Writer Workshops
These free writing workshops will take place in the Nick Rahall Room of the Greenbrier Valley Visitors Center.
Looking for writing advice that won’t cost you a dime? Join us for No Tax on Tips, where four award-winning writers share their best insights—completely free of charge. Inspired by Silas House’s workshop, “Everything I Know About Writing,” this panel offers hard-earned wisdom, practical tips, and a few laughs about the joys and struggles of the writing life. Whether you’re stuck on a first draft or fine-tuning a final one, we’ve got advice worth more than its price tag.
Saturday August 8, 2026
9:30am
Fact and Fiction: Balancing Research and Narrative in Historical Fiction with Renée K. Nicholson
Historical fiction lives in the tension between what we know and what we imagine and nowhere is that tension more electric than when your subject spent her entire life actively obscuring the truth. In this workshop, Renée K. Nicholson draws on her experience writing La Modiste, a literary novel told in the first-person voice of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel during the years 1895–1919. Chanel was the original unreliable narrator of her own life, fabricating her origins and rewriting her biography so thoroughly that she might be said to have invented her own mythology. Nicholson explores the craft decisions at the heart of writing novels about real people: what we owe real historical figures, how research becomes story rather than report, and why fiction—precisely because it doesn't claim to be fact—can sometimes tell truer stories than biography.
Saturday August 8, 2026
11am
Writing Fresh, Writing True: How to Make Your Writing Stand-out in a Pile with Anna Dickson James
Featuring
• Timothy G. Huguenin (Unknowing I sink)
• Anna Dickson James (Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down)
• Jason Kapcala (Hungry Town)
• Renée K. Nicholson (Feverdream)
BIO
Timothy G. Huguenin is a hillbilly writer of the strange and spooky, living in the dark Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. His books include WHEN THE WATCHER SHAKES, LITTLE ONE, and UNKNOWING, I SINK. His short stories have appeared in various publications including VASTARIEN: A LITERARY JOURNAL, COSMIC HORROR MONTHLY, and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. Find out more about his work and get a free ebook at https://tghuguenin.com/
BIO
Anna Dickson James has her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and is a professor of English at Garrett College where she teaches Literature and Creative Writing. Her book Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down and Other Stories was published by Whiskey Tit press in 2023, and her most recent novel The Sky King: A Literary Choose Your Own Adventure Novel earned 1st place at WV Writer’s Inc, a finalist place in Santa Fe Writer’s Project annual competition, a semi-finalist in the Ohio State Fiction Prize.
BIO
Jason Kapcala is the author of the novel Hungry Town and the short story collection North to Lakeville. He lives in northern West Virginia along the Monongahela River where he finds inspiration in the frozen industry of Appalachia. For more information, go to www.jasonkapcala.com
BIO
Renée K. Nicholson is a writer whose work spans poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. The author of seven books, her début novel will be published by Type Eighteen Books in 2027. Her most recent poetry collection is Feverdream; her other titles include the memoir-in-essays Fierce and Delicate. Her writing has appeared in over 100 publications, including The Gettysburg Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, and River Teeth. The Series Editor for Connective Tissue on WVU Press, a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a 2026 Artist-in-Residence at the Château d'Orquevaux in France, Renée has a long-standing fascination with stories of resilience and reinvention. In 2024, she left a long career in academia to write full time and lives in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Historical fiction lives in the tension between what we know and what we imagine and nowhere is that tension more electric than when your subject spent her entire life actively obscuring the truth. In this workshop, Renée K. Nicholson draws on her experience writing La Modiste, a literary novel told in the first-person voice of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel during the years 1895–1919. Chanel was the original unreliable narrator of her own life, fabricating her origins and rewriting her biography so thoroughly that she might be said to have invented her own mythology. Nicholson explores the craft decisions at the heart of writing novels about real people: what we owe real historical figures, how research becomes story rather than report, and why fiction—precisely because it doesn't claim to be fact—can sometimes tell truer stories than biography.
Friday August 7, 2026
5pm
“No Tax on Tips: Free Advice from Writers Who’ve Paid Their Dues”
Timothy Huguenin
Jason Kapcala