NOTE: THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL. TO BE ADDED TO THE WAITING LIST, PLEASE CONTACT JORDAN @ jhartt(at)centrum(dot)org.

October 6-9, 2011
Featuring Kim Barnes

Join us for the Autumn Nonfiction Workshop, happening October 6-9 at the Fort Worden campus. Led by novelist and nonfiction writer Kim Barnes, the class is entitled: “Writing Rorschach: Discovering Your Master Narrative”.

Kim writes:   
 
How do I bring objective context to a narrative of subjective experience? How do I elevate my personal story through the use of literary craft and creative structuring? By reading and interpreting the “ink blot” of personal narratives, we often discover hidden potential–and meaning–that contain the essential element needed to bring unity and integrity to an essay or memoir–the “master narrative” that drives the story.
 
Through the use of a short writing exercise and discussion, we will work to uncover your “master narrative” and explore ways to heighten and deepen the artistic qualities of personal writing, focusing on the use of harmonic metaphor, echoing imagery, and vertical versus horizontal movement. You will compose and share a short piece of original material during the course of the workshop—material that may derive from a work-in-progress or be the beginning of something new. NOTE: You are welcome to refer to and discuss  projects-in-progress, but, in general, I will only be responding to the material you produce in the class itself. I will be glad to confer about pre-existing writing projects and offer what insights and advice I can, including information about agents, editors, and publishing.

Workshop Schedule:
The workshop begins Thursday, October 6. Check-in is at the Centrum office any time after 3:30 pm, and we’ll meet and mingle until around 6 pm over wine and hors d’oeuvres. Kim will be giving a reading open to the public at 7 pm. Workshop sessions take place Friday and Saturday, and Saturday night features an informal private participant reading.

Cost for the workshop is $395 for tuition, and $195 for housing. We provide fully equipped kitchens in the housing. Register. For additional information, or to register over the phone, please contact Jordan at jhartt(at)centrum(dot)org or 360.385.3102, xt. 131.

Kim will give a free reading open to the public on Thursday, October 6, at 7 pm downtown at the Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend.

Kim Barnes is the author of the novels Finding Caruso and A Country Called Home and two memoirs, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country—a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize—and Hungry for the World. She is coeditor with Mary Clearman Blew of Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers, and with Claire Davis of Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty. Her essays, stories, and poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including the Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. She teaches writing at the University of Idaho and lives with her husband, the poet Robert Wrigley, on Moscow Mountain. Register