Chris Abani is the author of, most recently, “Song for Night,” a novella about a child soldier in Africa. The Los Angeles Times called Abani’s novel “Graceland,” the story of a Nigerian Elvis impersonator, one of the best books of 2002. Other books include “The Virgin of Flames,” “Becoming Abigail,” and “Hands Washing Water.”
Chris Abani’s Class Description
This workshop will explore layering in fiction to see where thematic issues connect with narrative and where the linear narrative can be interrupted to apply the notion of the lyric dip. We will explore the line where epic concerns intersect with the personal narrative, discuss questions of morality, fight over the idea of the compassionate imagination, and question deep song. These discussions are meant to help each writer uncover the heart of their own aesthetic, to get a handle on it. Register
Erin Belieu is the author of three poetry collections, all from Copper Canyon Press. Her first book, Infanta (1995), was a winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Hayden Carruth. Infanta was chosen as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Library Journal. Erin's second collection, One Above & One Below, was the winner of the Midland Authors Prize in poetry and the Ohioana prize. Belieu's most recent collection, Black Box, was a finalist in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Belieu's poems have appeared in places such as The Best American Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, and AGNI. Belieu is presently Director of The Graduate Creative Writing Program at Florida State University.
Erin Belieu's Class Description
"Vision and Revision": As most of the heavy lifting when making a poem happens in the revision process, we'll spend our time in this workshop discussing strategies and techniques for taking drafts to the next level. Why do some poems refuse to stand up straight? How do I construct a narrative to support the story my poem tells? Is my poem telling the best part of the story? How and why does a lyric work? What are other formal choices that might suit the voice and imagery with which I'm working? There are constructive strategies one can learn to help answer these questions, ones that will keep you writing well beyond our workshop. My goal is to give you new tools for your tool box that will help you solve these conundrums when you're working on your own. This process may involve generating new poems during our time together at the conference as well as poems you'll be asked to bring with you to class. Register
Denise Chávez is widely regarded as one of the leading playwrights and novelists of the southwestern United States. She is also the Artistic Director of the Crossing Borders Festival in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her novels include “The Last of the Menu Girls,” “Face of an Angel,” and “Loving Pedro Infante.”
Denise Chávez’s Class Description
In this hands-on, hearts-bared, soul-strong workshop we will look at the family stories that have become our "living myths", our legends, our charges, and our opportunity to "heal the past". As Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn says, "By looking deeply at the present we can go back and heal the past." We will explore, enlighten, and inform ourselves about who we really are as we share poems/memoir, docu-drams, and stories about the legends we carry within us. Bring: a photo of yourself as a child, a photo of a relative you don't know (family albums are littered with these unknown, highly interesting-looking kin), something familial that you love, something familial that you hate (this may, in fact, be the same item, whether natural object or memento), an unlined journal/sketch book/art paper, and any art medium you like. And bring some paper to share. Register
Martín Espada is the author of sixteen books, including two recent collections of poems: “Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas,” and “La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig.” He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two NEA Fellowships. Poems have appeared in many periodicals, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Nation.
Martín Espada's Class Description:
This is a generative workshop, rather than a workshop for the critique of poems. Participants generate new work based on the distribution and discussion of poems by Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Claribel Alegría, William Carlos Williams, Edgar Lee Masters, Wilfred Owen and Grace Paley, among others. We will write poems of unheeded prophecy, argue in the voices of the dead, wander in the company of our ancestors through the territory of our own names, curse our enemies (real or imagined), and apologize for things we’re secretly glad we did. Workshop participants write on the spot—or beneath a favorite tree--then share their work, reading aloud to the group (for thunderous applause only). The objective is the creation of a new poem every day, channeling the “barbaric yawp” within. Register
Dana Levin’s first book, “In the Surgical Theatre,” was published by American Poetry Review in 1999; Copper Canyon Press brought out her second book, “Wedding Day,” in 2005. Work has appeared in many anthologies, including “The Poet’s Child,” “This Art,” and “American Poetry,” The Next Generation, and in many literary journals. Register
Dana Levin's Class Description: Poetry and the Unconscious
“Life’s nonsense pierces us with strange relation,” writes poet Wallace Stevens. In this workshop, for intermediate and advanced writers, we will explore how to “make sense” of poetry’s relationship to the unconscious and the use we can make of this relationship for poetic composition and revision. We will discuss the notion of associative logic, look at poems by poets such as Charles Simic, Tomaz Salamun, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein, and embark on a two-part poetry exercise that engages the unconscious, source of our strangest visions. Each participant, before the conference begins, will submit two poems (no more than five pages total) for group critique: you are encouraged to submit, for at least one of them, a messy, half-baked poem! The workshop will end with a round of Japanese Renga, collaborative poetry play of the ancient haiku masters.
Ana Menéndez was born to Cuban exile parents who fled to Los Angeles, California in 1964. She worked as a journalist in the nineteen-nineties, before turning to fiction with the collection of short stories “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd.” Menéndez published her first novel, “Loving Che,” in 2003. Her second, “The Last War,” appeared in 2009.
Ana Menéndez's Class Description: “Van Gogh Story Marathon”
Have you ever seen Van Gogh’s early drawings? They were terrible. How did he become one of the most celebrated artists of the modern era? Practice. Study. Practice. And then more practice. In this course, we will take heed, writing a story a day. The opening line will be given to you the day before. The following day, you must come to class with a fully-formed story with a beginning, middle and end. No experimental stuff. Straight, traditional story. Though these will be shorties: just six hundred words. No more, no less. To prove she can take her own medicine, the instructor will work along with you. In class, we will discuss the stories and do reading and exercises designed to help you imagine and produce excellent shorties. What to bring to class: a pen, a notebook, a number two pencil, an eraser and an 8 x 11 drawing pad – doesn’t have to be fancy, just something you can draw on. Register
Bich Minh Nguyen published her first novel, “Short Girls,” in 2009. Her memoir-in-essays, “Stealing Buddha's Dinner,” was published by Viking Penguin in 2007 and received the PEN/Jerard Award. Her work has also appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. She currently teaches at Purdue University. Register
Bich Minh Nguyen's Class Description: What stories need to be told—should be told—in the “truth genre” of creative nonfiction? In pursuit of this question, this workshop will explore the many possibilities that memoirs and personal essays can offer. As we discuss how to use elements of meditation, reflection, and observation in our work, we will examine aspects of creative nonfiction writing such as narrative technique, voice, language, and structure. We will also discuss core issues of creative nonfiction, including the role of the “I,” observation and witness, and ideas on truth, memory, and subjectivity. Please submit in advance a work of memoir or personal essay of up to 4,500 words for workshop.
Peter Orner, although perhaps best known for his novel "The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo," is one of the finest teachers and short-story writers in the country. His story "The Raft" was selected for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories of 2001 by Barbara Kingsolver, and work has appeared in The Atlantic and the Paris Review, among other venues. "The Raft" is being made into a movie starring Ed Asner. Register
Peter Orner’s Class Description
In this workshop we’ll discuss how to create stories from so-called “foreign” material. How does a writer approach writing about a culture that may not be quite their own? What are some of the pitfalls? What are some of the joys? We’ll talk about people and culture, as well as landscape and language—and everything and anything else that comes to mind as we explore ways to tell stories about places not necessarily our own.
