In past years, attendees at the Steel Pen
Creative Writers’ Conference listened to a brief welcome and then headed for
the first breakout session. The 2017 conference will change that pattern and
begin (after a brief welcome) with a general session panel titled “That’s Not
What My Grandma Said: Preserving Regional Stories.”
People die, memories fade, and cultural
history is lost. With them go the color and flavor that make any region unique
and the seasonings that add authenticity to our written stories. So how do we
keep cultural history alive? Join Jane Ammeson, Heather Augustyn, and Roland
Cohen for a panel discussion on preserving regional stories. Kathryn Page Camp will
moderate the panel.
The bios of the three distinguished
panelists follow.
Jane Simon Ammeson is a freelance writer who specializes in travel,
food and personalities. She writes frequently for Northwest Indiana Times, Edible Michiana, AAA Home & Away,
Heartland Boating, Lakeland Boating, Cleveland Magazine, Long Weekends
Magazine, Travel Indiana and the Herald
Palladium. Her Bindu travel apps include Michigan Road Trips and Indiana
Journeys. She’s authored ten books including Hauntings of the
Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Murders That Made Headlines:
Crimes of Indiana, A Jazz Age Murder
in Northwest Indiana and East Chicago. She is a James Beard Foundation
nominating judge for the Great Lakes Region.
Forever a Harbor girl,
Jane attended E.C. Washington and worked after school and during the summers at
the E.C. Public Library, a job she got through nepotism as her mother was
employed there for a half century.
Follow Jane at https://www.facebook.com/janesimonammeson; https://twitter.com/hpammeson; https://twitter.com/travelfoodin
and on her blog http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/shore/blogs/will-travel-for-food/
Heather Augustyn is author of Ska: An Oral History, McFarland, 2010; Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the
World’s Greatest Trombonist, McFarland, 2013; Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013; Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican
Music, Half Pint Press, 2014; Alpha
Boys School: Cradle of Jamaican Music, Half Pint Press, 2017; Dragon: The Story of Byron Lee, Ambassador
of Jamaican Music, Half Pint Press, 2017; and Bob Marley: The Music of Pain and Promise, Rowman &
Littlefield, 2018. She has been a correspondent for the Times of Northwest
Indiana for 12 years and she teaches composition at Purdue University
Northwest.
Ronald D. Cohen is an emeritus professor of history, Indiana
University Northwest, Gary, Indiana, where he taught for 34 years. He is the
author (or co-author) of numerous books, including Children of the Mill: Schooling and Society in Gary, Indiana, 1906-1960;
Gary: A Pictorial History; Moonlight in Duneland; Rainbow Quest: Folk Music and American
Society, 1940-1970; The Pete
Seeger Reader, and numerous others. He lives in Gary, Indiana,
and is a member of the Gary Historic Preservation Commission.
_____
This year's conference will be held on October 28 at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms, just off I-65 near Renssselaer, Indiana. To learn more about the keynote speaker and the breakout sessions, go to http://www.inwriters.org/steel-pen-conference/. You can find the registration link on the same page. Or, if you have additional questions, contact us at steelpenconference@gmail.com._____
We're excited about this year's conference, and we hope to see you there.
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