Ryan G. Van Cleave to speak at Sarasota Fiction Writers meeting

Ryan G. Van Cleave is the head of the Creative Writing program at Ringling College of Art + Design. He will speak to the Sarasota Fiction Writers on Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at Selby Library about Scenes and Scene Sequels. Understanding how scenes work is a must for any storyteller. Understanding how scenes work in relation to each other? That’s where great stories are made.

Van Cleave is also a keynote speaker, freelance writer and writing coach. He’s taught writing and literature at Clemson University, Eckerd College, Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, as well as at prisons, community centers and urban at-risk youth facilities.

Honors awarded Van Cleave include a Gold Medal in Young Adult Literature from the Florida Book Awards, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship and a residency at The Hermitage Artist Retreat. He was also a Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at George Washington University, an Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellow at Florida State University and the only Anastasia C. Hoffman Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Creative Writing.

Van Cleave is an Amazon bestselling author or co-author of 20 books, and his poetry, fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Clean Eating, Harvard Review, The Missouri Review, National Geographic Adventures, The New York Times Review of Books, Ploughshares, The Progressive, Psychology Today, Scott Stamp Monthly and Writers’ Journal.

His work has also been featured in such books as “Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry,” “The 15^th Annual Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror,” “Never Before: Poems About First Experiences” and “In a Fine Frenzy: Poetry Inspired by Shakespeare.”

The Sarasota Fiction Writers meeting is free and open to the public.