2010 KSC Writers Conference

 

At the Summer Writers Conference, I met poets and fiction writers who helped me develop as a student, a person, and a writer. For me, the experience was a defining moment. It helped me decide what to do post-graduation, gave me the opportunity to think about graduate work, and work at the professional level. 

Leni Wiltsie

 

Working one-on-one with the visiting writers helped me develop direction for my fiction and poetry. The in-depth feedback and discussions on areas of my writing needing improvement were valuable. The conference also helped me overcome one of my biggest fears: sharing my work with peers and reading my work aloud to a group. Writing and reading go hand in glove, and reading your work out loud to other writers helps you overcome public speaking fears. I also gained an understanding of an essential component of my writing–the rhythm, especially in poetry.

Jessica Hutchins

 

My love for writing poetry brought me to the Writers Conference. Having opportunities to meet with authors and working one-on-one with them for a week expanded the way in which I think about my writing. Criticism was constructive and the writing activities were new and exciting. The combination of group and individual creative experiences improved my writing—there is no way you can be part of the conference, do the work, and come out at the end of the experience with the same skill. The Writers Conference gave me the chance to flourish.

Anya Morales

 

 

Come to the Keene State College Writers Conference.  Spend a week of serious work on your craft. Whether your passion is writing fiction, poetry, non-fiction, young adult fiction or composing and writing for performance, our award-winning faculty will work with you to bring out your best. Arrive on campus excited and ready to write, leave inspired and more confident in your writing ability.

 

The Schedule

Your week is intensive and begins Sunday afternoon and evening with a light meal and lively panel discussion on Problems in Writing. While you have ample time to write every day, the next five days immerse you in workshops, writing sessions, individual conferences, craft talks, readings, and informal after-hours gatherings.

 

Workshops focus on small-group discussion of your writing with an eye toward making it stronger, more effective, more successful. 

 

Writing Sessions provide creative prompts to expand your writing skills and get you to be more productive.

 

On-on-One conferences give you time for in-depth discussion of your work with our faculty of award-winning writers. 

 

Craft Talks:  visiting writers discuss specific issues of importance to you as a writer and offer tips on how to expand your own opportunities as a writer. 

 

Readings give you the opportunity to hear a professional writer’s oral interpretation of his or her work and listen to the way rhythm, syntax, and narration work together.  You’ll have the opportunity to present your own work at a friendly, informal reading during Friday’s closing conference dinner. 

 

The Faculty

Our faculty are award-winning writers and experienced teachers who can help you move your craft to the next level. The 2010 faculty include novelist Laurie Alberts; young adult writer Celia Bland; poets William Doreski and Jeff Friedman; jazz composer Roy Nathanson; memoirist and short story writer Christopher Noel; and poet and translator Dzvinia Orlowsky.  

 

Want More Information?

Complete and return the attached registration form today, or contact Steven Kessler, conference coordinator (skessler@keene.edu). A non-refundable deposit of 50% of the $800 registration fee holds your place at the conference. Full payment of all fees for registration, housing, and undergraduate or graduate credit, if desired, is due by July 9, 2010. 

 

Academic credit at the undergraduate or graduate level and/or conference housing is available at an additional cost.

 

 

Young Adult Fiction Writers Workshop

 

Learn how to create successful  young adult fiction from award-winning author Celia Bland.

 

Celia Bland is the author of fourteen young adult books, including a biography of Osceola, a history of the industrial revolution in England, and a novel, the Conspiracy of the Secret Nine, that was nominated for a Heekin Award for Children’s Literature.  Her has recent work has appeared in Writing on the Edge, Inside/Out, and The Bard Papers and upcoming in Field Notes and The Sun.  This year, she taught writing workshops at Al Quds University on the West Bank; at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and at Eastern Correctional Facility in upstate New York.  She teaches in the Written Arts Program at Bard College.

 

The workshop, for adults interested in writing fiction for readers aged 12-17, will focus on developing what young adult fiction shares with the adult variety  -- fluent narratives and believable characters -- and what makes it unique: a singular humor, sensibility, or series of (unfortunate) events.  Working together over the course of a week, we’ll generate new material and make suggestions for the revision of what you’ve already written.  Because a familiarity with the some of the best examples in the genre can spur creativity, we’ll analyze and discuss scenes from masterworks of the genre.  From invention strategies to revision strategies, this workshop will take a close look at how we write, who we’re writing for, and what techniques can help us toward a more expressive and engaging style.

 

Study music composition, poetry and performance with renowned musician, poet, and performer Roy Nathanson.

 

Text/Music Forms- Through a selected body of work  (Ives, Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Ellington and Cole Porter) students will examine the text and compositional aspects of the art song, blues form and the AABA song form utilized in traditional jazz songs.  Students will learn to actually write both the music and text in these songs.  Students will orchestrate and perform their work at the end of this concentrated week long workshop.

 

 

 

2010 Writers Conference

 

Work on your unfinished novel, short stories, creative nonfiction, or poetry collection. Workshops and craft talks help you revise and continue writing you’ve already begun and inspire new projects and get you started on them. Writing sessions help you generate new work, encouraging you to stretch your abilities in your chosen genre or try a new or less familiar one. You have ample time to meet individually with members of the faculty and visiting writers for consultations on aspects of your work you wish considered. 2010 faculty includes:  

 

William Doreski has written numerous books of poetry, criticism, and memoir. His nonfiction work includes The Sun Keeps Setting, about the last months of his father's life. An English professor, he has taught creative writing at Keene State College since 1982.

 

Jeff Friedman, whose fourth collection of poetry, Black Threads, was recently published by Carnegie Mellon University press. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, The New Republic, and many other literary journals. He is a core faculty member in the MFA program in poetry writing at New England College.

 

Laurie Alberts, author of three novels, a story collection, and two memoirs. Her most recent book, Between Revolutions: An American Romance with Russia, was published in 2005. She received a Michener Award for the Novel, The Katherine Anne Porter Prize, the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Prize for short story, and an American Fiction award, among other awards. Alberts attended the Iowa Writers Workshop and now teaches fiction and creative nonfiction in the Vermont College master of fine arts and writing program.

 

Roy Nathanson, internationally acclaimed jazz composer and saxophonist.  Roy concentrates on combining text and music in a variety of ways:  writing songs for performers such as Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley, and Deborah Harry; a radio play for NPR, and recording with his singing, talking, and playing band Sotto Voce. 

 

Dzvinia Orlowsky, founding editor of Four Way Books and author of four poetry collections including her forthcoming Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones. Her translation from Ukrainian of Alexander Dovzhenko’s novella, The Enchanted Desna, was recently published by House Between Water Collections. Orlowsky is a 2006 Pushcart Prize winner and a 1998 Massachusetts Cultural Council poetry grant recipient, and is a faculty member of the Low-Residency Solstice MFA Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College.

Celia Bland, poet. Her most recent series of poems, Captions for Cartoons Not Yet Drawn, were among the finalists for the Center for Book Arts chapbook prize. Her 2004 collection, Soft Box, received the silver medal for poetry by ForeWord magazine. Bland’s poems appeared in Shenandoah, Natural Bridge, Heliotrope, Entelechy, Prima Matera, and Sui Generis and in anthologies published by Faber and Faber, Oxford Poetry, and Persea Books. Dean of studies at Bard College, Bland teaches poetry and first year seminar at Bard.