There's a lot we're excited about happening at Centrum this weekend. The sold-out Brenda Miller master class in creative nonfiction will be happening February 4-7 (the demand for this workshop was so great that we've added another one, to happen June 4 and 5, 2010). Also happening this weekend: a special group of Copper Canyon Press poets will be reading at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater on Saturday night, February 6, at 7 pm.

The Reading

The poets poets featured at the Saturday-night reading will include Florida’s Erin Belieu, Portland brothers Michael and Matthew Dickman, National Book Award finalist Ben Lerner, Port Townsend’s own Gary Copeland Lilley, Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort, Seattle’s Ed Skoog, and Maryland-by-way-of-San-Francisco editor/translator/poet Matthew Zapruder in an evening of poetic fun, humor, politics, and provocation featuring eight of the most celebrated younger poets in America.

The acclaimed poets have published more than twenty books of poetry between them, have read their work all over the world, and have been featured in such major media as the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

A New Workshop

We have added another one! Designed for nascent, emerging, and established writers of creative nonfiction, this three-session techniques workshop will focus on generating new work. In the small workshop, Brenda Miller and participants will look at some of the properties of “shorts,” whether in short personal essays or in the segments that sometimes add up to memoir. The accompanying discussion will center on structural issues and strategies to strengthen a piece’s natural tendencies. The goal is at least one new piece through this workshop, as well as to gain a deeper understanding of the craft of nonfiction.