psychological barriers that cripple their attempts to write with regularity and confidence.
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST
My Memoir: A Six-Week Memoir Masterclass with Marita Golden
If you are ready to take your memoir to the next level, this is your last opportunity to take a memoir writing course with me in 2021.
Only three openings left.
This is a small class limited in size. This six-week advanced memoir masterclass will focus on thematic development of your narrative, writing, creating structure, revision and editing. Open to those working on individual essays or book-length projects.
Participants must have written a minimum of 25 pages of memoir narrative by the beginning of the workshop. The 25-page narrative or sections of it will be revised, expanded and edited during the workshop.
Features of the Masterclass Intensive:
Six 2-hour Zoom Session
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST
Agent-Ready/The Book Proposal: The Business of Getting Published
Whether you have completed your manuscript or are still writing, whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, whether you want to independently publish or find an agent who gets you a book deal, this workshop is indispensable. We’ll discuss how the publishing business works, what an agent does and how to get one, the job of an editor, and how to get yourself and your story agent-ready. You’ll learn how to write a query-letter, we’ll discuss the role of social media and how to create a book proposal.
3-hour Zoom Session
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST
How to Tell A Story: Character, Plot, Drama
Whether you are writing a novel or a memoir, there is only one way to tell it. A character is challenged, tested, changed, in a narrative that reads, and feels like a compelling, remarkable journey. You’ll be introduced to the elements of character, plot, and drama that are the foundation of powerful storytelling. Discussion of your in-process project. Lots of writing.
3-hour Zoom Session
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST
The Naked Truth: Writing A Memoir That Matters
Writing a memoir is a way to find meaning in our lives and make art of our experiences coming-of-age, struggles with identity, all the “stuff” of life. In this workshop, we’ll explore writing techniques that will allow you to write fearlessly and with transformative power. Discussion of your in-progress work and lots of writing.
Two 3-hour Zoom Sessions
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST
Unthinkable, Unspeakable, Unforgettable: Creating Compelling Characters in Fiction
In this workshop, we’ll explore the characteristics of unforgettable fictional characters. Through close reading of excerpts from novels and short stories, and lots of writing assignments, we’ll create confounding, conflicted, maddening characters, the kind that readers can’t look away from and that they never forget.
Open to beginning and advanced fiction writers.
Two 3-hour Zoom Sessions
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST
Write Now! 2021: A Creative Writing Intensive to Jumpstart Your Writing in the New Year
In this intensive you’ll learn how to tell a compelling, unforgettable story that is compelling and unforgettable. We’ll cover how to begin a story, and develop it through vivid description and characters, drama, and conflict, and an authoritative voice. And you’ll write.
3-hour Zoom Sessions
12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST
Creative Conversations with Marita featuring YA (Young Adult) authors Leslie Youngblood and Caroline Brewer.
Young adult books for Black readers have energized the publishing world and created a new generation of Black authors writing for Black children. In this discussion with two successful YA authors, we’ll examine the challenges and opportunities in publishing with a mainstream publishing house and independent publishing. We’ll discuss the need for stories for Black children, their importance, and how those stories are evolving.
Leslie C. Youngblood is the award-winning author of Love Like Sky and Forever This Summer. Caroline Brewer is the author of several books for children including most recently, Darius Daniels: Game On.
1-hour Facebook Live & YouTube Live session
Registration opening soon!
12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST
Colorism is a once-taboo topic that is now openly discussed, challenged, and confronted in personal conversation, on social media, and increasingly in cultural expressions from film to videos. But how far have we come from the tyranny of “the paper bag” test and how is the discussion of colorism shaped by the increasing ethnic diversity of our society?
Lori Tharps is an associate professor of journalism at Temple University and the co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America and author of Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love, and Spain.
1-hour Facebook Live & YouTube Live session
12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST
Creative Conversations with Marita - A Black Women Writer’s Showcase to Honor Women’s History Month
Join me as I host a roundtable with six of today’s most talented, creative and impactful Black women writers.
We’ll discuss the women in our lives who inspired us to write, the women writers who modeled excellence for us, and the challenges and satisfactions of our current projects.
Joining me will be:
1-hour Zoom session
12 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST
Our City, Our Stories: Author Talk with Sadeqa Johnson and Marita Golden
During this author's talk, I interviewed Sadeqa Johnson LIVE on the DC Public Library’s Facebook page and YouTube channel about her newly published historical novel, "Yellow Wife." "Yellow Wife" is a harrowing story that follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.
Sadeqa is originally from Philadelphia, and is a former public relations manager, a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and the author of three additional novels.
1-hour LIVE session
12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST
Creative Conversations with Marita - Special Guest Wil Haygood, Author of The Butler
I had the pleasure of interviewing award-winning biographer Wil Haygood. Wil has written biographies of Adam Clayton Powell, Sammy Davis Jr., Sugar Ray Robinson, and wrote the book that inspired the film The Butler, which starred Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker. He has also written Showdown Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America. Our conversation about Black heroes, Black history, and his forthcoming book "Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Film in a White World" was provocative, informative, and entertaining. We discussed the amazing Black lives he has captured and the trials and triumphs of Black actors since the dawn of the age of film.
You can pre-Order Wil's new book, "Colorization One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World" here >>
1-hour Zoom session
12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST
Zoom Q&A: First Page to Finished On Writing and Living the Writer’s Life
Inspired by my nearly 40 years as an author and teacher of writing, in this book I share with you everything I know and everything I have learned about how to write well and how to find community and satisfaction in the process.
Get First Page to Finished today and join me for a half-hour ZOOM discussion -- on Saturday, January 2, 2021 -- of how to get the most out of the book and answers to your most pressing questions.
1/2-hour Zoom session
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST
Let's virtually mix and mingle with our favorite libations (coffee, tea, mocktail ...). I'll take your questions as we celebrate:
1-hour Zoom session
Marita Golden is the author of 17 works of fiction and nonfiction. She is Co-founder and President Emerita of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation. As a teacher of writing, she has served as a member of the faculties of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University and served as a Distinguished Visiting Writer in the MA Creative Writing Program at John Hopkins University, and at the University of the District of Columbia. She has taught writing workshops nationally and internationally to a variety of constituencies and is a writing coach, workshop presenter, and literary consultant.
Author. Creative Writing Coach. Literary Consultant. Master Teacher. Book Editor.
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