Morning Sessions:
A. Debe Edden and The Heartsparkle Players - Playback Theatre
Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre in which audience members tell moments from their lives and then watch them performed with music, philosophy, and forms of Playback Theatre. In this interactive workshop, you will learn the basic philosophy and forms.
The Heartsparkle Players began using Playback Theatre in 1991 as a tool for community building, education, and social change. Ensemble members have a range of talents and experience both in and out of the theatre. Artistic director, Debe Edden, has been a performer for 30 years and is a graduate of the School of Playback Theatre. The company performs throughout the Northwest. Visit their Web site at www.heartsparkle.org.
B. Joni Sensel - Books for Kids and Young Adults
In 1999, Joni created Dream Factory Books with grant money received to produce two picture books with environmental themes. She visits schools and libraries to teach writing workshops for kids and adults, and also speaks at writer's conferences.
Besides "writing in the woods" where she owns a home (on the only paved street) in Greenwater, WA near Mt. Ranier, Joni has over 20 years of consulting experience with communication and marketing practices for businesses. Some of her corporate clients include Safeco, Microsoft, Darigold, and the American Cancer Society. Visit her Web site for more information at http://www.jonisensel.com/aboutme.html.
C. Sarah Vap - Dreams, Lies & Memories...The First Draft of a Poem
The first draft of a poem is wild, uncertain, and a truly vulnerable time in the poem's life--and should be allowed to be! This tender creature needs space, time, feeding, and permission. The conscious editing process--the "finished product" of the poem--this comes later. Sometimes much later.
This class will discuss process, inspiration, and what is "allowed" for a poem; the distinction between inspiration and the craft; and editing of a poem. We will also participate in several writing exercises to experiment with, and search for, the beginnings of your poems, and will hopefully each expand what we consider to be possible for our poems.
Sarah is the author of American Spikenard, which won the 2006 Iowa Poetry Prize, and Dummy Fire, which won the 2006 Saturnalia Poetry Prize. Her poetry is widely published in journals and anthologies. She has taught poetry at Phoenix College and Arizona State University. She currently teaches at Olympic College.
D. Jeff Encke - The Birth of Words
How did words first come to be? In this class, we will explore potential answers to that question and their implications for the poet.
In our daily lives, we take words for granted: as a means of gratifying needs and desires, words seem infinitely useful. Yet poets have the special ability to notice the minor imperfections, the quirks, the silences, and the split personalities of words; they can see that meaning - as words float between mouths and ears, stain pages, and fire across digital networks - is never static. Whatever happened when the first words came into being continues to happen every time we speak, scribe, sign, or type. Through a series of brief writing exercises and discussions, we will take a peek into the secret lives of words and harness that vision to enrich our poems.
Jeff is the author of Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse (Last Tangos), a book of love poems addressed to Saddam Hussein and others in his regime, published as a deck of playing cards. He holds a PhD in English from Columbia University, where he taught writing and literature for several years. He has more recently taught at Richard Hugo House in Seattle. His poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Fence, Quarterly West, and others. |
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Afternoon Sessions:
E. Valerie West - Screenwriting 101
If you've ever watched a movie or TV program and thought "I could do better than that," this workshop is for you. Learn the techniques and rules of screenwriting from idea to story to structure, conflict, character and dialogue. Bring your ideas and write a scene in class.
Valerie has written episodic televison and movies, including a draft of Lion King. Her movie No Brother of Mine aired on Lifetime in March. She taught at UCLA for 13 years and currently teaches online.
F. Todd Fredson - Literary Journals: Matching Your Work to the Right Editors, Finding Your Audience
In the rainforest of publishing, literary journals exist like the vast understory, shifting, following the dynamic relationship between readers looking for new voices, and editors looking for you, the writer. All of this happens beneath the institutional canopy of agent- and industry-driven choices that give journals like the New Yorker and Harpers their distant glossy aura. Literary journals, though, offer the possibility of publishing your work as it develops and changes. We will look at single issue projects, Web journals, university-run journals and other literary publications; discuss how to find these journals, who the editors are, and how they receive and review submissions; and figure out ways to identify your own work in relation to these journals in order to most appropriately "place" your work. This workshop will include small group work and individual writing.
Todd developed and edited Hayden's Ferry Review's international section, in which he published Hoang Hung, Henry Quintero, Johann Hjalmarsson, Ryoko Sekiguchi, and Liliana Ursu. Prior to that he was an associate editor for HFR. His own work has appeared in numerous journals, such as Poetry International, Diner, First Intensity, Court Green, and the Southeast Review. He was runner-up for the 2007 poetry award from RUNES journal and winner of the Editors' Select poetry prize from 42opus. He received his MFA from Arizona State University in 2007.
G. Henry Quintero - The First Sound
In this workshop we will consider drumbeat, consciousness and altered consciousness, prayer, song, music, culture, rhythms, heartbeats, individual voice and group voice, ceremony, intention, inspiration, sound, utterance, dreams, and spirit...all the parts of language that need to be in place before the first word ever appears. Quintero will drum and sing, and share some of the spirit and ideas of the Native American Church, its songs, and the crucial relationship between this and his poetry. He will lead the group through a writing exercise which honors some of these ideas and traditions.
Henry is a member of the Native American Church and a Tibetan Buddhist. He is a citizen of the world, and a poet. Quintero's mother is a Mescalero Apache, his father is Mexican, and he has spent most of his life either in the American Southwest, or travelling the world. Quintero received his MFA in poetry from Arizona State University, and is currently finishing his PhD in Literature. He translates and sings Native American Church songs, and performs, prays, and publishes widely.
H. Nate Liederbach - Your Marble Block
As author John Barnes (one of my first writing mentors) once told me, when he sits down to write a first draft he's creating a block of marble. Only afterwards can he sculpt, and, with a large enough block, sculpt wihout fear. But where do we discover our blocks of marble? And how do we know when they're large enough? Is it merely intuition, or can this first stop be boiled down to craft? Join us, and let's explore these questions.
Nate teaches Creative Writing, Film, and Media Studies at South Puget Sound Commmunity College. His first collection of short stories is titled Doing a Bit of Bleeding (Ghost Road, 2005). His most recent fiction collection is currently being edited with Black Ocean Press. He is a founding editor of Marginalia, and his work has appeared in Pindeldyboz, Blue Earth Review, Georgetown Review, Permafrost, and Mississippi Review. |