Your Words Will Surprise You with BettyJoyce Nash

Join writer BettyJoyce Nash for an online writing session open to writers of all levels. Participants will “warm up” with prompts — words or sentences designed to free writers from common what should I write fears or self-conscious dilemmas. The idea is to keep pens moving, and tap the unconscious mind. New and experienced writers often surprise themselves with the words that emerge. Writers will read aloud so we participants can share what we “hear” in the pieces. No critiques, only reactions.

From BettyJoyce: “I’ve led or participated in such sessions since I took my first fiction workshop in 1999. My words still surprise me when I write. I maintain a positive and supportive environment so writers feel comfortable and free to write whatever comes to mind. Beginning and veteran writers find these sessions invaluable. We start by introducing ourselves and state what we hope to gain during our time together. We’ll write and discuss for an hour, break for 5-10 minutes, and reconvene for more writing.”

Class meets online, Thursday, October 24, 6 – 8 pm Central time. A link to join the session within 24 hours of the start time.

Class size: Minimum 5, maximum 15.

Member discount: Members of Write On receive a 10% discount on all classes and workshops. To become a member, please click here. To receive the discount, members must log in to the website using their unique password and enter member10 in the promotion code box. The code is case sensitive.

Teaching Artist

BettyJoyce Nash’s recent novel, Everybody Here is Kin (Madville Publishing, 2023), was a runner-up for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award. Her essays, articles, and stories have aired on the NPR-affliate WVTF and have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, North Dakota Quarterly, Reckon Review, Across the Margin, Broad River Review, Writer’s Digest, and Publisher’s Weekly. In 2015, she won the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Prize. She co-edited Lock & Load: Armed Fiction, a collection of literary short stories that probe America’s complicated relationships to firearms (University of New Mexico Press, 2017). Her fiction has been recognized with fellowships from Wildacres; Write On, Door County; MacDowell; The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; VCCA-France; The Ragdale Foundation; the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland; and the Weymouth Center. She earned an MSJ with distinction from Northwestern’s Medill Journalism School and her MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte. She teaches fiction at WriterHouse in Charlottesville. She has also taught writinng at the University of Richmond and the Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.