On-Demand Video Seminar

Any questions about this seminar? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

*This on-demand video course will have an online classroom in Thinkific.

Led by WritingWorkshops.com Founder & Executive Director, Blake Kimzey. His collection of short tales, Families Among Us, was blurbed by Roxane Gay, Ramona Ausubel, and Matt Bell. His work has been adapted for broadcast on NPR and published by Tin House, McSweeney's, Short Fiction, Longform, VICE, and over 60 other literary journals. Blake is a graduate of the MFA Program at UC Irvine and sits on the Board of the Elizabeth George Foundation and received a generous Emerging Writer Grant from the Foundation. He also co-wrote, with Kyle Minor, a dramatic WWII movie about the war-time actions of Polish underground hero Jan Karski, set for production in 2024. Blake has been awarded fellowships to attend the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Vermont Studio Center and a generous grant from Americans for the Arts Foundation. He has taught in the Creative Writing Programs at SMU, UT-Dallas and UC-Irvine. 

In this path-to-publication seminar, Blake walks participants through his journey to publication. They say in order to be universal one must be specific, so Blake shares receipts from his 10+ years of sending work to literary journals, overcoming 900+ rejections, and receiving 10 emails from agents inquiring about his work (screen shots abound!).

You can read about the successes past participants of this seminar have had finding publication here, here, here, & here.

Blake shows participants the importance of perseverance, being findable, and participating in the literary community beyond their own work. Blake screen captures his entire journey, shares best practices, and will hopefully inspire you along the way.

You'll walk away from this seminar inspired to set manageable and reachable goals along with meaningful strategies to get your work out into the world.

This independent study is a good fit for writers who are:

• Interested in submitting their work to literary journals
• Looking to create a more robust writing and submission practice
• Desiring to implement an individual system for their professional development
  

THIS COURSE INCLUDES:

• A 2-hour, in-depth video seminar
• Example Literary Journal Cover Letters + Real Examples
  
• Blake's Query Letter
• A template on how to summarize your story, essay, or book manuscript

TESTIMONIALS:

• "Blake, thank you so much for your super helpful workshop on Publishing in Lit Journals. I just finished watching the recording. I'm so grateful for the frank and honest advice. I've taken part in a number of writing courses and I feel like there is a lot of advice out there that I call "turkey vulture" info—we circle and circle from way up high, but never really get to the dive down and eat part. The information is abstract, like "find literary journals that suit your writing" but doesn't actually give us concrete info like you did. Thank you again!" -Barb S.

• "Thanks for the terrific seminar, Blake. You answered questions I didn’t even know I had. The information you shared cracked the code and gave me a blueprint for next steps. And because you told your story with such generosity of spirit, you gave me the courage to take them. You inspired me to revisit a piece and give it my best rewrite as the writer I am today." -Denise O.

• "Great seminar, Blake. Many workshop speakers just phone it in, or they gloss over their career experiences, but you were very generous and honest about your successes and failures. Thank you!" -Edward I.

• "I really enjoyed your seminar. I learned so much about the submission process. I'm excited about submitting my work to some of the journals you spoke about. Thank you again for a great presentation." -Matthew F.

• "I just wanted to drop a quick note to thank you for the workshop. I found it to be both inspiring and also chock-full of useful, practical advice. That combination was exactly what I needed. The concept that one should shoot for 100 rejections a year is sort of a game-changer in terms of the way I approach submissions.  Thanks again and I definitely plan to sign up for more workshops going forward." -Alison O.

• "Thanks so much for a great workshop, Blake! So inspiring and I got many helpful takeaways I can implement right away." -Lauren D.

• "I enjoyed Blake's genuine & uplifting presentation style. He was very transparent in his publication journey - the highs & lows. I still remember the picture of him working in a restaurant - might have been a Chili's or a Ruby Tuesday's? - dreaming of literary success. It struck a chord as I currently work in a pizza shop as one of my many hustles. So much great information was packed in such a short seminar!" - Justin G.

• "The Publishing in Literary Journals to Launch Your Career class led by Blake Kimzey was fantastic! The main takeaways for me were to have writing goals, don't give up, keep writing, and Submit, Submit, Submit!" - Dario B.
  

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This is an online video class that you can take on-demand. You complete the seminar on your own schedule and have lifetime access. Upon enrollment, you'll receive an invitation to activate your account in Thinkfic, our online platform for video courses.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

You can pay for the course in full or use Affirm or Shop Pay to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. These options are available at checkout.

• Instructor: Blake Kimzey
  

• Class video course starts upon enrollment
  

• Course is fully ONLINE; students can work according to their own schedule
  

• Once you have enrolled, you'll receive an invitation to activate your account in Thinkfic, our online platform for video courses.

Instructor Blake Kimzey founded and directs Writing Workshops & Writing Workshops Paris and is a co-founder of The Big Texas Read. Named one of D Magazine's Artists to Learn From, he is a graduate of the MFA Program at UC Irvine; Blake also sits on the Board of the Elizabeth George Foundation and received a generous Emerging Writer Grant from the Foundation. His fiction has been broadcast on NPR, performed on stage in Los Angeles, and published by Tin House, McSweeney’s, VICE, Longform, Redivider, D Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Green Mountains Review, Short Fiction, FiveChapters, The Lifted Brow, Hobart, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, The Masters Review, Booth, Faultline, FLAUNT Magazine, Malibu Magazine, Day One, PANK, Fiction Southeast, Surreal South '13, and selected by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler for inclusion in The Best Small Fictions 2015. Blake’s collection of short tales, Families Among Us, an Indie Bestseller, was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2014. Blake has been awarded fellowships to attend the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Vermont Studio Center and a generous grant from Americans for the Arts Foundation. He has taught in the Creative Writing Programs at SMU, UT-Dallas and UC-Irvine. Follow him on Twitter @BlakeKimzey, or contact him at blake@writingworkshopsdallas.com.