Thursday, December 21 @ 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Dawn your holiday best and celebrate the season with a festive book exchange. Bring a new or lightly used wrapped book to trade with fellow AWN members. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided.

Thursday, September 21 @ 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. In-Person at TACAW (400 Robinson St, Basalt, CO) Details to come!

Join Aspen Words for a one-day intensive in Pitkin County Library's Dunaway Community Room (120 N. Mill St. Aspen, CO) led by author Kate Milliken.

Registration for this workshop is now closed, all available spots have been filled.  Please reach out to Mallory.Kaufman@aspeninstitute.org to add your name to the waitlist.

WORKSHOP DETAILS When we talk about (and teach) creative writing we often speak in terms of the rules of craft. While it is important to have a knowledge of what has worked time and again to create compelling stories, in order to write a truly singular story you will need to move beyond convention. Often students of creative writing are so aware of how a story is supposed to be told that they fail to hear the wisdom that is already present in their own writing; its subtle whispers about how it wants to be told. In this one day intensive, through close readings of unconventional narratives, generative writing prompts, and an in-depth discussion of our own projects, we will deepen our understanding of the voice, the shape, and the themes that our work seeks to articulate. Whether you come to our meeting with just an idea of the story you want to tell or you have a full rough draft in your desk, our time together will embolden you to take the next step—from getting the first pages written to embarking on a needed revision—with a deeper connection to the material and a greater authority, moving you beyond crafting a story to making it your very own. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kate Milliken is the Iowa Award winning author of the short story collection “If I’d Known You Were Coming” and the novel, “Kept Animals,” which was long listed for the 2020 First Novel Prize and hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a novel of “deft insights and gorgeous, sensual description.” Kate has written television and commercial advertising and taught on behalf of UCLA, the University of Michigan, and The Center for Fiction. Her work has appeared in O, the Oprah Magazine, the Santa Monica Review, Zyzzyva, and Fiction, among others and her work has been supported by Tin House, the Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers Workshop, and the Ragdale Foundation. Kate is currently a freelance editor and writing coach and she lives with her family in the Midwest.

In-Person at The Village Smithy (26 S 3rd St., Carbondale, CO) Join us for an in-person author talk featuring Brittany Penner, an Indigenous Métis writer and family physician at Village Smithy in Carbondale (26 S. 3rd St.). Brittany will be in conversation with Daniel Shaw, local writer and program partner. This event is free and open to all. Registration is requested. DOORS: open at 6:00 pm.; conversation will begin at 6:30 p.m. SEATING: On the porch of the Village Smithy, seating is first come, first served.

In-Person at Village Smithy (26 S 3rd St, Carbondale, CO)

Come together with fellow AWN members to celebrate the accomplishments of local writers and enjoy a summer evening. More details to come! 

 Purchase a pass for $30 to gain access to all events in the series. 

Publishing experts will help you navigate the book business, give advice on how to get published, and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. Panelists: Millicent Bennett, Kirby Kim and Dana Murphy This event is free to summer words students! Your student badge serves as your pass. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Millicent Bennett Millicent Bennett, Executive Editor, acquires primarily literary fiction, upmarket book club fiction, and voice-and character-driven narrative nonfiction, including memoir, with an emphasis on marginalized and underrepresented voices. She joined Harper in 2021 as part of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt integration, where she served as editorial director, and after seventeen years as editor at PRH, S&S, and Hachette.       Kirby Kim Kirby Kim, a native of Los Angeles, California, attended Pomona College and got his JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. Kirby has worked for Charlotte Sheedy Literary, Vigliano Associates, WME, and Janklow & Nesbit. He represents both literary and commercial authors. He’s most interested in receiving manuscripts that straddle the fence a bit, with upmarket expression combined with a genre element or plot device. When it comes to straight literary work, he’s alternatively drawn to rich, sweeping stories that try to encompass a time or a place or tightly written, narratively innovative stories or voices with award potential. His commercial interests include thrillers, mysteries, and speculative fiction. He also represents a range of nonfiction, working with leaders and journalists in the areas of science, culture, business, and current affairs. Some of his clients include award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Edgar Award winner James A. McLaughlin, Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Lauren Etter, rapper/actor Common, two-time National Book Award winner in the Philippines Gina Apostol, and debut novelists Ling Ling Huang and Adam White. Kirby is currently a board member of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and two kids.  Dana Murphy Dana Murphy represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction for both adult and teen readers. She joined Trellis Literary Management in 2022, after a decade building her list at The Book Group. Books by her clients have been New York Times and international bestsellers and chosen as Barnes & Noble Discover, Book of the Month, Read with Jenna, Indie Next and NYT Editors’ Choice picks. Across genre, Dana falls in love at the story and line-level simultaneously. She’s always searching for language and plot that move in equal measure, and novels with a soft heart, a sense of humor, and a deep earnest affection for their characters and story. In non fiction, she loves well-researched cultural criticism — especially if it reckons with “low” and “unworthy” pop culture in a smart, serious way or interrogates the power structures that shape our collective understanding of “good” taste. 

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623)

This is a great opportunity to practice talking about your work. Even if you are not ready to pitch your book/essay/poem to publishers/agents, developing a pitch is a great way to determine what is most important in your writing project, which helps you with editing and even finishing the work. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. 

This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are  welcome to join at the meeting.

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour.  Slots are limited. To read at this meeting (not required), either email Mark Tompkins (MarkLTom@icloud.com) signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) From 6;30 – 7:30 p.m. Janklow & Nesbit literary agent, Melissa Flashman will ZOOM in to discuss the how to’s of a non-fiction book proposal. Q&A will follow. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. The second hour will be personal writing time. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Melissa Flashman is a literary agent at Janklow & Nesbit representing award-winning and best-selling fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, she is particularly interested in conversation-changing books including journalism, science, technology, business/finance/economics, memoir/narrative, essays and cultural criticism. Melissa’s authors have won numerous awards including the Pulitzer, the National Book Critic Circle Award, the Whiting Award, the Windham Campbell Prize, the Rona Jaffe Award, the Hugo Award, n + 1 writer’s fellowship, The Robert B Silvers Prize, and The Nation’s Ridenhour Prize among others. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting.

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Gillian Blake, SVP, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Crown and Currency will be in-person at this meeting to discuss the state of the publishing industry. Hear from a longtime publishing professional on the state of the industry in 2023. Moderated by Adrienne Brodeur, author and Executive Director of Aspen Words. Q&A will follow. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Gillian Blake is SVP, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Crown and Currency. Previously she was Editor-In-Chief at Henry Holt. She also acquires and edits select titles. Her editorial focus is on narrative nonfiction, history, memoir, science, current events, popular culture, and biography. She has edited many prize-winning and bestselling authors, including Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Kolbert, Matthew McConaughey, Susan Cain, Tina Brown, Adrian Nicole Leblanc, Ai Weiwei, Andy Cohen, Elton John, Jaron Lanier, Peggy Orenstein, Pamela Paul, Steven Johnson, Bari Weiss, Russell Brand, Rob Lowe, Brandi Carlile, Kate Walbert, Anthony Doerr, A.J. Jacobs and Harold Bloom.   ABOUT THE MODERATOR Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which was a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, NPR, People, and the Washington Post and is in development as a Netflix film and the novel “Little Monsters,” which will publish in July 2023. She founded the literary magazine, “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue, and other publications. She has been the Executive Director of Aspen Words since 2016. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are  welcome to join at the meeting.

Thursday, January 19 @ 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. |  at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Rachel Weaver will provide a short, targeted craft workshop virtually for the first hour. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. WORKSHOP DETAILS 7 Ingredients for a Compelling Plot: so often as writers we get loads of feedback on small sections of our novels or memoirs. But what about how the book is working as a whole? It’s easy to get lost in the trees and not be able to see the forest. This class will give you the tools you need to take a step back, see the book as a whole, and begin to identify where the tension is sagging, where your reader will start thinking about all that laundry they should probably get started on, and what to do about it. We’ll talk about seven key ingredients that work to create a book a reader has a hard time putting down. Whether you have a lot or a little plot in your novel or memoir, this is a class that will help you strengthen that through thread. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are welcome to join at the meeting. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rachel Weaver is the author of the novel Point of Direction which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Books to Pick Up Now. She is on faculty at Regis University’s low-residency MFA program, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) The first hour will be a conversation with memoirists Courtney Maum ("The Year of the Horses") and Adrienne Brodeur ("Wild Game") about their careers and writing life. They will be joining us virtually. The second hour will be for AWN members to connect. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are  welcome to join at the meeting. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide "Before and After the Book Deal" and the memoir "The Year of the Horses," chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach and educator, Courtney's mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, “Wild Game,” which is in development for film. During her 15 years in the publishing industry, she founded the literary magazine “Zoetrope: All-Story” with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, was an acquiring editor at Harcourt and HMH Books, and served as a judge for the National Book Award, among other literary contests. Her essays have appeared in Glamour, O Magazine, The National, The New York Times, Vogue and other publications. She has been with Aspen Words since 2013. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are  welcome to join at the meeting. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app. 

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour.  Slots are limited. To read at this meeting (not required), either email Mark Tompkins (MarkLTom@icloud.com) signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app. 

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) This is a great opportunity to practice talking about your work. Even if you are not ready to pitch your book/essay/poem to publishers/agents, developing a pitch is a great way to determine what is most important in your writing project, which helps you with editing and even finishing the work. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. This meeting is for AWN members only; interested writers are  welcome to join at the meeting. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app. 

In-Person at Bonfire Coffee Company (433 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623) Short readings from members’ work will fill the first hour.  To read at this meeting (not required), either email aspenwritersnetwork@gmail.com or signup when you arrive. Readers can receive feedback from the group if desired; indicate your preference when you sign up. The second hour will be personal writing time. Snacks, coffee, tea, beer, and wine will be provided. Non-AWN members are welcome to attend their first meeting to see if they want to join. All attendees must upload their proof of vaccination in advance on the ReturnSafe app.