UTV Master Classes
January 9-24, 2027
Under the Volcano master classes are led by award-winning writers in each genre. A roster of distinguished guests joins our core faculty for selected special events.
While specific master classes differ slightly in format, they share a common goal: to offer highly motivated writers an intensely sympathetic reading of their work,with strategic suggestions for revision.
- All master classes meet three mornings a week unless otherwise indicated.
- Please choose the class that most closely fits your current work. Double registration is not permitted. Choose from the menu below in making your selection.
Fast Track Fiction
with Aysegul Savas
Open to writers of fiction both short and long, this master class offers a select group of novelists or short story writers a probing look at work in progress. Through in-depth reading of select texts, we will consider the many structural elements that make up a work of fiction, building towards a common vocabulary for talking about the foundational aspects of our own works. Our attention will also be directed towards identifying, preserving, and cultivating each work’s unique essence and mystery. Feedback from the entire group will lead to focused suggestions for revision.
The Imagination Unbound
with Sheree Reneé Thomas
Although the narrative of fantastic imagination has always accompanied humanity, from the original creation myths and legends to the most distant dystopias and utopias, its avant garde role in literature has been little recognized. Participants in this fiction master class will explore the vast resources of speculative writing — exploring “what if” and the realms of the fantastic — as powerful tools that make it possible to create with greater freedom.
Distopías, Utopías Y Fantasías
Un taller de creación nueva y puesta en escena de textos anteriores. Para cuentistas y/o novelistas. Este taller ofrecerá a l@s asistentes un espacio en el que puedan conocer, discutir y experimentar con diferentes formas, utilizando los recursos de la ficción para imaginar alternativas a la vida cotidiana “tal como es”, desde el nivel individual de las relaciones interpersonales hasta la creación de sociedades y mundos completamente diferentes al que habitamos.
Poesía
con Ben Clark
Este taller está diseñado para formarnos como escritores, pero también, y, sobre todo, como lectores atent@s de poesía. Trabajando desde nuestros propios textos, plantearemos algunas de las claves para escribir poemas y para disfrutar más de su lectura. Trabajaremos desde la teoría, pero buscando siempre una representación práctica en los trabajos de l@s participantes del taller.
Poetry
with Kwame Dawes
Part seminar, part workshop, this master class is intended for advanced participants with work ready to share and who are ready to generate more in a spirit of generous collective critique. Please note that all six group sessions and individual conferences will be held daily during the first program week. The second week is conceived as a dedicated residency to allow participants to focus on new work or revision.
Writing Of Witness
with Jennifer Clement
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you – Zora Neale Hurston
The true story is the heart of the law, and it is also the heart of literature. Both as a tool to uncover or disclose events that may lead to understanding, Writing of Witness also serves literature, as it can include imagining, wishing and prediction.
Open to writers with projects ranging from memoir to autobiography to texts that defy easy categorization, Writing of Witness is an invitation to pursue the truth in a voice more subjective than journalism but just as committed to revealing the stories of our time.
Escritura y testimonio
con Vicente Alfonso
Para escritores con proyectos que nacen de la experiencia personal, con un alcance que llega a tocar los temas sociales implicados. Estos textos, generosos por la libertad que permiten desde la escritura, suelen combinar la creación, la opinión personal, pero sobre todo la sensibilidad y las ganas de transmitir tanto ideas e información como emociones. La profundidad puede expresarse de manera breve, clara, entretenida y sugerente. El secreto consiste en encontrar los caminos adecuados para ir entretejiendo el adentro con el afuera, la sensibilidad propia con el mundo externo.
Manuscript Clinic
with Reyna Grande
An intimate workshop for advanced writers with manuscripts ready for a deep critique, primarily one-on-one. The pace is fast, the expectations high, and the results likely to transform your writing life. Open to both fiction and non-fiction writers.
Clínica de Manuscritos
con Socorro Venegas
Un taller íntimo para escritores avanzados con libros de ficción o no-ficción en puerta, con una lectura a fondo mayormente a través de consultas individuales. Nuestro enfoque será excavar el corazón de cada texto, prestando atención a la voz y el estilo únicos de cada participante, y examinar los diversos estratos que forman los mundos de la obra, desde los elementos estructurales hasta el encantamiento y el asombro. También se ofrecerán perspectivas sobre el mundo editorial y sus costumbres, condiciones y predilecciones.
Investigative Journalism Lab
with Ricardo Sandoval & Susan Ferris
Open to early or mid-career journalists with a passion for the stories behind and beyond the headlines, this team-taught bilingual master class sets a fast pace and high expectations for ten participants from both sides of the border. With world-class mentoring in both Spanish and English, coaching from award-winning guest reporters and hands-on training in OSINT and digital security, participants will brainstorm and develop cutting edge individual projects aimed at reaching the widest audience possible.
Confirmed guest faculty for this masterclass include Garance Burke, Homero Campa, Alfredo Corchado, Steve Fisher and Gisela Pérez de Acha
Testimonials
I have never felt so supported to achieve what I want. I “leave” this experience with my heart filled with joy, with my brain like a Christmas tree, full of new ideas, and with a sense that I have finally met my tribe.
“UTV is more than a learning experience set against a powerful landscape… it offers a mental space for creativity.”
“UTV is the perfect getaway for writers looking to build community, participate in cross-cultural exchange, and find time and space to work on their craft.”
