When Words Collide 2026

***Please note that Masterclasses are add-ons that require pre-registration and a separate payment. Masterclasses are only available to Festival Passholders. Adding to your SCHED schedule does not mean you are registered for the class.***
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Writing feedback is hard to come by and can be rated on a scale between encouraging and soul-crushing. Critical feedback, the kind that pushes you to dig deeper into a piece you just poured your heart and soul into, can feel the worst. It can make you question your skills, your purpose, and your relationship with the reader who dared to tell you what they thought. It’s natural for defenses to go up, to assume the reader misunderstands your writerly purpose or fails to appreciate your creative endeavors. But what if you could accept or even appreciate the kind of feedback that makes your stomach turn? 

What if you can learn to value the discomfort of receiving notes that leaves you feeling awful? Clarifying the role of feedback in your writing process and a developing a method to ask for and receive notes on your work can help. Preparing yourself for how to use feedback to improve your writing can make you a better writer and preserve a few relationships along the way.

In this seminar, two writers share strategies for surviving and thriving when feedback hits hard.