In this class, award-winning author Ying Compestine will introduce you to the different genres of children’s books: picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and young adult. You will learn the basic skill of writing and publishing books for children as well as how to find a good agent, creating a winning book proposal, selling your manuscript to a reputable publisher, and marketing your book.

Billy Collins is an American phenomenon—no poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. Join him for this live, three-hour poetry session in which he'll pull from decades as a literature and poetry professor and tackle many of the enduring questions around how to create and write poetry.

In this class, award-winning author Ying Compestine will share with you her processes of editing her own bestselling books. You will learn how to build a story arc, create memorable characters and vivid settings, and make every word count. She will also take you through the process of how to get your book published, and finding a good agent and a publisher.

The Lone Star State has some of the most outstanding art museums in our country. We will look at highlights from the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Menil Collection, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Meadows Museum, the Kimbell Museum, the Amon Carter Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the McNay Museum, and the Alamo Mission.

Five Ways In to Character is a unique, five-part technique for creating characters on the page and in performance. Synthesized by Julia McNeal, and honed over the last 15 years, this technique has never failed to deepen, clarify, and improve the character creation of all who apply it. The first of the Five Ways, “Way One,” introduces the first of the “Outside-In” approaches of the technique.

Five Ways In to Character is a unique, five-part technique for creating characters on the page and in performance. Synthesized by Julia McNeal, and honed over the last 15 years, this technique has never failed to deepen, clarify, and improve the character creation of all who apply it. Way Two completes the “Outside-In” work of the technique — focusing on gender; and Way Three is the deep core of the technique: the Inside-Out work that opens the door to any character’s truest being and unique nature.

Five Ways In to Character is a unique, five-part technique for creating characters on the page and in performance. Synthesized by Julia McNeal, and honed over the last 15 years, this technique has never failed to deepen, clarify, and improve the character creation of all who apply it. Ways Four and Five are both Inside-Out work (starting with the inner world of a character, and discovering how that manifests outwardly).

This class is designed to help writers improve their chance of getting their memoir, novel, or nonfiction book considered for publication by a reputable literary agent or publisher. The three hour course will cover topics including how to identify the right agent, editor or publisher, and what they look for in submissions; how to write a query letter; what a standard industry book contract looks like, and more.