Program Type:
WorkshopAge Group:
AdultsProgram Description
Event Details
Donna Kathryn Kelly's "Cross-Examination, Closing Argument, & Credibility: How to Write Compelling Fiction & Poetry," is a two-hour creative-writing workshop for adult poets and fiction writers. The workshop includes a writing exercise dealing with dialogue and character development, but any poet-attendees are encouraged to compose a poem instead of a fiction or dramatic piece if they so wish.
Kelly has presented similar writing workshops in the past at the Nebraska Writers' Guild Conference in Omaha (2019), and, more recently, at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin (2023) and the Ida Public Library in Belvidere (2025). The presentation is a dynamic, interactive approach to creative writing: one that encourages attendees to reflect introspectively on their own life experiences in drafting realistic fiction and poetry. As an attorney who has practiced law for three decades, primarily in the Illinois criminal justice system, Kelly discusses how her legal career has influenced her creative writing.
By way of further background, Donna Kathryn Kelly is the author of the psychological suspense thriller, THE DESCENT: A Halloween Novel, which was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project Manuscript Contest. The novel surrounds six women attorneys who are terrorized by a vengeful spirit over Halloween weekend in Oregon, Illinois.
Kelly is also the author of The Cheney Manning Series, a collection of suspense novels about a public defender turned amateur sleuth who investigates homicide cases in the Fox River Valley area of northern Illinois. Kelly's latest novel, THE LION AT THE FALLS, was a finalist in the 2024 Killer Nashville Claymore Award Competition (Supernatural Category). You can find out more about the author @donnakathrynkelly.com.
Photo Credit: Linda M. Barrett Productions