In this class, John will teach you how to write a concise, interesting, one-page synopsis of your novel or non-fiction book and how to compose a pitch-perfect query letter that will attract the attention of an agent. Students will also walk away with the following:

- The elements of a good synopsis

- The tools necessary to write a successful query letter

- An understanding of what agents are looking for in the synopsis and query

- Insights into how the synopsis and query can help you develop, edit, and polish your manuscript

     John Pipkin's first novel, 

Woodsburner, was published to national acclaim by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in April 2009. Woodsburner won the New York Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Massachusetts Center for the Book Novel Prize, and the Texas Institute of Letters Stephen Turner Prize for First Novel. John was the Dobie Paisano Fellow for the spring of 2011, and is currently the Writer-in-Residence at Southwestern University, where he teaches creative writing and 19th-century British Literature. He also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. His new novel is under contract at Bloomsbury Press.