Writing Workshop in the Barn with "Rural Life" author Verlyn Klinkenborg

On Saturday, October 26, author Verlyn Klinkenborg will lead a day-long writing workshop in a beautiful, rustic barn in Petaluma. His new book on the writing process, "Several Short Sentences about Writing," has been called the “best book on writing ever” by the New York Journal of Books.

Verlyn Klinkenborg describes his writing workshop: “How does an aspiring writer move from a world of myth, rules, and anxiety into a world of assurance and authority? By learning the work that clear, strong sentences do. This is a one-day workshop in making sentences. That may sound like a small, simple subject, but it isn't. It's the basis of good prose and unerring perception, the foundation of a writer's confidence. This is a day-long workshop in sentence-making and all its corollaries: how to read, how to trust your own perceptions, how to find the source of a writer's authority.” $150. No food facilities; bring a brown-bag lunch. Verlyn Klinkenborg’s editorial column “The Rural Life” is one of the most read and beloved in the New York Times. Since 1997, he has written eloquently on every aspect, large and small, of life on his upstate New York farm, including his animals, the weather and landscape, the trials and rewards of physical labor, as well as broader issues about agriculture and land use behind farming today. Klinkenborg’s pieces are admired as much for their poetic writing as for their insight. "More Scenes from the Rural Life" gathers over 150 of Klinkenborg’s best pieces since his last collection, "The Rural Life," was published a decade ago.