Writing Workshops Dublin
“Writing Workshops Dublin with Amber Sparks, Ethan Joella, and Elissa Bassist brings together fiction and nonfiction writers for an intensive week of workshops, craft seminars, one-on-one conferences, and in-depth discussions on the craft and business of writing. Our program is intentionally small and will take place in the heart of literary Dublin.
Each fiction and nonfiction workshop will have no more than 10 participants each. All writers will submit two completed pieces of writing. One submission will be workshopped by your cohort and instructor and a second piece will be submitted for your one-on-one meeting with your workshop leader. Daily craft talks are open to all participants and led by program staff or faculty.
Our workshops are open to writers who want to strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of craft, and forge a path to publication along the way. We take your writing seriously and place the highest importance on teaching the craft of writing so that students can produce meaningful and memorable work that has the opportunity to find a readership beyond the workshop.
Our mission is to bring your writing out of the wilderness and into community, and for a week every April we think there is no better place for our workshop retreat than on Ireland’s east coast at the mouth of the River Liffey.”
Selling Your Book: The Query Letter, Elevator Pitch, and More
Lighthouse Writers Workshop Lit Fest 2024 panel with Rachel Werner, Jan Thomas, Anna Qu, Sarah Gerard, and me.
How do we turn the labors of our hearts into something that can be bought and sold? What happens when the book you've written isn't quite the book you can sell? How do you manage suggestions—in both fiction and nonfiction—that fly in the face of your original draft? Join publishing professionals and writers as they discuss the tools you need for submission (query, proposal, pitch), how to be successful in a competitive marketplace, and tips and tricks to cut down on rejections and make your work stand out. BYOB. Register here.
2024 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop
SOLD OUT. SORRY. Join the waitlist.
I’ll teach two sessions of “Writing Funny Personal Essays”:
Why do you laugh when you read? Because you relate? Because you’re surprised? Because life is an absurd farce? In this session, you’ll learn what every funny personal essay needs in order to write, publish, and promote your own. We’ll analyze funny personal essays by our favorites to use their tricks, and you'll brainstorm what’s unusual and universal in your situations to carve out your stories. We’ll also gossip about pitching, publication hacks, and all my exes.
"Speak Up and Find Your Voice"
This talk is for every woman who has been called “crazy” for expressing an opinion or experiencing emotion or illness.
Hysterical: A Panel on Humor Writing
You’re invited to this panel of professional humor & satire writers and editors who will demystify how to be funny in prose, online, and at parties. Panelists Emma Allen (The New Yorker editor), Sofia Manfredi (Last Week Tonight, Patriot Act, Clickhole), and Sarah Pappalardo (Reductress co-founder and editor) have done it all: published viral pieces, published full-length books, founded impressive humor & satire sites, written jokes for TV, and edited or subscribed to The New Yorker--and they want to tell you how.
Lillian Stone's EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE Book Release Party
The rumor is there will be music, drinks, and comedy from “numerous geniuses.” There will also be a costume competition for “most deranged Y2K outfit” that I’ve already won in my mind. With Cara Michelle Smith, Jiji Lee, Patty Terhune, Rima Parika, and Ron Metellus!!!!!!!! Tickets here.
How to Publish a Tragicomic Memoir: A Short Seminar
In another life-changing craft talk, I will reveal how I sold my tragicomic memoir and how you can, too.
Writing and publishing are two different jobs, and in part two, we’ll focus on the latter. There will be real-talk about queries, proposals, blurbs, platform (and the many, many ways to build one), and how finding an agent and an editor is like dating. What should you ask/tell yourself before/during/after publishing your work to acclaim or silence? I will tell all. I will also normalize rejection, give pep talks to anyone who asks, and answer any question, no matter how stupid.
This is a live, virtual course. Your purchase of this course includes interactive opportunities and unlimited, permanent access to recordings of each session.
Register here.
HYSTERICAL WOMEN VARIETY SHOW
Everyone's invited to this Hysterical Women Variety Show! With readings, stand-up, and psycho-babble by me, Emily Flake (The New Yorker), Taylor Kay Phillips (Last Week Tonight), Miriam Jayaratna (Reductress), Stephanie Foo (What My Bones Know), Nina Sharma (Not Your Biwi), and Christi Chiello (The LaughtHER Collective). $0.
How To Write a Memoir: A Craft Talk with Elissa Bassist
What goes into writing a full-length book about yourself? How does a memoir transcend the self? How can a memoir make you laugh while RIPPING YOU APART? In this life-changing craft talk, author Elissa Bassist will reveal how she did it and how you can too, from recyclable early drafts to book proposal to revised book proposal to published book.
Bassist will give you her insights, secrets, and instructions on the "rule of three." She'll show you her notebooks and pens, along with feedback and rejections she received. She'll share her mirror pep-talks and will weigh the pros and cons of panic attacks. And she'll gossip about her research process and her revision process and how to keep going during the “I quit” episodes of a years’ long creative/emotional/spiritual/therapeutic/triggering “journey.”
This craft talk takes after Bassist’s Hysterical.
This is a live, virtual course hosted by Roundtable, which includes interactive opportunities and post-course recordings available for all course participants. Buy tickets.
HYSTERICAL WOMEN: Readings, Jokes, and Light Witchcraft
Women are great every month, but since it's Women's History Month, let's celebrate. Join us for a night of funny, emotional, loud-mouthed novelists, poets, memoirists, and illustrators reading from their new books: A.M. Homes (The Unfolding), Jennifer Michael Hecht (The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives), Melissa Lozada-Oliva (Dreaming of You, CANDELARIA), Ali Solomon (I Love-ish New York City), and Elissa Bassist (Hysterical) and Stephanie Foo (What My Bones Know). There will also be a Q & A and maybe a seance.
Writers Weekend 2023
“Augusta University's English and World Languages Department has a long history of hosting award winning authors and performers. Writers Weekend, a conference for readers and writers, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and we are delighted to host our first in-person programming since early 2020. This year's theme is "Laughter as Medicine," and will feature visiting writers Elissa Bassist and Chris Belden.”
Events below are free and open to the public.
March 16th, 7:00 PM
Reading, Conversation, Book Signing with Elissa Bassist & Chris Belden
Columbia County Library, 7022 Evans Town Center Blvd., Evans, GA 30809
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March 17th, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Workshop: "Humor Writing for People Who Are or Aren't Funny (Yet)"
University Hall, Room 170, Augusta University Summerville Campus, 2500 Walton Way, Augusta, GA 30904
The Book Tavern will be selling copies of Hysterical at the workshop session.
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March 17th, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
A Competitive Reading of Poetry and Prose
Readers: Ashley Beresch, Evelyn Berry, Vanessa Harris, and Danté Stewart. Judges: Elissa Bassist, Chris Belden, and Latria Graham.
The Doris Building, 930 Broad St., Augusta, GA 30901
California Institute of Integral Studies
6pm PST in person, and live-streamed here. I'll be "in conversation" with novelist, professor, and genius Carolyn Cooke. We'll discuss everything.
Rally Reading Series
This time it’s political. With Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Hugh Ryan, and Elissa Bassist (me). Facebook can tell you more. Also www.rallyreadingseries.com.
Reading at Left Bank Books
Join me for a night of witcraft and wizardry. Every Wash U student, past and present, is invited. Please RSVP.
Reading at Lighthouse Writers Workshop
“Join us for a writerly night in which attendees are encouraged to independently write 500 words in the first hour and then join us for a book release celebration for Elissa Bassist's memoir Hysterical. This event is free for current Lighthouse members, and guests are welcome to join for a $5 fee.” RSVP to attend.
4:30–5:30PM: Write.
5:30–6:30PM: Be read to by me, and enjoy my conversation with my sixth-grade teacher and author Ms. Judith Gelt. Audience AMA and dance-off to follow.
Reading at Tattered Cover
“Tattered Cover is pleased to welcome Elissa Bassist to our Colfax location on November 2nd at 6pm. She will be celebrating the release of her memoir Hysterical! There will be a reading, Q&A, and signing. This event is free and open to the public.”
Reading and Conversation at The Booksmith
I’ll be “in conversation” with Tracy Clark-Flory, author of Want Me: A Sex Writer’s Journey into the Heart of Desire.
Franklin Park Reading Series
Debut Author Showcase, featuring Hua Hsu (Stay True), Zain Khalid (Brother Alive), Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could Be Different), Elissa Bassist (Hysterical), and Hila Ratzabi (There Are Still Woods).
Free Admission, happy hour specials + a book raffle.
Books will be available for purchase through Unnameable Books.
Hosted by Penina Roth.
Generation Women: Storytelling
MY ALTER EGO: STORIES OF A DOUBLE LIFE
Generation Women is a multigenerational storytelling night that invites a woman or non-binary performer in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s+ to share an original true story on a theme.
Doors 6:30 PM.
Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends Event: The Rumpus Presents Funny Women
The Rumpus celebrates its long-running "Funny Women" column and first-ever IRL Book Club event!
Readings by the column's editor, Elissa Bassist (author of our Book Club pick Hysterical), and a few of our favorite contributors, including Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties), Mia Mercado (She's Nice Though), and Katie Heaney (Girl Crushed).
This event is free for current Rumpus Book Club Members or $5 (redeemable voucher) for non-members.
Reading and Conversation at Vroman's
I’ll read and talk about my book with a surprise someone you’ll love. More info here.
NYC Book Launch
You’re invited to my book party! There will be a life-changing reading, an intense conversation with Caitlin Kunkel (New Erotica for Feminists), an AMA with the audience, a soft dance party, a possible séance, and a guarantee to be home by 10pm. Drink and book purchases encouraged. More info.
BK Book Launch
Please come for a reading, a conversation with Jen Spyra (Big Time, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, The Onion), an AMA, a dance-off, photo booths, and some light witchcraft. Drink and book purchases encouraged.
Red Ink: Avoidance
Red Ink: Avoidance
Featuring Elissa Bassist, Sari Botton, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Kayla Maiuri, Sarah Thankam Mathews, and moderated by Michele Filgate