We hope you’ll join Boise City Writer-in-Residence Alan Heathcock on May 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Library! at Cole & Ustick for The Five Tenets of Literary Potency: Writing with Authenticity. 

The Five Tenets of Literary Potency is an interactive workshop series that distills everything Alan Heathcock has learned over 30 years of writing, editing, publishing, and teaching. Each session focuses on one of five core principles Alan believes are essential to powerful storytelling.

Through years of studying his own work and mentoring other writers, Alan developed a framework to qualitatively evaluate and strengthen writing across all genres and styles. Through trial and error, inflation and conflation, he arrived at five conceptual truths that apply to all genres and styles of writing and can be used by any writer to evaluate and optimize their work.

Guided by Alan, participants will explore the concept of “authenticity” and how potency in dramatic writing is, in part, derived from being “worthy of belief”.

No registration is required, but space is limited. This workshop is geared toward writers of all levels and genres. As mature content may be discussed, parental discretion is advised for participants under 18. Please bring writing materials, such as a notebook and pen.

Upcoming Workshops

• Writing with Urgency: June 21, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Library! at Hillcrest
• Writing with Meaning: July 19, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Library! at Collister
• Writing with Originality: August 16, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Library! at Bown Crossing

• A Community Reading and Celebration of the Written Word: September 20, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Erma Hayman House 

ABOUT ALAN HEATHCOCK

Alan Heathcock is the author of VOLT (Graywolf Press) and 40 (MCD x FSG). He’s won a Whiting Award, National Magazine Award, and has won fellowships from the N.E.A., Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Lannan Foundation, and has twice been a Literature Fellow for the Idaho Commission on the Arts.

ABOUT THE BOISE CITY WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

Founded in 2023, the Boise City Writer-in-Residence is a collaborative program between the Boise City Department of Arts & History, Boise Public Library, and The Cabin. Funded by the City of Boise, these six-month residencies offer local writers dedicated time and stipend to support their creative practice and connect them to the community through free monthly literary public programs and events. The Boise City Writer-in-Residence call for applications opens annually in the summer.

Image: Alan Heathcock.