The Florida Book Review
  • Home
  • Miami Book Fair 2022
  • Classic Florida Reads
  • Feature: Elizabeth Bishop
  • Feature: Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Feature: Jack Kerouac
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Crime Writing
  • Florida SF/Fantasy
  • Young Adult
  • Children
  • Tales & Legends
  • Nonfiction
  • Florida History
  • Nature and Environment
  • Florida Sports
  • Florida Politics
  • Food & Drink
  • Travel
  • Music, Arts, & Architecture
  • Past Features
    • Zora Neale Hurston
    • Stephen Crane
    • John D. MacDonald
    • José Martí
    • Vivian Laramore Rader
    • Wallace Stevens
    • Dan Wakefield
    • Tennessee Williams
  • Past Events
    • Miami Book Fair 2021
    • Miami Book Fair Online 2020
    • Miami Book Fair 2019
    • Miami Book Fair 2018
    • Miami Book Fair 2017
    • Miami Book Fair 2016
    • O, Miami 2016
    • Miami Book Fair 2015
    • Miami Book Fair 2014
  • Florida Presses & Journals
  • Blog
  • About Us

MDC's First Draft Combines Writing Workshop & Happy Hour

4/22/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Nick Garnett leads First Draft writers at The Butcher Shop. (Photo, Miami Center for Writing and Literature)
     By the time I finished writing my first prompt presented by First Draft’s host, Nicholas Garnett, I was more confident by the end of the night I would have at least a rough sketch for a short story.
    Even better, the theme of the night was murder & mayhem, most appropriately taking place at The Butcher Shop, a restaurant and beer garden in Wynwood.
    Spearheaded by The Center for Writing and Literature at Miami Dade College, First Draft was begun last summer by The Center’s program coordinator Nicole Swift as a way to reach out to Miami’s writing community. Swift said, “The idea of First Draft is community. And we thought about how can we make writing fun?”
    And why wouldn’t First Draft be fun? Imagine your favorite creative writing class taking place at a restaurant that serves great sangria.
    In between laughing because you’re having a great time, you discuss Alfred Hitchcock and the best techniques for creating suspense with local authors like Nicholas Garnett.  
    Sure, prompts and exercises are given throughout the workshop. But the whole point of First Draft is to gain better writing skills while being entertained.
    “We wanted to create an event that takes the anxiety away from writing workshops,” said Swift. 
    Every month First Draft has a larger attendance with a new themed workshop, with many regulars returning. To celebrate National Poetry Month, First Draft’s workshop on April 9th was dedicated to poetry.
    In early May, First Draft’s will have two workshops, each at the new Books & Books Bookstore and Cafe at Arsht Center. On May 5th, 7-9 PM,  there will be First Draft ¡en español! with a theme of Obsesiones. May 7th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM novelist Anjanette Delgado will  theme is “changes.” Check out The Center’s website for more information and to RSVP.

        —Jeffrey Fernandez


2 Comments
    Picture
    Please support your local independent bookstore.

    The FBR Blog


    Follow @FloridaBkReview
    Follow us on Facebook.

    Archives

    May 2021
    March 2018
    February 2018
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Please note: Since our webite move in 2015 we have archived older blog posts.

    Categories

    All
    Books And Books
    Chldren's Books
    Cookbooks
    Crime Writing
    Denise Duhamel
    Ed Irvin
    Fabienne Josaphat
    Fiction
    Florida Book Awards
    Florida International University
    James O. Born
    James Patterson
    James W. Hall
    Jazz
    Jeffrey Fernandez
    John Dufresne
    Julie Marie Wade
    Les Standiford
    Lynne Barrett
    Miami
    Miami Center For Writing And Literature
    Murder On The Beach
    Nina Romano
    Olympia Theater
    Poetry
    Shakespeare
    Sleuthfest
    Tim Dorsey
    Vero Beach Book Center
    Victoria Kann

    RSS Feed

The Florida Book Review — Miami, Florida
© Copyright The Florida Book Review 2007-2022