Staff Settles in for New Speculative Fiction NIP in 2021
Award-winning authors named core instructors for New
Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat in August
WEST BEND, Wis.— Award-winning authors will lead the instructional staff at the first Speculative Fiction Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat August 1-7, 2021.
Author, editor, and writing coach, Richard Thomas, epic fantasy novelist Anna Kashina, and science fiction novelist Sue Burke will lead the daily craft classes and an editing workshop during the six-day, residential writing workshop and retreat programs this August, NIP founder, and director Dave Rank announced.
“Literary agents Jennifer Goloboy and Laura Zats, with book editor James Lowder will share their expertise with our writers Thursday and Friday during the NIP week. And we’re pleased to announce, that multiple Stoker award-winning horror author Sarah Read also will join us to shed light on writing dark fiction,” Rank said.
“This Speculative Fiction NIP was developed with the goal of providing the best instructional sessions possible tailored for writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and related genres,” the NIP director said. “World Building, essential for quality Speculative Fiction, will be emphasized, and we’ll provide insight into today’s fast-changing publishing industry. With this staff in place, I’m confident we will reach those goals and then some.”
With more than 150 stories published, Richard Thomas, MFA, from Chicago, Illinois, is the author of three novels, three short story collections, and one novella, all in dark fiction genres from horror, to thriller, to crime. He has won contests at ChiZine and One Buck Horror, received five Pushcart Prize nominations, and been long-listed for Best Horror of the Year six times. Also the editor of four anthologies, Thomas has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller awards. In his spare time, he is an online columnist at Lit Reactor. The former editor-in-chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine, he conducts writing classes online and in the Chicago area. His website, https://whatdoesnotkillme.com.
Joining Thomas for the NIP’s morning novel-writing classes is Anna Kashina, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. biomedical researcher by day, award-winning fantasy and science fiction author by night. Published in Russia, Germany, and the US., she writes historical adventure fantasy novels, featuring exotic settings, martial arts, assassins, and romance. Her “Majat Code” series won two Prism Awards. Born in Russia, Kashina moved to the United States in 1994. https://annakashinablog.wordpress.com.
Sue Burke, Chicago, will lead the NIP’s afternoon Editing Clinic and mentor the Writing Retreat program. Her 2018 debut novel Semiosis was acclaimed for its skillful world-building and included on several best-of SF novel lists for that year. She followed up with the sequel Interference in 2019 with the third book of the trilogy, Usurpation, scheduled for release in 2024. Her third SF novel, Immunity Index, is planned for release in May and a fourth SF novel is scheduled for 2022. Several of her short story and novella collections are also in print. She has worked as a reporter, editor, and award-winning Spanish translator as well as published essays, poetry, translations, and taught English to Spanish teenagers in Madrid, Spain.
Jennifer Goloboy is an agent with the Donald Maass Literary Agency, New York. She particularly looks for fun, innovative, diverse, and progressive science fiction and fantasy for adults. One of the most important jobs of science fiction is to imagine a future we want to live in, she said. Laura Zats is co-founder of Headwater Literary Management, St. Paul, Minnesota. She represents Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror with speculative elements, all genres of Young Adult, Romance, and Literary Fiction with speculative elements.
James Lowder is executive editor for Chaosium, Inc., a board game and book publisher. He’s also an award-winning author of novels, short stories, an anthologist, and comic book scriptwriter. With Goloboy and Zats, he will lead presentations, taking part in panel discussions on the publishing industry, judge the annual Slush Pile Reads evening event, and hear book pitches from registered writers.
This was a year of accomplishments for Wisconsin author Sarah Read. Her debut novel The Bone Weaver’s Garden won a Bram Stoker award from the Horror Writers Association and a This Is Horror award in the United Kingdom, as well as accumulating several other nominations and honorable mentions. She is an editor at Pantheon Magazine, collects pens, and has a day job at a public library.
The Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat, www.novelbookcamp.org, offers two annual, residential writing events, the concurrent All-Genre NIP Bookcamp workshop and Writing Retreat, usually held in May, and the new Speculative Fiction NIP Bookcamp and Retreat in August.
NIP Bookcamp – This intensive workshop is designed to aid writers with a book-length work-in-progress (WIP). It offers classroom instruction, editing clinic, critique sessions, to provide advice from published novelists, agents, and editors. In addition, today’s changing publishing industry will be discussed within a week-long, writing-focused environment.
NIP Writing Retreat – This writers’ retreat offers six days of personal writing time with opportunities to discuss writing issues with the Retreat Mentor (an award-winning editor anthologist, and author), opportunities to attend certain writing- or publishing-related presentations, all NIP social activities, critiques, and chat with fellow writers and publishing professionals in a relaxed group environment.
Members of the Chicago Writers Association, Off Campus Writers’ Workshop, Winnetka, Ill., and the Wisconsin Writers Association receive a $90 discount when enrolling in the six-day, residential Bookcamp workshop while members of those organizations receive a $100 discount when registering for the concurrent residential Writing Retreat. Registration for both small-enrollment programs are limited, so contact NIP Director Dave Rank, director@novelbookcamp.org, as soon as possible to enroll. Limited financial aid is offered.
NIP programs are held at Cedar Valley UCCI, a 100-acre rural retreat in southeast Wisconsin, 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee and 95 miles from Chicago. https://www.ucci.org/cedar-valley/.
For more information on NIP programs, contact NIP Director Dave Rank, director@novelbookcamp.org, or through the NIP’s Facebook page.
The Bookcamp workshop and the Writing Retreat are owned by the Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational group, assisted by the Chicago Writers Association, the Off Campus Writers’ Workshop, and the Wisconsin Writers Association. Donations are welcomed.
