Naomi Jackson, author of award-nominated novel The Star Side of Bird Hill, will lead an upcoming workshop at Fresh Milk, St. George, Barbados—Brass Tacks: The Nuts & Bolts of Building a Writing Life. The workshop will take place Saturday, July 16, 2016 from 2:00-5:00pm. See more information below.

Jackson will lead participants in conversations and activities designed to help refine their writing goals, support the creation of productive and satisfying writing lives and address the commercial aspects of breaking into the business.

Some topics to be addressed include:

Setting and achieving goals for your writing

Developing writing routines

Preparing writing submissions (i.e., drafting query letters)

Approaching potential editors, agents, and/or publishers

Building a community of support and trusted readers to advance your work

To register, please send a letter of interest to freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com. This one-page statement must outline your current writing projects, your short and long term writing goals, and why you wish to participate in this programme.

There will be an attendance fee of $15.00 BBD, and spaces will be limited to 12 participants.

Naomi Jackson is the author of The Star Side of Bird Hill, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize as well as the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Jackson studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of residencies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House, Hedgebrook, and the Camargo Foundation. Jackson was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents.

[Photo of Naomi Jackson by Lola Flash.]