Gather Around

2005 Retreat Worskhops and Classes

Workshop Groups

Kim Addonizio: A Voice Of Her Own

What does it mean for a poet to "find her own voice"? How do you make stylistic choices out of an awareness of the fullness of possibilities, and not just recycle clichés and worn language, or your own habits? In the workshop, we'll look at participants' work with an eye toward helping each other define and extend our current style. We'll do writing exercises as well, to generate new work and add to our exploration.

Please bring the following:

1. At least one "failed" poem to use for a writing exercise.
2. Two poems you feel are finished, that are representative of your style (or else that seem to you wildly varied!), with 7 copies.
3. Two poems-in-progress, with 7 copies, for feedback in the group.
4. Please read "Voice and Style" in The Poet's Companion, authored by myself and Dorianne Laux, and bring the book to the workshop.

Rebecca Brown: Larger Than Life: Orlando and Creating Characters from Real Life

In this workshop class we will look at Virginia Woolf’s wild fantasy, Orlando, and write our own new fiction, nonfiction, fantasy or what-you-will sparked by the lives of real people we know or know about. We will look at the biographical sources of Orlando and discuss ways Woolf and others writers extrapolate material from biography and personal experience to make compelling art. Please buy, read and bring to the workshop a copy of Orlando, about a half a dozen or so personal photographs, a physical object related to someone you want to write about and, if possible, an oldish newspaper from a place you want to write about.

Breena Clarke: Playing Hide and Seek in the Dark: Locating Women Characters of Color in the Landscape of American Fiction

In American fiction, women of all colors are often literature’s background players, utilitarian characters used to advance the fortunes of white male protagonists. However, in the work of late 20th century women of color writers, the invisible women become visible. We’ll discuss Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros and Beloved by Toni Morrison to explore strategies for locating women and characters of color in fictional landscapes. The workshop will ponder how the lives of ordinary people are used to create the history of places and how these lives influence fictional landscapes. My approach to this workshop is more practical than academic. Where in the world is my protagonist? What is her relation to the physical attributes of the landscape? Is it HER landscape or is she a stranger in a strange landscape? Is she merely a speck on her oppressors map? How do we bring her to the foreground?

Required reading: Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros and Beloved by Toni Morrison. Suggested reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Ellen McLaughlin: Antigone

Sophocles' Antigone has inspired countless adaptations. The myth of the young female individual with a personal sense of justice in fatal conflict with the law of the secular state seems to be almost infinitely malleable and continually relevant. In this workshop, we will read the play in translation and look at modern versions of it with an eye toward responding to it ourselves as writers.

As a playwright who has written new versions of nine Greek plays, I will discuss my own process of responding to these plays and lead the students into their own journey of encounter in the present moment with one of the oldest plays in Western literature. How does our own sense of fate and ethics come into focus when we consider this exemplar of the birth of tragedy? How does this play speak to us now? What might we ourselves have to lend this age-old conversation? Writers in all genres are welcome.

Antonya Nelson: Organic Unity in the Short Story

This workshop will focus on the ways in which form (shape, voice, style) participates in content (theme, psychology, meaning) in the short story. The best stories are ones that the reader can imagine no better way of telling; they are hermeneutically radiant, and as a result continue to offer up new riches upon every re-reading. Practically speaking, how does one accomplish this task? Our chore will be to discuss the possibilities for revising work in progress, aiming toward the synthesis of form and content. Workshop members will receive comments on their own work, while also reading exemplary published stories for inspiration.

Jody Rein: From Inspiration to Publication—And Beyond

Writing for the love of it is all well and good, but if you want others to read your work, you'll need to bone up on the hard facts of getting published. In this workshop, well-known literary agent Jody Rein will help you learn how to evaluate your own ideas to determine whether or not your work is marketable, to write a no-fail query letter to agents, to write a terrific book proposal if you're working on nonfiction, to hook editors on your novel from the first sentence on, and to help you assess whether or not self-publishing may be the better path to take. She'll help you determine honestly where you are in your career and how YOU can get you where you want to go.

Materials to bring: Your novel or proposal, a query letter for your work.

Read for the workshop: THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND A PUBLISHED BOOK by Susan Page, THE BIG YEAR by Mark Obmascik, PROMISE YOU WON'T FREAK OUT by Doris and Natalie Fuller.

Keynote Address on Three Guineas

Rebecca Brown, Breena Clarke, Ellen McLaughlin

Classes

Kim Addonizio: The Poem's Progress

In this class we’ll discuss several poems and look at how they develop, focusing on such issues as expectation and surprise, the difference between form and structure, and the use of repetition. We'll talk about titles, opening lines, ideas of closure, with the aim of finding strategies for our own work.

Mira Bártok: 13 Ways of Writing, Observing, and Drawing the Desert

Using Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” as a starting point, we will explore our sense of place at our temporary home at Ghost Ranch in as many ways possible. The workshop will consist of very brief readings from nature essays and poems, close observation of the flora and fauna in our natural surroundings, inspiring writing prompts and simple drawing exercises. This workshop is open to all disciplines and levels of expertise in both art and writing. We’ll be outside, so please wear appropriate clothing and protection from the sun. Drawing paper and pencils will be provided by instructor.

Meredith Hall: Time: The Suggested Past, Writer's Present, Implied Future

How can we convey complex relationships in a few words? We will focus on mechanisms to simultaneously look backward and forward from the narrative's present, all in a few paragraphs. We will read and discuss a few short models, write and share our efforts, generating ideas for future work.

Mary Johnson: Imagery for the Imageless: A Writing about the Self-Transcendent

Why is it so difficult to write about self-transcendent experiences, and why do writers so often resort to sexual and/or religious imagery to describe them? We'll examine the works of several ancient and modern authors, then try it all out on some of our own writing.

Maggie Lichtenberg: To Self-Publish or Be Published: An Insider’s Guide to Making the Decision

While most of us would love to sign a lucrative publishing contract, new technology has made self-publishing an attractive option. Publishing Coach Maggie Lichtenberg will offer an insider’s view to help you evaluate whether to seek a publisher or to self-publish your book. Learn the basics of what is required for each, so that you can make an informed choice.

Maggie Lichtenberg: Who Will Buy This Book? Design the Marketing Plan For Your Project First!

Many writers are uncomfortable thinking of themselves as marketers, and would rather someone else did all that. However, you are the best spokesperson for your work. You must be willing to get yourself out there to let readers know your book exists.

Join Publishing Coach Maggie Lichtenberg to learn how to create a marketing plan, including the “sales handle”, before – or at least parallel to – writing the book.

Maggie Lichtenberg: Staying True To Your Mission: Are YOU a Good Candidate for Completing and Publishing a Book?

Identify your top three writing/life priorities for the balance of 2005, and the specific changes you’ll need to make in order to orient your life around these priorities. Publishing Coach Maggie Lichtenberg will guide you through a 10-point assessment to measure your willingness level to do what it takes to complete your project and pursue publication. Question examples: do you have the stick-to-it-ness? Do you have an ongoing PR plan? What are you contributing to the body of literature already out there?

Antonya Nelson: From the Mundane to the Sublime

A class that focuses on Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Michael Cunningham's short story, “White Angel,” with attention to the particular choices a writer makes in distilling human experience into transcendent art.

Jody Rein: Publishing 101

Agent Jody Rein takes you through a crash course on the realities of book publishing, circa 2005. In this nuts and bolts overview, you'll learn how agents choose their clients, how they sell their clients' work, how editors choose their authors, and what publishers will and will not do to promote most books. Bring your notebook, a crash helmet, and enjoy the bumpy ride!

Marguerite Rivas: Exploring the Nature of Nurturing through Poetry: a Feminist Perspective

Poetry and first-person narrative are strong vehicles for the expression of the nature of how we respond to and nurture one another through life's difficult passages. Students will read selected short prose pieces and poems addressing this topic. Through class discussion and then group reflection, the feminist perspective inherent in the readings will be explored. Students will then apply what they have learned to the writing of poetry, and work will be shared at the end of the session.

Eliot Sloan: The Function of Memory

We'll look at a few poems and explore ways in which we remember, record, and later, write. What do we keep from an experience and what do we let go, and how does that render itself on the page? How do we allow for the things we have buried away? In remembering, do we have a chance to "rewrite" ourselves? Suitable for both memoirists and poets.