WordSmitten WorkShop
WordSmitten has been in existence since 2006, offering education, conferences, publication and media support, as well as an author’s roundtable. Today, the workshop has evolved into an online workshop offering advanced writers from across the country the opportunity to concentrate on the completion of works-in-progress from page 1 to publication.
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The workshop is a writer-directed style roundtable that meets virtually once a month in different genre cohorts. Each month, writers submit up to 25 pages to cohort members to read. On the last Saturday of the month, the group meets to discuss each submission following the needs of the writer. Together, everyone in the cohort starts at page 1 and works on projects until everyone types - “The End”.
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The workshop switches to a publication cohort where writers polish their publication package, submissions plan, verbal pitches to agents, literary presses and magazine submissions in a workshop setting. The benefit is that the cohort acts not only as beta-readers but is familiar with the work to support ideas and publishing plans.
New Cohorts Opening This Fall for 2026
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Connected Short Fiction and Flash Fiction – in this cohort, writers work on short story or flash fiction collections (4 seats open).
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Novel – in this existing cohort, writers workshop longer literary works (3 seats open).
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Speculative/The Shadow Realm – in this existing cohort writers workshop, writers work on projects that incorporate world-building and other speculative pieces (3 seats open).
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Poetry – poets fine-tune single as well as a collection of poetic work in a free-style format (6 seats open)
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Generative – in this new workshop, writers have the opportunity to free write, work on prompts, and discuss literary topics to generate longer future works (12 seats open).
For More Information
If you are interested in learning more and are committed to being a part of a long-form workshop, please email Julieanna Blackwell. She is open for project submissions during August. The new cohorts will be seated at the virtual roundtable in September.