Workshops
The Art of Writing
Ages 8-17, 60 minutes, 25 participants
Much like artists take a pencil to paper or paint to canvas—molds clay with a potter’s wheel or bare hands—writers use words and ideas to create stories. In this workshop, students learn where ideas come from, basic story structure, and how to dig into their artist toolkits to create stories that captivate others.
The Art of the Interview
Ages 11- 17, 90 minutes, 25 participants
In this workshop students will learn how news reporters conduct interviews and gather facts to write news and feature stories. Students will learn how to craft questions, conduct interviews, write profiles and feature stories, and share their work with the group.
The Art of Revision
Ages, 8-17, 60 minutes, 25 participants
“There is no such thing as writing, only re-writing.” Some wise person once said that, and it’s true. The writing journey does not end with the first draft. This workshop is meant to be combined or scheduled as a follow-up to The Art of Writing and The Art of the Interview. Students will learn to embrace revision as part of the writing process, not as an exercise in correcting errors of fixing what was “wrong” with their work. Techniques, such as using active verbs and “showing not telling” will be taught to help students edit and strengthen their work.
More Than Two People Talking: What “The West Wing,” “General Hospital,” and “Jane Austen” Can Teach You About Writing Great Dialogue
Ages 13 and up, 60 minutes, 25 participants
Using examples from television, movies, and popular authors, students will learn how to write dialogue that captures a character’s voice while also conveying other elements of the story, such as plot, backstory, setting, and mood.
ABOUT
jen@jendoktorski.com
Jennifer Salvato Doktorski received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Jen grew up in New Jersey (Save the jokes, 9 million people can’t be wrong!), where Sundays were all about reading the comics aloud to anyone who would listen (much to the chagrin of her parents and younger sister) and gathering for early pasta dinners at her grandmother’s house, where the dining room became the stage for her family of storytellers. Her summers were spent “down the shore,” dreaming of a career as a marine biologist while reading books, Sun-In in hair, toes in the sand. Jen doesn’t remember wanting to become a writer when she was pouring over the pages of A Bear Called Paddington, Little Women, a Wrinkle in Time, The Outsiders or Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret but she does recall wanting to be the type of adult who never forgot what it was like to be a kid. She also wanted to make people laugh.
Flashforward to college where she majored in English with a writing concentration at Penn State University, but told anyone who asked she was “prelaw” to pre-empt the inevitable question, “What are you going to do with an English degree?” She found out her junior year when she landed her first paid writing gig at the Herald & News, where she wrote obituaries, developed her lifelong love of coffee and news, and collected enough material for her first novel Famous Last Words, a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year, published by Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt and Co. (BFY) in 2013.
After college, Jen, still in denial about how much she wanted to be an author, was a journalist, public affairs specialist, speechwriter, music zine editor, freelance writer, and bookkeeper at a lampshade factory. It wasn’t until she became a mom that she had the confidence to pursue her latent dream of writing books for young people. So she joined SCBWI and several critique groups, wrote while her daughter slept, and racked up rejections in the double digits before landing an agent.
Her second YA novel How My Summer Went Up in Flames was actually published a few months before her first novel by Simon Pulse. (The publishing world can be a wild ride.) For her third and fourth books YA novels, companion books published by Sourcebooks Fire, Jen channeled her love of sea life, music, and the Jersey Shore. Published in 2015 and reissued in 2024, The Summer After You and Me was YALSA Teens' Top Ten nominee that Kirkus called "A thoughtful tale of forgiveness, growth, and the importance of learning to adapt to changes large and small." Named for one of her favorite albums, August and Everything After was published in 2018 and reissued in 2024. (As of this writing, Jen’s still hoping the Counting Crows will return her emails.)
She’s thrilled that her fifth novel, Finding Normal, has been selected for the 2022 Acheven Book Award and found a home a Fitzroy Books. It will be published on Jan. 21, 2025.
Me at eight, hoping I'd get a letter to Hogwarts some day.
2 Books in 1! Somewhere Summer by Anna Michels and Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
"Morgan Matson meets Kasie West in this perfect summertime read that includes two sizzling romances, 26 Kisses and How My Summer Went up in Flames, in one charming package!"