Guest post by Thelma T. Reyna
I was invited by one of my publishers to attend a national/international conference they co-sponsored at Lake Como last month. This “Abroad Writers Conference” (AWC) was designed as advanced learning for published authors from the U.S. Their “faculty” included 4 Pultizer Prize winners and 2 National Book Award recipients teaching intensive one-week workshops. Embracing this rare opportunity, I headed to Lake Como in my first overseas networking, workshopping, poetry reading experience.
Renaissance-era Como, resort hometown of George Clooney, is famously gorgeous. The event was in an 18th century villa, where we sat in one or two personalized workshops with the Pulitzer winners of our choice, or with other top national award winners. In the evenings, some of us conducted formal readings of our published work before the whole assemblage of about 50 author participants and 10 faculty, sharing the stage with America’s top writers in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Villa La Galleata, where we stayed and learned.
Iconic Lake Como is surrounded by lovely small
towns, with Como being the most prominent.
Learning and Re-Learning Poetry
My poetry workshop was with Rae Armantrout, whose book, Versed, won the Pulitzer in 2009. She had a reputation for being the most “cerebral” of the AWC poets; but, as a teacher, she blended sharp insights with down-to-earth critiques in a soft voice and unassuming demeanor. She pushed us to think harder.
There were 7 of us in this cohort. We met on a serene balcony entwined in wisteria and facing the lake, or in a formal parlor off the villa’s ballroom. We hailed from across America, and our group had a Korean-American and a Chinese-American. I was the lone Latina in the entire conference.
The camaraderie we established in one week belied our short time together. We opened our egos and ids to one another in the 10 poems each had provided for the workshop. Rae, my fellow poets, and I slashed one another’s lines, dissected phrases, questioned purpose and voice, yet affirmed one another’s work. When several of us in our group took appointed turns onstage in the evenings to read from our publications, my workshop fellows in the audience were the loudest applauders with the broadest smiles of approval. Their support was genuine.
Our Fiction Workshop
Jane Smiley’s novel—A Thousand Acres, a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear—won the Pulitzer in 1992. Sometimes using colorful, edgy language, Jane shared her experiences as a writer; asked us endless analytical questions about our submitted fiction; and sprinkled her advice with examples from her favorite 100 novels. The writing skills of this workshop’s authors were quite high. All had completed novel manuscripts or short story collections.
One of Jane’s main tips: The climax of your novel comes around the 90% point of your narrative. Is it what you’d meant it to be? If not, go back and adjust. With a calculator, she took our fiction, identified where 90% of each manuscript ended, and analyzed if that was indeed our climax. Sometimes it wasn’t. By the end of the week, we each had to return to the proverbial drawing board. Pieces we thought were “final” were not. Directions we’d thought our writing needed to take turned out to be wrong turns. None of us escaped unscathed. We all emerged as stronger writers, though. This is why we paid the big bucks, I suppose: to hear what we may not have wanted to hear from the folks who know most about these things.
Our Fiction Workshop: Jane Smiley at the head of the table;
Thelma is second from left, foreground.
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Stay Tuned for Part II on Tuesday: The second installment of this guest blog describes my poetry reading at Lake Como, where I debuted my new book. I will also briefly discuss the need for cultural diversity in international literary events. Thanks for stopping by.
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| Photo by Jesus Treviño |
Thelma T. Reyna, Ph.D., is the author of four books, with the, a full-length collection of her selected and new poetry—Rising,Falling, All of Us—issued in summer 2014. Reyna’s short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, literary journals, textbooks, blogs and regional print media off and on for over 30 years.She resides in Pasadena, California.
As mentioned in the Monday post, Writers on the Move is now offering FREE (most of them) workshops. Our merry band of authors/writers are kicking off the first one on May 16th at 7pm EST. It will be an hour long chat at the Writers on the Move's blogsite (on the workshop page):
http://vbt-writersonthemove.blogspot.com
Maggie Ball will present a free workshop on Podcasting for Writers; she has also prepared a detailed PDF for the class.
Registration is required, so please email Maggie at [email protected] and put "Podcast Workshop" in the subject line.
You will receive the PDF after registering, so you will be able to work on creating a podcast and then ask any questions you may have with Maggie during the workshop.
A bit about the workshop:
The simplest definition of a podcast is just a recorded radio show and Maggie will provide the information you need to get your podcast up and running. She’ll define what a podcast is and the many different ways you can either do a single podcast, or start your own “radio show” or even syndication with recorded podcasts.
This will be a very informative workshop for writers who want, rather need to bring their books and/or services to a larger audience. If you’re blogging now, the next step is to create podcasts and Maggie Ball can show you how.
Show up a bit before to sign into EveryWhereChat and to see if there is any information already in place.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The June Workshop will be presented by Karen Cioffi and it'll be about creating and selling e-books. We'll have the details available by the end of May or beginning of June.
PLEASE SEE THE RIGHT SIDEBAR TO SHARE THIS ARTICLE – THANKS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing, Publishing, and Marketing - You Can Do It
This 34 page e-book is full of writing, publishing (traditional and self-publishing) and marketing information. Kind of a GPS for getting where you’re headed: published and selling books.
Click on the link for more details and a great review:
http://www.karencioffi.com/writing-publishing-and-marketing/
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If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter, A Writers World, and get TWO FREE eBooks:
The Self-Publisher’s Guide, 2nd Edition
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(The books offered may change periodically)
In fact, check out the sidebar for two free gifts just for stopping by!
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Ghostwriting and Editing for Businesses and Individuals
Do you want to get that idea turned into a book? Do you want to write your memoirs? Do you need editing, proofreading, or a professional critique?
Do you need an e-book or white paper to offer for instruction, platform visibility, or a gift? Do you need blog, article, white paper, or other form of content visibility for your business? We’re professional, experienced with keywords and SEO, and we cover a number of writing services. So, please stop by and check us out. Go to: http://DKVWriting4U.com
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Until next time,Karen CioffiAuthor, Ghostwriter, Freelance writer, andAcquisitions Editor Intern for 4RV PublishingMember of the Professional Writers Alliance, the International Association of Professional Ghostwriters, and the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors.
http://KarenCioffi.com
La Bloga friend Vanessa Acosta of Cultural Arts Tours & Workshops will be sponsoring an extensive series of workshops and festivals for writers and artists. The first workshop event comes this weekend at Church of the Angels at 1100 Avenue 64, Pasadena, CA 91105.
Naomi Quiñonez, noted poet and scholar, conducts the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. workshop. Enrollment continues through the day of the event, but reservations strongly advised as Dr. Quiñonez prefers a small group and will close registration at 15 poets.
Writers who have been writing poetry and are comfortable with their voice and satisfied with their themes and style are encouraged to attend. The workshop will help writers develop their language use as a tool to create stronger and more powerful metaphors, symbolism and imagery and to create awareness of how language serves to establish tone, enhance themes and improve style.
For details, click the images below, or call / email Vanessa at 323.300.0060 /
[email protected] .
Exciting News: In our efforts to continually provide fresh and helpful information to our readers and visitors, and since our group has so many experienced and knowledgeable writers and authors, we've added a new and very exciting feature to our group, the Writers on the Move Workshop.
The workshops will focus on writing and marketing, and depending on the presenter and topic, the workshops will range from 30 minutes to ONE hour to ONE day to ONE week long. We are hoping to keep them free, but for the week long, and possibly even the day long workshops, there may be a small fee – we’ll have to see how it all pans out.
The first Writers on the Move Workshop will be in a LIVE hour long chat format, scheduled for May 16 at 7pm EST. Maggie Ball will talk about Podcasting for Writers.If you’d like to attend this free 1 hour workshop, you will need to register. Please send an email to Maggie at: [email protected]Show up a bit before to sign into EveryWhereChat and to see if there is any information already in place.
A bit about the workshop:
The simplest definition of a podcast is just a recorded radio show and Maggie will provide the information you need to get your podcast up and running. She’ll define what a podcast is and the many different ways you can either do a single podcast, or start your own “radio show” or even syndication with recorded podcasts.
This will be a very informative workshop for writers who want, rather need to bring their books and/or services to a larger audience. If you’re blogging now, the next step is to create podcasts and Maggie Ball can show you how.
She is also providing a very helpful and FREE PDF, Podcasting for Writers, outlining the steps you'll need to create a podcast.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The June Workshop will be presented by Karen Cioffi and it'll be about creating and selling e-books. We'll have the details available by the end of May or beginning of June.
We hope you find the information we provide valuable in your writing and marketing journey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marketing ArticlesCombine and Automate Your Social NetworksSelling eBooks - Reach Your Target MarketSEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PLEASE SEE THE RIGHT SIDEBAR TO SHARE THIS ARTICLE – THANKS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing, Publishing, and Marketing - You Can Do It This 34 page e-book is full of writing, publishing (traditional and self-publishing) and marketing information. Kind of a GPS for getting where you’re headed: published and selling books.
Click on the link for more details and a great review:
http://www.karencioffi.com/writing-publishing-and-marketing/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter, A Writers World, and get TWO FREE eBooks:The Self-Publisher’s Guide, 2nd Edition
The Blogger’s Checklist
(The books offered may cha
Just heard about an exciting writing workshop that will be run by the performance poet Paradox in central Brighton on Friday April 2 .
NEW WRITING SOUTH are the hosts and they describe it as being “genuinely transformational”. It certainly sounds very special, very different…here’s what it will contain
An entertaining, thought provoking, performance from Paradox
A theatrical introduction exercise
A historical of the question "What is the meaning of life?"
An examination of perception
A critique of belief/celebration of perspective
A date with death
A guide to the poetry in paradox and the paradox of poetry
A challenge and opportunity to write and perform an epic semi-autobiographic tragicomic poem, that inspires you to live a more creatively meaningful life
No previous experience or creative writing skills necessary, just the willingness to be more than you thought you were.
A semi autobiographical tragicomic poem: write it, perform it. Bet you never thought you'd want to do that. But now you've read about it you are tempted, aren't you?
Cost for the full day workshop is £35. Bookings can made via the New Writing South website - click on the title of this post.
I visited the Library of Congress when we were in Washington, DC. What a thrill. "Just think, I've downloaded your records for years and now here I am."
NOTHING prepared me for the beauty of that space. I was stunned and stupefied at the color, themes and unyielding marble surfaces. (I think my feet and legs suffered more from that visit than any other trek on our visit.)
Book shopping in DC
The entling ran out of reading material early on so we visited the very nice B. Dalton in Union Station when we passed through to get her a quick reading refill.
Whenever there was a lull in the action, "OMG, I cannot take another step!" (My level of physical fitness makes a couch potato look like an Olympic athlete) the entling would happily whip out her book while I recovered.
The estimable Sprite Writes also alerted us to Politics and Prose. We rode the bus to the shop and spent a wonderful hour-plus, roaming the store. The children's books are downstairs. The lovely lady helping folks absolutely knew her stuff. I should have found out her name. While I was there, a mother and daughter, with a basket, were buying summer reading. Don't you just love to see parents just piling up the volumes to purchase? The girl was a going to be in 5th grade next year. I am afraid I spent some time saying, "Oooh, have you read THIS?" They added several of my enthusiasms to their pile, including Maude March. I cannot seem to stop telling people about Maude.
One of the most entertaining places to find books was The Spy Museum. This family spent over three hours there. The museum is a brilliant mix of video, audio, artifacts and storytelling. The crowd was so dense at first that I was afraid I was going to hate it but eventually people rushed on and left us to meander through the exhibits.
The gift shop is as entertaining as the museum itself and had one of the best selections of children's books I had seen on our trip. Of course they all had to do with spies or spying. There was Alex Rider, Jimmy Coates, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Young James Bond, Harriet the Spy, and Christopher Paul Curtis's Mr. Chickee. There were even more that I cannot recall now but I was amazed at the imagination and knowledge of the buyer. The book choices were spot on for the theme.
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When I went to DC I told everyone I could get to listen how beautiful the Library of Congress was. All those themes of things, I couldn't think of anything that was left out. I bought the book about it I loved it so much.
(My favorite of all was the Holocaust Memorial, it was so well done.)
I'm so glad you got up to P&P. Apparently, several years ago there was a children's bookstore nearby that couldn't stay afloat and when they went under the P&P owners invited them to come and run the kid section of their store.
I'm ashamed to say that after 4+ years here, I still haven't visited the LOC. It's one of my biggest shames.
I'm just claiming myself as an honorary entling, man. You and your kids have such cool adventures.
We also loved the Spy Museum when we visited D.C. with the entire extended family several years ago. It didn't sound like my cup of tea, but all the nephews (of which there are tons) and sons decided it would be cool, so we did some negotiating. (You know, "OK, one hour in the Spy Museum for one hour in the Botanical Gardens" kind of thing.) I was scared of the crowds too, especially when you go up in that fancy elevator, but so many people rushed through and then we all took our time reading and watching and listening. VERY hands on and interactive, great for pre-teen and teen-age boys!
How great the Library of Congress sounds. Reminds of how surprised I was that I loved the Smithsonian years ago, when I was in my twenties and too cool for tourist traps. Sad to say, it's been years since I was in DC. You've whetted my appetite for so much of the city all over again, however. I thank you for that.