Are you determined to finish that novel this year? Or do you need help finding your way through a short story you started?

Then consider applying to the 2019 Annual Fiction Writing Workshop led by Richard Bausch, an award-winning author and professor in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Chapman University. The free community workshop has been a Bausch tradition since the renowned short story writer and novelist joined Chapman in fall 2012.

The workshop is only open to members of the community (not to students at Chapman, who already have many opportunities to take writing classes). "We don't put any limitations on applicants, either by age or by background. Who can tell where the next good writer will come from? A selected participant could be a high school student, unemployed, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a custodian or restaurant worker, a retired person, a truck driver. Frankly, the more diversity in the class, the better." said Bausch. We encourage everyone to apply – so dust off that manuscript you've been working on, or write a new one and submit it.

The competitive application process via manuscript submission is open to anyone who is able to meet in Orange once a week throughout the spring semester. Deadline to apply is Friday, Feb. 1. Applications should be double-spaced pages, prose fiction, up to 10 pages and in Word document format only. PDFs will not be accepted. Include name, phone number and email and submit here: https://web.chapman.edu/WritingWorkshop/  Bausch will personally read and consider all manuscripts and select ten participants for the workshop, who will be notified shortly thereafter.

The workshop will meet Tuesdays, beginning Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at 1888 Center at 115 N. Orange St., Orange.