{"id":77121,"date":"2026-03-02T08:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77121"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:42:23","slug":"free-writing-workshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/free-writing-workshops\/","title":{"rendered":"Free writing workshops open the door to every story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever dreamed of\u00a0writing\u00a0a book, polishing a poem, sharpening your reporting\u00a0skills\u00a0or simply learning how to turn a scattered idea into a compelling story? A series of free\u00a0monthly\u00a0writing workshops hosted by\u00a0NAU\u2019s\u00a0Thin Air\u00a0Magazine might help you do just that.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The literary magazine run by creative writing master\u2019s\u00a0students has been hosting writing workshops since\u00a0May\u00a02025. Their goal: to\u00a0provide\u00a0a space where students, faculty,\u00a0staff\u00a0and community members can get together, practice writing and learn new skills with different themes,\u00a0guests\u00a0and locations in Flagstaff.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Danielle\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Hedquist<\/span><\/b>, a creative writing master’s student\u00a0and\u00a0community\u00a0director\u00a0at Thin\u00a0Air,\u00a0said the workshops are designed for anyone eager to grow on the page.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur\u00a0last workshop\u00a0was on comedy writing through improvisation, led by local improv performer and artist Bryan Cooperrider at the Beaver Street\u00a0Theater,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>said Hedquist<\/span>. \u201cIt was\u00a0a great time!\u00a0Bryan led us through some improv exercises that\u00a0had\u00a0us think about ways that we discover characters,\u00a0backstories\u00a0and\u00a0plot\u00a0in our writing. We discussed the element of surprise both in performance and in writing to create intrigue in our stories. In between improv activities, the workshop participants had time to write in response to them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Keegan Grau<\/span><\/b>, a physics senior, attended the workshop and said it was a fascinating and fun way to learn how to apply improvisation knowledge to his writing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The workshops run for about two hours. Hedquist said that people take away different approaches to creative writing based on the different prompts and exercises they work on.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had very informative workshops,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWe had a developmental editor give a talk on what developmental editing is and what that could look like as a career path for people interested in editing or what that looks like for people who are trying to get their work published but need some extra help. We try to cover a lot of themes to help writers break patterns of thinking and help them generate\u00a0new ideas.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next workshop\u00a0on nature writing\u00a0is\u00a0scheduled\u00a04:30-6:30\u00a0p.m.\u00a0on March 31,\u00a0(location\u00a0TBD)\u00a0with\u00a0science writer\u00a0<\/span>Melissa Sevigny<\/span><\/a>. Two workshops are scheduled for\u00a0April;\u00a0the first one will cover\u00a0comics and will be hosted by\u00a0<\/span>Geetha Iyer<\/span><\/b><\/a>, assistant professor at the English Department\u00a0(date and location TBD).\u00a0The second, a workshop on the science of storytelling,\u00a0will be hosted\u00a0by\u00a0Mare Schumacher\u00a0from 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 28, at\u00a0Lowell Observatory.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get the word out because we\u00a0would\u00a0love for\u00a0more people to attend and learn about Thin Air and just have fun with creative writing,\u201d\u00a0Hedquist\u00a0said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information about\u00a0the magazine and\u00a0its\u00a0workshops, please visit\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Thin\u00a0Air\u00a0website.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever dreamed of\u00a0writing\u00a0a book, polishing a poem, sharpening your reporting\u00a0skills\u00a0or simply learning how to turn a scattered idea into a compelling story? A series of free\u00a0monthly\u00a0writing workshops hosted by\u00a0NAU\u2019s\u00a0Thin Air\u00a0Magazine might help you do just that.\u00a0 The literary magazine run by creative writing master\u2019s\u00a0students has been hosting writing workshops since\u00a0May\u00a02025. Their goal: to\u00a0provide\u00a0a…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":77122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1829],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-student-edition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}