Writing at Centrum

The Countdown: Twelve Days Remaining!

As we celebrate the last day of June, we also look ahead to next month! Only twelve days remain until the beginning of the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, an intense week-long celebration of literature and the writing life. Enclosed is a picture taken by Centrum alumna Elizabeth Thorpe during the 2008 Conference.

We'll be keeping our Readings and Lectures series free and open to the public this year, thanks to a generous grant from Humanities Washington. Every evening at 7:30, two writers will read from new work. It all starts the evening of July 12, with readings by National Book Award-winning poet Mark Doty and famed western novelist and nonfiction writers Kim Barnes, whose new manuscript-in-progress is set in Saudi Arabia.  

The Countdown Continues...Thirteen Days To Go!

We're now thirteen days--fewer than two weeks!--away from the thirty-sixth annual Port Townsend Writers' Conference. To celebrate, here's a picture taken during last year's Conference. Very Northwest: the water, the rocks, the wet sand, the empty blue sky.

For those of you who are not registered for the Conference, there are still ways to enjoy everything that the Conference has to offer. The public Readings and Lectures series will present such writers as Chris Abani, Kim Barnes, Mark Doty, Peter Orner, and Robert Wrigley giving free public readings and craft lectures every afternoon at 4 pm and every evening at 7:30 pm. (The week of July 12-18)

The only other way to still get involved is through the afternoon workshops. These go from 2 to 3:30 pm every afternoon, featuring a full spectrum of topics in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. For more information, please call 360.385.3102, x131, or browse our afternoon workshop page.

Continuing the Countdown to the Port Townsend Writers' Conference

As we mark down the time to the thirty-sixth annual Port Townsend Writers' Conference, we're showing a series of photos taken during the 2008 gathering. The building to the right might look familiar to you! Since 1974, it's hosted such writers as Conference founder Bill Ransom, Kenneth Rexroth, Ken Kesey, Alice Walker, James Welch, and many, many others. This year, it'll be the site of workshops by such writers as Chris Abani, Kim Barnes, Mark Doty, Robert Wrigley, Peter Orner, and many others, as well as the site of the Conference bookstore, computer lab, and all of the morning freewrites.

We'll see you here soon! If you aren't registered, and would like to be a part of the gathering, please call 360.385.3102, x131.

Countdown to the Port Townsend Writers' Conference!

We're at twenty days, now, until the thirty-sixth annual Port Townsend Writers' Conference! As we mark the time down, we're showing a series of photos taken by PTWC alum Elizabeth Thorpe. I love the one on the left, here. A palette of gray and light blue, the hidden light's reflection on the water, the dark sand like a bass note on the bottom layer.

Right now, PTWC writers are making their flight plans--remember to register for the shuttle!--sending in manuscripts, and getting ready for what will be a fabulous week.

Countdown to the Port Townsend Writers' Conference

There are only twenty-four days to go until to the thirty-sixth annual (and largest ever) Port Townsend Writers' Conference! To celebrate, Conference alum and 2009 resident Elizabeth Thorpe sent us this beautiful picture of the sunrise breaking open above Whidbey Island; or to bring in Homer: dawn showing again, with rosy fingers.

Check-in starts Sunday, July 12 at 3:30 pm for the thirty-sixth consecutive Conference. Everything is completely sold out, except for the afternoon workshops, but the readings and lectures (see link to the right) are free to the public and should be amazing this year.

One Poetry Option Left

There is only one poetry option left at the 2009 Port Townsend Writers' Conference--one space is available in Adrian Castro's poetry workshop. All other options have sold out; waiting lists, however, have been started.

Space also remains in the afternoon workshops.

To reserve your space, call our Registrar directly at 360.385.3102, x114.

Kim Barnes Interview

There's a great new interview with novelist and memoir-writer Kim Barnes up at Brevity magazine.

Barnes’ novel "A Country Called Home" was published by Knopf in 2008. She is also is the author of the novel "Finding Caruso" and two memoirs: "In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country," winner of the PEN-Jerard Award and finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize, and "Hungry for the World." She is co-editor, with Mary Clearman Blew, of "Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers", and, with Claire Davis, of "Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty."

Her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including MORE Magazine, Fourth Genre, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. She teaches writing at the University of Idaho and lives with her husband, the poet Robert Wrigley, on Moscow Mountain.

Barnes will be in residence during the 2009 Port Townsend Writers Conference, leading a workshop in nonfiction. She will be giving a public reading on July 12, at 7:30 pm at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater.

Centrum Writers Exchange Registration Update

Carolyn Forché's May 7-10 poetry workshop, part of the "Literature of Witness" event with Micheline Aharonian Marcom, is now completely sold out and a waiting list has been started.

For the July 12-19 Port Townsend Writers' Conference, the Chris Abani, Kim Barnes, Mark Doty, and Robert Wrigley workshops are all full, with waiting lists started. Two spaces only remain in the Denise Chávez creative nonfiction workshop, which is focused on writing about family. 

For poets, space is available in Adrian Castro's workshop; for fiction writers: Peter Orner; and for nonfiction writers, Tony Cohan will be leading a workshop. Also: noted Spanish-English translator Liliana Valenzuela will be leading a workshop, as well.   

Registration is available online by following this link, as well as by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x114.

Poetry Options at the Port Townsend Writers' Conference

As 2009 opens we're very excited about what's happening at Centrum this year, with more year-round readings, workshops, craft lectures, and community events than ever before.

During the week-long Port Townsend Writers' Conference, happening July 12-19, there will be three separate morning workshops in poetry, featuring Robert Wrigley and Adrian Castro (pictured) leading generative workshops, and Mark Doty leading a master class workshops for poets currently collating their poems into a manuscript.

The Robert Wrigley workshop has only one space left, out of fourteen, and the Adrian Castro and Mark Doty workshops each has space available, as well.

"Adrian Castro that wonderfully rare combination," says Artistic Director Cristina García. "He's an artist who melds the esoteric with the sensual, the philosophical with the folkloric, all with a rhythm and sensibility uniquely his own. This year, I served as a judge for the Cintas Fellowship, the foremost prize of its kind for Cuban artists and was delighted to learn that my fellow judges were as enamored of Adrian’s writing as I was. We unanimously voted to give him a Cintas. Adrian is a very popular teacher and performer in Miami and his presence in Port Townsend this summer will be a great gift to the West Coast."

Registration for all workshops is available here, as well as by calling the Centrum Registrar at 360.385.3102, 114.

Native State: The Work of Tony Cohan

At the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, we're excited to be able to offer more creative nonfiction workshops in 2009 than ever before in our thirty-seven year history, with four separate core morning workshops in creative nonfiction featuring instructors Kim Barnes, Denise Chávez, Liliana Valenzuela, and Tony Cohan (pictured)--whose memoirs On Mexican Time and Native State have helped to define the fom.

"When I first read On Mexican Time, I had the distinct feeling that I'd met a soulmate, someone who struggled through and celebrated life in the way I most cherished," says Artistic Director Cristina García.

"His quest to find a home in another culture spoke to me deeply, and his mishaps were hilariously relayed. But it wasn't until I read his memoir Native State that  Irealized he was a true master of the form. Cutting between his own riveting story and that of his difficult, dying father's, Native State is a brilliant testament to forgiveness. His summer workshop should be remarkable."

More information on all of these workshops is available here. Registration for these workshops, as well as our fiction and poetry workshops, is available online over the holiday break.