How to Read like a Writer explores the essential relationship between great writing and extensive reading. “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them,” Mark Twain once said and, for writers, books are our teachers and our university, from them we learn what to do and how to do it, and to distinguish good work from bad. We will discuss how to choose what to read, and how to deconstruct the work of another author to analyze craft. We will also discuss how to workshop the manuscripts of our peers, in a manner that is positive and constructive for both them and us.

Build Me a Metaphor examines figurative language at its best and worst. Drawing from the work of published and unpublished authors, the class asks participants to consider the limitless possibilities of simile, metaphor, and personification. Using Zora Neale Hurston’s work as the model for how metaphor should be approached, the class demands that participants bring their personal lives and experiences with them—for they are the stuff beautiful metaphors are made of.

Theories and Practices of Literary Translation asserts that without literary translation, English speakers would have never discovered The Odyssey, Arabian Nights, The Divine Comedy, or the Bible, to name a few. The course focuses on the importance of literary translation as an art form, and applies its worth to poetry. Different theories of translation will be discussed, and several translations of the same poems will be read and thoroughly analyzed. By doing so, we will learn what to look for when reading poetry in translation.

 A Lesson in Memoir purports that autobiography is not above the laws of literature. Truth’s penchant for beauty is even more severe than fiction’s affinity for it or poetry’s inclination toward it. The class teaches participants how to weave the creativity and beauty so often associated with poetry and fiction into their personal tales. Please note that beauty, for the sake of this class, is relative and not at all bound by any mainstream standards.


Workshops All participants—poets, writers, and memoirists—reap the benefits of a 3-hour, intimate workshop, facilitated by one or more of the lecturers. Writers are responsible for reading the manuscripts of all other workshop participants (manuscripts are shipped well in advance of conference dates). This close reading requires a detailed critique, geared toward the “flight” of the manuscript. Once it leaves the doors of Akwaaba, it should be on the balls of its feet itching to jump!

What Editors Look For Despite the inspiration we live by, despite the magnitude of what we try to accomplish in our work, despite even the smiles that tire our cheeks when a story or poem is finally abandoned (because, we know they’re never truly finished), publication is nearly as significant to writers as the writing process itself. As Garrison Keillor put it, “We want to be known.” What Editors Look For helps us along that path to recognition. It discusses, with utter respect for the craft and every bit of passion that goes with it, how to spark and maintain the intimate relationship between writer and editor.

 What Now? After it’s all said and done, and between our palms rests a hundred pages bound beautifully by a crème spine, swathe in a glossy cover, still warm with work, what, we wonder, comes next? What now? examines the path to publication—all its dirt and grandeur, the trail through it, and the questionable corridor at its end. Spend an intimate hour with a woman answering this question—a recently published writer making sense of a dream realized. Let her explain for you the sweet touch of a first book. Its smell. Its taste. The deep down laughter it ushers forth.

Fellowship Done Write The lonely craft of writing must not be spent in complete solitude. Once we’ve braved the silence, and given some form to the fantasies in our heads, we must call others to our rescue. They will applaud us for what we’ve created, and that we surely need, but more importantly, they will tell us what’s wrong with it. The members of a Baltimore writing group three years strong explain for us the value of women committed to one another’s literary dreams, and how to maintain allegiance to the journey.

One-on-One Critiques Participants may pay for an individualized critique of a short story or memoir excerpt not to exceed 20 pages, or a poem or series of poems not to exceed 10 pages. Individualized sessions are 30 minutes and are performed by the lecturer assigned to your genre. Payment for individualized critiques can be included in payment for the conference. The cost of the critiques is $85.00.

Flanked • P.O. Box 10899 Baltimore, MD 21234 • 443.433.6101 • info@flanked.org • website designed by eclectic