Aurora Writers Workshop Honing Craft, Connecting Writers
Our Past Faculty/Courses and Keynote Speakers
2026 Keynote Speaker: Marcy Rae Henry
Marcy Rae Henry read from her poetry, nonfiction and fiction to give us a taste of all her writing. In her talk on "Why Write" she spoke of writing as a bridge to oral traditions and a key to how we process our Self. As a Xicana artist from the Borderlands of Texas, and as a Buddhist familiar with many spiritual borders, she called on us to remember that the personal is political and that we write to forget as much as we write to remember.
2026 Fiction Faculty: Sidney Cass
" The Possibilities of Grief in Fiction" drew from a range of examples from Carmen Maria Machado to Stuart Dybek and numerous writing prompts, we’ll play with language, magic, and structure. Sidney asked: How can we describe grief in a way that honors its complexity? What can grief teach us about place and power in our stories? How can sorrow be a rich soil from which innovation and even joy can spring? How do we care for ourselves when our grief fictions hit too close to home? How can writing grief be a form of resistance in a world that says ‘move on already’?
2026 Poetry Faculty: Faisal Mohyuddin
"When , How and Why to Break the Rules: Poetry as Resistance, Rebellion and Reclaimation" explored how poets have always been rebels. As part of their rebellious nature, poets are eager to push against rules of language, discourse, and form. Starting with a formal study of some forms, we'll explore breaking the rules of form with purpose -- to free and empower ourselves and find new, inclusive ways of being true-to-ourselves poets.
2025 Keynote Speaker: Ruben Quesada
After reading from his book "Brutal Companion" and tailored his talk to Aurora's history as the first electrified city in Illinios, saying that each of as writers lights up darkness, that "each sentence is a match." He reminded us there are four reasons to write: to remember, to discover, to connect, and to transform.
2025 Fiction Faculty: Kathleen Rooney
"Flash in the Pan: What Every Writer Can Learn from Very Short Fiction" was a course about writing flash fiction. Kathleen had participants read samples and spend time writing, from crafting plot to titles.
2025 Poetry Faculty: Allison Joseph
"The Code to the Ode" was a course dedicated to one of the oldest poetic forms, but Allison made it modern. Students read all sorts of odes, and then wrote from prompts with Allison's guideance.
2024 Keynote Speaker: Sidney M. Cass
Meg read from her book "ActivAmerica" and spoke about why writing is important to them. They answered questions about writing and publishing, the challenges and ins and outs, and especially why they are moved tow rite short fiction.
2024 Fiction Faculty: Ananda Lima
Ananda's course "Seeing Things and Keeping It Real" was all about details, and how writers need to pay attention to all the little things around them in real life, bringing that focus into their own writing so readers really believe and immerse themselves in the story.
2024 Poetry Faculty: Donna Vorreyer
"Silly Love Songs: Poems that Celebrate What We Love" was a course all about how to approach love poems of all kinds, from love of commonplace objects to those closest to us. She introduced students to the form of the Golden Shovel and pushed students to approach love poems from differnt angles.