Whale Rock Workshops is a community of kidlit authors (aspiring and published) designed to help you get your best work done. We cherish, honor and protect each artist’s unique attributes and voice. We create an environment that facilitates writing and is productive and effective through workshops, retreats and online resources. We curate experts from the publishing world to nurture our students. We celebrate each other’s successes and support each other through the disappointments of our fickle industry. We strive to make all Whale Rock students feel safe and cared for regardless of race, religion, sexual or gender orientation. Students are mentored by master-level instructors and by Whale Rock staff who are committed to helping students do their best work without injecting their own points-of-view or biases.
We believe great teachers change lives.
Shari Becker, Whale Rock Workshops Founder
A Note From Our Company Founder
Our company began with a dream. Patricia Lee Gauch wanted to run a workshop with Gary Schmidt. The two of them shared a vision for how they wanted to teach writing, but they wanted someone to manage the process. That’s where I came in. The event was a huge success, and our students wanted to register again. We had no idea that first workshop would become the corner stone of what is now Whale Rock Workshops.
As a writer myself, some days I look at my publishing career and I feel overwhelmed with excitement. Other days I’m overwhelmed with despair and defeat. It takes a tough skin to navigate the ups and downs of a writing career. I created the Whale Rock Workshops company committed to creating a supportive community, to curating master instructors who could serve as mentors, and to helping writers take their craft to the next level.
All writers want experiences that feed their souls and send them back into the world moving their projects forward, feeling creative, inspired, loved … whole. Whether you want master instruction, an adventure, a relaxing retreat or an online community to call home, there’s a place for you at a Whale Rock Workshop.
XO,
Shari
