Writing at Centrum

Elvis Has Left the Building

For the past four years Rebecca Brown has guided the Port Townsend Writers' Conference tirelessly. With a passionate understanding of what writers need in order to make breakthroughs in their work, she designed new programming, made needed changes, and was a gracious, welcoming presence to a new generation of writers at Centrum.

New writers flocked to Fort Worden from all over the country to learn and have conversations in a wide variety of forms, including fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and cross-genre writing.

Centrum Artistic Directors select faculty and design and shape Centrum’s year-round artistic experiences. Terms are kept deliberately short to allow for continuous change and renewal of programmatic areas.

Rebecca is one of the most welcoming, caring, and outward-looking people we've ever had the pleasure of working with. The tremendous work that she did for the faculty, staff, and participants behind the scenes was akin to that of a mama bear, caring for everyone in the same passionate way.

In the same way, she transformed Centrum's gatherings to include voices of divergent cultural aethetics and cultural grounding. She brought everyone together as a big house, which sparked conversations and literary practices that could not have happened any other way.

Because of Rebecca's role as Artistic Director, she was not able to teach workshops. That ends this October 9-12 as Rebecca joins poet Ilya Kaminsky in an intensive and celebratory weekend gathering that will offer residential workshops in fiction and poetry in a supportive, inspirational environment--and a chance to work with Rebecca intimately back at the Fort Worden campus. 

You'll find yourself in the companionship of a small, tightly knit group of writers, share communal meals with Rebecca and Ilya, and be able to soak yourself in the literary life with lots of conversation, while getting much individual attention to your work.

The two workshops will be separate—Rebecca will lead a workshop for fiction writers designed to lead you to new stories and new work, while Ilya will lead a similar workshop for poets—but you'll be able to interact with participants in the other genre over meals and evening gatherings.

For more information, including registration information, please follow this link. 

Thank you, Rebecca, for everything that you have done, and everything you are, and the tremendous legacy you leave behind at Centrum.

Another Successful Writer's Conference Concludes with Two Inspirational Readings

Attending the last two readings of this year's Port Townsend Writer's Conference, I was struck by the energy from both the readers and the audience. After a week of readings, workshops, lectures it would be easy for a group to wear down. This conference ended the week with two vibrant and stimulating readings.

Kathleen Alcala and Chris Abani read Friday night to a packed house. Alcala's haunting essay about filicide was both sobering and thought-provoking. Abani followed with a reading whose theme reverberated with that of Alcala. Readings with this sort of inspired spontaneity are a rare treat.

Kim Addonizio and Gary Lilley finished the conference with a dynamic reading punctuated with the blues. They traded poems like jazz soloists trading fours and their two voices, radically different (both their literal voice and their stylistic voice on the page) created dissonance and harmony as themes of war, love, sex, tragedy flew between them. Lilley's smooth voice spoke or sang along with Addonizio's lively harmonica as lovely counterpoint to their poems.

As I left the Joseph Wheeler theater the chatter between individuals was that perfect blend of satisfaction and stimulation. The tone of the conference was one of providing (information, models, entertainment) and one of whetting the creative palate's appetite. This is exactly what one wants from such an experience. And is there a better landscape in the world to walk out into after hearing great literature than the sun setting over Fort Warden? It is an experience difficult to improve upon.

I congratulate the Centrum staff, the faculty, and the participants for a great week.

Readings and Lectures...Now Free

We're in the midst of an exciting week here at the Port Townsend Writers' Conference. One of the most popular components of the Conference is the public Readings and Lectures series. Each night during the Conference (and most afternoons), our faculty read and engage in a stimulating dialogue on writing and the world that engages it.

Thanks to the Washington Council for the Humanities, all public readings and lectures are free. Please join us at these events--a full schedule is available on our Readings and Lectures information page.

Two Conference Workshop Spaces Open

Once space in the Selah Saterstrom nonfiction workshop and one space Kim Addonizio poetry workshop have opened up. If you are planning on making the Conference part of your summer writing plans and would like to register for either of these workshops, let us know at 360.385.3102, x131.

If you are already registered, we'll see you at the Fort on Sunday!

Yoga for Writers

If you are a 2008 Conference participant we want to make sure you know that your brain isn't the only thing that can get worked-out during the week.

Madrona MindBody Institute, Fort Worden's "well-being and moving arts program,"  is generously offering Conference participants a discount on their schedule of Dance, Pliates, Yoga, and Nia classes. You'll find a discount card in your participant packet when you check-in.

View their class schedule, and see what else is going on at the Fort while you are here, at our online Fort calendar.

Conference Coming Up!

The thirty-sixth annual Port Townsend Writers' Conference is now fewer than two weeks away! We've just printed the workshop booklet, participants are finalizing travel plans, and more people are registered than for any other Conference in history.

For those of you looking to combine an amazing residential retreat with morning workshop time, there is one spot left, in the Chris Abani fiction workshop. If you are interested in snagging either of this spot while it is available, please call Registrar Hali Johnson at 360.385.3102, x114 or program manager Jordan Hartt at 360.385.3102, x131. See you soon!