Four-Week Travel Writing Workshop with Melissa Hart

Camping on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry

I hope this finds you well!  Just a quick post to let you know that I’ll be offering a four-week workshop titled “Go For It! Travel Writing for Magazines & Newspapers” in late October and early November, in Eugene.  In this lively, focused, two-hour a night class, participants will learn the following:

• How to use your own passions to identify story ideas that make editors salivate
• Travel essays and articles–how to craft them, and why to write both
• Tips and tricks from the most successful travel writers working today
• Best websites for travel writers looking for new and interesting stories
  
• Sidebars–how to research and write them to entice editors and empower readers
  
• How to submit your travel pieces to editors at magazines and newspapers
• How to document your travels through snapshots and publication-quality photography
• How to turn your travel writing into a tax write-off and a platform for your book-length travel memoir or guidebook
  

While we won’t workshop your pieces in class, I’ll invite you to submit one travel article and one travel essay to me for professional editing.  I’ll also give you several suggestions for potential markets, based on my knowledge of the industry.

Swimming, fully-clothed, in Maui

I’ve been teaching travel writing at the University of Oregon for several years, and I teach Memoir Writing for U.C. Berkeley’s online extension program.  I’m a contributing editor at The Writer, and my travel writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Oregonian, Hemispheres, Horizon Air Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, High Country News, The Washington Post, The Register Guard, and the ever-popular Cat Fancy!  This will be a fun, supportive workshop in which you’ll learn a great deal in a relaxed setting.

“Travel Writing for Magazines and Newspapers” takes places Wednesdays from October 26th to November 16th, 6-8 PM, at Tsunami Books in Eugene.  Cost of workshop is $220 for four weeks of instruction plus professional editing of two pieces.  To reserve your spot, e-mail at melissa(at)melissahart(dot)com. 

Questions?  Don’t hesitate to contact me!  Want to see something else on the syllabus?  Just let me know.  Looking forward to seeing you!  Still not convinced that this genre’s for you?  Here–take a look at a few of the travel pieces I’ve written over the past few years:

I'll teach you to spot what's new, what's relevant, and what's downright weird.

• “Avian Outings Abound Near Amsterdam,” from The Boston Globe

• “Rose City high: Looking up to Eugene’s big sister,” from The Register Guard

• “Helping Hands to Injured Birds of Prey,” from The Christian Science Monitor

Travel writing can be lucrative, and it’s always fascinating and fun.  I hope you can join me!

–Melissa

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