Port Townsend Writers’ Conference Schedule

THE 2013 PORT TOWNSEND WRITERS’ CONFERENCE
All faculty readings take place in the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater; all meals take place in the Fort Worden Commons.

Sunday, July 7
3:30-5:30—Check-in outside the Centrum office building
5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:00—Orientation at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater
7:30—Reading by Dan Chaon
9 pm—Wine and conversation. Join us! (Building 262)

Monday, July 8
8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Erin Belieu “The Second Sex on the Second Shelf”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Flash Nonfiction”
Flash nonfiction or short-shorts have been around forever, in formats as familiar to us as parables, jokes and fables. They are increasingly popular now because our quickie culture demands that stories be shorter, snappier, tighter. Short-shorts must have precise language, powerful imagery, compelling plot twists, and a fine balance of scene and reflection. Despite their short length, or perhaps because of it, they are challenging but incredibly satisfying to write. In this class, we will draft three short-shorts to give you a taste (and addiction) for this genre.
Sheila Bender Room N
“Shaping Personal Experience Toward Insight and Discovery”
The purpose of a personal essay is to build a path through the author’s experience that clears the way for discovery/fresh insight. There are eight rhetorical strategies that help writers do this work. We’ll define them and notice they are patterns of thinking with which we are already familiar. Then, we’ll study samples of excellent writing that successfully use these patterns as well as discuss how we might apply the patterns to personal essay topics of our own.
Joe Millar Room M
“Focus on the Image”
Ezra Pound’s description of the image: “…that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” And later: “The image is not an idea. It is a radiant node or cluster…” Our class discussion will focus on images, where they originate and how they arrive. We will then spend time writing, based on a prompt, which will change with each day. We’ll have time for critique, for those who wish to share what they’ve written.
David Thacker Room L
“This Busy Monster: Writing Contemporary Sonnets”
As recent anthologies like The Penguin Book of the Sonnet and Norton’s The Making of a Sonnet have demonstrated, the sonnet has proven to be a resilient poetic form, able to bend and flex with changes in modern and contemporary poetry. Beginning with a quick review of the thinking behind the traditional basics, we’ll investigate how contemporary poets have added to, or taken away from, the tradition to adapt the sonnet to new times and aesthetics. Our aim is generating new ways of thinking though and using the form. What are yet unknown possibilities for the sonnet? Let’s find out.
Terry Persun Room O
“Writing Characters”
Character-driven novels, short stories, or poems demand a certain level of attention to all other aspects of the work. This is where setting, scene, conflict, and point-of-view become essential tools. This workshop will help you infuse character into every aspect of your work, whether it’s in action, scene, or internal dialogue.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Janée Baugher, Bill Ransom
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Tuesday, July 9

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Ann Hood “How to Be Your Own Best Editor: The Art of Revision”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Sacred Journeys: Five New Ideas for Spiritual Essays”
The spiritual essay can exist within the realm of organized religion as well as outside it. It can be written by anyone—atheists, agnostics, or the deeply devout. It can be about a moment of transformation, a sudden lack of faith, or even the writer’s personal definition of sin. Its essential purpose, however, remains the same: to explore timeless questions about our existence, wrestle with the conflicts within and understand the meaning of it all. In this class, we will etch out five new essays, all different from each other, that will help unlock answers for your spiritual quest.
Sheila Bender Room O
“Shaping Personal Experience Toward Insight and Discovery”
The purpose of a personal essay is to build a path through the author’s experience that clears the way for discovery/fresh insight. There are eight rhetorical strategies that help writers do this work. We’ll define them and notice they are patterns of thinking with which we are already familiar. Then, we’ll study samples of excellent writing that successfully use these patterns as well as discuss how we might apply the patterns to personal essay topics of our own.
Henry Alley Room M
“Writing Your Character from the Inside”
How do writers build characters from within? In this workshop, we will look at some examples from Virginia Woolf, Katherine Anne Porter, and James Joyce to see how voice, pacing, narrative detail and point view develop intimacy with a character’s interior life. Specifically, we will look at first person vis a vis third person, as well as the technique known as “free indirect discourse,” which, in many ways, conveys the best of both worlds. We will listen to some brief recordings from the authors’ works which develop a character’s inner world. We’ll try writing and sharing some passages of our own. You can come with your own characters and situations, or I can supply some prompts.
Dorianne Laux Room N
“Musical Patterns of Poetry”
Though there are many formal names for the poetic devices that bring together written word and sounded pattern, the emphasis will be on the syllable and the line.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Patricia Henley, Erin Belieu
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Wednesday, July 10

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Cate Marvin “‘The Goose Girl Speaks to the Stove’: The Function of the Second-Person in the Work of Contemporary American Female Writers”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Your Life in Parts: Writing the Segmented Essay”
The segmented essay allows the author to step outside conventional narrative patterns of time and place. A segmented essay works in segments or parts that build off of each other. They are interspersed with white space, which functions as an essential design and foundation element, and therefore, segmented essays do not require traditional transitions. The segments may include personal story, research, change in authorial voice and perspective, shifts of time, etc. While all these disparate segments (including the silences and white spaces) must have their individual character and arc intact, they must also all work together. In this class, we will look at the form through the writings of accomplished essayists such as Nora Ephron and work on fleshing out a segmented essay of our own.
Joe Millar Room L
“Focus on the Image”
Ezra Pound’s description of the image: “…that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” And later: “The image is not an idea. It is a radiant node or cluster…” Our class discussion will focus on images, where they originate and how they arrive. We will then spend time writing, based on a prompt, which will change with each day. We’ll have time for critique, for those who wish to share what they’ve written.
Terry Persun Room O
“Writing Characters”
Character-driven novels, short stories, or poems demand a certain level of attention to all other aspects of the work. This is where setting, scene, conflict, and point-of-view become essential tools. This workshop will help you infuse character into every aspect of your work, whether it’s in action, scene, or internal dialogue.
Ruby Murray Room M
“Listening Deep: Writing Real Life”
When storytelling works, the atmosphere within a room changes. Using our natural sense as humans, we will write together and share work. By identifying what matters in compelling prose, elements of emotional or physical risk, we can deepen the stories we write. Using text by Elizabeth Strout and Debra Earling and others to prime the pump, we’ll develop scenes. Then we’ll use echoes from each other’s work to write more deeply.
Bill Mawhinney Room K
“Another Day in Paradox”
Writers as diverse as Lao Tzu and Charles Dickens have found great energy in paradoxes. In this workshop we’ll hold up both sides of seemingly self-contradictory statements and find some knots of energy that lie hidden inside them. Together, we will unearth some creative gold as we look (like Judy Collins) at “both sides now” and leave with a seed bed of ideas for new work.
Gayle Kaune Room J
“Three Prompts and the Body”
We live in our bodies and good poetry arises from the intersection of the material and spiritual/emotional. In this session we will read poems grounded in the body and then write, briefly, from three distinct memories. We will then overlay part, or all, of these memories with specifics I have given you from the body. Come prepared to create something new and share.
Susan Landgraf Room N
“Richard Hugo Still Lives Big on the Page”
Hugo’s imposing presence—stocky bear build—and his deep voice still come through in his poems. And he has a lot to tell us about the ways to create poems that squall, grate, grind, kick ass. We’ll look at some of Hugo’s poems and let him teach us about writing great poems, one right on the spot.

Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

4:00-5:00—Dianne Butler reading in Building 262
5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:00—Participant Readings in Building 262
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Thursday, July 11

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Patricia Henley “Writing Out of the Midwest: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Ways in: One Class, Five New Drafts”
Writing is like any other art form. Meaning, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, the key is to practice it every day, because the more you practice, the better you get. While it would be wonderful to be able to write fresh, new prose every single time, as writers we know that getting stuck for ideas is also part of the process. In order to inject fresh energy into your writing, in this class, you will receive five new springboards, to start you off on five new essays: The Kitchen Exercise, Working with Images; Fairy Tales and You; Compare and Contrast; Three-Word memoirs.
Sheila Bender Room O
“Showing Not Telling: Helping Your Readers Live Your Experience”
When do we need to get specific with details and images and when do we know when to use commentary? According to poet and writer Jack Grapes, the writer’s job is to slow down psychological time. We can do that by paying attention to sound, sight, smell, textures and taste as well as to commentary we make in the scenes we create with our sensory imagery. Since our minds go quickly to summarizing and to rushing through time, staying in practice with details and images is an important exercise for writers, who must never forget to involve themselves and their readers directly in experiences.
David Thacker Room L
“Syntax: Musical Phrasing in Poetry”
When a poet senses something isn’t quite right in a draft, s/he often looks to the line as the source and solution to the problem. But revision at the line level is often inadequate-merely a treatment of the surface. Beneath the line, syntax flexes and bends its own musical muscle-sometimes in concert with the line, sometimes against it. And it is at this deeper flexing and bending that some of the most potent re-visioning can happen. To borrow a music metaphor from Ellen Bryant Voigt, while the line delivers local measure, the syntax delivers global phrasing. It is this broader, underlying phrasing—this deeper impulse—that we’ll concern ourselves with. In this workshop, we’ll conduct an investigation focused on large-scale musical phrasing contained in syntax with the aim of opening up possibilities for re-vision of our own poems.
Sam Ligon Room N
“Short Fiction and the Inverted Time Telescope”
In an interview with Willow Springs in 2007, Stuart Dybek said that fiction is a temporal art. Its main subject is time. Its great power is chronology because chronology has an inescapable way of translating into cause and effect. It’s deceptive and illusory, but that’s the power of linear narrative….But linear narration is only one way to perceive reality. And inverting or subverting linear narration might be another way to perceive reality. Writers such as Dybek, Alice Munro, Tobias Wolff, and many others often play with chronology and time in their fiction, sometimes finding and revealing the heart of a story in a moment brought to life in the protagonist’s past, ending with that past moment even, unhinging the story from forward moving chronological narration. In this class we’ll read and discuss two stories that establish a present from which the action springboards into the past, never to return to the present, Dybek’s “Pet Milk,” and Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain.” We’ll be considering this fundamental question: If the story’s essential revelation is in the past, why is a present introduced from which to travel backward?
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Sam Ligon, Joe Millar
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Friday, July 12

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—No Craft Lecture Today
2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Food and Family: Writing the Gastronomic Essay”
Food serves far greater purpose than just nourishment. It represents culture, religion, character, identity, as well as economic and social background. Food marks important moments/events in our lives, therefore food-related habits and memories can be a rewarding and unending source to generate new writing. Gastronomic essays demand the author has a strong voice, the ability to mine sensory details, and to make even the smallest facet have great public resonance. In this class, we will draft three vastly different essays, each of which will provide you with ample practice to hone these skills and nourish your reader.
Jeanne Morel Room K
“Zuihitsu—Following the Brush”
The poet Kimiko Hahn says, “The zuihitsu—for which there is no Western equivalent—looks like prose and sounds like poetry.” Zuihitsu has been translated as “following the brush” or “random jottings.” Although this classical form dates from the 11^th century Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, it has a sensibility well suited to the 21st century. The form blends prose and poetry as it accumulates lists, anecdotes, and musings. In this way the form mirrors the mind as it jogs and jags this way and that. Come read contemporary zuihitsus and try your hand at one or two of your own!
Joe Millar Room O
“Focus on the Image”
Ezra Pound’s description of the image: “…that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” And later: “The image is not an idea. It is a radiant node or cluster…” Our class discussion will focus on images, where they originate and how they arrive. We will then spend time writing, based on a prompt, which will change with each day. We’ll have time for critique, for those who wish to share what they’ve written.
Terry Persun Room L
“Writing Characters”
Character-driven novels, short stories, or poems demand a certain level of attention to all other aspects of the work. This is where setting, scene, conflict, and point-of-view become essential tools. This workshop will help you infuse character into every aspect of your work, whether it’s in action, scene, or internal dialogue.
Susan Landgraf Room N
“The Art of Revision”
“Revision is not going back and fussing around, but going forward into the highly complex and satisfying process of creation,” May Sarton wrote. We’ll warm up by looking at E. B. White’s first draft of his short essay on the first moon landing for The New Yorker and then look at some revisions by Stafford and others. Bring a poem, essay, or short story to work on, to “re-create.”
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Ann Hood, Dorianne Laux
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Saturday, July 13

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Erin Belieu Room F
Dan Chaon Room H
Patricia Henley Room M
Ann Hood Room K
Sam Ligon Room N
Cate Marvin Room L
Dorianne Laux Room O
Jennine Capó Crucet Room J

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-2:00—Faculty Booksigning Room D
4-5:00—Life After Centrum

Janée Baugher Room H
“Post-Conference: where do we go from here?”
What’s the plan for your writing life post-Centrum? The Conference was exhilarating, challenging, and inspiring, but how does a person keep that momentum throughout the year? We’ll exchange ideas about realistic writing schedules and literary communities, as well as suggestions for further reading and other learning venues.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Cate Marvin, Jennine Capó Crucet
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Sunday, July 14

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9—Airport shuttle leaves
11—Dorm check out for departing participants
3:30-5:30—Check-in for second-week participants outside the Centrum office building.
5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:00—Orientation at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater
7:30—Reading by Terrence Hayes
9 pm—Wine and conversation. Join us! (Building 262)

Monday, July 15

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch

1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Midge Raymond “Conscious Creativity, or How to Write When You’re Not Actually Writing”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Sacred Journeys: Five New Ideas for Spiritual Essays”
The spiritual essay can exist within the realm of organized religion as well as outside it. It can be written by anyone—atheists, agnostics, or the deeply devout. It can be about a moment of transformation, a sudden lack of faith, or even the writer’s personal definition of sin. Its essential purpose, however, remains the same: to explore timeless questions about our existence, wrestle with the conflicts within and understand the meaning of it all. In this class, we will etch out five new essays, all different from each other, that will help unlock answers for your spiritual quest.
Arthur Sze Room N
“Horse Face: Explorations in Simultaneity and Synchronicity”
The workshop will have three parts. In the first, I’ll read a poem, “Horse Face,” and we’ll discuss its images, rhythms, syntax, voice, and structure. We’ll also consider how simultaneity and synchronicity can be a rich structure to develop poems. In the second part, participants will take about half an hour to write a poem of their own that’s sparked by this initial discussion. In the third part, we’ll read and discuss the results.
Laura Read Room M
“I Am a Town”
In this song by Mary Chapin Carpenter, she sings, I’m a town in Carolina, I’m a detour on a ride/for a phone call and a soda, I’m a blur from the driver’s side/I’m the last gas for an hour if you’re going twenty-five/I am Texaco and tobacco/I am dust you leave behind. Each of these details contains Whitman’s multitudes when you’re inside them, when you are the town, projecting your memories onto phone booths and gas stations, onto “the pines behind the graveyard” and “the church beside the highway” she mentions in later verses. In this workshop, we’ll look at poems by James Wright and Elizabeth Bishop about place, about Hugo’s “triggering towns,” and then we’ll let our own towns and places be our triggers. We’ll create maps of the places we’ve printed with our memories and then generate a poem.
Sheila Bender Room O
“Flash Nonfiction: Keeping it Short, Vivid and Impactful”
Brevity magazine editor Dinty Moore writes of the short nonfiction form: “There’s a through line of emotion, beauty, and discomfort that can fit into the tiniest of frames.” In this workshop, we’ll read flash nonfiction examples and try our hand at writing impactful short, short life stories that maximize the use of scene, heightened language, conflict and setting.
Janée Baugher Room L
“The Poetic Line”
How does a poet give visual instructions for auditory effects? Where to break the poetic line is confounding to many poets. In this class we’ll discuss the function of the line (á la Denise Levertov), including logical and a-logical caesuras, evaluate examples of successful (and flaccid) line breaks, and hopefully begin to demystify the poetic line. Bring to class one copy of your poem in two versions: one version as a block of text and the other with line breaks.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Sayantani Dasgupta, Cate Marvin
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Tuesday, July 16

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Cate Marvin “‘The Goose Girl Speaks to the Stove’: The Function of the Second-Person in the Work of Contemporary American Female Writers”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Flash Nonfiction”
Flash nonfiction or short-shorts have been around forever, in formats as familiar to us as parables, jokes and fables. They are increasingly popular now because our quickie culture demands that stories be shorter, snappier, tighter. Short-shorts must have precise language, powerful imagery, compelling plot twists, and a fine balance of scene and reflection. Despite their short length, or perhaps because of it, they are challenging but incredibly satisfying to write. In this class, we will draft three short-shorts to give you a taste (and addiction) for this genre.
Midge Raymond Room O
“Getting Into Character”
In both fiction and nonfiction, good characterization is what brings readers into our stories. In this workshop, we’ll discuss strategies for bringing characters to life, whether they are fictional or whether they’re real people appearing on the page for the first time. Using examples, we’ll discuss how character relates to such aspects of story as dialogue, setting, and plot, and we’ll also spend time writing, with exercises designed to develop and flesh out your characters.
Laura Read Room M
“I Am a Town”
In this song by Mary Chapin Carpenter, she sings, I’m a town in Carolina, I’m a detour on a ride/for a phone call and a soda, I’m a blur from the driver’s side/I’m the last gas for an hour if you’re going twenty-five/I am Texaco and tobacco/I am dust you leave behind. Each of these details contains Whitman’s multitudes when you’re inside them, when you are the town, projecting your memories onto phone booths and gas stations, onto “the pines behind the graveyard” and “the church beside the highway” she mentions in later verses. In this workshop, we’ll look at poems by James Wright and Elizabeth Bishop about place, about Hugo’s “triggering towns,” and then we’ll let our own towns and places be our triggers. We’ll create maps of the places we’ve printed with our memories and then generate a poem.
Janée Baugher Room N
“The Poetic Line”
How does a poet give visual instructions for auditory effects? Where to break the poetic line is confounding to many poets. In this class we’ll discuss the function of the line (á la Denise Levertov), including logical and a-logical caesuras, evaluate examples of successful (and flaccid) line breaks, and hopefully begin to demystify the poetic line. Bring to class one copy of your poem in two versions: one version as a block of text and the other with line breaks.
Ruby Murray Room M
“Listening Deep: Writing Real Life”
When storytelling works, the atmosphere within a room changes. Using our natural sense as humans, we will write together and share work. By identifying what matters in compelling prose, elements of emotional or physical risk, we can deepen the stories we write. Using text by Elizabeth Strout and Debra Earling and others to prime the pump, we’ll develop scenes. Then we’ll use echoes from each other’s work to write more deeply.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Joy Passanante, Midge Raymond
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Wednesday, July 17

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture

Patricia Henley “Writing Out of the Midwest: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room J
“Your Life in Parts: Writing the Segmented Essay”
The segmented essay allows the author to step outside conventional narrative patterns of time and place. A segmented essay works in segments or parts that build off of each other. They are interspersed with white space, which functions as an essential design and foundation element, and therefore, segmented essays do not require traditional transitions. The segments may include personal story, research, change in authorial voice and perspective, shifts of time, etc. While all these disparate segments (including the silences and white spaces) must have their individual character and arc intact, they must also all work together. In this class, we will look at the form through the writings of accomplished essayists such as Nora Ephron and work on fleshing out a segmented essay of our own.
Midge Raymond Room O
“Be Your Own Editor”
As Ernest Hemingway once said, “Easy writing makes hard reading.” Revision is a necessary part of any writing project, yet revising one’s own work can often seem daunting. In this workshop, you’ll learn tools for how to approach your own writing with the objectivity of an editor. We’ll talk about when to begin the revision process as well as how to divide it into palatable stages. Note: bring a work-in-progress for in-class writing.
Gayle Kaune Room L
“Three Prompts and the Body”
We live in our bodies and good poetry arises from the intersection of the material and spiritual/emotional. In this session we will read poems grounded in the body and then write, briefly, from three distinct memories. We will then overlay part, or all, of these memories with specifics I have given you from the body. Come prepared to create something new and share.
Sheila Bender Room H “Flash Nonfiction: Keeping it Short, Vivid and Impactful”
Brevity magazine editor Dinty Moore writes of the short nonfiction form: “There’s a through line of emotion, beauty, and discomfort that can fit into the tiniest of frames.” In this workshop, we’ll read flash nonfiction examples and try our hand at writing impactful short, short life stories that maximize the use of scene, heightened language, conflict and setting.
Bill Mawhinney Room M
“Another Day in Paradox”
Writers as diverse as Lao Tzu and Charles Dickens have found great energy in paradoxes. In this workshop we’ll hold up both sides of seemingly self-contradictory statements and find some knots of energy that lie hidden inside them. Together, we will unearth some creative gold as we look (like Judy Collins) at “both sides now” and leave with a seed bed of ideas for new work.
Maya Zeller Room N
“What Makes a Prose Poem?”
In this generative workshop, we’ll discuss the history and conventions of the seemingly oxymoronic prose poem, from its beginnings in the Psalms, through Surrealism, to today. Using poems and commentary by such diverse authors as Charles Baudelaire, Melissa Kwasny, Russell Edson, Carolyn Forché, Sherman Alexie, Harryette Mullen, and more, we’ll look at how the form shares territory with various genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction—and what exactly the “form” means. Then we’ll do some exercises to create our own prose poems.
Susan Landgraf Room K
“Richard Hugo Still Lives Big on the Page”
Hugo’s imposing presence—stocky bear build—and his deep voice still come through in his poems. And he has a lot to tell us about the ways to create poems that squall, grate, grind, kick ass. We’ll look at some of Hugo’s poems and let him teach us about writing great poems, one right on the spot.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

4:00-5:00—Dianne Butler reading in Building 262
5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:00—Participant Readings in Building 262
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Thursday, July 18

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-1:50—Afternoon Craft Lecture Room D

Ann Hood “How to Be Your Own Best Editor: The Art of Revision”

2-3:30—Afternoon workshops and freewrites

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Ways in: One Class, Five New Drafts”
Writing is like any other art form. Meaning, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, the key is to practice it every day, because the more you practice, the better you get. While it would be wonderful to be able to write fresh, new prose every single time, as writers we know that getting stuck for ideas is also part of the process. In order to inject fresh energy into your writing, in this class, you will receive five new springboards, to start you off on five new essays: The Kitchen Exercise, Working with Images; Fairy Tales and You; Compare and Contrast; Three-Word memoirs.
Midge Raymond Room O
“Say Anything: How to Write Great Dialogue”
From portraying character to moving the plot forward, dialogue works hard in any story—and writers often need to work just as hard to create authentic, realistic voices in their prose. In this workshop, we’ll study examples of good dialogue and discuss how and why these work, and we’ll go over tips for how to write engaging conversations, with writing exercises that will reinforce the major tenets of effective dialogue.
Joy Passanante Room K
“Borrowing Fiction for Nonfiction: Focus on Scene.”
In this workshop we will explore ways that fiction techniques, especially the use of scene, can make our personal writing more provocative, more complex, and more resonant. Scenes can be particularly useful in portrayals of family, in which distance is paramount in maintaining the trust of the reader. But what happens when the memory cannot supply all the details we need to make our scenes true-to-life? Participants will write at least one scene depicting a key moment that draws on fiction techniques of various sorts and that can be used in a full-fledged essay or memoir.
Maya Zeller Room J
“What Makes a Prose Poem?”
In this generative workshop, we’ll discuss the history and conventions of the seemingly oxymoronic prose poem, from its beginnings in the Psalms, through surrealism, to today. Using poems and commentary by such diverse authors as Charles Baudelaire, Melissa Kwasny, Russell Edson, Carolyn Forché, Sherman Alexie, Harryette Mullen, and more, we’ll look at how the form shares territory with various genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction—and what exactly the “form” means. Then we’ll do some exercises to create our own prose poems.
Skip Horack Room N
“The Hero’s Journey”
In his classic work of comparative mythology “The Hero With a Thousand Faces,” the scholar Joseph Campbell borrows the term “monomyth” from the James Joyce novel “Finnegans Wake” in order to describe a basic pattern found in many narratives, both ancient and contemporary, in which a character embarks upon a journey. Campbell argues that numerous myths and stories from a wide range of periods and places share fundamental structures and components, and he describes various stages often encountered by a hero over the course of a monomyth. In this workshop, we will engage in a variety of exercises designed to put Campbell’s scholarship to work for us as fiction writers, focusing on how to move our own “hero” characters from a known world into an unknown world as they set off on their own individual journeys.
Janée Baugher Room L
“Titling Your Poems”
Stuck on a title? How important are poems’ titles anyway? Will editors really pass on poems after only reading their titles? Is “untitled” ever acceptable? In this class we’ll discuss the many approaches to titling poems, including contextualizing titles, summarizing titles, titles that appropriate, and titles that transcend. Bring to class one or two of your own title-challenged poems.
Ronni Sanlo Room M
“Beginning Your Memoir”
You know you have a memoir percolating inside of you. Your story is important, yet sometimes the hardest part of writing memoir is simply getting started. We’ll have a discussion about starting the process; conducting the research you need to bring it all together; and deciding who your audience might be, whether your adoring public or just your adoring mom. You will receive prompts to get started and a list of questions to help move your work forward once the conference is over.
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Maya Zeller, Skip Horack
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Friday, July 19

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch
2-3:30—Afternoon workshops in special topics

Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Food and Family: Writing the Gastronomic Essay”
Food serves far greater purpose than just nourishment. It represents culture, religion, character, identity, as well as economic and social background. Food marks important moments/events in our lives, therefore food-related habits and memories can be a rewarding and unending source to generate new writing. Gastronomic essays demand the author has a strong voice, the ability to mine sensory details, and to make even the smallest facet have great public resonance. In this class, we will draft three vastly different essays, each of which will provide you with ample practice to hone these skills and nourish your reader.
Sam Ligon Room O

“Whose Story is This?”
(Please note: this class will go from 2 pm until 5 pm)
Fiction workshops can further our critical and creative development as writers, but they can also stunt our development if we allow them to limit our consideration of what fiction is or might be. Legitimate critical workshop questions can begin to distort and disfigure the way we think about fiction if they become the only lens through which we consider a story—What’s at stake? Why now? Whose story is this?—because some stories operate outside the bounds of these questions. In this class, we’ll consider point of view and perspective, and stories that won’t provide an easy answer to “Whose story is this?” We’ll be looking at broad, fluid omniscience, distance, and proximity in William Trevor’s “Teresa’s Wedding,” at an evolving collective first person POV in Aimee Bender’s “Debbieland,” at a first person POV that’s not particularly about the first person in Donald Barthelme’s “The School,” and at shifting perspectives in Dan Leone’s “The Weather” and Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance.” Our reactions to these stories an indication of what POV rules we currently apply to our own work.

Midge Raymond Room N
“The Art of the Title”
What’s in a title? Quite a lot—a title is usually a book’s first introduction to the world, and you want to make a good first impression. In this workshop, we’ll examine titles that work and why, and we’ll look at the rejected titles of famous books to see what doesn’t. Through a series of tips and writing prompts, you’ll learn how to create titles that convey the tone, nature, and content of your project, and you’ll leave the session with a list of solid title possibilities for your work-in-progress.
Janée Baugher Room K
“Art & Writing”
Love the visual arts? Many creative writers have found that much inspiration can come from the art world. In this class, we’ll learn how to look at art in order to inform our writing. In-class writing assignments are guaranteed to inspire. Postcards of artwork will be provided, or bring your own.
Laura Read Room M
“As the Simile Turns”
In this workshop, we’ll look at the work of Sharon Olds and Tony Hoagland to see how similes open what Kim Addonizio, in her book “Ordinary Genius,” refers to as a poem’s “doors.” Because of the simile, the writer and reader are able to walk through these doors into new rooms. We will generate lines leading to a simile and let that simile take us somewhere new, so our new poems arrive somewhere far away from where we started.
Susan Landgraf Room J
“The Art of Revision”
“Revision is not going back and fussing around, but going forward into the highly complex and satisfying process of creation,” May Sarton wrote. We’ll warm up by looking at E. B. White’s first draft of his short essay on the first moon landing for The New Yorker and then look at some revisions by Stafford and others. Bring a poem, essay, or short story to work on, to “re-create.”
Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Reading by Sam Ligon
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Saturday, July 20

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshops

Cate Marvin Room F
Patricia Henley Room O
Terrence Hayes Room H
Joy Passanante Room M
Ann Hood Room L
Skip Horack Room K
Arthur Sze Room J
Sam Ligon Room N

11:45-12:30—Lunch
1-2:00—Faculty Booksigning Room D
4-5:00—Life After Centrum

Janée Baugher Room H
“Post-Conference: where do we go from here?”
What’s the plan for your writing life post-Centrum? The Conference was exhilarating, challenging, and inspiring, but how does a person keep that momentum throughout the year? We’ll exchange ideas about realistic writing schedules and literary communities, as well as suggestions for further reading and other learning venues.

5:30-6:15—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Ann Hood, Arthur Sze
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)

Sunday, July 21

8:15-8:45—Breakfast
9—Airport shuttle leaves
Dorm check out by 11:00 am

FACULTY BIOS:

Henry Alley is a professor in the Honors College at the University of Oregon. He has taught literature, composition, and creative writing for over forty years. He has published four novels, and since 1969, his stories have appeared in such journals as the Seattle Review, Outerbridge, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction.

Janée J. Baugher Janée J. Baugher is author of two collections of poetry, “The Body’s Physics” and “Coördinates of Yes.” As an essayist, Baugher was awarded a 2012 fellowship at the Island Institute of Sitka, and in 2011 she presented her work at the Library of Congress. She teaches literature at the University of Phoenix in Seattle.

Erin Belieu, the Artistic Director for the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, is the author of three collections of poetry. Her fourth, “Les Deluge,” is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. Her first, “Infanta,” was a winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Hayden Carruth. She teaches at Florida State University.

Sheila Bender publishes Writing It Real, an online instructional magazine for those who write from personal experience. Her books include a memoir, “A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief.” In fall 2013, she will be a distinguished guest lecturer at Seattle University.

Jennine Capó Crucet’s debut story collection “How to Leave Hialeah” won the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Prize, the 2010 John Gardner Book Award, and the 2010 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by the Miami Herald and the Latinidad List. Her stories have appeared in many literary journals.

Author most recently of the short story collection “Stay Awake,” Dan Chaon wrote the national bestseller “Await Your Reply.” He is also the author of the short story collections “Fitting Ends” and “Among the Missing”—which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award—and the novel “You Remind Me of Me.”

Sayantani Dasgupta teaches religious studies and south-Asian history and literature at the University of Idaho. Work has appeared in Gulf Stream, SN Review, Blood Orange Review and other magazines. Her essay “On Seeking Answers” received a 2010 Pushcart Prize Special Mention.

Terrance Hayes’s books include “Wind in a Box,” “Hip Logic,” and “Muscular Music.” His collection “Lighthead” won the National Book Award in 2010. Other honors include a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, two Best American Poetry selections, and an NEA Fellowship.

Patricia Henley is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, three short story collections, two novels, a stage play, and numerous essays. Her first book of stories, “Friday Night at Silver Star,” was the winner of the Montana First Book Award. Her first novel, “Hummingbird House,” was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Ann Hood is the author of the novel “The Knitting Circle” and the memoir “Comfort: A Journey Through Grief.” Her other novels include “Waiting to Vanish,” “Three-Legged Horse,” “Something Blue,” “Places to Stay the Night,” “The Properties of Water,” and “Ruby.”

Skip Horack’s short story collection “The Southern Cross” came out with Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin-Harcourt in 2009. His novel “The Eden Hunter” was published by Counterpoint in August 2010 and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. His work has also appeared in many literary magazines.

Gayle Kaune has won several awards, and her work has been nominated for both Pushcart and Pulitzer prizes. Her books include “Still Life in the Physical World” and “All the Birds Awake,” and she has also published two chapbooks: “N’Sid-Sen-Star” and “Concentric Circles,” (which won the Flume Press Award.)

Susan Landgraf’s chapbook “Other Voices” came out in 2009. Her poems have appeared in nearly two hundred magazines, including Poet Lore, Ploughshares, and the Cincinnati Poetry Review. Honors include grants to travel and study in South Africa, Namibia, Peru, and Bolivia. She currently teaches at Highline Community College.

Dorianne Laux is the author of several collections of poetry, including “Awake,” “What We Carry,” “Smoke,” “Facts about the Moon,” and “The Book of Men.” She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sam Ligon is the author of the short-story collection “Drift and Swerve” and the novel “Safe in Heaven Dead.” His stories have appeared in such journals as Alaska Quarterly Review, StoryQuarterly, and New England Review. He teaches at Eastern Washington University’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers, and is the editor of Willow Springs.

Cate Marvin’s poetry collections include “World’s Tallest Disaster,” which won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, and “Fragment of the Head of a Queen.” Marvin co-edited, with Michael Dumanis, the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. With Erin Belieu, she is the co-founder and co-director of VIDA.

Bill Mawhinney, the author of two collections of poetry—“Songs In My Begging Bowl” and “Cairns Along The Road”—currently organizes and hosts Port Townsend’s Northwind Reading Series. His poems have appeared in such magazines and journals as Heron Dance, the Hummingbird Review, IS Magazine, Minotaur, and Windfall.

Joseph Millar is the author of several poetry collections, including “Blue Rust,” “Fortune,” and “Overtime,” which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and won a Pushcart Prize. Millar lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife.

Jeanne Morel writes poems and short prose pieces and is interested in juxtaposition and collage, in arrivals and departures, and in the spaces and edges in between. Her chapbook “That Crossing Was Not Automatic” was published by Tarpaulin Sky. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pacific University.

Ruby Murray is an enrolled Osage writer and photographer who is accustomed to listening deeply for the personal stories that compel readers. Work has appeared in such venues as Oregon Humanities Magazine and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Joy Passanante is the Associate Director of Creative Writing at the University of Idaho and has published work in various literary journals including The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Shenandoah. Her collection of stories, “The Art of Absence,” and her novel, “My Mother’s Lovers,” were finalists for several national awards.

Terry Persun writes in many genres, including historical fiction, mainstream, literary, and science fiction/fantasy. His novel “Cathedral of Dreams” is a ForeWord magazine Book of the Year finalist. His novel “Sweet Song” just won a Silver IPPY Award. He has three collections of poems available from small presses.

Bill Ransom has published six novels, six poetry collections, and numerous short stories and articles. His poetry has been nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has twice received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Ransom is the founder of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference.

Midge Raymond’s short-story collection, “Forgetting English,” received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in many literary journals and been nominated for numerous Pushcart Prizes. She has worked as an editor and copywriter for such publishers as Houghton Mifflin, Penguin, and St. Martin’s Press.

Laura Read has published poems in a variety of journals. Her chapbook “The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You,” was the 2010 winner of the Floating Bridge Chapbook Award, and her collection, “Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral,” was the 2011 winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry.

Ronni Sanlo is retired from UCLA as the Senior Associate Dean of Students and the director of the LGBT Center. She has written many scholarly books, chapters, and articles. Her memoir, “The Purple Golf Cart,” is about change, resilience, and love. Sanlo has presented many workshops and seminars about social justice issues.

Arthur Sze’s books include “Archipelago,” “The Redshifting Web,” “Quipu,” and “The Gingko Light.” Honors include a Lannan Literary Ward, an American Book Award, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, and a Western States Book Award. Sze has been a professor since 1984 at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

David Thacker teaches writing at the University of Idaho. He won the Frederick Manfred Award from the Western Literature Association. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Subtropics, The Cortland Review, Nimrod, Sycamore Review, and elsewhere.

Elizabeth Thorpe’s short stories and novel excerpts have appeared in such magazines as Per Contra, Painted Bride Quarterly, Puckerbrush Review, and the Maine Review. She teaches writing at Drexel University and in the UArts Pre-College program, and works as an editor for several literary magazines. She earned her MFA from Goddard College.

Maya Jewell Zeller is the author of Rust Fish. Subsequent manuscripts have been finalists with the National Poetry Series and the Brittingham Prize from University of Wisconsin Press, among other places. Maya lives in Spokane with her husband and two children and teaches at Gonzaga University.