Aurora Writers Workshop Honing Craft, Connecting Writers
Our Past Faculty/Courses and Keynote Speakers
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 thhttps://websites.godaddy.com/past-faculty-and-keynotese 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: Meg 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.