These announcements of events and opportunities of interest to the writing community have been sent to you by Soapstone. Feel free to send them on to your friends and colleagues or to invite them to join the list by emailing us at retreats@soapstone.org. (We need first and last name, city, and email address.)
For more information about receiving the announcements or sending your own announcement to this list, go to www.soapstone.org/about_us_pages/community_announcements.html
We never lend or sell our mailing list. If you no longer wish to be on this list, send us an email with “remove” in the subject line.
ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE ON AN EVERY OTHER WEEK SCHEDULE.
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The New Soapstone: Celebrating Women Writers
We are pleased to announce that we are now offering two new opportunities for readers and writers in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Small Grants to an Individual Woman or an Ad Hoc Group of Women
These funds are to support readings, memorial gatherings, or other similar events and study groups celebrating a woman writer's work.
The application process is simple and the time between applying and notification short. For the first year, Soapstone board members will serve as the grant review committee.
All events and study groups will be open to the public and offered at no charge.
Go to our website for more details: www. Soapstone.org
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BROADWAY BOOKS
Thursday, October 9 at 7 pm.
Irvington resident Alice Hardesty has written a very personal memoir. An Uncommon Cancer Journey: The Cosmic Kick that Healed Our Lives is the story of Alice’s husband Jack’s extraordinary healing from esophageal cancer in the 1980s, despite two “terminal” diagnoses. After conventional medicine failed to provide a cure, Jack tried every alternative and complementary treatment he could, including vitamins and enzymes, bodywork, spiritual healing, and intensive psychotherapy. Alice accompanied and supported him throughout this journey, and found that along with the physical healing came the healing of their marriage.
Please join us as Ms. Hardesty reads from and talks about her memoir.
This event is free and open to the public.
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October 5, 4:00 p.m.
First Congregational United Church of Christ
Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author, a celebrated columnist with The New York Times, and an Oregonian. He will share his experience reporting from six continents and the core message from his new book, A Path Appears, to inspire us to make a difference in the world. The book will be released on September 23 and signed copies will be available at the event. SAGE will host Mr. Kristof as its 2014 Visiting SAGE speaker, a program to inspire people to find new pathways to civic service and to improve opportunity for future generations. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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Gigi Rosenberg invites you to Literary Arts on October 2 to meet Seattle’s Jack Straw Writers and hear an excerpt from her latest project: “How I Lost My Inheritance: A Mother/Daughter Memoir.” Please join her at:
Jack Straw Writers Tell “Family Secrets”
Featuring Claudia Castro Luna, Loreen Lilynn Lee, Michelle Peñaloza and
Gigi Rosenberg. Curator Felicia Gonzalez hosts.
October 2 at 7:00 pm
Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR 97205
Free
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On Sunday, September 21 at 7 PM, Paulann Petersen, recent Oregon Poet Laureate, along with student writers and artists, presents work published in the 2014 Honoring Our Rivers anthology. This issue celebrates the 100th birthday of William Stafford, earlier poet laureate, educator and peace activist.
HOR anthology program director, Anna Wilde, will discuss the project and distribute complimentary copies.
Free and open to the public.
Donations collected for the Oregon Food Bank.
Venue: 17425 Holy Names Heritage Center
2 miles south of downtown Lake Oswego on Hwy 43.
Take a left at entrance marked with signage for Youth Villages and Mary's Woods.
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Eleni Sikelianos, Endi Bogue Hartigan and Joshua Marie Wilkinson
September 27th
7:00 p.m.
Literary Arts
925 SW WASHINGTON
This event is free and open to the public.
Eleni Sikelianos is the author of six books of poetry, most recently The Loving Detail of the Living and the Dead, a Library Journal Best Books of 2013, and The California Poem, as well as a hybrid memoir, The Book of Jon, which was a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year. She has been the happy recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, The National Poetry Series, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, among others, and of Princeton University’s Seeger Fellowship and two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative American Writing.
Endi Bogue Hartigan‘s second book Pool [5 choruses] was selected by Cole Swensen for the Omnidawn Open Prize and was released in April 2014 from Omnidawn publishing. Her first book One Sun Storm was selected for the 2008 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies including New American Writing, Verse, Pleiades, VOLT, Free Verse, Peep/ Show, LVNG, and Tinfish, as well as a collaborative chapbook, out of the flowering ribs, created with Portland visual artist Linda Hutchins. More info on her work is at www.endiboguehartigan.com.
Joshua Marie Wilkinson was born and raised in Seattle. He's the author of Meadow Slasher, The Courier's Archive, Swamp Isthmus, and Selenography all from Sidebrow Books and Black Ocean). He lives in Tucson where he runs a small press called Letter Machine Editions and a journal called The Volta. Since 2006, he’s been at work on a five-book sequence of poetry called the No Volta pentalogy, which includes Selenography, with Polaroids by Tim Rutili (Sidebrow Books 2010); Swamp Isthmus (Black Ocean 2013); The Courier’s Archive & Hymnal (Sidebrow Books 2014); Meadow Slasher (Black Ocean 2016); and Shimoda’s Tavern (in the offing).
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October Writing Workshops
For Individuals Whose Lives Have Been Affected By Breast Cancer
Perhaps you’ve been affected by a personal diagnosis of breast cancer or by family history and an intensified screening process. Perhaps you’ve been there with family or friends who have had personal experiences with breast cancer. Perhaps it’s something that only occurs to you once a year when you show up to your annual mammogram or doctor’s appointment. Perhaps it sneaks into your thoughts every October, during breast cancer awareness month.
Whether you have a specific story you are interested in writing or just want to see what happens when you put pen to page and start scribbling, these workshops will provide a comfortable and encouraging environment for you to explore your thoughts and experiences through writing and creativity.
Different writing exercises each week will encourage creative exploration into the space of the physical, emotional, and thinking body. Sign up for one Saturday or for all four!
Saturdays in October (October 4th, 11th, 18th, & 25th), 1-3 PM
$20 per Saturday workshop, $70 for all 4 Saturdays
(50% of the registration fees will be donated to a non-profit that supports women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer)
At Women’s Imaging & Intervention 17050 Pilkington Road, Suite 130 Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Facilitated by Mary Kibbe, Writer, Editor, & Massage Therapist
Complete details and registration info at http://www.marykibbe.com/october-writing-workshops.html
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Last Tuesdays Poetry presents Martha Silano: October 28, 7pm, Barnes & Noble, Vancouver, WA
Martha Silano is the featured poet at Last Tuesdays Poetry on October 28. Our events run from 7pm to 8.30pm at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 7700 NE Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98662.
She will read from two of her collections, Reckless Lovely and Little Office of the Immaculate Conception.
Reckless Lovely begins with The Big Bang and ends with the unleashing of twelve million bees from a jack-knifed semi. In between, it ricochets from Renaissance masterworks to amusement parks, from fissures to fission, praising the peregrine, the paramecium.
The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception rollicks through fourteen billion years of cosmology with humor and musicality. The book was described as “comic and wise, quotidian and celestial.”
As usual, there will be open mic slots that can be claimed on the night. If you want to do one, please rehearse a 2-3 minute presentation.
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Fall 2014 Writing Classes at the Multnomah Arts Center
Check out our new offerings this fall at the Multnomah Arts Center in SW Portland. Never been to MAC? We’re a part of Portland Parks and Recreation and offer affordable arts programming for all ages and levels. To register for classes, call (503) 823-3187 or visit MAC's Literary Arts website to read full course descriptions and find out more about our faculty.
Classes for Adults
So, You Want To Write a Novel with Michael Thomas Cooper
Mondays 7 - 9 pm [7 classes] Oct. 13 - Nov. 24 $120
Memoir with Rob Freedman
Tuesdays 10 am -12:30 pm [8 classes] Oct. 7 - Dec. 2 $160
Necessary Poetry with Donna Prinzmetal
Tuesdays 7 - 8:30 pm [9 classes] Sep. 30 - Dec. 2 $126
Memoir—Interviewing & Catching Stories with Meg Eberle
Wednesdays 1 - 3 pm [6 classes] Oct. 8 - Nov. 12 $102
Writing Our Lives As Story with Nancy Linnon
Thursdays 1 - 3 pm [8 classes] Oct. 9 - Dec. 4 $136
Reading and Writing About Oregon with Christine Colasurdo
Fridays 10 am - 12 pm [10 classes] Oct. 3 - Dec. 5 $170
Poetry Collage with Christopher Luna
Saturday 10 am - 3 pm [1 class] Nov. 15 $50
Classes for Youth Ages 8-12
Creative Writing with Amy Minato
Tuesday 4:15 - 5:30 pm [3 classes] Oct. 21 - Nov. 4 $42
Telling Tales with Amy Minato
Tuesday 4:15 - 5:30 pm [1 class] Nov. 18 $14
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We have room for a few more folks for “Working and Writing the Woods,” Saturday, September 20, 10 am to 5 pm, with our special guest instructor Jeff Fearnside. From 10 am to 1 pm we will work together on tree planting, trail maintenance, riparian habitat restoration, and other soul-satisfying tasks. After lunch, from 2 - 5 pm, we’ll turn to a free writing workshop, exploring ways to write about nature, work, and community. All are welcome, whatever your physical abilities or level of writing experience.
Charles.Goodrich@oregonstate.edu
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November 1, 2014
Mapping Memory
“Everyone who composes a map makes an argument, with regards to what is included in the map and what is not.”
-Mark Koch, English Professor, Dartmouth College
Maps get us to destinations filled with stories. Whether you do write or want to write fiction, non-fiction or poetry, the craft begins with putting thoughts on paper. This way of turning memory, observation and imagination into a draft on a page is as much a journey as if you packed your bags and set off on a cross-country trip. Come join us and make a map of some of the stories you’re ready to tell. Artistic ability is NOT required. If you can draw a line, not even necessarily a straight line, you can make a map of the elements of the writing you want to do. You can think on paper. You will leave class with a rough draft from this map.
We’ll explore the details of writing from looking closely at place. We’ll remember the colors of a certain summer and listen for stories from a birthplace, possibly far away. The class is taught in English, but speakers of other languages who have intermediate English skills are welcome as are families/friends who could translate for one another.
This workshop is appropriate for teachers looking for ideas to inspire students of all ages; for individuals who want to begin that collection of stories to give to children or grandchildren; for fiction writers to meet someone on paper who may become a character in a novel or children’s book.
November 1, 2014 2:30-4:30, Saturday two-hour Multnomah County Library program, Capitol Hill Library: 10723 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219
Free. No registration - first come, first served. Class limit 15.
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CONVERSATIONS WITH WRITERS
Monday, September 29 7:00-9:00 PM
Hillsboro Main Library, 2850 NE Brookwood Pkwy, Hillsboro
For September, our Conversations With Writers meeting will be led by Paulann Petersen. Her theme will be: Crafty: William Stafford And The Art Of Artlessness
Was William Stafford “crafty?” Was he “skilled in underhandedness, deviousness, or deception?” Yes, but only in the sense that he was able to make his art seem artless.
Join Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita, in an interactive exploration of a few aspects of William Stafford’s art. We’ll look at a number of Stafford poems and discuss them in terms of the craft that might have gone into their making. We’ll be alert to the ways in which we might apply such craft to our own work, ways we might become “craftier” too.
Conversations With Writers invites authors to read and tell us about their work and their writing methods. Not just a reading, but an event for audience members to interact and ask questions about word choices, styles, or the writer's development of his / her art. It's an informal atmosphere to help us all better understand the craft of writing. For more information, visit: cwwor.weebly.com
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GHOST TOWN POETRY OPEN MIC
With guest hosts Steve Williams & M
7pm
Thursday, October 9
Cover to Cover Books
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B (St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA 98663
Featuring Matt Amott
Matt Amott is a poet, photographer, wanderer, and charter member of the Pacific Vagabonds. As a co-founder of Six Ft. Swells Poetry Press, most of his research and work for the press is done “in the field.” His ramblings tend to favor the short poem due to the lack of space on the cocktail napkin. He has been published in numerous journals and reviews and his poems have been selected for the Poems-For-All Series in Sacramento and San Diego. He has read his work on KVMR (Nevada City, CA), KFOK (Lake Tahoe, CA), KUSF (SF State College Radio) as well as KBOO (Portland, OR). Always one to keep on the move, Matt has called Portland his home three times over the last 20 years but he continues to leave broken hearts and free mini chapbooks in bars and pubs along the West Coast. Matt and Six Ft. Swells Press can be found at afterhourspoetry.com
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Announcing the 16th Annual Autumn Equinox Stonehenge War Memorial Reading!
It's happening Sunday, September 21, 2014, starting around 3:00 p.m. at the Stonehenge War Memorial a few miles east of the Maryhill Museum of Fine Arts. The memorial was dedicated by railroad and highway baron Sam Hill on July 4, 1918, the first WWI memorial in the US and a miniature version of the original Stonehenge on England's Salisbury Plains.
Come early and spend time with the Rodin sculptures and Native American artifacts (and much more!) in the splendid museum. Check it out on the internet if you've never experienced Sam Hill's "Castle Nowhere.” Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the beautiful grounds, and the stunning view of the Gorge.
Dress up or dress down. It’s been hot in past years, but the stiff breeze won't let you sweat. Bring an instrument if you play one. Past events have featured tambourines, penny whistles, drums of every size and shape, guitars, banjos, mandolins, a trombone, a trumpet . . . .
Share your poetry. Or short fiction. Or social/political rant. There are no rules. Share what you wouldn't want your mother to hear. Let it all out, and bask in the applause of kindred souls.
From Oregon, cross the Columbia at Biggs Jct. and follow WA 14 west. Or cross the Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks and take WA 14 east. It all depends on whether you're in a hurry or want to wallow in the gorgeous scenery. Again, check the internet for directions.
Spread the word. Bring friends. Carpool. Form a caravan.
We hope to see you there!
Co-hosts David Hedges (david@hedges.name) and Walt Curtis.
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On Sunday, October 19, Oregon Writers Colony is going all out to honor and celebrate Oregon readers and writers with a literary festival and gala fundraiser in Portland: Stumptown Lit. OWC would like to invite small presses, booksellers, writer organizations, editors, book designers, and other literary and arts groups and services to exhibit at the afternoon book fair. There will also be a special display table of books authored by OWC members.
Among the other Stumptown Lit events are a writers workshop offered by Mary Rosenblum, a children’s story time with Susan Blackaby, and readings by Oregon authors. An evening reception honoring Jean Auel, Oregon’s best-selling author of the Earth’s Children series, will cap the day. During the reception, OWC will announce the winners for the 2014 OWC Short Story Writing contest. The First Place fiction and non-fiction winners will read their works. Admission to Stumptown Lit is free except for the workshop and reception.
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Spare Room presents
Steve McCaffery & Karen Mac Cormack
Saturday, October 4
4:00 pm
please note earlier starting time
Glyph Café and Art Space
804 NW Couch Street — corner of NW Park
503-719-5481
$5 suggested donation
Steve McCaffery is the author and coauthor of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry and criticism. His long awaited rewriting of Shakespeare's sonnets, Dark Ladies, is forthcoming from Chax Press, and his capricious rewrite of Lewis Carroll, Alice in Plunderland, will appear though Book Thug in March 2015. A native of England, McCaffery lives and teaches in Buffalo, NY, where he is the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters and Director of the UB Poetics Program.
Karen Mac Cormack is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, most recently AGAINST WHITE (Veer Books, London, 2013). Her poems have appeared in anthologies including Moving Borders, Out of Everywhere, Another Language, and Prismatic Publics, and her work has been translated into French, Portuguese, Swedish, and Norwegian. Of dual Canadian/British citizenship, she lived in Toronto for many years, and currently lives Buffalo where she teaches at the State University.
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The Switch presents a poetry reading by
Rachel Zolf, Sarah Dowling & Nathan Wade Carter
Monday, September 22
7:00 pm
IPRC
1001 SE Division
FREE
Nathan Wade Carter is a poet, musician and artist living in Portland, Oregon. His poetry can be found most recently in Potluck Magazine and on InkNode. He writes and performs music under the name Purrbot. His music can be found on Bandcamp and Spotify. Find him online at nathanwadecarter.com.
Sarah Dowling is the author of DOWN, Birds & Bees, and Security Posture. Selections from her work appear in I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women. Her critical work has appeared in American Quarterly, GLQ, Canadian Literature, Signs and elsewhere. Dowling is an Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.
Rachel Zolf’s fifth book of poetry is Janey’s Arcadia (Coach House), an aversive, conversive reckoning with the ongoing errors of Canadian settler-colonialism. Other publications include Neighbour Procedure and Human Resources. Among her many collaborations with other artists, she wrote the film The Light Club of Vizcaya: A Women’s Picture, directed by New York artist Josiah McElheny, which premiered at Art Basel Miami 2012. She has taught at the New School and the University of Calgary, and has recently returned to her hometown, Toronto.
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BROADWAY BOOKS
Tuesday, October 7 at 7 pm.
We are happy to welcome to the store Ted Mahar, who has edited a new book of gardening columns written for The Oregonian by his late wife, Dulcy Mahar.
Thousands of Dulcy’s fans purchased the first collection of her columns, Back in the Garden with Dulcy, published by RLO Media Productions two years ago. This new book, Through the Seasons with Dulcy, is the perfect companion to that first volume.
Through the Seasons with Dulcy includes 140 of Ms. Mahar’s most popular columns that were published weekly in the Oregonian beginning in 1989. These columns are organized by season. In this book, readers can again find inspiration and humor, as well as get a glimpse into the places in her garden she most cherished. Ted Mahar reflects here on their fifty-year marriage, their beloved pets and her well-known garden, plus takes readers behind the scenes into Dulcy’s favorite places inside their home. The essays are accompanied by 150 full color photographs.
Ted Mahar was a film and television writer and critic at The Oregonian for nearly four decades. This is his second book.
This event is free and open to the public.
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PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT TO PRESENT NEW POETRY COLLECTION AT BROADWAY BOOKS
October 14 at 7 pm.
Penelope Scambly Schott will be here to read from and talk about her latest poetry collection, How I Became an Historian (published by Cherry Grove Collections).
This quirky new book includes slugs, a fertility goddess, her grandfather’s Buick, bag ladies, loose eyes, refugee camps, ancient Roman toilet paper, instructions for cave painting, and God’s day job as a hairdresser. Past and present remain deeply connected. According to Ralph Salisbury, these poems contain “Something of Diane Wakoski’s comedic genius, something of Sylvia Plath’s poetic rage, something of Dylan Thomas’ profound vision.”
Penelope Scambly Schott is a past winner of the Oregon Book Award for poetry. Her two most recent books (besides this one) are Lovesong for Dufur and Lillie Was a Goddess, Lillie Was a Whore. She lives in Portland and Dufur, Oregon, where she teaches an annual poetry workshop.
This event is free and open to the public.
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Submissions now open for Elohi Gadugi Journal Fall 2014 | Reclamation. Art. Short Fiction. Poetry. Creative Nonfiction. Indie Book Reviews.
The theme for our fall issue of Elohi Gadugi Journal is "Reclamation." Submissions will be open until November 1st. Submissions made before October 5th may be included in the initial issue.
https://elohigadugi.submittable.com/submit/34647
Duane Poncy, Managing Editor
Elohi Gadugi Journal
egjournal.org
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Entitled – A Group Art Show
Exhibition opening and reception
First Thursday, October 2
5:00 - 9:00 pm
Companion reading
Lisa Alber J. David Osborne Barry Graham Rios de la Luz
Lisa MoonCat Miller Alex Bogartz Johnny Shaw
Thursday, October 9
5:30 pm
Glyph Cafe & Arts Space
804 NW Couch St – corner of NW Park
Exhibition runs through October 31st.
Twenty-six artists have created fifty-two pieces based on titles picked at random from a hat.
Each original work of art is priced at $50.
Alea Bone Amelia Opie Anna Magruder Betsy LeVine Blake Stellyess Carlie Leagjeld
Daniel Gill Deborah Spanton Eilish Strawberry Hynes Geoff Edwards Jaclyn Evalds
Jennifer Bogartz Jennifer Feeney Jeremy Dubow Jerry Sumpter Joanne Licardo Johnny Acurso
Lea Peace Quin Sweetman Roxanne Patruznick Sara Mapelli Tink Shawn Demarest
Suzanne Elizabeth Suzy Kitman Theodore Holdt Yasue Arai
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OPA SPONSORS 2015 OREGON STUDENT POETRY CONTEST
The Oregon Poetry Association (OPA) is sponsoring the seventeenth annual Oregon Student Poetry Contest. Tiel Aisha Ansari of Portland, OR and Steve Jones of Corvallis, OR are the 2015 student contest co-chairs. All Oregon students, kindergarten through 12th grade, enrolled in public, private, parochial and alternative schools, and home schooled, are invited to submit a poem. There is no entry fee. The deadline for entries is February 10, 2015 (postmark).
Ten unranked winners in each of four age categories receive $10 cash prizes. All forty winning poems will be published in Cascadia: The Oregon Student Poetry Contest Anthology. Each winner will receive a certificate and a copy of the anthology. The ten winning poems in both the middle and high school divisions are eligible and will be sent to the annual Manningham Trust Student Contest sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NSFPS). This national competition also awards cash prizes and publication in an anthology.
Writing poetry to enter in the contest is typically a class project organized by teachers in the various types of schools. OPA urges parents and teachers to encourage students to enter the contest. This is an excellent opportunity both to encourage and to reward creativity in Oregon students.
A note for teachers, from Steve Jones, Co-Director, Oregon Writing Project Collaborative at George Fox and Co-Chair, Oregon Young Poets 2015 Contest:
COMMON CORE SUPPORTS POETRY READING AND WRITING
Jim Burke in his recently published "Common Core Handbook" maintains that teaching writing well will always demand that teachers and students read widely in all genres, write daily with peer and teacher feedback with opportunities for student revision--while using mentor texts from all genres, including poetry, short stories and essays. Burke teaches us how Common Core supports this wide reading and writing in all literary genres. National Writing Project research also tells us that when writers strengthen their writing in any genre, they strengthen their overall skills as writers. Writers are people who write and write and write. So, teachers, encourage your students to write in all literary genres, confident that they will benefit and become stronger and more effective writers.
Complete guidelines can be found at http://oregonpoets.org/contests/student-contest/ or obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
OREGON POETRY ASSOCIATION
1724 NE Prescott
Portland OR 97211
or requested by email, Tiel Aisha Ansari, tielansari@gmail.com
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On Sunday September 21st, Eric Witchey will teach a two-hour workshop titled Character Based Plotting. Willamette Writers Coast Branch will offer the workshop at the Newport Public Library at 2:00 pm. The workshop is free, and open to the public.
Mr. Witchey says “Successful plotting only occurs when a writer can answer the question, ‘How does the character change because of what happens next?’ Anybody can make up a series of events, but successful writers craft events that are specific to changes in character—changes that accumulate scene-by-scene until the character arc demonstrates the thematic truths of the story. In this seminar, award-winning writer Eric M. Witchey will demonstrate techniques for developing theme by crafting plot events that force incremental change in character.”
Eric Witchey is known for his ability to teach clear, useable skills that allow students to create saleable fiction. His seminars and classes grow out of his experience teaching at two universities, a community college, countless conferences, and many private seminars. Working in multiple genres, he has sold over 90 short stories and four novels into national and international markets. Writers of the Future, New Century Writers, Writers Digest, the Eric Hoffer Award Program, Short Story America, the Irish Aeon Awards, and a number of other organizations have honored his work. His how-to articles have appeared in The Writer Magazine, Writer's Digest Magazine, and other print and on-line magazines. When not writing or teaching, he tosses small bits of feather and pointy wire at laughing trout.
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BRIAN DOYLE AT BROADWAY BOOKS
Thursday, October 16 at 7 pm.
Portland writer Brian Doyle will be here to read from his new collection of essays, Children & Other Wild Animals (Oregon State University Press).
In this new book, Mr. Doyle describes encounters with astounding beings of every sort and shape. These true tales of animals and humans (generally the smaller sizes, but here and there elders and jumbos) delight blur the line between the two.
These short vignettes explore the seethe of life on this startling planet, the astonishing variety of our earthly companions, and the joys available to us when we bother to find them. Doyle’s trademark quirky prose is at once lyrical, daring, and refreshing. His essays are poignant but not pap, sharp but not sermons, and revelatory at every turn.
Mr. Doyle is the author of the novels Mink River and The Plover as well as several essay collections, a memoir, and other books. He edits Portland Magazine at the University of Portland.
This event is free and open to the public.
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LOIS LEVEEN TO READ FROM HER NEW NOVEL AT BROADWAY BOOKS
Tuesday, October 28 at 7 pm.
Portland writer Lois Leveen will be here to read from her newly published novel, Juliet’s Nurse (Atria Books).
This unusual story imagines the life of a character from Shakespeare that is only identified as “Nurse to Juliet” in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Lois Leveen has named the nurse Angelica, and this story covers the fourteen years of her life that she spends first as Juliet’s wet nurse, and then as her nanny, companion, and confidante until Juliet’s untimely death.
It’s a richly imagined tale that begins with Angelica mourning the death of her day-old child. Hired as a wet nurse for Juliet by her powerful and demanding parents, Angelica lives her days loving Juliet but also missing her husband, and also trying to deal with the strict expectations of the Church. When Juliet’s family’s darkest secrets erupt over five momentous days of passion and loss, Angelica must confront her own deepest grief to find the strength to survive.
By turn comic, sensual, and tragic, Juliet’s Nurse gives voice to one of literature’s most unforgettable characters.
Award-winning author Lois Leveen has had her work published in many scholarly and literary journals as well as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and on NPR. Her previous novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, was a Broadway Books Bestseller.
This event is free and open to the public.
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