Are you thinking about
attending the IWC Creative Writing Conference but haven’t registered yet? There
are only two more days to get the early registration price, so sign up now at http://indianawritersconsortium.org/IWC-creative-writing-conference.asp.
The conference will be
held on October 11, 2014 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Merrillville, Indiana. Sessions
will begin at 1:00 p.m., with registration and the bookfair opening at noon.
The registration fee
includes:
- three breakout sessions
with a choice of three options per session (see the schedule below),
- meet and greet with light
refreshments,
- bookfair,
- cocktail hour with a cash
bar
- dinner with keynote
speaker Barbara Shoup (www.barbarashoup.com),
and
- an open mic.
Cost:
Early Registration, Through August 15th
IWC Member, $45
Non-Member, $50
Student, $35
Presenter, $25
Open Registration, August 16th – October 1st
IWC Member, $50
Non-Member, $55
Student, $35
Late Registration, October 2nd – October 7th
IWC Member, $53
Non-Member, $58
Student, $35
Registration will be
available through the conference website, which is coming soon. Watch this blog
for an announcement.
Student Scholarships and Bookfair Tables: To inquire about student
scholarships or bookfair table availability or with other questions, please
email Janine Harrison at indianawritersconsortium@gmail.com.
Travel Information: The Hilton Garden Inn, 7775 Mississippi Street,
in Merrillville, Indiana, is located a half-mile east of I-65 off of US 30 E/E
Lincoln Hwy. If traveling east on Rt. 30, turn left onto Mississippi Street.
The hotel is on the right. Free parking is available on-site.
Accommodations: To reserve a room, please contact the Hilton Garden
Inn at (219) 769-7100. There is a block of rooms on reserve until September 17th.
Area Activities: Merrillville is approximately 50 minutes away from
the Chicago Loop. The Hilton Garden Inn is directly across from Southlake Mall,
and many other shopping outlets and restaurants are available on Route 30. For
additional information, please see www.southshorecva.com/about-south-shore/indiana-welcome-center/.
2014 IWC
CREATIVE WRITING CONFERENCE
SCHEDULE of
EVENTS
12 – 1 PM
Conference registration
in lobby. Bookfair will be open from 12
until 6:30 PM.
1 – 2:10 PM Breakout Session
SALON A
The Art of Conversation: Tame the Tag Monster and Make Your Dialogue
Sparkle
Presenter: Kate Collins
A writer has three devices
with which to tell a story: narration, action, and dialogue.
My focus for this workshop is on dialogue.
It is well-known among seasoned writers that great dialogue may
not earn you a publishing contract, but lousy dialogue will often prevent you
from getting one. Awkward, unrealistic, or pointless conversation is a common
reason acquisitions editors and agents will decline the opportunity to publish
your work. Why? Because conversation between and
among characters should drive the story forward and give it emotional
punch and immediacy. A writer’s goal, therefore, is to create dialogue that
allows the reader to witness the story’s movement and feel the characters’
emotions in that moment. In my workshop, attendees will learn 18 keys to great
dialogue and will have a chance to practice them. I also include a 5 page
handout and worksheet.
SALON B
Encouraging the Unexpected: Choreography for Writers
Presenter:
Katherine Mitchell
In this workshop, we will
explore parallels in both the craft and creative process of writing and
composing movement. With a basic movement vocabulary, weʼll compose movement
vignettes, exploring the parallels between writing a poem and composing a
movement study. Weʼll consider this both in terms of craft and creative
process. Students will learn a basic movement vocabulary and use structured
improvisation to generate material. Weʼll experiment with floor pattern, shape,
gesture, dynamics, focus and line. How does varying these elements create
meaning? Weʼll experience how ordinary movement
can become extraordinary though attention, changes in vantage point, speed,
juxtaposition. Can we enlarge how we think about writing by exploring
composition in another art form? No previous movement or dance experience is
required.
SALON C
Lit Mags aren’t Dead Yet! Networking through Publication
Presenter:
Meg Eden
In this session, we’ll
talk about what literary magazines are, and why it’s important for emerging and
established writers to publish through them. We’ll have a litmag “translation”
exercise, tips on how to get the most out of a lit mag, and the secrets to
writing a great cover letter to get an editor’s attention. The skills you learn
in this session can easily apply to other publication realms, including writing to agents and editors of small book
presses.
2:20 – 3:30 PM Breakout Session
SALON A
Creating
Emotional Back Story
Presenter: Paulette Livers
As writers develop characters, we often initially sketch
them in broad strokes, figuring out external aspects, and their place in plot
and trouble. When we begin to flesh them out from the inside, our biggest
hurdle can be avoiding flat stereotypes. Both the purely evil demon and the
good and gentle perfectionist are equally boring and predictable. This workshop
involves a few simple techniques for getting at emotional back story that will
help you write specific, unique individuals that readers can believe in—even
the seemingly demonic or perfect ones.
SALON B
“Can We Be Funny?”
Good Wit and Good Writing
Presenter: Dana Bowman
After 9/11, Saturday Night Live
continued with its programming, but not without some trepidation. At the cold opener, Lorne Michaels, the
show’s producer, asked Mayor Guiliani quite simply and sadly, “Can we be
funny?” To which Guiliani famously
countered, “Why start now?” Writing
humor is a delicate and difficult art, and I don’t recommend it to anyone who
has a heart condition. Actually, we
humorists have great hearts - we feel, and wonder, and wickedly poke at all of
life around us, because our hearts are full.
My session would cover why humor is important in the wake of heartbreak
and sadness and even tragedy, and why good humor is crucial and often cathartic
- for both writer and audience. I will
share samples from the great humorists and we’ll discuss the art behind the
laughter. We will also analyze various
types of humor from deadpan, to anecdotal, to parody, digging into the
structure and style of wit. Good writing
can be good for a laugh.
SALON C
The
Writer and The Writing Group
Presenter: Gabriella Brand
Writing is a solitary act. It's often a
question of sitting in a room and talking to oneself. Writing is the lonely
process of staring out the window and searching for the perfect words, as if
they were plums hanging on a tree in the backyard. We all know that the
experience can get lonely. A really good writing group can pull a writer out of
a rut, help trim fat off a manuscript, beef up a skinny draft, inspire fertile
dreams, and offer occasions to laugh and cry with others. But how does one go
about starting such a group? How can one derive the most benefit from a writing
group? What makes a good participant? A good leader? What are the
characteristics of highly functioning writing groups? What are the behaviors
that can splinter or destroy a group? Does a professional writer need to
surround herself with professional writers in order to grow? What about the Nadia Boulanger effect? (Does
the piano teacher need to be as good a pianist as her gifted students? Or does
she just need to know how to guide the student toward perfection?)
This presentation will offer practical
advice about starting, sustaining and promoting groups for writers across
genres, both face to face groups and virtual ones. The targeted audience would
be anyone who is curious about the writing group experience, either as a
participant or a leader/participant.
Meet and Greet
Please join us in the
hotel bar area for an informal Meet and Greet! Light refreshments will be
served.
4:00 – 5:10 PM Breakout Session
SALON A
Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Violence Anthology Reading
Presenters: Laura Madeline Wiseman and Poets
Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press,
2013), edited by Laura Madeline Wiseman, views poetry as a transformative art.
By deploying techniques to challenge narratives about violence against women
and making alternatives to that violence visible, the over one hundred American
poets in Women Write Resistance
intervene in the ways gender violence is perceived in American culture. A poem
from a victim’s perspective, for example, might use explicit imagery but also
show the emotional consequences often obscured when newspapers, video games,
films, and television programs depict violence in superficial or sexualized
ways. A poet might also critique dominant narratives, such as calling into
question the perception that certain women deserved to be raped. The critical
introduction frames the intellectual work behind the building of the anthology
by describing how poets break silence, disrupt narratives, and use strategic
anger to resist for change. Poetry of resistance distinguishes itself by a
persuasive rhetoric that asks readers to act. The anthology’s stance believes
poetry can compel action using both rhetoric and poetic techniques to motivate
readers. In their deployment of these techniques, poets of resistance claim the
power to name and talk about gender violence in and on their own terms. Indeed,
these poets resist for change by revising justice and framing poetry as action.
This IWC Conference reading will include an introduction by the editor and
feature 4-5 Women Write Resistance
poets who will read their poems and others from Women Write Resistance.
SALON B
From Diarist to Memoirist
Presenter: Marion Cohen
Many
memoirists keep diaries, and use their diaries to various extents and in
various ways for writing their memoirs. But not everything that appears in a
memoir comes from a diary; some passages and insights come from, so to speak,
pure memory. Indeed, some memoirs arise from a writer's sudden realization that
a particular thread of the memoirist's life has never been written about, or
recognized. Many, in fact, come from flashbacks. And many come from things that
could not possibly be in diaries because they happened long before the writer
was writing, or even speaking. Also, many pieces of writing that wouldn't
ordinarily be classified under the memoir genre are in fact memoir-LIKE,
perhaps actual memoirs. Poem sequences, some book-length, are often memoirs,
along with themed poetry chapbooks or books. There are also more unusual,
sometimes controversial, memoir-like genres such as family albums, lists of
favorite childhood toys, and the six-word memoir. Some memoirs are mere
"thinking memoirs" (like the one I carried around in my mind from age
17 months to age eleven), or "talking memoirs" (such as interesting
and/or poignant conversations between friends). A non-writer I knew once said,
"If you can talk, you can write". Is this true? Perhaps. It's another
idea that's worth exploring. I would also like to talk about advantages of
memoirs over novels and other fiction -- such as the fact that, since the
material actually happened, its believability cannot be easily challenged.
SALON
C
“Hot Pockets, Butterflies, and Chevron: Fifth Grade Creative Writing
Pedagogy and the Richmond Writes! Poetry Contest”
Presenter: Lauren Mallett
This workshop details my
instructional approach to writing workshop at Washington Elementary in
Richmond, California from 2010-2013. My pedagogy coupled state writing
standards with my own, more holistic writing goals for my students. I examine
the successes, challenges, collaborations, and celebrations involved in
developing the curriculum, and I reflect on the ways in which creative writing
has the potential to empower our young people. I will reference and share
writing samples throughout the presentation as well.
5:30 – 6:30 PM Cocktail Hour
We hope to see you in the
hotel bar area for Cocktail Hour (cash bar).
Now that we have met you, we would really enjoy getting to know you
better!
6:30 – 10:30 PM Dinner
Dinner, with keynote
address by Barbara Shoup, will be followed by an open mic. Please sign up for the open mic at the IWC’s
informational table on the day of the event.
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