Writing Classes – SOA 2008

Advanced Poetry (F54) - Class is full

with Richard Terrill
Skill Level: Intermediate and advanced
3:15-4:45 pm

In this workshop we’ll try various experiments in poetry writing that rely on image, metaphor, sound, story, imagination, and close observation of the physical world. I stress the word “experiment,” since some of the exercises we write in class may ask students to think about language in new ways, possibly leaving behind preconceptions about what poetry is and what poetry should do. We will use the work of contemporary poets as models for our writing. Students will finish the week with writing ideas to take home when the week is over. Please bring notebook, pen, enthusiasm, and an open mind!

Instructor Bio:
Richard Terrill’s books include a memoir about being a jazz musician, a memoir about teaching English in China, and a collection of poems, Coming Late to Rachmaninoff. His many awards include the Associated Writing Programs Award for Nonfiction, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry, the Minnesota Book Award, and three Fulbrights. He teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University.

Busting Through Writer's Block (B14)

with Kathy Steffen
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
8:30-10:00 am
Here's your chance to take a bulldozer to writer's block! You’ll walk away with hundreds of exercises to choose from, and by the time you finish this week, you'll have more ideas (or ways to get them) than time to write all the stories. Learn what writer's block really is, how it affects you, and how to pinpoint its reasons and get over them quickly. Free yourself to enjoy writing instead of worrying about where the next idea will come from. After this week, you'll never be at a loss for words (in writing, that is) again.

Instructor Bio:
Kathy Steffen is the author of two novels—First, There is a River (2007) and Jasper Mountain (Nov. 2008), both from Medallion Press—and has been published in Quality Women’s Fiction. She’s a member of the Author’s Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and the International Women’s Writing Guild. Visit her Web site at www.kathysteffen.com.

Creative Nonfiction (E43) - This class is full

with Richard Terrill
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
1:30-3 pm
Creative nonfiction--memoir, personal essay, travel, profile, nature writing, oral history, and the like--combines the narrative techniques of the fiction writer with the reportage of the journalist and the concern for language of the poet. This workshop will, explore how published writers have worked in the genre and follow up with plenty of writing exercises and discussion designed to help students write reflectively and find meaning in experience. The focus of the class will be on personal narrative, but students are welcome to write about the experiences of others as well, and will be encouraged to find ways to link their experiences to the world outside the self.

Elements of Fiction (C21)

With Kathy Steffen
Skill Level: Beginning
10:15-11:45 am
You’ve always wanted to write a novel or short story, but where do you start? Each day we’ll focus on a different aspect of fiction: writing technique and beginning mistakes to avoid, building believable characters who jump off the page, writing dialogue that sounds real, description, setting and how these affects a story, and finally structure, scene and plot (or how to put the whole thing together). Optional overnight assignments with instructor critiques.

Fiction Workshop: Read like a Writer (C23)

with Laurel Yourke
Skill Level: Advanced
3:15-4:45 pm
Why do we love certain books? More importantly, how can glorious writing hone our own craft? Handouts with passages from contemporary fiction will illustrate strategies for developing your opening, characters, dialogue, and sense of place, while managing your fiction’s backstory and tension. Discover how writers invisibly work their magic, and you’ll make your own fiction more “enchanting.” There’ll be optional homework assignments. You’re encouraged—though not required!—to read “The Girl in Hyacinth Blue.” Materials Fee: $2.50 to cover cost of instructor handouts

Instructor Bio:
Laurel Yourke, the author of "Take Your Characters to Dinner" and a recent poetry collection, "Waiting for Beethoven," has received teaching awards from UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Council of Writers. She teaches fiction and poetry in ongoing critique groups, summer conferences, weekend workshops and online courses.

Introduction to Playwriting (E45)

with Liz Bussey Fentress
Skill Level: Beginning and Intermediate
1:30-3 pm
Explore the fundamentals of writing for the stage. This class, for beginning playwrights, takes participants through the steps of writing a play: developing a theme, creating characters, structuring a plot, writing dialogue, and crafting scenes. Participants learn through in-class writing exercises and take-home assignments

Instructor Bio:
Liz Bussey Fentress is a professional playwright and actor. Liz's Circus Story, a televised theatrical production she wrote and performed, won the 2005 National Educational Television Association Award for Best Dramatic Narrative.

Marketing and Selling What You Write (C24) only 2 spots left

with John Lehman
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
10:15-11:45 am
Whether you want to gain an editor's attention, earn a living writing commercially or successfully promote a self-published work, this workshop will help you achieve the goals you’ve set for your writing. Learn to use proven methods from business to analyze the elements of another's decision-making process and effectively interact with it at each step critical to your success. Materials Fee: $2.50 to cover cost of instructor handouts.

Instructor Bio:
John Lehman is the founder and original publisher of Rosebud Magazine. He is poetry editor of the Wisconsin People & Ideas, managing partner of Zelda Wilde Publishing and editor of www.CoolPlums.com. His books include Shrine of the Tooth Fairy, Dogs Dream of Running, America’s Greatest Unknown Poet: Lorine Niedecker, Shorts and Everything is Changing. He lives with his wife, four dogs, and three cats in Rockdale, the smallest incorporated village in Wisconsin.

Novelist's Boot Camp: Drills and Strategies (F56) - only 3 spots left

with Todd Stone
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
3:15-4:45 pm
The Novelist's Boot Camp Workshop provides an aspiring or new author with definitive strategies and techniques ("Drills") that allow them to "take command of their novels." The workshop gives authors not just an understanding of the process of writing a book-length work of fiction, but also a method to make that process work for them to "get their imaginations in formation" and focus their creativity. The workshop then provides specific methods or “Drills” (many adapted from screenwriting) designed to provide a platform for an author’s own creativity, voice, and style, while at the same time providing a structure that encourages continuous progress. Instructor recommends students purchase a copy of "Novelist's Boot Camp."

Instructor Bio:
From mystery to military to making better fiction, multiple award-winning author T.A. (Todd) Stone has made his mark on the book world. His unique guide to the discipline and creativity of writing, NOVELIST’S BOOT CAMP:101 Ways to Take your Fiction from Boring to Bestseller, was published by Writers Digest Books and named one of the Top 10 books of 2006 by PopSyndicate.

Novelist’s Boot Camp: Advanced Tactics (E48)

with Todd Stone
Skill Level: Intermediate and advanced
1:30-3:00 pm
This Advanced Tactics workshop leverages 10 powerful Drills from Novelist’s Boot Camp to empower nearly- and newly-published authors to gain increased control, have greater confidence, make more progress in achieving their writing goals, create more marketable material, and have more fun even as those authors are challenged by newfound career demands on their time and creativity. Instructor recommends students purchase a copy of "Novelist's Boot Camp."

Playwriting Lab for Writers (A12)

with Liz Bussey Fentress
Skill Level: Intermediate and advanced
8:30-11:45 am
This workshop, for both beginning playwrights and those with plays-in-progress, offers a review of playwriting basics as well as an opportunity to develop a play. Participants will discuss theme, creating characters, structuring the plot, and writing and revising dialogue. If you have a script in progress, bring it along, or consider sending your script to the instructor prior to SOA. Be prepared to read and discuss one another's work as well as to work with actors during the Playwriting Lab for Actors held in conjunction with this class. Materials Fee: $5.

Poetry as Peace-Maker Session 1 is full (E49); Session 2 (E57) - Session 2 is full

with Ellen Kort
Skill Level: All
Session 1: 1:30-3 pm Session 1 is full
Session 2: 3:15-4:45 pm only 1 spot left
“Poetry is an act of peace” writes the great poet, Pablo Neruda. Where can we find peace in these times of fear and violence, sorrow and loss, in the wonder and grace of everyday life? Poetry is an instrument of creation and often comes from the hunger of the human spirit. In this workshop we’ll engage the whole self in our need for peace and healing as we create a caring, supportive circle of poets. Our process will be to tap into the rich reservoir of the heart, “spill” words onto paper, and then shape and polish them into poems. The culmination of the workshop will include publishing a chapbook of our poems. All poets, beginners and published, are welcome. Please bring a notebook and a favorite pen.

Instructor Bio:
Ellen Kort is the author of 12 books, including seven books of poetry. Her work has won the Pablo Neruda Literary Prize, Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Poetry Award, and is architecturally incorporated in Milwaukee's Midwest Express Center.

Poetry Books: Create a Manuscript from Your Stack of Poems (B17) - only 4 spots left

With Mary Sue Koeppel
Skill Level: All
8:30-10 am
This workshop will help you assemble your individual, published and unpublished poems into a unified, well-crafted chapbook or full-length manuscript. Students will learn what to prepare before submitting your manuscript to editors, a contest or for publication. For those interested in the next step, we'll learn how to get your work out to editors, contests, readers and listeners. Participants should bring two copies of all their best poems (published and unpublished) that they believe they might include in their new manuscript(s).

Instructor Bio:
Mary Sue Koeppel is the author of four books and was an award-winning editor of literary journal Kalliope from 1988-2005. Koeppel's many teaching awards include the State of Florida's highest for a community college teacher. She has taught poetry and fiction to college students, writers' groups, seniors, elder hostels, and conferences.

Poetry: Sounds and Images (C27)

With Mary Sue Koeppel
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
10:15-11:45 am
This workshop will encourage you to be curious, creative, searching, and introspective about poetry, language, and your world, and to experiment with sound and image making in your poetry. We'll read and discuss a few published poems that will guide us into class writing exercises as you create your own new poems. Our workshop will honor your experience and your poetry.

Poetry without Tears: A Workshop on the Reading of poetry (B18) - only 4 spots left

with Laurel Yourke
Skill Level: All
8:30 am - 10:00 am
Poetry’s not just for English majors. This ancient and eloquent form of human expression is for everybody. Including you! Join us to explore poems that raise questions like: What makes poetry “good,” and why are there so many different kinds? Where do folks like Dr. Seuss fit? Enjoy—rather than study!—the delicious secrets in the work of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Wallace Stevens, among others. (No homework.) Materials Fee: $2.50 to cover cost of instructor handouts.

Short Story Magic (B19) - Class is full.

with John Lehman
Skill Level: Beginning and intermediate
8:30-10 am
This workshop is for those intrigued by a challenging form that can portray so much, so quickly. The short story is experiencing new popularity today and its techniques are an excellent jumping off point to novels, screenplays and popular biographies. We’ll begin by looking the art of engaging readers and story design. Then, while writing individually and working on a story together, we’ll apply techniques of beat, scene, sequence and discovery. Through a close reading of contemporary examples, we’ll explore how the use of turning point, emotional dynamics and setups/payoffs to effectively order and link scenes so they build to crisis, climax and, ultimately, revelation for the reader. You will become comfortable using setting to mirror conflict and integrating description, action and dialogue. There will be time for writing and individual discussion of your work already in progress. Materials Fee: $2.50 to cover cost of instructor handouts.

Subtext in Fiction & Critique (E58)

with Robert Curry
Skill Level: Advanced
3:15-4:45 pm; 1 CEU
In this workshop we will look with a magnifying glass at the techniques of subtext and explore in our writing how action speaks, how words hide, how smiles lie. We will use our inherent understanding of everyday human expression (the mask, the language of posture and movement, the meaning of silence, the non sequitur, the repeated phrase, etc.) and develop it on the page so that the reader sees and hears and feels life.

Instructor Bio:
Robert Curry is a professional actor and writer of fiction, plays, and screenplays. He has performed at The Old Globe Theatre in San Fransico and American Players Theatre in Spring Green. His plays and a screenplay, starring Ernest Borgnine, have been professionally produced.

Writing Your Life Stories (C29) - only 2 spots left.

with Darlene Kronschnabel
Skill Level: All
1:30 – 3:00 pm.
Your personal stories are too good to lose. Join us as we work to develop ideas and capture long forgotten memories using humor and visual images. Through in-class writing exercises you'll learn how to employ details to tell your story vividly, capture time and place and use dialogue to ignite your story. Simple steps will turn your raw experiences into emotionally finished pieces so family, friends and future generations can share in the written record of your life.

Instructor Bio:
Darlene Kronschnabel, a professional writer for more than 30 years, is the author of 10 books. Her feature articles and columns have appeared in national and regional publications. She has received awards from Wisconsin Press Women, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Council for Wisconsin Writers.