on poetry
November 29, 2018
“You can make anything by writing.”
C.S. Lewis
(November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963)
MOOC your winter
October 30, 2018
The International Writing Program of the University of Iowa has just announced a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): “Stories of Place: Writing and the Natural World.”
Participants will work with some of the many possible types of creative non-fiction, including essays, science journalism, travel narratives, and speculative portrayals of the natural future. (Poetry isn’t mentioned in the description, but why not?) Writers will work with “ways to portray truth and fact, whether it involves telling stories about the local, the global, the invisible, the beautiful, or the uncertain.”
The instructor-led course begins November 15, 2018, and continues through December 31, 2018. After that, it will remain open online through March 15, 2019, for self-paced learning. The course is free and registration is now open.
are you listening?
October 23, 2018
Every couple of months, editors from Poets & Writers Magazine offer a behind-the-scenes preview of the latest issue, talk with contributors and authors featured in the magazine, and discuss the lighter side of writing, publishing, and the literary arts in a podcast called AMPERSAND. The latest edition, Episode 22, features “superstar nonfiction writer Susan Orlean, best-selling novelists Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Powers, and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Natasha Trethewey.” In Episode 21, Kevin Larimer and Melissa Faliveno discuss the work of Ada Limón and Rebecca Solnit. Find other episodes on Soundcloud. Listen!
opportunity
October 19, 2018
Here is an opportunity for short-fiction writers at an almost unheard-of price. It’s a new Kahini program in short fiction designed for those writers who want the absolutely highest level of craft but are on a bit of a budget or unable to afford a traditional MFA program. The bi-weekly Studies in Short Fiction program focuses on the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alice Munro, Gabriel García Márquez, and William Trevor. Facilitated by Jordan Hartt, the year-long online program begins November 8, 2018. Read the complete description and register soon!
memoir your September
August 24, 2018
September is Whatcom Memoir Writing Month (WhaMemWriMo) and for the fourth year, Chuckanut Writers and Village Books will offer a series of four memoir workshops. The goal for each writer is 1,666 words a day — 50,000 words (a book’s worth) for the month.
The workshops, taught on successive Thursdays by Cami Ostman, Laura Kalpakian, Nancy Canyon, and Jennifer Wilhoit, can be taken individually or as a series ($25 each or all four for $89). See the full description and registration links on the Village Books WhaMemWriMo page.
Celebrating… soon
August 17, 2018
It’s nearly here: the grand re-opening of Hugo House. Mark your calendar and join the festivities on Saturday, September 22, 2018, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM, to see the 10,000 square foot space for writers and readers, and to enjoy readings, performances, installations, music, and more. It’s all at 1634 Eleventh Avenue, on the corner of Eleventh and East Olive, in Seattle. See the full line-up and RSVP.
Meanwhile, the Hugo House Fall Catalog is now online and registration will begin soon (with Early Bird pricing August 20 through September 3).
on poetry
July 27, 2018
“I live for those moments when language itself takes over the enterprise, and insight races ahead of knowledge. Occasionally I have things to say, or there is something I want to describe. But these are not my main reasons for writing.”
Michael Longley
(b. July 27, 1939)
. . . . .
photo by Bobbie Hanvey
