Writing for Equity &amp; Inclusion: IWWG 2023

8:30am EDT

Memoir: Writing What You've Never Had the Courage to Write (Session 1)

In writing memoir about our lives, women are writing what we know, not what we are allowed to know or expected to know, or, above all, permitted to tell. We will inevitably be criticized. We often fear being judged if we put our truth on the page. We fear being criticized for being too angry, too vulnerable, too revealing, too sad. We’re told to stay small, not to take up too much space and, above all, to be likable, nice, straight, able-bodied, and mentally sane. This workshop is an opportunity to reveal your secrets to yourself and others. Write about what you never had the courage to write, what you never have wanted others to know about you. Put your secrets on the page and you can omit and edit later. Allow yourself to reveal your innermost thoughts, secrets, experiences, feelings because we have all had them. Carolyn Heilbrun writes: “Women are telling their stories to publicly tell other women what their lives have been like.” The purpose of art is to change the conversation. We will look at excerpts from memoirists who have had the courage to put their truth on the page about such topics as sexual abuse, desire, shame, dealing with family secrets: Chanel Miller, Katherine Harrison, Mary Karr, Jeanette Walls, Honor Moore. During the workshop, you will have an opportunity to write your truth and read it aloud or share it in the chat if you wish.

Speakers

Maureen Murdock

Writing What You Never Had the Courage to Write

Maureen Murdock, Ph.D. is the author of the best-selling book, The Heroine’s Journey, which explores the rich territory of the feminine psyche. This groundbreaking book was released by Shambhala Publications in 2020 in a 30th anniversary publication. It has been translated into... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Two Lands, Two Languages, Two Minds

Reading excerpts from my poetry collections Generation One Point Five and The War Still Within as examples, I will share a process that non-native speakers can use to translate their lives to English. As a Korean-American poet, I often describe my writing process as two minds trying to communicate on the same page, across the gaps between identities; I naturally write in both languages because I think in both languages. So I will use my poem, “The Gap,” to demonstrate the effect of different languages represented as different minds. Then, participants will use the “gap method” to create their own short poem. We will reflect on the experience of learning a new language as an immigrant, engaging deeply with both the process and the outcome of sharing our stories in translation. Because history endures in poetry, we’ll read “1991, Seoul, South Korea” from “Comfort Woman” and explore the possibilities that emerge for untold stories to be retold by writers decades, even centuries, later.

Speakers

Tanya Ko Hong

Two Lands, Two Languages, Two Minds

Tanya Ko Hong (Hyonhye) is an internationally published poet, translator, and cultural curator championing bilingual poetry and poets. Born and raised in South Korea, she immigrated to the USA at the age of eighteen. She holds an MFA degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Tanya’s... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Intensive Memoir: Ten Tips: Writing the More Memorable Memoir (Session 1)

Annie Dillard once said, “You have to take pains not to hang on the reader’s arms, like a drunk, and say ‘And then I did this and it was so interesting’.” What is it, exactly, that can make your memoir truly engaging? Not simply a recollection of your experience or an information dump. Working together we will be looking at how to find the kernel, the heart of your story, the image or concept that teems with life, even at its most deceptively subdued. Using this kernel, we will then explore and apply ten techniques useful for writing the openings, middles, and closings of your own personal memoir. Memoir can be made to matter; this workshop demonstrates how. Participants are invited to submit ahead of time up to 5 pages of their own writing to foster collaboration and focus feedback.

Speakers

Judith Huge

Intensive Memoir (pre-registration required)

Judith Huge has spent over 30 years developing innovative approaches to both learning and writing. As president of her own national consulting firm, teacher of both undergraduate and graduate-level college courses, and director of writing workshops across the country, she has made... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 8:30am - 10:00am EDT

Intensive, Memoir

8:30am EDT

Independent Publishing - The Ins and Outs

You’ve decided to pursue an Indie or Self-publishing path for your book. Now what? This workshop goes over how to proceed once you’ve made that choice.
Included topics:
- Indie publishing - what is the best approach to get a small publisher interested in your book. What services can you expect included with an Indie Publisher? What key steps do you need to take to ensure a successful relationship and launch.
- Self-publishing - what are the tasks required to self-publish? When should you pay for experts. What should you make sure to do yourself. How to use the idea of a general contractor to understand your role as author in self-publishing.
- Marketing and Sales - why creating a Logline helps bring clarity in a marketing strategy. How a good marketing strategy is needed to maximize sales and what key elements of a good strategy are essential.

Speakers

Cathleen O'Connor

Cathleen O’Connor, PhD is a writer, speaker, teacher, coach, and intuitive who offers developmental editing, publishing, book layout, and marketing services to other writers. An intuitive dream analyst, she has been quoted in the Huffington Post and had articles published in Canada’s... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 8:30am - 10:00am EDT
Online-Zoom

Virtual Track, Publishing

10:15am EDT

Memories and Memoirs (Session 1)

This is a hands-on generative workshop. During the workshops there will be prompts, handouts and time to write and share your memories. We will discuss how memories can lead to; the experience memoir, the event memoir, the themed memoir, the family memoir, and the childhood memoir. We will discuss and write about the meanings of your writing in the context of your present life.

Speakers

June Gould

Memoir

June Gould, Ph.D., is a poet, novelist and the non-fiction author of, The Writer in All of Us, E.P. Dutton, In the Shadow of Trains and Beyond the Margins. She has also co-written, Counting the Stones, a book of Holocaust poetry. She is a Master writing teacher who has led International... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Research and Resonance (Session 1)

Research can deepen our writing across genres, delivering facts, words, metaphors, inspiration, and details to build characters, stories, arguments, and images. It can also help us to understand ourselves as part of a connected world. In this workshop, we will explore the generative power of looking something up, how to keep track of what we’ve learned, and how to use facts to enliven our writing. Note: Participants will need to bring a device to look up something on the internet.

Speakers

Catharina Coenen

Professor of Biology, Research and Resonance

Catharina Coenen co-hosts IWWG’s virtual open mic series. Her essays have appeared in literary magazines, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, noted in Best American Essays, and featured in Best of the Net. She has served on IWWG’s Board of Directors and teaches biology at Allegheny... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

ScreenPlay: So You Think Your Life's A Movie - A Reel Story Class (Session 1)

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! This class is not just for screenwriters. It is for novelists, memoirists, personal essayists, short-story writers, or ANYONE who wants to learn to get to their own good story FAST. It's a wild ride, fun and informative. Students will learn the nuts and bolts of screenwriting: the industry accepted three-act structure of a film including the all-important log line, plot points, subplots, character, dialogue and on the last day, Linda will stop and start an Academy Award winning film to see in action what you've learned previously, such as character’s arcs, plot points and act breaks.

Speakers

Linda Bergman

So You Think Your Life's a Movie?

Linda Bergman has written 24 films and produced 5 of them. She’s been nominated for an Emmy, Access Award, The Alpha Award, and the prestigious Writer's Guild Award. She’s taught in LA, NYC, Marin, San Miguel Allende and many locales for the IWWG. Linda wrote So You Think Your... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

Workshop, Screenplay

10:15am EDT

The Yin and Yang of a Writer’s Life: Finding Your Balance

This workshop addresses the dual nature of our work as writers: the intuitive, interior
creative side and the logical, external marketing side. We will cover both the WHY-TO
and the HOW-TO of our craft, since the two combined lead to creative combustion and
commercial success. Some of the areas we'll cover include:

• Moving from writer to author
• Finding your voice and trusting its authority
• Considering your writing as a spiritual practice
• Wrestling with the publish/self-publish/do I need an agent conundrums
Through writing exercises and group pondering, you will shift your creativity to a higher
level, get ideas out of your brain and on to the page, and clarify who you are now and
what you have to say as a post-Covid writer.

Speakers

JAN PHILLIPS

The Yin and Yang of Writing

Jan Phillips is a writer, teacher, photographer and activist. She is the author of 10award-winning books and publisher of the photo-memoir Born Gay. She is a nationalworkshop/retreat director who connects the dots between creativity, spirituality andsocial justice. Her books include... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Writing Toward Wholeness (Session 1)

“There is something in the depths of our being that hungers for wholeness.” Thomas Merton
In this workshop we will look to understand our longing for wholeness, our longing to be part of the oneness of creation. We will see how to approach our own wholeness through writing. The three days will treat three of many ways. First through keeping a journal (a journey inward). Secondly through pursuing our images (active imagination). And lastly cultivating the self (becoming our true selves). This is a formidable order! We will tiptoe our way through. The three days follow one another but may be taken individually. I hope to welcome you.

Speakers

Susan Tiberghien

Writing Towards Wholeness

Susan Tiberghien is an American writer living in Geneva, Switzerland. For over 25 years she has been teaching creative writing at IWWG, C.G. Jung Societies, and writers’ centers, both in U.S. and in Europe. She is the author of four memoirs and the acclaimed One Year to a Writing... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

11:30am EDT

LUNCH

Friday July 21, 2023 11:30am - 1:00pm EDT
Dining Hall

Dining, Lunch

1:00pm EDT

All Creatures Great and Small: Animals as Inspiration (Session 1)

From the Secret Life of Bees to Jaws and Jumanji creatures have served as pivotal inspiration for myths and metaphors, symbols of perseverance, companionship, loyalty and courage. We've learned horses heal, cats can communicate and pets protect. As we craft stories, poems and fiction we will mine these arenas as well as the worlds of centaurs and griffins, Aesop's Fables, Animal Farm, Bambi and Temple Grandin, In exploring animals as visible victims and indicators of climate change we will also connect with activists Greta Thunberg and Wanjiru Wathuti. If there is a creature you've loved, or a wildness you'd like to revisit, come take this journey from Lassie to literature and discover your inner creature power.

Speakers

Dorothy Randall Gray

All Creatures Great & Small

Dorothy Randall Gray is the author of bestseller Soul Between The Lines (Avon/HarperCollins), an inspirational teacher, award-winning visual artist, and LA Poet-in- Residence. Her publications include Muse Blues, The Passion Collection, Woman, Fierce With Reality, Family, Tamarinda... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Getting Below the Words: A Journey Through SoulCollage® (Session 1)

Working with images can take us deep. Images can get to “the words below the words”and can help us bridge the gap when there are experiences for which we don’t yet have the words. Working with SoulCollage® is like awake dream work. You will find that working with images can be refreshing and can recharge your creative batteries. No previous “artist experience or skill” needed. Come with “beginners mind”, ready to engage in deep play and discovery! In this workshop, you will learn about the process of SoulCollage®. Each day we will cover a different facet of the process, and each day you will be able to create cards for your individual, intuitive deck of SoulCollage® cards. Part of the process is written dialogue with the images on the cards you have made. Each day, you will have the option to use some of the workshop time to write from your cards. Even though all art supplies will be furnished, please feel free to bring copies of photos of important people, animals, landscapes in your lives, or to bring any images that call to you between now and then. (But you do not need to bring anything-- there will be PLENTY of images, art paper, stickers etc. to choose from every day!!!!). There will be a voluntary daily donation to help cover the cost of art supplies. Each participant will also receive a poetry packet and handouts that give more in depth background on the SoulCollage® process.
SoulCollage® is a process for creating small collages on matboard. There is no “regulation size” but the most commonly used size is 5 X 8 inches, because it needs to be small enough to be a card in a deck of intuitive cards, but large enough to work with easily when collaging. This process was developed by Seena Frost, and at this writing there are hundreds of trained SoulCollage® facilitators in the US and around the world. Judith Prest trained in 2008 with Seena Frost to be a facilitator of SoulCollage® workshop. For more background on SoulCollage®, visit their website at www.soulcollage.com.

Speakers

Judith Prest

Soul Collage

Judith Prest is a poet, photographer, mixed media artist and creativity coach. Her poems have been published in several literary journals and in seven anthologies. Recently, her chapbook manuscript, After, was accepted by Finishing Line Press, and is scheduled to be in print by May... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

Workshop, SoulCollage®

1:00pm EDT

Poetry: Building a Body of Poems (Session 1)

Each day we'll read and write poems from exercises that guide us from the past to the present.

Speakers

Myra Shapiro

Building a Poem

Myra Shapiro, born in the Bronx, returned to New York City after forty-five years in Georgia and Tennessee where she raised two daughters and worked as a teacher and librarian. Her books of poetry are I'll See You Thursday and 12 Floors Above the Earth, her memoir, Four Sublets: Becoming... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life (Session 1)

Aging means loss, but it does not mean all is lost as we navigate old age. This workshop, based on the book of the same name by author Ann Burack-Weiss, will explore the lived experience of aging women. Writers of every genre are welcome. Using excerpts from the book, writers will be prompted to dialogue with Ann and her Lionesses, such as Collette, May Sarton, MFK Fisher, Florida Scott-Maxwell, Diana Athill, and Maya Angelou, as well as with each other. Writers will leave the workshop having strengthened their core sense of self, while generating poems or essays that may contribute to the canon on women and aging.

Speakers

Heather Summerhayes Cariou

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life

Friday July 21, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Character Arc Workshop

A strong character change arc keeps readers turning pages, but how do you create one? The building blocks of a character's change come from their Goals, Motivation and Conflict - both internal and external. Over the course of three days, we'll work on each of these areas, delve deep into who our characters are, what they want, what they desire and what's getting in their way. You'll leave with a great foundation for your character -- and some ideas for the scenes that will push them through their arc.

Speakers

Rona Gofstein

Rona Gofstein is a published author and an Author Accelerator certified fiction book coach who loves working with writers who have longed to make their book writing dreams a reality. She describes her style as intensive feedback combined with compassionate enthusiasm because she knows... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Online-Zoom

2:00pm EDT

Everyone's a Critic

The internet has democratized cultural criticism—now anyone has the ability to rate movies on Rotten Tomatoes, restaurants on Yelp, and books on Goodreads. What is the role of the professional critic in this landscape? In “A Critic’s Manifesto” for The New Yorker, Daniel Mendelsohn writes of reading criticism in that very magazine as a teenager as an education “more important than the one I was getting in school.” He writes, “I thought of these writers above all as teachers, and like all good teachers they taught by example; the example that they set, week after week, was to recreate on the page the drama of how they had arrived at their judgments.” Those meaningful judgments consist of two key elements: knowledge and taste. In this course, we will read and write cultural criticism that combines knowledge and taste, that analyzes and interprets everything from a meal to a novel. Our models may range from Hanif Abdurraqib on music, to Parul Sehgal on books, to Doreen St. Felix on television, and Jo Livingstone on film. Students will pitch, write, and workshop a review.

Speakers

Kristen Martin

Everyone's a Critic (Fri only)

Kristen Martin (she/her) is a writer and cultural critic. Her debut narrative nonfiction book AMERICAN ORPHAN will be published by Bold Type Books. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Magazine, NPR, The Atlantic, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Baffler, Gawker, and elsewhere... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 2:00pm - 4:00pm EDT

2:30pm EDT

Your Memoir As Monologue: A Play Lab for Writing Theatrical Monologues for the Stage (Session 1)

Memoir as Monologue is a three-Day Play Lab intensive with a public SHOWCASE performance Sept. 12, 2023, 7:00 p.m., online with guest actors, produced by Kelly DuMar. All writers will have the chance to have their monologue performed in the showcase, with a follow up Q&A. This workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theater. You’ll learn how to write successful dramatic monologues based on your life that are personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and relevant and engaging for an audience. Through writing prompts and creative exploration, you’ll develop your ordinary and extraordinary life experiences into powerful, dramatic monologues that can be performed by an actor––or you––with universal appeal. We’ll include a discussion of elements of dramatic structure, including the role of conflict, plot, communicating subtext, voice, narrative, and the importance of set-up. New writing will be generated and revised daily. Beginning and experienced writers are welcome.

Speakers

Kelly DuMar

PlayLab

Kelly DuMar is delighted to be returning for the sixth year to produce the IWWG Summer Play Lab. Kelly is a playwright, poet and writing workshop facilitator from Boston. Her award-winning plays and monologues have been produced around the US and Canada and are published by dramatic... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 2:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Intensive, Play Lab

2:45pm EDT

Creating an Author’s Marketing Platform - websites, social media, blogs and more… (Session 1)

This workshop will help you create an author platform that attracts and engages your target audience, and teaches you how to craft compelling content for a variety of social media platforms. The workshop is designed to get you set up to make sales online through a compelling author website, an email list eager to hear more, a thriving social media presence, securing features on blogs and podcasts, and much more. Learn the ins and outs of book marketing so you can grow an audience around your work and cultivate lifelong fans.

Speakers

Rowanna Abbensetts

Founder, Spoken Black Girl

Rowana Abbensetts (she/her) is a Guyanese American writer, mom, and entrepreneur. With a lifelong passion for writing, reading, literature, and the arts, Rowana enjoys spending time with her family, especially her daughter Symone, who inspires her to write more stories to empower... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

Workshop, Business

2:45pm EDT

Reframe / Revision: A Lightroom-Inspired Poetry Workshop

Wondering how to transform those first drafts? Poems are full of images that we create with words. They can be vivid, smoky, pungent, anything we choose, but how do we get it there? In Lightroom, you can turn the contrast up or down, crop, vignette. Learning how to do this with a poetic image allows you more control over what you're doing.This workshop will use these image-editing techniques to sharpen our work: Lightroom- but make it poetry.

Speakers

Edythe Rodriguez

Poetry

Edythe Rodriguez is a Philly-based poet and copywriter, hardcore Bustelo drinker and non-violent Beyhive member. She loves neo-soul, battle rap, and long walks through old poetry journals. Edythe has received fellowships from PEN America, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Watering... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

Poem À La Mode - Choosing the Best Voice for Your Subject and Speaker

Lyric. Narrative. Dramatic. What defines and distinguishes these poetic modes? What does each mode effect? Likely, we naturally write our poems on a continuum between lyric and narrative, with the occasional persona poem asserting itself, but bringing more consciousness to a poem’s voice will strengthen our drafts and revisions. In this workshop, we’ll devote each of the three days to one mode each, discussing successful models of the day’s mode and generating our own poems in that mode.

Speakers

Marj Hahne

Marj Hahne is a freelance editor, writer, and writing teacher, and a 2015 MFA graduate from the Rainier Writing Workshop, in poetry. She has performed and taught at over 100 venues around the country, including public radio and television programs. Her poems have appeared in literary... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 3:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Online-Zoom

Virtual Track, Poetry

4:00pm EDT

Non Fiction Critique

Speakers

Judith Huge

Intensive Memoir (pre-registration required)

Friday July 21, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Fournier Hall

Critique

4:00pm EDT

Poetry Critique

Speakers

Cynthia Manick

Superhero Poetrics (Sat only)

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, forthcoming 2023), editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry (Blair Publishing, 2021) and author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). She has... Read More →

Friday July 21, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Fournier Hall

Critique

4:00pm EDT

New member orientation and welcome

Friday July 21, 2023 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
IWWG Lounge & Spa

Orientation

5:30pm EDT

DINNER

Friday July 21, 2023 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT

Dining, Dinner

7:00pm EDT

OPEN MIC

Friday July 21, 2023 7:00pm - 9:00pm EDT

Open Mic

7:30am EDT

Breakfast

Saturday July 22, 2023 7:30am - 9:00am EDT
Dining Hall

Dining

8:30am EDT

Intensive Fiction: A Path Through the Labyrinth (Session 2)

Speakers

Lynne Barrett

Intensive Fiction

Saturday July 22, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

Intensive, Fiction

8:30am EDT

Intensive Poetry: Come Light or Re-Ignite your Poetic Fire (Session 2)

Speakers

Linda Leedy Schneider

Intensive Poetry

Saturday July 22, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Accessing the Secrets of Your Inner Writer

What do I not want to write about? But what do I really need to put out into words? What secrets does my inner writer hold back, for fear of judgment, exposure and vulnerability? What words have my writing voice been hiding from myself and others? In this workshop participants will be invited to write words that they haven’t wanted to express on the page. We often filter our writing voices through our conscious mind and intellect. As in our dream life, our voices as writers can access and express deep inner material that is often hidden from ourselves, but deeply longing to be expressed. Through a series of prompts, stories, and readings of other writers, you will be guided to explore the caves of your inner writing voice .In this workshop, you will be very surprised and enlightened with the powerful content from your inner vault, that will spill out freely onto the page. Each class will have a short period of different prompts, stories, and writing that are designed to encourage and inspire the writer to explore the words that need to be written. The class will also include a period of writing, followed by participants reading and sharing their words with the other writers in the class.

Saturday July 22, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Memoir: Writing What You've Never Had the Courage to Write (Session 2)

Speakers

Maureen Murdock

Writing What You Never Had the Courage to Write

Saturday July 22, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Intensive Memoir: Ten Tips: Writing the More Memorable Memoir (Session 2)

Speakers

Judith Huge

Intensive Memoir (pre-registration required)

Saturday July 22, 2023 8:30am - 10:00am EDT

Intensive, Memoir

9:00am EDT

Writing Sprints

What is a Writing Sprint? A sprint is a dedicated block of time for writing whether alone or in a group with the goal of steadily putting words on the page without editing or analyzing as you go. Writing sprints can help you:

Write more as you allow the words to flow
Increase writing speed by letting the critical editing brain take a rest
Reach word count goals you have set for yourself for your WIP
Reach goals for number of pages written if that is how you want to measure your progress

We are inviting you to write with us at our annual Summer Conference. Each day’s writing sprints will be moderated, and we will write in three 25-minute blocks of time with a 5-minute break in-between. We’ll do three sprints and then use the last half-hour to talk about our work, ask questions of the moderator or other sprinters and get ready to keep going on your WIP.
You can participate in the writing sprints whether you are attending the conference or not as the sessions will be online as well as in person. In order to make the most of three days of sprints, know what WIP you want to work on. Come prepared. Decide if you just want to work on a particular chapter or use the sprints to develop scenes. If you want to set word goals for yourself, do so. The sessions only require that you show up and write.

The moderator will keep time and let you know when each break occurs and facilitate the discussion session at the end of each day’s sprint.

Writing sprints are all about quantity over quality. So let the internal editor take a break and don’t stop writing until the timer goes off.

Doing writing sprints with others is an easy way to hold yourself accountable and get more done on your project than you might otherwise do along.

Speakers

Cathleen O'Connor

Saturday July 22, 2023 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Online-Zoom

10:15am EDT

Memories and Memoirs (Session 2)

Speakers

June Gould

Memoir

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Research and Resonance (Session 2)

Speakers

Catharina Coenen

Professor of Biology, Research and Resonance

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

ScreenPlay: So You Think Your Life's A Movie - A Reel Story Class (Session 2)

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! This class is not just for screenwriters. It is for novelists, memoirists, personal essayists, short-story writers, or ANYONE who wants to learn to get to their own good story FAST. Ita wild ride, fun and informative. Students will learn the nuts and bolts of screenwriting: the industry accepted three-act structure of a film including the all-important log line, plot points, subplots, character, dialogue and on the last day, Linda will stop and start an Academy Award winning film to see in action what you've learned previously, such as character’s arcs, plot points and act breaks.

Speakers

Linda Bergman

So You Think Your Life's a Movie?

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

Workshop, Screenplay

10:15am EDT

The Language of Food

Food is foundational and universal. It elicits from us powerful memories and emotions. Ruth Reichel once said, “In a psychological and cellular way, we are what we eat, all the foods we’ve taken in.” In writing, food imagery can be compelling; can help us to reveal characters, setting and layers of truth. Food is ritual, Thanksgiving dinner with family, the birthday cake at a friend’s party. Together we will look at some of the best writings that contain food imagery, by our favorite writers. As we explore our own work through interactive exercises, we will discover tasty new tools to expand our writing skills and create work that is a gustatory delight.

Speakers

Louisa Clerici

The Language of Food

Louisa Clerici’s stories have been published in literary anthologies and magazines including Carolina Woman Magazine, The Istanbul Literary Review and Best New England Crime Stories 2016, 2015 and 2012. Her work was featured by SWAN, Support Women Artists Now and National League... Read More →

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

The Yin and Yang of a Writer’s Life: Finding Your Balance

Speakers

JAN PHILLIPS

The Yin and Yang of Writing

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Writing Toward Wholeness (Session 2)

Speakers

Susan Tiberghien

Writing Towards Wholeness

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

“Two Lands, Two Languages, Two Minds”

A Cross-Cultural Generative Poetry Workshop
Reading excerpts from my poetry collections Generation One Point Five and The War Still Within as examples, I will share a process that non-native speakers can use to translate their lives to English. As a Korean-American poet, I often describe my writing process as two minds trying to communicate on the same page, across the gaps between identities; I naturally write in both languages because I think in both languages. So I will use my poem, “The Gap,” to demonstrate the effect of different languages represented as different minds. Then, participants will use the “gap method” to create their own short poem. We will reflect on the experience of learning a new language as an immigrant, engaging deeply with both the process and the outcome of sharing our stories in translation. Because history endures in poetry, we’ll read “1991, Seoul, South Korea” from “Comfort Woman” and explore the possibilities that emerge for untold stories to be retold by writers decades, even centuries, later.

Speakers

Tanya Ko Hong

Two Lands, Two Languages, Two Minds

Saturday July 22, 2023 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Online-Zoom

Virtual Track, Poetry

11:30am EDT

LUNCH

Saturday July 22, 2023 11:30am - 1:00pm EDT

Dining, Lunch

1:00pm EDT

All Creatures Great and Small: Animals as Inspiration (Session 2)

Speakers

Dorothy Randall Gray

All Creatures Great & Small

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Getting Below the Words: A Journey Through SoulCollage® (Session 2)

Speakers

Judith Prest

Soul Collage

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

Workshop, SoulCollage®

1:00pm EDT

Mindful Editing: Improve Your Own Writing (In-Person)

Before you complete the last line and hit “submit,” give your creative writer-brain a day off and engage your inner editor. Even with minimal but careful attention to style (sentence structure, syntax, grammar, and punctuation), you can greatly improve your writing. In this workshop, Andi Penner will share with you the self-editing process she has honed over years as a graduate student, English professor, technical writer and editor, and poet. Andi advocates clear, correct, and error-free writing to help you enhance your reputation as a writer who cares about her medium, i.e., words on a page. In this workshop, you’ll learn and practice basic editing concepts and skills in a fun, safe environment. You’ll leave with new knowledge and several resources (print and online).

Speakers

Andi Penner

Writer, Mindful Editing (Sat only)

Andrea (Andi) M. Penner, an IWWG member for 3 years, recently retired from a long and varied career in college teaching, administration, technical writing, and editing. She’s also published two collections of poetry, When East Was North (2012) and Rabbit Sun Lotus Moon (2017). Andi... Read More →

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

Workshop, Editing

1:00pm EDT

Poetry: Building a Body of Poems (Session 2)

Each day we'll read and write poems from exercises that guide us from the past to the present.

Speakers

Myra Shapiro

Building a Poem

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life (Session 2)

Speakers

Heather Summerhayes Cariou

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Character Arc Workshop

Speakers

Rona Gofstein

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Online-Zoom

1:00pm EDT

Superhero Poetics: How We Wear the “S” on Our Own Chests

Everyone has an origin story and it can be real, fantastical, or a combination of both. Are you a superhero, villain, or observer of your own story? And if you could interview Batman or Superman, what answers would they give? In this craft talk and workshop, participants will generate their own creation myths through direct address, confessional, and ritual.

Speakers

Cynthia Manick

Superhero Poetrics (Sat only)

Saturday July 22, 2023 1:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

2:30pm EDT

Your Memoir As Monologue: A Play Lab for Writing Theatrical Monologues for the Stage (Session 2)

Speakers

Kelly DuMar

PlayLab

Saturday July 22, 2023 2:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Intensive, Play Lab

2:45pm EDT

Creating an Author’s Marketing Platform - websites, social media, blogs and more… (Session 2)

Speakers

Rowanna Abbensetts

Founder, Spoken Black Girl

Saturday July 22, 2023 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

Workshop, Business

2:45pm EDT

Our Mothers' Gardens: Writing the After Poem

Whose work gives you flashbacks of your childhood? Brings back the smell of your home country? Writing the after poem puts your work in conversation with the pieces that inspire you. Whether responding to or expanding on the ideas that came before you, this poetic tradition maintains a sense of community. We'll be looking at golden shovels, blackout poetry, erasure, found text, photography, paintings, your favorite R&B hit, anything with an artistic pulse.

Speakers

Edythe Rodriguez

Poetry

Saturday July 22, 2023 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

Poem À La Mode - Choosing the Best Voice for Your Subject and Speaker

Speakers

Marj Hahne

Saturday July 22, 2023 3:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Online-Zoom

Virtual Track, Poetry

3:00pm EDT

Book Fair

Saturday July 22, 2023 3:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
LOGUE LIBRARY

Book Fair

5:30pm EDT

DINNER

Saturday July 22, 2023 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT

Dining, Dinner

7:00pm EDT

OPEN MIC

Saturday July 22, 2023 7:00pm - 9:00pm EDT

Open Mic

7:30am EDT

Breakfast

Sunday July 23, 2023 7:30am - 9:00am EDT
Dining Hall

Dining

8:30am EDT

Intensive Fiction: A Path Through the Labyrinth (Session 3)

Speakers

Lynne Barrett

Intensive Fiction

Sunday July 23, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

Intensive, Fiction

8:30am EDT

Intensive Poetry: Come Light or Re-Ignite your Poetic Fire (Session 3)

Speakers

Linda Leedy Schneider

Intensive Poetry

Sunday July 23, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Memoir: Writing What You've Never Had the Courage to Write (Session 3)

Speakers

Maureen Murdock

Writing What You Never Had the Courage to Write

Sunday July 23, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am EDT

8:30am EDT

Intensive Memoir: Ten Tips: Writing the More Memorable Memoir (Session 3)

Speakers

Judith Huge

Intensive Memoir (pre-registration required)

Sunday July 23, 2023 8:30am - 10:00am EDT

Intensive, Memoir

9:00am EDT

Writing Sprints

Write more as you allow the words to flow
Increase writing speed by letting the critical editing brain take a rest
Reach word count goals you have set for yourself for your WIP
Reach goals for number of pages written if that is how you want to measure your progress

Speakers

Cathleen O'Connor

Sunday July 23, 2023 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Online-Zoom

10:15am EDT

Memories and Memoirs (Session 3)

Speakers

June Gould

Memoir

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Quiet the Mind so the Heart Can Write

Our world is cluttered with distractions. While we try to manage, it is difficult to write when we cannot counter the noise. This workshop will focus on incorporating simple breathing techniques to silence disruptions so you can create. Not only can this deepen the artistic experience, but it can break through writer’s blocks. I will also suggest how to set up your personal writing space with fewer distractions. This technique works for all writing genres. No prior experience with meditation, breathing, or relaxation techniques is necessary.

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Research and Resonance (Session 3)

Speakers

Catharina Coenen

Professor of Biology, Research and Resonance

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

ScreenPlay: So You Think Your Life's A Movie - A Reel Story Class (Session 3)

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! This class is not just for screenwriters. It is for novelists, memoirists, personal essayists, short-story writers, or ANYONE who wants to learn to get to their own good story FAST. Ita wild ride, fun and informative. Students will learn the nuts and bolts of screenwriting: the industry accepted three-act structure of a film including the all-important log line, plot points, subplots, character, dialogue and on the last day, Linda will stop and start an Academy Award winning film to see in action what you've learned previously, such as character’s arcs, plot points and act breaks.

Speakers

Linda Bergman

So You Think Your Life's a Movie?

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

Workshop, Screenplay

10:15am EDT

The Yin and Yang of a Writer’s Life: Finding Your Balance

Speakers

JAN PHILLIPS

The Yin and Yang of Writing

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:15am EDT

Writing Toward Wholeness (Session 3)

Speakers

Susan Tiberghien

Writing Towards Wholeness

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

Mindful Editing

Speakers

Andi Penner

Writer, Mindful Editing (Sat only)

Sunday July 23, 2023 10:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Online-Zoom

Virtual Track, Editing

11:30am EDT

LUNCH

Sunday July 23, 2023 11:30am - 1:00pm EDT

Dining, Lunch

1:00pm EDT

All Creatures Great and Small: Animals as Inspiration (Session 3)

Speakers

Dorothy Randall Gray

All Creatures Great & Small

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Getting Below the Words: A Journey Through SoulCollage® (Session 3)

Speakers

Judith Prest

Soul Collage

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

Workshop, SoulCollage®

1:00pm EDT

Mindful Editing: Improve Your Own Writing (Virtual)

Speakers

Andi Penner

Writer, Mindful Editing (Sat only)

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT
Online-Zoom

Workshop, Editing

1:00pm EDT

Poetry: Building a Body of Poems (Session 3)

Each day we'll read and write poems from exercises that guide us from the past to the present.

Speakers

Myra Shapiro

Building a Poem

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life (Session 3)

Speakers

Heather Summerhayes Cariou

The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:15pm EDT

1:00pm EDT

Character Arc Workshop

Speakers

Rona Gofstein

Sunday July 23, 2023 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Online-Zoom