TEACHING
In my classes, students, as apprentices acquiring a craft, read and discuss writing by master authors. Practicing with prompts and exercises, they discover by doing. In work-shopping, they learn from each other. At the end, they are equipped with skills to continue working on their projects.
UPCOMING CLASSES
The Loft Literary CenterOpen Book
1011 Washington Avenue South, # 200
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 379-8999
Education Catalog Online: www.loft.org
Winter/Spring 2012: Wednesdays, 10 a.m. – Noon, February 8—April 11
We Like Short-Shorts!
Less is more. In this class we’ll discover what that means, writing short-shorts (fewer than 1000 words). We’ll read examples crossing over genres—flash fiction, sudden nonfiction, prose poems—from a variety of writers. We’ll analyze their work to see how they maximize an effect with a minimum of words. We’ll discuss the essentials of good storytelling—developing plot, character, dialogue, point of view, image and metaphor—always with word economy in mind. We’ll do many exercises leading to several polished pieces and will thoughtfully critique all stages of our writing. If interested, class members can become involved with the Short-Short Contest for MinnPost.com. Plan for fun in this experimental, imaginative form, which according to Vestal Review, “engages your mind not only for the short duration of its read, but for a long time after.” Small copy fee.
WORKSHOPS
An experienced leader, I enjoy directing seminars or workshops for students of all ages, writing groups of all types, and book clubs of all styles.
Upcoming:
Bloomington’s 9th Annual Writers’ Festival and Book Fair, Saturday, March 24, 2012
Two Workshops:
A Way With Words — A Creative Process Workshop, 11:00-12:00
Plan for fun: we’ll play with words to see where they lead as we tap into the word tank that is stored in all of us. We’ll practice using creative jump-starts and interactive writing, as well as observation, imagination, and storytelling to help our words find their way to the page. By the end of the workshop, we will have a notebook filled with the words of poems.
Writing Prose Poems, 1:00-2:00
In The Prose Poem: An International Journal, editor Peter Johnson explained, “Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.” In this workshop, we’ll balance on the “banana peels.” We’ll discuss how the prose poem, essentially appearing as prose, maintains a poetic quality, utilizing techniques such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme. We’ll read master poets’ work and explore their limitless styles and subjects. We will write our own prose poems.
Jackpine Writers’ Bloc: 3rd Annual Nimrod Writer’s Workshop, Friday, June 22 (5:00 p.m.)-Sunday, June 24, (Noon), 2012
Jerry Mevissen’s Brigadoon Farm in Nimrod (near Park Rapids), MN. (More Details Later)
The Sense of Place: To Bring the World Into Ourselves As Described By Mark Doty
“The inner life happens in the body, and the body is always somewhere. For me, it’s the vehicles the world provides, what Whitman called the ‘dumb beautiful ministers’ that allow us to see the soul. What’s the self in an empty room? Breath and memory. I’m interested in being connected, engaged, in place—though of course one reason we need a world to study is to see ourselves reflected there…the work of art, to bring the world into ourselves.”
EDITING AND CONSULTATION
I edit and critique manuscripts for writers of all levels. Working in consultation with the author, I offer feedback and suggestions for changes to craft and structure, charging $35 – $45/hour, depending on specific needs and time constraints.
