Five-week online course with Yahdon Israel, Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster.

“A manuscript is the work of one person. A book is the work of a community. A career is the work of strategy and time.” The course examines three questions:

• What questions does your work return to?

• Who feels most seen by your work?

• What cultural conversation are you contributing to?

Annual literary conference with 10K participants. Attended The Rumpus Revel, a literary reading and party hosted by Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman, new publishers of The Rumpus.

“Big Magic” workshop with Elizabeth Gilbert. Focused on creative living—choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear. Held at Omega Institute, basically summer camp for adults, located on 250 acres in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Teaching the online course “How Not to Lose Heart: Sustaining Mental Health in the Writing Life,” based on my popular AWP panel, for Poets & Writers Magazine.

How do you stay hopeful enough to keep writing? At every level, writers face disappointment, rejection, and failure. Developing wellness practices to manage challenges like envy, comparison, imposter syndrome, social media rumination, and work/life balance makes all the difference.

Novel workshop and retreat with Author-in-Residence Xochitl Gonzalez (Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Olga Dies Dreaming). Held at Hidden Valley, an Institute of the Arts in Carmel Valley, California.

“Advanced Narrative Design” master class with Jean Kwok (The Leftover Woman).

“Journeying Into the Common Good.” Ten-day salon on the Greek island of Patmos, led by Krista Tippett, founder and CEO of The On Being Project.

Presenting the panel “How Not to Lose Heart: Sustaining Mental Health in the Writing Life” with Chloe Benjamin, Ebony Stewart, Lisa Williamson Rosenberg, and Kyunghee Kim.

Three psychotherapists and two creative consultants, all poets or fiction writers, discuss struggles common to the writing life. From the isolated desk to the pressured book tour, panelists draw upon their own experiences plus their work with clients to provide tips for preserving mental health and well-being. Topics will include envy and comparison, imposter syndrome, addiction, work/life balance, developing social support systems, and challenges specific to marginalized communities.

“The Hero’s Journey in Fiction and Film.” Master class with story consultant Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.

Artist residency at Buinho Creative Hub. Two weeks’ studio time in a nineteenth-century adobe house located in historic Messejana, Portugal.

“Wild Awakenings” workshop with Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild. Held at Omega Institute, an educational organization located on more than 250 acres in New York’s Hudson Valley.

“Breaking the Story—TV for Fiction Writers” with Alissa Nutting (Made for Love) and Dean Bakopoulos (Summerlong). Additional classes with Melissa Febos, Tiphanie Yanique, Laura van den Berg, Jenny Shank, and Steve Almond.

Alumni Gathering (Virtual) with director Heather Lazare. Featuring workshop led by UTA literary agent Dan Milachewski, plus a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bookmaking with co-authors Christine Pride & Jo Piazza (We Are Not Like Them) and their team from Atria Books.

Presenting the panel “The Buzz on Book Doctors: When Hiring an Editor Is Worth Your Time & Money” with author/editor Christine Pride (We Are Not Like Them), literary agent Iwalani Kim (Sanford Greenburger Associates), and developmental editor Brenda Copeland. Panel goes live for virtual and in-person AWP22 attendees on March 25 at 1:45 p.m.

Thirty-ninth annual event: “A Seminar Named Desire.”

Artist residency at the Hambidge Center, a 600-acre sanctuary in the North Georgia mountains listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Canceled due to COVID-19. Annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

Generative workshop with Meg Wolitzer (The Female Persuasion) held at IMG Academy.

Advanced fiction workshop “Style & Substance” with Publishers Weekly fiction reviews editor Gabe Habash (Stephen Florida).

Annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

Juried workshop with former Simon & Schuster editor Heather Lazare and author-in-residence Rufi Thorpe (The Knockout Queen), held in the Santa Cruz Mountains at The Sequoia Retreat Center.