Food writing students working on writing assignments in our beautiful Honolulu teahouse.
I met Hawaiian food blogger Mariko Jackson of The Little Foodie through this blog. A year ago she was a frequent commenter, and told her I wanted to come to Hawaii. I asked if she could help me set up a class. To my surprise, she said yes. Before this point, I had only taught classes for schools, bookstores, or conferences, so I was a newbie at planning my own event.
Our strategy didn’t go smoothly at first. I thought we needed a swanky restaurant lunch to attract food writers, because that strategy had worked well in Seattle. But it cost too much, and not enough people responded. Mariko lowered the price and dumped the restaurant, and to our delight, 20 food writers and bloggers signed up.
Lots of bighearted Hawaiians and mainland Hawaii lovers helped me get the word out. Hawaiians RT’d announcements of the class on Twitter; Amy Sherman of Cooking With Amy suggested some contacts; Catherine Toth, a prominent Honolulu food writer, interviewed me; the Hawaiian president of Les Dames Escoffier told members about the class and invited me to pupus (appetizers) at a trendy [Read more…] about A Food Writing Workshop in Hawaii
