This year’s Compose conference will feature keynote speaker Stephen Graham Jones and offer workshops on a variety of writing topics such as science-fiction, fairytale, poetry, and comics.
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We’re thrilled to have as our 2025 keynote speaker Stephen Graham Jones, the New York Times-bestselling author of nearly 40 novels, short story collections, novellas and comic books, including “The Only Good Indians,” “My Heart is a Chainsaw,” “Mongrels,” “Earthdivers” and “I was a Teenage Slasher.” Jones is not only one of the most prolific authors in publishing but also among its most decorated. He is a National Endowment for the Arts recipient and has won a wide range of awards for his fiction and graphic novels. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Ever wanted to pick the mind of a great writer? Join us for a panel where Stephen Graham Jones, Rene Denfeld, Terry Blas will talk their craft and accept questions from the audience.
In this workshop we'll learn how to connect with the beauty, magic and joy in life, and bring that into our work. We all need balance in our writing, and even the most serious works can be leavened with beautiful language and observations. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, long form or short, Rene will help you access your inner poet. Her own bestselling books have been described as "thrillers written as poems," and this class will include one of her favorite writing prompts, which is published in Suleika Jaouad's new book The Book of Alchemy.
Dating back to Medieval France, the triolet is a short poem of eight lines with two refrains and two rhymes. Its emphasis on repetition makes it intricate, playful, and melodious. Its first use in the English language as prayer also hints at its emotional force. Come explore the triolet's history and potential. We'll read historical and contemporary triolets and then write some of our own. Bring three lines that interest you, your own or someone else's.
Do you want to work in comics but don't know how to start? Curious about where to begin? Or do you just want to perfect your storytelling and generate more ideas? Author and Illustrator Terry Blas will give you the tools and the information you need to begin crafting your own stories and to expand on them in comic and graphic novel format, forming the beginning of a career as a storyteller.
The blank page can be a daunting obstacle to starting a new writing project, but I've found it helpful (especially when starting novels) to approach it as improvisation, to take some of the pressure of perfection off myself. If you’ve never seen an improv performance, it goes something like this: given a short prompt, like the name of a location and a job title, a group of actors come up with a scene on the fly. Usually they’re going for laughs, but when writing, each scene will have a different goal, both emotionally and plot-wise. And the overall goal is to keep the story going! YES, AND what happens next?
Can revision be more than editing? How can revision be a practice instead of an act? In this playful workshop, we will explore what revision means and engage in some fun "Re-Vision" exercises. Things to bring: 2 copies of a double-spaced, single-page poem, scissors, tape, some blank paper, and a pen!
Each time we approach the blank page or screen, we do so believing that if words are cared for and brooded over, something larger and better will emerge. We believe that the torrent of thought will find expression in something as flimsy as a string of words. What a strange and miraculous magic this is! But what happens when the magic dries up or the story in question feels a little stale? In this generative session we will discuss roadblocks to starting our creative pieces and what we can if we run out of creative “steam” mid-story or mid-project. During this session we will plumb the bright abyss of our creative imaginations as we play in the sandbox and contemplate what wild and astonishing creatures want to emerge. That is to say, we will do some writing, some thinking, some daydreaming, some discussing of creative process.
Lineation is not an accidental gesture. For the poet, whether seasoned or beginning, knowing how and where to end a line can often be mysterious. For readers, it is sometimes considered a matter of whimsy.
Can lineation be an act of rebellion, and if so, against what and whom?
We will consider the poem’s shape, lineation, and what happens when a poet presses against, subverts, or altogether disregards the accepted “rules” of formal lineation as a necessary act of dissent––an act that allows the poem to fall, break open, and breathe across the field of the page. We’ll read some examples of poems together and discuss how poets, particularly those who exist on the edges of society, unwind both form and speaking in terms of language, narrative, and theme. Of course, we will write together, too, experimenting with our own impulse to unwind the line, and ask ourselves, why? Please bring something to write on and with, as well as a favorite poem you have (yours or another’s) that experiments with lineation. Mostly, come to have fun and unwind a bit in the process.
Whether we're writing fantasy, mystery, romance, or literary fiction, compelling characters are at the heart of most great stories. Plots are driven by what characters do (or don’t do). Emotions are filtered straight from our characters’ hearts and minds, and into our readers’. A strong, believable character can transform words on a page into a reader’s friend or foe, and stick with that reader for life. In this generative workshop we will look at examples of compelling characters from a variety of stories, and will discuss the craft elements that lift them off the page and into our world. We’ll build our own characters bit by bit, until we’ve created a person we’ll want to follow into our next great story.
