UNC
Asheville's Great Smokies Writing Program (GSWP) will present 12 workshops this
fall, in fiction, memoir, poetry, the business aspects of writing, and more,
taught by some of Asheville’s finest authors. Classes will be offered in many
community locations in Asheville, and in Black Mountain and Burnsville. Classes
range from five to 15 weeks.
The
Poetry of Politics: A Poetry Workshop with Tina Barr – This course will
consider poems on the politics of war, genocide, racism, gender, damage to the
earth, and tangentially, religion. The class will study poems by outside
writers and devote considerable class time to participant work. Participants
will be encouraged to experiment with different tonal registers and
forms. The class is open to new and experienced writers. Barr’s
poetry volumes include The Gathering Eye (Tupelo Press Editor’s Award)
and Kaleidoscope, which was a finalist in the poetry category for the
Eric Hoffer Book Award. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Sept. 11,
Mondays, 1-3:30 p.m., at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W. State
St., Black Mountain.
Stories
into Stanzas: Writing Narrative Poetry with Kenneth Chamlee – Narrative
poems share the basic elements of fiction but they rely on compression,
suggestion, extreme selectivity of detail, and terse or absent denouements to
achieve their power. This class will examine the oral origins of narrative
tradition—the epic and the ballad—then move into creating poems built on
chronology. Chamlee is the I. B. Seese Distinguished Professor of English at
Brevard College and directs the annual Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference.
His poems have appeared in The Asheville Poetry Review, The
Cumberland Poetry Review, The Greensboro Review, and many
others. Class meets for 10 weeks beginning Sept. 11, Mondays, 2-4:30
p.m., at Biltmore Park Clubhouse, 1067 Columbine Road, Asheville.
The
Literary Ecosystem: How It Works and the Writer's Role, with Caroline
Christopoulos and Lauren Harr – This course on the business of writing will
tackle the idea of literary stewardship, the various roles within the
publishing industry, self vs. traditional publishing, and pre- and
post-publishing promotion. Writers will work on their elevator pitches, ways to
connect with agents, editors, other writers, bookstores, the media and more.
Christopoulos and Harr operate Gold Leaf Literary Services which provides a
range of publicity and promotion assistance for authors. Both also have years
of experience in independent bookstores and publishing. Class meets for five
weeks beginning Oct. 18, Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m., at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial,
52 N. Market St., Asheville.
The
“How To” Class in Memoir: Discovering, Structuring and Enlivening Your Story,
with Christine Hale – Designed for those wishing to start a memoir or
revive one that is “stuck,” this class will offer techniques and writing
exercises in memory-based storytelling. Each participant will have the
opportunity to share their writing, to use the workshop to help bring
recognition and development of emerging themes that will engage readers. Hale
is the author of A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice: A Memoir in Four
Meditations, which she discussed last fall with Frank Stasio on public
radio’s The State of Things. Her debut novel, Basil’s Dream,
received honorable mention in the 2010 Library of Virginia Literary Awards. Class
meets for 10 weeks beginning Sept. 14, Thursdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at the Thomas
Wolfe Memorial, 52 N. Market St., Asheville.
Opening
Up to Being a Writer: Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Tommy Hays
– Hays, the acclaimed novelist and GSWP executive director, often teaches
master classes, but this fall his course is for writers of all levels of
experience. “One of the hardest things about writing is admitting to others
that we do it,” says Hays. “Yet it’s not until we take the next step and offer
our work up to our community that we own up to what we’re attempting. And
it’s usually not until we seek feedback that we improve.” The class will be in
part devoted to craft discussion, but the main emphasis will be reading and
responding thoughtfully to participants’ work. Hays won the Thomas Wolfe
Memorial Literary Award for his novel, In the Family Way. His novel, The
Pleasure Was Mine, was a finalist for the fiction award from the Southern
Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), and his middle grade novel, What I
Came to Tell You, was chosen by SIBA as an Okra Pick. Class meets for 15
weeks beginning Aug. 29, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at RiverLink, 170 Lyman St.,
Asheville.
Heroes,
Villains, and the Nutcase Next Door: A Fiction Workshop with Marjorie Klein –
Using exercises focused on description, dialogue, voice, point of view and
sense place, participants will experiment with ways to create complex and
unforgettable characters for their short stories or novels. Klein has just
completed her second novel, not yet published. Her first, Test Pattern, was
a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. She also wrote for
the Miami Herald’s Sunday magazine for 20 years. Class meets for 10
weeks beginning Sept. 13, Wednesdays, 4-6:30 p.m. at Hanger Hall, 64 W.T.
Weaver Blvd., Asheville.
Synergy
Central: An Advanced Creative Prose Workshop with Vicki Lane – This course
offers intermediate and advanced students a chance to have up to 54 pages of
work—fiction, non-fiction, memoir, or any combination thereof —critiqued by their
peers and thoroughly line-edited by the instructor. There also will be brief
writing sessions, responding to prompts designed to expand each writer’s range.
Lane is the author of the Elizabeth Goodweather mystery series from Bantam
Dell: Signs in the Blood, Art’s Blood, Old Wounds, In a Dark Season, and
Under the Skin, as well as a standalone, The Day of Small Things.
Class meets for 15 weeks beginning Aug. 30, Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at
Asheville School, 360 Asheville School Rd., Asheville.
Rewilding
the Language of Landscape: A Workshop on Topography and Place with Mesha Maren
– This workshop will explore various ways to use landscape – both urban and
rural – to build tension, deepen characters and develop a sense of shared
experience. While working on expanding, specifying and regionalizing the
language used to write about landscape, the class also will explore
participants’ and their characters’ emotional and psychological relationships
to past and present places. This workshop is open to writers of fiction,
nonfiction and prose poetry. Maren’s debut novel, Sugar Run, is
forthcoming from Algonquin Books next year. Her short stories and essays have
appeared in Tin House, The Oxford American and other literary journals,
and she has won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. Class meets for 10 weeks
beginning Sept. 13, Wednesdays 6-8:30 p.m. at RiverLink, 170 Lyman St.,
Asheville.
Heart
of the Story: Workshop on Writing for Young Children with Joy Neaves and
Cynthia Surrisi – This workshop is designed for serious writers who are
working on a longer piece of fiction intended for children or young adults.
Weekly class discussions will cover topics ranging from aspects of craft to
ways to approach editors and agents. The course emphasis will be on reading and
critiquing participants’ work, as well as revision-focused strategies to
evaluate one’s own work critically. Co-taught by a children’s book editor and a
middle grade/young adult author, this workshop focuses on distilling the
narrative arc to find the core of the story while fostering the heart of the
writer’s aims. Neaves, formerly an editor for Front Street, is a freelance
editor of children’s books at namelos. Surrisi is the author of a series, the
Quinnie Boyd Mysteries and a picture book scheduled for publication in 2018. Class
meets for 10 weeks beginning Sept. 12, Tuesdays 6-8:30 p.m. at West Asheville
Flat Iron Writers Room, 5 Covington St., Asheville.
Conflicted:
Developing Tension in Poems, with Eric Nelson – This workshop for writers
of all levels will focus on developing conflict as a driving force to create
depth and complexity in poems. Participants will discuss and practice multiple
elements, including imagery, figurative language and musicality, and examine
how conflict can be used in different poetic forms, from haiku to epics.
Nelson’s six books of poetry include the collections Some Wonder, which
won the Gival Press Poetry Award; Terrestrials, winner of the Texas
Review Poetry Award; and The Interpretation of Waking Life, which won
the University of Arkansas Poetry Award. Class meets for 10 weeks, beginning
Sept. 11, Mondays 6-8:30 p.m. at RiverLink, 170 Lyman St., Asheville.
Writing
a Memoir: Finding the Themes, Shaping the Scenes, with Catherine Reid – For
writers of memoir, a key challenge is describing special moments, often small
and quiet, in ways that convey their larger context, be it love, loss, grief,
joy, awe, or despair. In this course, participants will experiment with
techniques for crafting such scenes – making memorable the extraordinary
qualities of ordinary moments – using prompts, discussions about published
work, and a variety of short and long essay assignments. Reid is the author of
two works of nonfiction: Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst and Falling
into Place: An Intimate Geography of Home (listed as one of “ten books to
pick up now” by O, The Oprah Magazine). Class meets for 10 weeks beginning
Sept. 13, Wednesdays, 4:30-7 p.m.at the Mountain
Heritage Center, 113 Green Mountain Dr., Burnsville.
Prose
Master Class with Elizabeth Lutyens – The Prose Master Class is a next step
for those seeking an intensive writing and critiquing experience. This
small–group workshop is limited to experienced writers who are working on an
ongoing project: a collection of essays or stories, a novel, a memoir. The
writer should have at least 60 pages ready to submit for three critiques during
the semester. Each class begins with a craft session requiring outside reading,
sometimes led by a student wishing to share his/her examination of an aspect of
craft, or with a writing exercise to practice craft elements and inspire new
approaches to ongoing projects. The emphasis is on the review of participants’
work, which includes extensive and in-depth comments from the instructor.
Admission to the Prose Master Class is by invitation from Tommy Hays (thays@unca.edu) or from Elizabeth Lutyens (elutyens@unca.edu), who has led this class
for eight years. A former journalist, Lutyens is the editor in chief of The
Great Smokies Review, the online literary magazine published by UNC
Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program. Class meets for 15 weeks
beginning Aug. 29, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. at Asheville School, 360 Asheville
School Rd., Asheville.
No comments:
Post a Comment