Laughing at Steel Pen

Do you want a good dose of laughter? Join us at the 2018 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference, which will be held on October 27 at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms. It is located north of Rensselaer, Indiana just off I-65.

Yes, I realize the title of this post could have a double meaning, but in this case the “at” refers to the place where the laughter occurs, not the object of the laughter. Still, we don’t mind being laughed at if it is all in fun.

Opportunities for laughter will be sprinkled throughout the conference, but one of the breakout sessions focuses on it. Here is the description of “Bury Me Next to a Straight Man: Writing Humor in Poetry.”

Groucho Marx once said, “I hope they bury me near a straight man.” Why is that funny? In this workshop we’ll look at the linguistic structure of humor and how to incorporate it in poetry. We’ll also consider humor potholes, humor dumpster fires, and humor lemons. All experience levels welcome. (I’m serious!)

This session is presented by Karen Schubert, and her credentials are impressive. When she submitted her proposal, she provided ten pages of writing credits and teaching experience. Here is the short version.

Karen Schubert is the author of five poetry chapbooks, most recently Dear Youngstown (forthcoming, Night Ballet Press), Black Sand Beach (Kattywompus Press) and I Left My Wings on a Chair (Kent State Press), selected by Kathleen Flenniken for a Wick Poetry Center Chapbook Prize. Her poems and creative nonfiction appear or are forthcoming in the Cleveland Humanities Festival, The Strand Project, Winning Writers, Aeolian Harp, and The National Poetry Review. She was a 2017 artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and is Director of Lit Youngstown and Coordinator for Power of the Arts, in Youngstown, Ohio.

Karen has her own way of looking at things. When I asked her for a blog post, she gave me this Twitter-sized one.

I’ve heard it said that writing humor is hard, but there is actually a structure to humor. We’ll look at some examples of good and bad humor writing and different kinds of humor. Spoiler: you’ll never laugh at a joke again. Just kidding.

With that kind of humor, how can you resist her session?

Early registration pricing ends on July 14. You can register at www.steelpenconference.org. That’s also the place to find more information on the keynote speaker and the other break-out sessions.

So join us in laughing at Steel Pen.