Course Descriptions for Weeklong Retreat (Sunday, June 6th - Friday, June 11th)
Elise Juska, Short Story
WORKSHOP TITLE: The Whole Story: Exploring the Possibilities of Voice in Short Fiction
"The voice of the story is the whole story," said the venerable short story writer Grace Paley. This workshop will delve into the quality and importance of voice in fiction through a series of diverse readings, daily writing exercises, and generous amounts of peer feedback. Participants should submit one short story to the Conference by May 28. The crux of our workshop will be thoughtful, detailed discussion of participants' work. Instructor will provide written critique.
WORD COUNT LIMIT FOR SUMBISSIONS: Stories should be no longer than 7,000 words.
Special Note: workshop submissions must be emailed to cspataro@rosemont.edu by May 28, 2010.
Elisabeth Mosier, Novel Writing
WORKSHOP TITLE: Trouble-Shooting Strategies for Novelists
Writing a novel requires more than just endurance-it requires using familiar tools in an unfamiliar way to solve narrative problems. Bring your complete, in-progress, or long-abandoned novel to this weeklong workshop. We’ll tackle the mental blocks that keep us fixed instead of finished, and practice new strategies for planning, plotting, and pacing a novel-length work. Please submit 3,000 words you want to throw out the window by May 15.
WORD COUNT LIMIT FOR SUMBISSIONS: 3,000 words
Special Note: workshop submissions must be emailed to cspataro@rosemont.edu by May 15, 2010.
Liz Abrams-Morley, Multi-genre
WORKSHOP TITLE: Wooing Your Muse
Anxious to write or anxious about not writing? Whether you write fiction, memoir, or poetry, are a long time writer feeling stuck and stale midway through a project, or see yourself as a beginner wanting to explore your writing voice, this workshop is designed to get you going, keep you going and arm you with an arsenal of ways to get or keep your creative work going after you leave the retreat. We will write from a wide variety of prompts and woo our muses with serious play.
WORD COUNT LIMIT/POEM LIMIT FOR SUMBISSIONS: There are no advanced submission requirements for this workshop.
J.C. Todd, Poetry
WORKSHOP TITLE: This Much I Don’t Know For Sure: Unsettling Image and Line
A poem begins in a flash-a question, a glimpse that unsettles what you think you know. How can the poet sustain this initiating surge through images and lines that explode or subvert expectation, yet home in on a disturbingly true closure?
We’ll explore model poems that veer surprisingly, yet set a course that’s true from first line to last, then experiment by writing a new poems of our own.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: Please bring 2 fragments from poems you have not completed: an image, a phrase, or no more than 2 lines whose energy you can feel but can’t seem to tap or move forward. Type each fragment on a separate sheet and bring 2 copies of each to the workshop.Lise Funderburg, Creative Nonfiction
WORKSHOP TITLE: Sleeves Rolled Up: Revising Your Personal Essay
Revision is typically considered the geekiest of creative writing undertakings--the last to be picked for the team or asked for a dance. Wasn’t it enough, many writers wonder, to make the Herculean leap from blank page to first draft? The truth is, revision is its own art and can be a wildly beneficial part of the creative process…if you allow it to be. In this workshop, we’ll focus on your crappy or not-quite-there draft of a personal essay, and through targeted exercises, assignments, readings, and workshops, move it closer to being publication-ready.
WORD COUNT LIMIT FOR SUMBISSIONS: 2,500
Special Note: workshop submissions must be emailed to cspataro@rosemont.edu by May 15, 2010.