We’ve just updated the schedule, to include new class offerings from such writers as Jim Bertolino, Anne Germanacos, and others. Check it out here! https://centrum.org/writing/wc-afternoons.html.
And here is just what’s going to be happening Monday, July 9! Register for any day, any track here.
Monday, July 9
8-9—Breakfast
9-11:30—Morning workshop
• Jennine Capó Crucet Room D
• Erin Belieu Room F
• Judith Kitchen Room H
• Chris Crutcher Room J
• Gary Copeland Lilley Room K
• Ashley Capps Room L
• Benjamin Alire Sáenz Room M
• Diane Roberts Room N
12-1:00—Lunch
2-3:30—Workshops and lectures in special topics
• Midge Raymond Room D
“Setting the Scene”
Place plays an important role in any story, from offering insight into characters to creating a mood. This workshop will help you get a sense of the where in your writing, from researching places to incorporating details and dialogue. We’ll look at classic and contemporary examples of how writers use setting to flesh out stories—and a variety of writing prompts will teach you how to pay attention to place in your work.
• Wendy Call Room N
“Build Your Own Rainbow: Narrative Arc”
In this workshop we’ll talk about how to build (and rebuild) a sturdy structure for your story. How do you create a narrative arc? What might one look like? Why have one at all? With help from Eduardo Galeano and Sandra Cisneros, we’ll answer all these questions and more, then we’ll map our own color-filled arcs.
• Alex Kuo Room L
“The Poetry of Witness”
This session will begin with a short discussion about what is poetry as witness (as in Forché’s “The Colonel” and Auden’s “September 1, 1939”) before we explore various ways of writing poetry about the cultural and political implications of what we experience daily. The main focus of each session will involve directed writing assignments and provide the opportunity to read and discuss each other’s work.
• Janée Baugher Room K
“Science Poetry”
Albert Einstein says, “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle, you can live as if everything is a miracle.” Praise the atom, the aorta, the arachnid! This workshop celebrates the miracle of the Natural Sciences by demystifying writing influenced by the sciences. In this workshop you’ll be introduced to poets who use biology, chemistry, physics, and math as subject matter, and you’ll begin to flex your own science-writing muscles with the help of in-class writing prompts.
• Sayantani Dasgupta Room H
“Ways In: One Class, Five New Essay 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, each very different from the other, to start you off on five new essays. (We’ll work on each springboard for about ten minutes and keep some time for reading and discussion.)
1) The Kitchen Exercise
2) Working with Images
3) Fairy Tales and You
4) Compare and Contrast
5) Three-Word memoirs
• Jim Bertolino Room M
“Contrary Impulses: A Poetry-Writing Workshop”
In this class, searching for the heart of the post-modern poem, you will develop a list of key words and images, as well as a list of words and images that are contrary to the first list. Then you’ll utilize items from both categories. This approach can produce surprisingly insightful poems, and you will have the opportunity to draft three during the workshop.
• Afternoon Freewrite Room F
Join writers of all levels through a selection of freewrites.
4-5—Craft lecture by Ashley Capps
5:30—Dinner
7:30—Readings by Sam Ligon; Diane Roberts
9:00—The Nine O’Clock Open-Mike Readings (Building 262)