Last night, Mark Doty won the 2008 National Book Award for Poetry for "Fire to Fire." An interview with Mark and an excerpt from the book appears on the site for the National Book Foundation, www.nationalbook.org/nba2008.html, which will also post a video of the ceremony later tonight!
"Missionaries"
In June I was in Havana as part of a four piece band that included my friends Mona and Ryc, and my daughter Caito. We were traveling under the auspices of Cuba AyUUda, a First Unitarian Church of Portland program meant to build mutual understanding between Cubans and Americans. The problem with going to Cuba to build understanding is that the United States government has for nearly fifty years conducted a blockade against Cuba that includes forbidding travel to that country by US citizens. So if you’re American you can’t go to Cuba to do anything.
But there are loopholes. The U.S. Treasury department authorizes certain travel “licenses.” Americans can go to Cuba to attend international conferences, do academic research, or carry out cultural, educational, and religious projects. Or they used to be able to. The administration of George W. Bush canceled almost all licenses except those granted to church groups engaged in full time evangelical missionary work.
Poet and novelist Bill Ransom, the founder of the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, will be reading from his new collection of poems, "The Woman and the War Baby" at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle. The reading happens Sunday, October 26, at 3 pm in the Cabaret Room.
We recently put the final, celebratory finish to the Autumn Writers' Intensive, in which fiction and poetry writers worked intimately with Rebecca Brown and Ilya Kaminsky. Morning workshops, afternoon conversations and writing time, and two readings--a participant reading over wine and a public reading featuring Rebecca and Ilya--were some of the highlights of the experience.
We are very close to rolling out registration and details for 2009 offerings. May 7-10, Poet Carolyn Forché and novelist Micheline Aharonian Marcom will be leading workshops in writing in witness to global trends. How do we, as writers, bear witness to the events of our time through literary craft?
The 2009 Port Townsend Writers' Conference will take place the week of July 12-19, featuring Chris Abani, Peter Orner, Mark Doty, Robert Wrigley, Kim Barnes, Tony Cohan, Denise Chávez, Liliana Valenzuela, and Adrian Castro leading workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and cross-genre prose in writing about family.
September 17-20, poet Quincy Troupe will be leading a "Jazz and the Word" workshop focusing on how to use the language of jazz as a mechanism for accessing new ways to tell stories.
Some excellent news! We are only two-and-a-half weeks away from one of the most eagerly anticipated workshops we've ever offered--the Autumn Writers' Intensive in fiction with Rebecca Brown and poetry with Ilya Kaminsky. Limited space remains in each workshop; more information, including registration information, can be found by following this link, as well as by clicking on the text to the right.
Rebecca will be leading a workshop in generating new kinds of fiction; Ilya's class will focus on generating new poetry. Housing is in Centrum's artist cabins on the hillsides, with private rooms and breathtaking views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet.
We have just a little over a month to wait until the Autumn Writers' Intensive with Rebecca Brown and Ilya Kaminsky, and very limited space remains.
More information, including registration information, can be found by following this link, as well as by clicking on the text to the right.
Rebecca will be leading a workshop in generating new kinds of fiction; Ilya's class will focus on poetry. Housing is in Centrum's artist cabins on the hillsides, with private rooms and breathtaking views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet.
Artistic Director Cristina García has created a series of workshop events and readings and lectures series that will be held at Fort Worden State Park throughout the year.
Three workshop events--one in May, one in July, and one in September--will be punctuated with multiple readings, lectures, and special events at the Fort.
The lineup of readers, lecturers, and workshop leaders includes Carolyn Forché, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Joe Stroud, Bill Ransom, Mark Doty, Chris Abani, Peter Orner, Adrian Castro, Denise Chávez, Liliana Valenzuela, Cynthia Kadohata, Tony Cohan, Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Quincy Troupe, and many, many others.
Readings, lectures, and workshop dates are set, and will be available soon!
Registration is currently available for the October 9-12 Autumn Writers' Intensive with Rebecca Brown and Ilya Kaminsky. For more information, including registration, follow this link or call Centrum at 360.385.3102, x114.
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.
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.
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!
