Writers’ Weekend Schedule: April 17th - 19th
Begins Tonight!
Walk-in tickets for any (and every!) session available
Friday, April 17th
Welcome reception: 6:30 pm
Books on the Nightstand Podcast Conversation: 7:30 pm
Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman at Books
on the Nightstand strive to bring you great book recommendations, as well
as a behind-the-scenes look at the world of books, bookstores and publishing. They
do this through their weekly podcast and frequent blog posts. These fabulous
podcasters recommend books, and chat about other bookish things. The most
popular feature with listeners is the last segment, “Two books we can’t wait
for you to read.” Tonight we’ll connect readers and writers and see what we all
have to say to each other.
Saturday, April 18th
Session 1: 10:00 - 10:55
Truth is Stranger Than
Fiction with Susan Campbell
Classroom A
Looking to write your family history? A biography on an obscure
Civil War veteran? Want to try your hand at freelance magazine/newspaper
pieces? This is your workshop.
Susan Campbell used to write newspaper columns and books. Then she
just wrote books. Then she went back to columns and books. She also likes
licorice and walks on the beach provided they end at a restaurant.
Speaking to Silences through the Epistolary Poem with Antoinette
Brim
3rd Floor Library
Workshop participants will write a poem that reads as a letter to
address an area in which they have been silent or have felt silenced.
Poets of all levels are invited to attend.
Antoinette Brim is the author of two collections of poetry, Icarus
in Love and Psalm of the Sunflower. Brim is a Cave Canem
Foundation fellow, a recipient of the Walker Foundation Scholarship to the Fine
Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. A sought
after speaker, editor, educator and consultant, Brim is an Assistant Professor
of English at Capital Community College.
Behind the Scenes at the Publisher: The Editorial Process
Demystified with Stacey DeKeyser
Auditorium
You’ve slaved over your book and made it perfect. Do you really
need an editor? Whether you self-publish or use a traditional publisher, you
do. Find out what to expect your editorial team, from acquisition to
proofreading and every step in between, from someone who's been on both sides
of the red pencil. You can even test your Word Nerd quotient by taking a copyediting
quiz!
Stacy DeKeyser is both an award-winning author of five books for
children and a longtime freelance copyeditor for academic, trade, and
self-publishers. She lives in Simsbury.
Exploring the Details with
Leslie Johnson
Classroom B
Generate material for a new story, or delve more deeply into
your work-in-process! Leslie will share exercises designed to spark discovery
in writing through detail. This is a participation-based workshop facilitated
by an experienced creative writing teacher and author of short stories.
Leslie
McGrath is a poet and literary
interviewer. She is the author of Opulent Hunger, Opulent Rage (2009),
a poetry collection, and two chapbooks, Toward Anguish (2007)
and By the Windpipe (2014). McGrath's latest book is a satiric
novella in verse, Out From the Pleiades (Jaded Ibis, 2014). She
teaches creative writing and literature at Central Connecticut State University
and is series editor of The Tenth Gate, a poetry imprint of The Word Works
press in Washington, DC.
Session 2: 11 - 11:55 AM
The Not So Gentle Art of
Murder with David Handler
Classroom A
An Edgar Award-winning master of the whodunit novel shares the
secrets of his highly mysterious trade. Whether your passion is for
cozies, the mean streets or white-knuckle thrillers you are sure to come away
shaken, if not stirred.
David Handler, the Edgar and American Mystery Award-winning wizard
of the witty whodunit, was born and raised in Los Angeles and published two
highly acclaimed novels about growing up there, Kiddo and Boss,
before resorting to a life of crime fiction. He has written eight novels about
the dapper celebrity ghostwriter Stewart Hoag and his faithful, neurotic basset
hound, Lulu, as well as ten books in his bestselling series featuring the
mismatched crime-fighting duo of pudgy New York film critic Mitch Berger and
the lovely Connecticut State Trooper Desiree Mitry. His most recent novel, Phantom
Angel, which was published in February by Minotaur, is his second book to
feature young Benji Golden, the feisty and street-wise 137-pound New York
private detective. Mr. Handler has written extensively for television and films
on both coasts and coauthored the international bestselling thriller Gideon
under the pseudonym Russell Andrews. He lives in a 200-year-old carriage house
in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Social Media in 60 Minutes
or Less with Caitlin Thayer
Auditorium
These days, writers need to be using social media to promote
themselves and their work. In this workshop we'll talk about how to use
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to showcase your work, connect with
your readers and to sell more books!
Caitlin Thayer is the owner of Barefoot Media, a social media
consulting company that has been teaching people how to use social media since
2009. Caitlin is an avid reader and is currently working on her first novel.
The Art of the Personal
Essay with Christine Palm
Classroom B
To a young writer, the essay is the most dreaded of literary
forms. But in this workshop, we'll challenge most of what we learned about this
imaginative, persuasive genre. For "essay" is also a verb meaning to
try, to endeavor, to venture. With our essays, then, we will essay to
move people -- to tears, to laughter, perhaps even to action.
Christine Palm is a writer of feature articles, essays,
poetry and op-ed pieces. She has taught in the creative writing department of
the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and serves as Communications Director
for the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of
Women, the state’s leading force for women’s equality. She has been a reporter
for several newspapers, including The Hartford Times and The Hartford
Advocate, as well as a columnist for The Hartford Courant. Palm
worked with the Arthur Miller Literary and Dramatic Trust, helping to prepare
the playwright’s journals for publication, and was nominated for a Pulitzer
Prize for her essay writing.
Sit, Stay: The Dog as
Metaphor in Poetry with Leslie McGrath
3rd Floor
Library
The dog’s role in American life has evolved a great deal over the
last fifty years, moving from pet to intimate companion. Many poets have
found rich metaphor in this relationship. We’ll be reading poems by Gerald
Stern, Billy Collins, WS Merwin and others, examining how the dog has come to
inhabit an important place in our poetry. We’ll also write a poem based on a
prompt from Leslie McGrath.
Leslie McGrath is a poet and literary interviewer. She is the
author of Opulent Hunger, Opulent Rage (2009), a poetry collection, and
two chapbooks, Toward Anguish (2007) and By the Windpipe (2014).
McGrath's latest book is a satiric novella in verse, Out From the Pleiades
(Jaded Ibis, 2014). She teaches creative writing and literature at Central
Connecticut State University and is series editor of The Tenth Gate, a poetry
imprint of The Word Works press in Washington, DC.
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
(provided), Hal Holbrook Hall
Session 3, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Poet as Imposter with
Vivian Shipley
Classroom A
Fiction is, well, fiction. Many people assume that poets seek to
find truth, personal or universal, in their poetry. But, does poetry need to be
literally true? Can and/or should the poet be a good liar? Come and find out
whether Vivian Shipley really trekked the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu,
hiked up Av. Du-Lachaise to visit Jim Morrison’s grave, was a surfer chick, a
dominatrix or hammer thrower. If she wasn’t, learn how she wrote poems
about the subjects for her forthcoming ninth book, The Poet. (Louisiana
Literature Press, SLU, 2015)
Cliché in word, thought,
and character with Mark Ferguson
Auditorium
"A cliché is dead matter. It causes gangrene in the prose
around it, and sooner or later it eats your brain." - Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several
Short Sentences About Writing
Clichéd phrases are easy enough to spot, and with a little self
control easy enough to get rid of. But what of cliché in thought, character, or
story? What of cliché in phrasing, clichéd ideas? This session will focus on
the concept of cliché and why it's so difficult to avoid. The group will
discuss strategies for spotting and eliminating cliché in their writing.
Fictional Voices with Mary
Sharnick
Classroom B
Voice is what we hear and tone is how we feel. Workshop
participants will bring our protagonists to life through exercises in interior
monologue and dialogue with other characters.
Mary Donnarumma Sharnick is the author of Thirst and Plagued, both
published by Fireship Press, as well as the forthcoming Orla's Canvas, to be
released by Penmore Press this year.
Session 4: 2:05 pm - 3:00
pm
Je Banach
in conversation with author and Yale Writers' Conference Director, Terence
Hawkins
Auditorium
Je Banach, a returning member of the Yale
Writers' Conference faculty and former CT Artist Fellow, speaks with Terence
Hawkins--the Founding Director of The Yale Writers' Conference--about his life,
his career, and his latest novel, American Neolithic, a Kirkus Best Book
of 2014.
Self-Publishing with
Patrice Fitzgerald
Classroom A
Tired of waiting to see yourself in print? Maybe you have a
killer novel manuscript tucked into a drawer, wisdom to share with the world in
a non-fiction book, or simply a family story you want preserved for the ages…
but you haven’t found an agent or a publisher. Or maybe you don’t want to
waste time going through all that, knowing the odds are long.
Come learn about the realities of becoming an “indie” writer—via
ebook or in print—and the specifics of what it takes to get your book out there
in a professional way. Hear about self-publishing from someone who’s been
in the trenches.
Patrice Fitzgerald is an attorney, author, and publisher.
She’s been self-publishing since Independence Day of 2011, and two of her
books have become Kindle best-sellers, including an anthology that reached #6
on all of Amazon (briefly!) Patrice gives presentations and workshops on
Self-Publishing, and serves as a consultant for those who seek guidance along
the way.
Memoir Structure and Theme
with Judy Mandel
3rd Floor
Library
Find the right structure to transform your life stories into a
captivating memoir. Learn how to uncover and develop the theme of your memoir.
Jump start your memoir if you haven’t begun, or learn techniques to keep the
writing moving.
Judy L. Mandel is the author of the award-winning memoir
Replacement Child (Seal Press, 2013). Judy’s essays and articles have appeared
in Connecticut LIFE, ASJA Monthly, Complete Wellbeing Magazine, Connecticut
Authors and Publishers Newsletter, and The Southampton Review.
Beginnings in Fiction with
Dan Pope
Classroom B
This workshop will address techniques about BEGINNINGS in short
fiction and novel writing. First impression are vital, in life and in
fiction, and this workshop will show you techniques how to capture the reader's
attention right from the first sentence. What to dos, and what not to dos!
Dan Pope is the author of Housebreaking (Simon & Schuster,
2015) and In the Cherry Tree (Picador USA, 2003). His short stories have
appeared in many journals, including Crazyhorse, Harvard Review, Iowa Review,
McSweeney's (No. 4), Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, and others. He is a 2002
graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where he attended on a Truman Capote Fellowship.
He is a winner of the Glenn Schaeffer Award from the International Institute of
Modern Letters, and grants in fiction from the Connecticut Commission on the
Arts.
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Free time! Shop in the store, catch the Mark Twain
documentary in Hal Holbrook Hall, read or write outside, enjoy our galleries, grab
coffee or a snack in the Nook Café (2nd floor of the Twain House), or
take a tour. If you plan to tour the Twain House, make sure to get your tickets
early in the day. Weekend tours nearly always sell out.
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Playwrights Panel with Neil
LaBute, Christopher Shinn, Mark St. Germain, and Frank Rizzo
Auditorium
Our Fourth Annual Playwrights Panel welcomes
three of the most acclaimed writers working today! Neil LaBute is best
known for his taut dialogue, confrontational style, and controversial subject
matter. In addition to his screenplays for In the Company of Men and
Your Friends and Neighbors, LaBute has written the plays Bash: Latter
Day Plays, The Shape of Things, Fat Pig, and the Tony-nominated reasons
to be pretty. Wethersfield native Christopher Shinn is best known for
dramas that plumb dark, complex emotional terrain. With premiere
productions in London and New York, Shinn’s work has been at Hartford Stage (Dying
City and the upcoming An Opening in Time) and TheaterWorks (Four).
Mark St. Germain is one of the busiest playwrights today with works that
have been seen across the United States and span a variety of genres.
Local audiences have enjoyed hisFreud’s Last Session, Becoming Dr.
Ruth, and Dancing Lessons at TheaterWorks.
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Light reception in Hall
Holbrook Hall
7:00 pm: Keynote with Dani
Shapiro
Dani Shapiro is the
bestselling author of the memoirs Devotion and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta,
Tin House, One Story, Elle, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of
The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on “This
American Life”. Dani was recently Oprah Winfrey’s guest on ”Super Soul
Sunday,” and was chosen by Arianna Huffington to speak at the New York City
“Thrive” conference. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU,
The New School and Wesleyan University; she is co-founder of the Sirenland
Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. A contributing editor at Condé Nast
Traveler, Dani lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Her
latest book is, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative
Life.
SUNDAY:
Session 5 10:00 am - 11:00
am
Memoir: The Remembered Life
with Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
Classroom
Autobiography skirts the surface of a life without allowing the
reader access to the messy, conflicted and unapologetically subjective material
of a memoir. Let us come to understand the requirement that the memoirist
be willing to expose that subjective mess in order to create an irresistible,
compelling and publishable memoir.
Smith has published ten critically acclaimed novels, and her short
fiction and essays have appeared in several collections. Her memoir,
GIRLS OF TENDER AGE, has been a favorite of book clubs since it came out in
2006. A novel, MASTERS OF ILLUSION, centered on the Great Hartford Circus
Fire has been optioned for a film by Amazon Studios. In 2010, Smith
was named the recipient of the Diana Bennett Fiction Writing Fellowship, at the
Black Mountain Institute, UNLV, and spent a year writing the first draft of THE
HONOURED GUEST when she wasn't being disappeared by David Copperfield at MGM
Grand.
All Together in a Sudden
Strangeness: Breaking Our Writing Patterns with Edwina Trentham
3rd Floor
Library
In “Keeping Quiet,” Pablo Neruda suggests that “we all keep still”
and see what will happen when we find ourselves “all / together in a sudden
strangeness.” This workshop is not about keeping stil,l but it is about taking
chances, about breaking out of our familiar writing patterns. We will both read
and write poetry, using writing exercises to nudge ourselves out of our safe
path as poets and encourage us to explore new voices.
Edwina Trentham is the Founding Editor of Freshwater. Her
collection of poetry Stumbling into the Light, was published by Antrim
House in 2004, and she was a featured reader at the Sunken Garden Poetry
Festival in June 2005. She was awarded a 2010 Solo Writer’s Fellowship from the
Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at
the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Writing a Dramatic Scene
with Lucy Ferriss
Auditorium
The scene is at the heart of the story -- at the heart, one might
say, of all imaginative writing, be it drama or prose or even poetry. Some
stories consist of only one scene, whereas others seem to "layer"
their scenes with exposition, description, and dialogue, so that the story
moves through time and reaches its climax in a final or penultimate scene
rather than in a single line of dialogue or exposition.
Lucy Ferriss’s latest novel is A Sister to Honor (Penguin 2015). Recent
work appears in the New York Times, The American Scholar, and Missouri Review, and has received
recognition from the NEA, the Mid-List First Series, and the International
Society for Narrative. She is Writer-in-Residence at Trinity College and lives
in Connecticut and the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Her website is
http://lucyferriss.com.
Session 6: 11 am - 12:00 pm
Birth of a Book: From the
Author's Mind to the Shelf with Matthew Dicks
Auditorium
This workshop will pull back the curtains on the complex and
confusing world of publishing. We will discuss how authors find agents, how
books are pitched and sold to publishing houses, how authors earn advances and
royalties, how books are sold to foreign markets, and how books are made into
films. The oftentimes opaque machinery of the publishing process exposed at
last!
Matthew Dicks is the author of the novels Memoirs of an
Imaginary Friend, Something Missing, Unexpectedly, Milo and the upcoming The
Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs, as well as the rock opera The Clowns
and the musical Caught in the Middle. When he isn’t writing, he fills his time
as an elementary school teacher, a professional storyteller, a wedding DJ, a
minister, a blogger, and a life coach. Matthew is a 16-time Moth StorySLAM
champion and GrandSLAM champion who has been featured on the Moth Radio Hour
and This American Life. He’s the co-founder and producer of Speak Up, a
Hartford-based storytelling organization.
Five Poetry Prompts to
Change Your Life with Christine Beck
3rd Floor
Library
If you are stuck in a rut or worse yet, are staring at an empty
page, let me show you five poetry prompts that will help you get moving. You
can use these prompts both as a teacher and as a writer. They are designed to
help edit your poetry to its essential, write with compassion about the
"other," explore sonic appeal, use lists in new ways, and mimic lines
or forms that will alter your standard syntax.
Christine Beck holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
from Southern Connecticut State University. She teaches creative writing
both at Southern and at the University of Hartford. She is also active in
The Connecticut Poetry Society and Riverwood Poetry Series. Her book,
"Blinding Light," Grayson Books, was released in 2014.
MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS AND
AMATEUR SLEUTHS: WRITING THE COZY MYSTERY with Susannah Hardy
Classroom
From Miss Marple to Nancy Drew to Jessica Fletcher to the modern
cozy mystery, traditional mysteries never go out of style. This workshop will
introduce you to the cozy mystery (you already know what it is--you just may
not know what it's called), as well as give you tips and techniques on how to
write your own while working within genre expectations. We'll cover setting,
characters, and the construction of a twisting, turning plot that will keep
readers guessing. A reading list will be provided.
Susannah Hardy thinks she has the best job in the world: writing
mystery stories and recipes to go along with them. Her first novel, Feta
Attraction, was published by Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Random House) and is
available now from all major retailers, to be followed by book 2 in the series,
Olive and Let Die, on November 3. Writing as Sadie Hartwell, she will release
Yarned and Dangerous, the first book in a new mystery series, on November 23
from Kensington Publishing. A graduate of St. Lawrence University, she lives in
Connecticut.
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
break
You’re on your own today! Bring your
own, grab a salad or sandwich from our Nook Café, or head out to one of the
many nearby restaurants (ask Julia or our front desk for recommendations).
Session 7: 1:00 pm - 2:00
pm
Finding an Agent with Susan
Schoenberger
3rd Floor
Library
What does it take to find an agent in this uber-competitive
marketplace? Do you even need an agent with all of the non-traditional publishing
options available? We'll talk about how to research agents, how to query them,
why you might or might not need one, and what they actually do for writers.
Bring your questions!
Susan Schoenberger worked for news organizations as a reporter,
copy editor and editor for three decades before becoming the Director of
Communications at Hartford Seminary. She is the author of two novels, A
Watershed Year, which won the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative
Writing Competition, and The Virtues of Oxygen, released in 2014. She
also teaches fiction at the Mark Twain House and Museum.
Taking the Oral History of
a Family Member with Hunter Liguore
Classroom B
Are you an amateur historian? Have you always wanted to preserve
your family history? Have a story of your own that you need to write? Here is
your chance. Through oral history, we preserve not only the past, but the
voices of those we care about. In this workshop, we’ll learn the logistics of
conducting an oral history. We’ll create a list of interview questions, and
complete sample exercises to get you started. Participants have opportunity to
be included in One Bookshelf oral history project through American Athenaeum
literary journal.
Hunter Liguore is an American writer, with degrees in history and
writing. Her published work has appeared internationally; most recently,
"Design of One’s Day," is a 2015 finalist in the Austin Chronicle short
story contest. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal, American Athenaeum,
considered to be a “museum of words.” Her novel, Next Breath, is
represented by Regal Literary. She teaches undergraduate and graduate writing
in New England. HunterLiguore.com
Writing and Promoting Your Content with Wayne English
Classroom A
Writing for the web and social media is a necessity for every writer
and author. Today we discuss
writing headlines, media releases, your blog, InfoGraphics, white papers,
and e-books. And, if we
have time, how to use tools like HootSuite and Klout to promote
all that hard work.
Wayne English is president and founder of Web Content Rx, LLC. A
Web content and social networking professional, author, writer, and consultant.
An accomplished speaker, Wayne presents seminars, speaks on panel discussions,
and business groups on writing for the Web and social networking. His first
book, Web Content Rx, A Quick and Handy guide for Writes, Webmasters, eBayers,
and Business People was a Top 5 Business Title in Leadership Books at The
Washington Post. See WebContentRx.biz, read his blog at blog.WebContentRx.biz,
and follow him on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Publishing Panel
Auditorium
Researching and choosing
the best publishing method for one’s book is a huge decision made complicated
by the ever-changing landscape of traditional publishing and self-publishing.
Vanity presses, independent publishing and now partnership publishing all
offer methods for getting an author’s work out there, but is the purpose or end
result always the production of a quality product? The goal of this panel
is to clarify the options and provide resources for those writers and authors
interested in exploring their publishing alternatives.
Panelists:
Association of Publishers for Special
Sales (APSS)
SheWrites Press (SWP)
Brian Jud, President; Premium
Book Company & Executive Director of APSS
Gina Panettieri,
President; Talcott Notch Literary Services
Cindy Eastman, Author; SheWrites
Press
Cynde Acanto, Bookstore Owner;
Book Club
Moderator: Donald Allen, Media Relations, Simon/Zef
Publishing
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Open Mic
with Syllable Series!
Auditorium
We close out our weekend of inspiration and information with an
open mic to read your work. Curated by Syllable, the Reading Series, this is a
chance to show off your best work or put new work in front of friendly
listeners for the first time.
