Aspen Words

AWN August Meeting: Craft Workshop
2025-08-21 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Denver)
Thursday, August 21 at Bonfire Coffee from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
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Award-winning author Daryl Gregory will be in person to talk about surviving the ups and downs of publishing.

AWN September Meeting– Flex Your Creativity & Expand Your Skill + A Free Journal
2025-09-18 18:30 - 20:30
September AWN Meeting – Flex Your Creativity & Expand Your Skill + A Free Journal
Third Thursday – September 18 at Bonfire Coffee (433 Main St., Carbondale), 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Writing prompts are a fantastic way to expand your creativity, explore new genres, and find your unique voice. So, whether you’re a seasoned wordsmith or just dipping your toes into the world of writing, come expand your artistic chops. Sharing is optional.
All attendees will receive a free journal! It’s bright red and full of blank pages to inspire you!
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AWN October Meeting - Annual Halloween meeting
2025-10-16 18:30 - 20:30
October 16 – Annual Halloween meeting. Patrick Kitson will be conducting a talk on: How to build more tension in your writing.
Patrick has been a lifelong student of the macabre, the satirical, and the intellectually dubious. Born and raised in the Roaring Fork Valley, he coined the term “Valley Horror” in reference to his particular brand of homebrewed speculative fiction, which largely takes place in and around the snowy climes of Colorado. He has published three short story collections and has a novel coming out soon.
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FALL WRITING WORKSHOP WITH PETER MOUNTFORD
2025-11-02 10:00 - 15:00
JOIN US FOR AN ALL-DAY FALL WRITING WORKSHOP WITH PETER MOUNTFORD
MAKING MEANING IN YOUR PERSONAL ESSAY
Sunday, November 2, 2025 | 10AM to 3PM
Pitkin County Library
120 N Mill St, Aspen, CO 81611
REGISTER HERE
This all-day workshop with award-winning novelist and essayist Peter Mountford runs 10 AM–3 PM, with a lunch break from 12–1 PM.
Attendees will learn the most difficult and important skill in personal essay writing: how to make your personal story relevant to a perfect stranger. Hilary Mantel, on the difficulty of writing about oneself, said: “If other people are to care about your life, art must intervene.”
“Aboutness” is fundamental to a successful essay, yet both literary and general-publication editors frequently complain of receiving writers’ essays that don’t seem to be “about” anything. In this workshop, attendees will figure out how to select a topic, then focus and refine an essay to arc toward theme and meaning.
In the morning, the workshop will focus on choosing an essay’s seeds. These ideas should be inherently engaging from a story standpoint but also contain focused opportunities for rich thematic meaning. We will generate new writing for a few topics. Attendees will assess different ideas and talk about what each might offer in terms of story and meaning.
In the afternoon, the workshop will focus on developing one or two ideas further into a publishable work that appeals to readers. Specifically, we’ll work toward making meaning—how to write/revise toward your essay’s “aboutness.” Attendees will learn how there are several different approaches for seeking and demonstrating meaning, as we work through ideas generated in class. We’ll also learn secrets to successful essay structure.
Come prepared to brainstorm new essay ideas, bring ones you’ve been mulling over, or essays you’ve written that just aren’t working. Attendees will look at examples of how other authors have done this, including Melissa Febos, and Leslie Jamison. We will look at the first draft vs the published draft of the instructor’s Modern Love essay.
About the Instructor:

Peter Mountford is the author of A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism (winner of the Washington State Book Award) and The Dismal Science (a New York Times Editor’s Choice), as well as the short story collection Detonator. His essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times (Modern Love), The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Sun, and more. He teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe’s MFA program and through Mountford Writing.

AWN November Meeting
2025-11-20 18:30 - 20:30
November 20 – Lucinda Halpern will be conducting a talk on: Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author.
Lucinda Halpern is a literary agent and the founder of Lucinda Literary, based in New York. She has worked with all major publishers, including Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and Scholastic, and currently represents New York Times and internationally best-selling authors in the categories of business, personal growth, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction.
Her classes and coaching programs have been taught to hundreds of writers worldwide, and became the inspiration for her new book Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author (Hay House; February 6th, 2024).
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AWN Holiday Party
2025-12-18 18:30 - 20:30
December 18 – Holiday party and book exchange
Join us for a festive and fun gathering! Choose a beloved book from your shelf to share with other members, or support a local business by visiting Alpenglow Books in Glenwood Springs (a new store!), White River Books in Carbondale, or Explore Booksellers in Aspen to purchase one. Dedicate the book with your most valuable piece of writing advice, and wrap it up to share at the exchange. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share quotes or sayings that inspired and encouraged them on their writer’s journey.
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