University of Connecticut |
2010-11 CRAFT OF WRITING
SATURDAY SEMINAR SERIES
Are you an aspiring writer who is looking for inspiration? Do you need a little push? Do you want to learn from the masters, published authors who have navigated the writing process and succeeded in getting their work published? The Craft of Writing Saturday Seminar series is just for you! Every session is facilitated by a published author who will help you find ideas in surprising places and inspire you to complete that unfinished draft.
All sessions are held in Stern Lounge, Room 217 of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) building on the main campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs from 9 AM-12 PM, unless otherwise noted. The registration fee of $40 per session includes morning refreshments and materials developed by the presenters. UConn graduate students may attend free of charge.
The CT Writing Project is transitioning to a new online registration system. To register for any of these sessions until the new system is up and running, please click here to download the CWP Seminar Registration Form. This is a Word document that you can e-mail, mail or fax. Please call CWP at 860-486-2328 if you have any questions.
OCTOBER 16, 2010
Writing the World: Finding Ideas for All Genres of Writing
It seems obvious to say that ideas for writing are all around us, but it’s true. As writers, we need to develop the habit of mind that awakens us to the world and the endless opportunities it holds for us. How? We’ll start by examining the work of established writers whose work shows us that ideas for writing live in our daily lives. Then it’s our turn. Through a series of writing exercises, we’ll practice awakening our minds and senses so that we know where to look and how to listen for ideas for writing that literally are all around us. Writers will leave with the beginnings of several pieces of writing in different genres.
Audience: All levels of experience welcome.
Brief Bio: Lynn Hoffman’s collection of Poetry, Like Fire Catching Wind, was published in 2006 by Antrim House. Two of her screenplays, Tic & Tiny (short) and A Matter of Faith (feature), were selected for the 2009 CT Film Festival. Excerpts from two of her full-length plays, The Sidewalk Living Room and Catch, were selected for the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts’ Page to Stage Reading Series, 2008 and 2009. Lynn is a Teaching Artist for the Bushnell Partner’s Program. She has worked as a writing consultant for the Muticultural Arts & Technology Interdistrict Program, Camp Renaissance, the Academy for Young Writers (which she co-founded), Camp Renaissance, the World Scholar-Athlete Games, and she was invited to present a workshop for the 2008 Asnuntuck Community College Poetry Festival. In 2009, she won 1St Place for Poetry in the CT Writing Project/UCONN Annual Writing Competition, and one of her poems was selected for UCONN’s “Poetic Journeys Project.
NOVEMBER 13, 2010
You Can Finally Do It: Write the Story You’ve Been Meaning to Write
Whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, or both, it will be the goal of this particular Saturday to finish the draft of a story. Come with an idea, a copy of one of your favorite stories ever, or come with nothing but the willingness to see if you can find a story that matters to you. For the three hours we are together, we’ll use the opportunity of having an authentic audience as a tool to help us finish a draft that has otherwise eluded us. This workshop should help teachers conceive the stories they want to tell, deepen their understanding of literature by attempting to write it, and offer classroom activities that will help students think creatively.
Audience: For any teacher who has ever wanted to write a story and would also like to learn how to motivate student writers in his/her classroom to write one too.
Brief Bio: Bill Torgerson teaches in the Institute for Writing Studies at St. John’s University (NY). His short stories, poems, and articles about teaching have appeared in numerous journals, his novel Love on the Big Screen is forthcoming from Cherokee McGhee Press in January, 2011, and you can check out his blog at http://thetorg.wordpress.com/.
DECEMBER 11, 2010
Playwriting Workshop: Surprising Places to Find Your First (or Next) Big Idea
This playwriting workshop will focus on generating ideas for characters, stories, scenes, and plays. Through quick and short writing exercises designed to help writers find ideas in surprising places, participants will learn to allow themselves to be surprised as they write and, in turn, to surprise their readers. Writers will have the opportunity to share their work and respond to others’ pieces using a format for feedback that is positive and useful. All writers will leave the workshop with the beginnings to many a possible character and scene; teachers will leave with a battery of activities to generate creativity and inspire writing with their own students.
Audience: Open to all levels.
Brief Bio: Jennifer Roberts is the Director of Education at Hartford Stage. Before coming to Hartford Stage, she worked as the Resident Teaching Artist at George Street Playhouse and served as the Artistic Director of the Papermill Children’s Theatre in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Her work as a director and playwright has been recognized by the Austin Circle of Theatres and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. She has also served as an AATE Playwrights in Our Schools mentor. Her essay on the future of theatre and education, “Changing the ‘How,’” was published in the November 2008 issue of TCG’s American Theatre magazine. She received a Master’s degree of Fine Arts in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin.
JANUARY 8, 2011
Jumpstart
We’ll work on springing into new areas of writing and new writing projects as well as ways to re-energize an existing project. The workshop will involve free-writing, project mapping, and discussion of the writing and publishing process.
Audience: For writers of any age or stage.
Brief Bio: Karen Romano Young is an author and illustrator with more than 20 children’s books to her credit. Her new book is Doodlebug:A Novel in Doodles, published in 2010. Her 2009-2010 series Science Fair Winners (National Geographic), was named one of Booklist's Top Ten Nonfiction Series. Karen writes science books and articles for kids and adults, and works as a shipboard education coordinator, blogging from aboard science research ships and the deep-diving submarine Alvin.Her most recent cruise took her to the Arctic Ocean aboard an icebreaker, along with scientists studying climate change. Find out more at http://www.karenromanoyoung.com/.
FEBRUARY 12, 2011
Turning Inside Out and Outside In: The Poetry of Social Commitment
“To claim that literature on its own is going to change reality would be an act of madness or arrogance. It seems to me no less foolish to deny that it can aid in making this change.” -- Eduardo Galeano
Effective socially engaged poetry does not neglect the individual experience; rather, it seeks to render the beautiful and searing experiences of individuals:people who work, get laid off, fight, live, starve, thrive and die in a troubled world. As teachers who care deeply about our students, we have a concrete knowledge of how social forces like race and class help to shape individual experiences, and how individual experiences, in turn, shape our world. In this workshop, we will leave behind the “debate” as to whether good poetry can be political to ask more urgent questions: How do I see my life in history? How do I avoid complacency on the one hand and cynicism on the other? What can I do to make the world a better place for myself and others? How can I write poetry that’s up to the task of facing these questions? We will read model poets, draw upon our own lived experiences, investigate suppressed news stories, and take part in exercises that will help us to begin writing personally and socially meaningful poems.
Audience: Open to anyone with an interest in writing poems of advocacy. All levels of experience welcome.
Brief Bio: Jon Andersen, a CT Writing Project Teacher-Consultant, taught high school English and special education for 11 years. He is the author of a book of poems, Stomp and Sing (Curbstone/Northwestern University Press), and the editor of an anthology, Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry form the Other U.S.A. (Smokestack Book-UK, 2008). Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of English at Quinebaug Valley Community College, and lives with his wife, fellow teacher and writer Denise Abercrombie, and their two sons in Storrs.
MARCH 12, 2011
It All Depends on How You Look at It: Point of View in Fiction
In this workshop we’ll examine narrative point of view (POV) in YA and mid-grade novels. We’ll read excerpts of published books to identify and define different points of view and to demonstrate how choice of POV is more than choosing to write “I” or “he/she.” Then we’ll individually try our hand at writing one scene from three different points of view. We’ll learn how POV affects narrative style, focus, and emotion in fiction. Bring a notebook and pen, and a scene from your own work-in-progress if you like.
Audience: For middle and high school teachers.
Brief Bio: Stacy DeKeyser is the author of three books for middle-grade and teen readers. Her novel, Jump the Cracks, is a finalist for Missouri’s 2010-11Truman Award, which is chosen by students in grades 6-8. The same book won the 2009 CT Press Club Award for YA Fiction. Stacy received a Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Work-in-Progress Grant and an Artist Fellowship Grant from the State of CT.
APRIL 9, 2011
Discovering Poetry
When and how do we first discover poetry? The meter, the cadence of the lines, the unique sounds. Was this first encounter positive or negative, perhaps it was both? In this workshop we will read poems that focus on a speaker’s discovery of poetry, and writing prompts will help students in the beginning stages of crafting poems of their own.
Sean Frederick Forbes is a poet who was recently shortlisted for the Harper-Wood Studentship for English Poetry and Literature. He has studied at Queens College, The City University of New York (BA), and UCONN (MA, and PhD candidate). He is writing a creative dissertation, a full-length book of poetry titled “Providencia.” His poems have appeared in “Crab Orchard Review,” “Poetic Journeys,” and “The Long River Review