About:

After submitting your application fee you will receive an email to the address you used when you registered. This email will contain a link to the application form. Click HERE for a visual tutorial of how to apply. 

Description

Intensive writing workshop for writers, scholars, and historians to hone and improve their writing while bringing to fruition a 1) research nonfiction project, defined as biography or profile writing, reportage or immersion journalism, cultural history or archival research writing; 2) historical fiction; or 3) memoir. Preference given to projects involving a person, place, or event in North Dakota or region. Other project subjects and genres considered as space and cohort composition/affinity allow. Two cohorts of 8 writers will be selected via a formal application process. Cohorts will participate in scheduled online workshops, including an orientation day the last Saturday of September, writing workshops every other week from October to March, with a break for December and early January, and a final public reading and individual meeting with assigned mentor.

Incubator Options

Beginner Incubator This incubator will start with a “boot camp” model on writing craft (establishing point of view, form, character development, tense, etc.) and will utilize various exercises and prompts for generating writing. The second half of the incubator is a workshop format where participants will submit writing for critique and feedback, putting into practice what’s been learned in boot camp. The goal here is a full draft of a shorter piece (e.g. essay, short story, chapter) rather than book-length project.

Advanced Incubator Apply to this incubator if you have a start on or idea for a book-length project. Each participant will submit 50 pages of writing for one workshop in the fall and again in spring.

Incubator Instructors

Debra Marquart (Iowa State University) is a memoirist, poet, and singer/songwriter. She is the author of six books including The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere. Marquart’s work has received multiple awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation, and Elle Magazine’s Elle Lettres Award. The Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, Marquart teaches in ISU’s interdisciplinary MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment and in the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Tayo Basquiat (Bismarck State College) is a writer, teacher, adventurer, scavenger, and Wilderness First Responder. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Wyoming, and his work has appeared in Orion Magazine, Intangible, Superstition Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Nasiona, Proximity Magazine, On Second Thought, as producer of Wyoming Public Media’s “Spoken Words” podcast, and elsewhere.

Participant Cost

Application Fee (due with submission of application): $50 (this also makes you a member of HND)

Application is free for members (use membership number at checkout)

Course Fee  $895 (due upon acceptance of offer of admission)

Deadline: Aug. 1, 2021

Incubator Schedule | Activities

Orientation | September 25

Participants and instructors will gather for orientation to meet fellow participants and discuss/workshop the synopses of their research projects.

Online Workshops | October – November Sessions (Wednesdays 7-9 pm CDT, Online)

Online class will meet four times (every two weeks) for two hours each class meeting.

Online Workshop | January – February Sessions (Wednesdays, 7-9 pm CDT, Online)

Online class will meet four times (every two weeks) for two hours each class meeting.

Mentor One-on-One Sessions | March TBD

Page Turner Public Reading | Sunday, April 3

Workshop participants will give short readings from their projects at the public event.

Required Materials

Computer or computer access, Word processing software and reliable internet connection.