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The April 1 deadline for scholarship applications to the 2010 Juniper Summer Writing Institute is fast approaching! From June 20-26, poets and writers will gather at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to explore the creative process and advance their craft. Renowned faculty members Charles D’Ambrosio, Mark Doty, Noy Holland, Paul Lisicky, Dara Wier, and Matthew Zapruder will offer workshops in poetry, fiction, and memoir. Writers in residence (including James Tate, Joy Williams, and Thomas Sayers Ellis) will give readings, lead craft sessions, and participate in Q&As. For application forms and more information, visit The Juniper Institute. Workshops fill quickly, so applicants are encouraged to submit their materials soon!
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UPDATE: Here's a description of my craft class, which Juniper has posted online.
THE MIND AT WORK: SHORT PROSE PIECES
Flash fiction, sudden fiction, short short, prose poem: different names for the same idea? Maybe names are beside the point. Maybe the better task is to look closely at some recent examples of the form. How might writers of short forms be grappling with structure in order to make something new? How is such work a record of the mind at work: part fiction, part essay, part poem? And what can we learn from a story in which every word and its placement matters? As part of our time together, we’ll take a close look at work by Lydia Davis, Amy Hempel, Steve Almond, Dave Eggers, and others. We’ll also try out an exercise or two inspired by the examples at hand.
7 comments:
do you work with the young writers as well? i have a student or two i would love to see attend. one student, in particular, is brilliant, with life experiences that could makes for decades of writing.
i would love to join you, but i'm working in june.
It sounds wonderful, another reason why I wish I had two lives to live. But I don't. I'd love to join you, but I can't. Nevertheless I hope it goes well. I'm all for writing workshops - good writing workshops. We learn so much from one another.
Nancy, I actually don't work with the high school-age writers; they have a separate faculty. But most of my students in 09 were undergraduates, students in MFA programs--or they'd just gotten their MFA's. In 08 my group was more diverse age-wise; there was, even someone close to 80 but she had all the zest of a twenty-year-old.
Thank you, Elisabeth. Maybe someday, another life!
what a wonderful-sounding conference! made me all eager to attend. Yeah, I'm probably a conference junkie. But as you said, I'd need another life.
Funny, today on my blog, I declared the Napa Valley Writers Conference the Best LIttle Conference in the West. And that's not just because I'm on staff either. I think it has many of the same elements that the Juniper Conference seems to have. Fabulous faculty, a whole week of workshops, a focus on craft, enthusiastic, dedicated students. It's at the end of July, so folks could go from one to the other...
Lakin, Yes, Napa is the other best conference. (And aren't I always telling my students to be wary of pronouncements?) You're absolutely right: one could go to Juniper then to Napa--two beautiful parts of the country--with a three week break between them.
I'm applying again! I wish that I had enough finished fiction/memoir work to apply for your workshop.. maybe in a few years. Another thing to work towards.
I'm glad you'll be back, Sophie!
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