David Biespiel

Portland, Oregon, United States

Attic Institute

Request a Meeting

$126/hour

Available for:
Video Call
In Person

Writing is the art I do. It's as much a compulsion as it is an attitude, a career, and lifestyle, a way of being. I chose to be a writer to find out why I want to be a writer. Still working on that. And, that's the beauty of it.

I run the Attic Institute. We work with nearly 1,000 writers a year in classes and workshops, one-on-one coaching and editing. I’ve been a full time writer since 1999. For me, writing comes from an intrinsic compulsion to create. I have that compulsion in spades. I crave the autonomy. I breathe the creativity. Getting published is a natural consequence.

Here’s a bit of what we’ll cover in our PivotPlanet sessions:
1. Strategies to get published -- magazines, agents, presses.
2. Strategies to organize your life around writing more.
3. Connections to editors, book doctors, and writing coaches.
4. How to write better -- from better fictional or autobiographical scene-making to better poems and screenplays.
5. Demystifying the world of writing and publishing.

MORE

There are many reasons to become a writer -- thrill of language, interest in publication, reaching out to others, exploring the inner life. Each one of these -- and so many other reasons -- is difficult to achieve. And yet. And yet. That's why we write. To achieve. To report. To communicate and explore and investigate and connect. The reward is in the challenge.

Being a writer allows me to have an impact on the world and to make a record of my interior mind and life. As most writers will tell you, it's the hardest job we've ever loved.

For my writing, I've been fortunate to receive a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, the Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry from Stanford University, and other literary and book awards. I've served on judging panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the National Book Critics Circle.

To be a writer is to stay alert to the exterior events of the world and to connect that to the inner life. 24/7. There is no typical day. Some days you write all day. Other days you stare out the window and...think, imagine, invent.

I love working with writers of all levels and I’d like to show you that organizing your life around writing is a change for the better. For you. And, for the world. And it's worth every minute.

Request a Meeting

$126/hour

Available for:
Video Call
In Person

Interests:

poet, be a poet, become a poet, be a writer, become a writer, freelance, free-lance, poetry, writing workshop, communications, research, academia, university, be a professor, professor, portland, oregon, oregon state university, wake forest, fiction, non fiction, writing strategy, editing, biography, autobiography, agent, writing coach, publishing, publishers, seattle, washington, new york, manhattan, book cover, title, media, PR, writer, editor, marketing