Gribner

TESTIMONIALS

The workshop in Prague was life changing for me as a writer and a person.
It was so wonderful to spend two weeks in such a beautiful city, working with a group of
such talented writers from around the world. Reading their manuscripts and writing critiques
on their work improved my writing as much as the comments I received
on my own work….I am so grateful I had this opportunity to grow as a writer
and to learn how I can write a better manuscript. It was also great the way our instructors,
Ron Grant and Sue Ribner, invited author Patricia Hampl to guest lecture and
share her insights and experiences with us, which changed my outlook on talking with agents and editors.
They also provided each of us with the opportunity to read excerpts from our work
to the attendees of all classes of the Prague Summer Program....
I would highly recommend this workshop for any serious writer
working on his/her first creative nonfiction book.

--Susan Dawson-Cook. Tucson, AZ. MS, Freelance writer and fitness professional.
Prague Summer Program, 2007.

I had an extraordinary two weeks. Gribner offered an unusual,
intense reading of our completed manuscript,
and the level of writing in my group was very exciting…
Back home now, I have nearly finished a total rewrite, about 200 pages.
I can’t tell you how much Prague and the workshop meant to me.

--Lillian Rosengarten, Hudson Valley, NY. Psychoanalyst, human rights activist,
poet and writer. Prague Summer Program, 2007.

Gribner was the first time anyone had read my manuscript as a whole,
rather than having friends and colleagues reading the occasional piece here or there.
And it was so helpful to have people who didn’t know me (who didn’t automatically fill in the holes
with what they knew about me) read my work and see how, or whether, it held together as a cohesive piece.
The gentle guidance of Ron and Sue established a rapport among participants,
so that suggestions that came up in the sessions were specific and meaningful, without any
of the contention that can sometimes happen in a workshop. And I’m especially grateful
for the chances they arranged for us to spend time with the visiting writers
[Patricia Hampl and Richard Katrovas] in a smaller, more intimate setting.

--Evelyn Funda. Associate Professor, American Lit./American Studies. Dept. of English,
Utah State University. Prague Summer Program, 2007.

The workshop was an incredible gift, and after it was over and I was back home,
I could envision exactly what my book needed to be. I came home and restructured
a lot, revised, did a lot of new writing, and now I'm just about finished!
The best parts of the book remained, but it has a whole different read to it and I
couldn't be happier. It is a thousand per cent better now, thanks to everyone in the
workshop. I don't think I could have seen the overall picture and been able to
restructure and revise the manuscript like this without the workshop.

--Shelley Seale, Austin TX. BA in Writing & Cultural Psychology,
St. Edward’s University. Prague Summer Program 2007.

What I loved about Gribner was that it was all about me. It was wonderful having entire
classes devoted to my manuscript. Ron and Sue actually read all 130 pages and provided
insightful overview suggestions as well as line-by-line ones. I came out with
everything I needed to see my project through to completion.

--Desiree Washington. Tucson, AZ, MFA student. Univ. of Arizona.
Prague Summer Program 2006.

Having two facilitators, a man and a woman working together, was wonderful. I was
impressed with how well Ron and Sue interacted, providing two different perspectives
which always complemented each other. Of course, having attention paid to my whole
manuscript (a mother/daughter memoir) by all the participants was another outstanding
feature of this workshop—helping me discover exactly what the story was that I was
trying to tell, and aiding me in refining the structure with which to tell it.
Moreover, the workshop dealt with specific chapters of my work, discussing how they
would best fit into the overall manuscript. And, of course, Prague was magnificent!

The constructive critique I received at the Oregon and Michigan workshops accelerated
my progress far more than the workshops I’d attended with some famous writers.
In those, I only had an hour at most, focused on one slice of my work. In Gribner,
I had a group of talented peers who read my entire memoir (on my years as an elementary
school principal) twice and then gave detailed feedback on the whole manuscript.

--Caroline Tompkins. Tucson, AZ. Author of “Spelling Bee,” cited as a Notable Essay of 2004
in Best Essays of 2005. Ed.D. Oregon and Michigan participant, 2005.

What Gribner did for me was to bring me back my identity as a writer. After being
isolated in my home in rural Tennessee, the two Gribner workshops I attended brought me
much joy. The participants were mature, experienced nonfiction writers and excellent
readers of my essay collection, “Hurricane Stories.” The atmosphere was
always supportive, non-competitive, and fun.