Weekend Writing Intensive Workshops

DESCRIPTION:
Announcing a unique and inspiring opportunity for students across the college: in May and June of 2009, the Hudson Valley Center will be hosting the Fifth Annual Weekend Writing Intensives in
Writing for Children, Dramatic Writing, Fiction/Nonfiction and Poetry. Beginners as well as seasoned writers are welcome.

These workshops are for the May A or B term.

Contact Steve Lewis (Steve.Lewis@esc.edu, 845 883-5332) for additional details.

WORKSHOP DETAILS AND FACULTY PROFILES

Writing for Children (4 Credits/Advanced/Liberal)
Tutor: Wendy Townsend
Location: Nanuet
Dates: Friday, June 26, 6-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 27, 10-4 p.m.; Sunday, June 28, 10-3 p.m.

A story can be described as being an emotional journey. Dramatic events, wild plots, extreme settings -- all grand! But the emotional core of the story carries the energy. Discovering the emotional core of your story -- whether novel, short story or picture book -- will be our focus. During our time together, we¹ll write, read our work to each other, and talk about it. Rather than criticize, we will ask plenty of questions, like, What is the character’s situation or quest, and how do we know (what clues have you given us)? How can the character come to terms with the situation or succeed in the quest -­ how will the character be okay? Have you moved us to care if the character is okay? The workshop goal will be for each of you to have your story, that is, to discover an emotion, issue or question that fascinates or haunts you, and to create a character who will take that emotional journey.

In 1993 Wendy Townsend co-authored a biology and husbandry book (on iguanas) and has since written many articles for magazines on similar subjects. When she made the leap into fiction in 2002 she began a Young Adult novel (first in an Empire State College study—and then en route to her MFA at Vermont college). The book, Lizard Love, was published by Front Street Books in 2008. She is presently at work on a second novel and a picture book.

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Dramatic Writing (4 Credits/Advanced/Liberal)
Tutor: Laurence Carr
Location: Highland
Dates: Friday, June 5, 6-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 6, 10-4 p.m.; Sunday, June 7, 10-3 p.m.

This exciting and interactive course teaches the basic organizational tools that every writer needs to create a producible play or screenplay without the anxiety of writers’ block. Each writer will shape an individual original project during the sessions through discussion and practical exercises. The major dramatic components of story structure, character development, dialogue, exposition and theme are explored, and the business of dramatic writing will be discussed as the writers prepare to enter the professional marketplace.

Laurence Carr works in the theater as a writer, director, actor and educator. His work has been seen in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and in Rochester where he served as associate director and playwright-in-residence at The GeVa Theatre. His off-Broadway play, Kennedy at Colonus, directed by Stephen Zuckerman, was hailed by The New York Times as a "fascinating, well-built, often witty play" while the Burns Mantle Best Plays Series cited it as a "distinctly worthy play" and a "standout in independent off-Broadway production." Mr. Carr is the recipient of playwriting grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities, The New York State Council on the Arts and has been awarded numerous regional commissions. He received a B.F.A. from Ohio University and a master's degree from The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Currently, Laurence Carr teaches Dramatic and Creative Writing at SUNY New Paltz (where he runs the SUNY Playwrights’ Project), CUNY, The New School University and Empire State College. He's created dramatic writing and play making workshops throughout the U.S. and in Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic. Locally, Mr. Carr is the playwright-in-residence at Mohonk Mountain Stage Company.

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Poetry (4 Credits/Advanced/Liberal)
Tutor: Doris Umbers
Location: Highland
Dates: Friday, July 17, 6-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 18, 10-4 p.m.; Sunday, July 19, 10-3 p.m.

four things / that are no good
at sea: rudder, anchor, oars,
and the fear of going down.

- Antonio Machado

For writers at all levels, this intensive poetry workshop explores the poetics of memory and place. We will generate new work through exercises in- and out-of-class and wide as well as deep readings of contemporary poetry. All work, in a sense, is a draft — this encourages us to take risks yet seek strategies for revision. Honest and generous in the quality of attention paid to our work, we will develop a critical eye for craft and language and reflect on what indwells in our poems.

Doris Umbers is the editor of Harpur Palate, Binghamton University’s national literary journal, founder and editor of Bluestone Quarry Press, a chapbook and broadside press, and writing faculty member at Binghamton University. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Binghamton University's Graduate English/Creative Writing Program and a graduate of Empire State College.

Her work has been published in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, The Paterson Literary Review, LIPS Literary Journal, Dyed in the Wool (Vivisphere Press, 2001), Dialogue Through Poetry Anthology (Rattapallax, 2000), Heartsongs (Rodale Press, 1999), If the Drum is a Woman (Wanganegresse Press) and Poems from Prompts. She was named winner of the Academy of American Poets’ University Prize, 2003 and 2004.

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Microfiction/Nonfiction: The Whole Enchilada On A Single Page (Or Less)
(4 Credits/Advanced/Liberal)
Tutor: Steve Lewis
Location: Nanuet
Dates: Friday, June 12, 6-8:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 13, 10-4 p.m.; Sunday, June 14, 10-3 p.m.

In the process of piecing together the major events in our lives, separating fact from fiction and understanding that fiction is as important as fact when constructing a life, we come to better understand who we are and, to some degree, how we became that way. Writing a serious autobiography is an act of good faith towards oneself. With that in mind, the great novelist William Faulkner, whose forte was apparently not mathematics, advised would-be authors that writing is “Ninety-nine percent talent … 99 percent discipline … 99 percent work.” This unique weekend workshop immersion will allow novice and experienced writers alike to exercise 297 percent of their writing talent, discipline and work ethic toward the creation of short autobiographical narratives that are present, resonant and, ultimately, capable of blossoming into memoirs much larger than themselves (which they will).

Steve Lewis is a mentor at Empire State College and a long-time freelance writer with publication credits that include The New York Times Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, Washington Post, L.A. Times, The Christian Science Monitor and a biblically long list of parenting magazines. His recent books are Fear And Loathing of Boca Raton: A Hippie's Guide to the Second Sixties, Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, The ABCs of Real Family Values, and The Complete Guide for the Anxious Groom: How to Avoid Everything That Could Go Wrong on Her Big Day. A collection of poems with accompanying photographs by Tom Nolan, A Month on a Barrier Island, is scheduled for publication in May 2009.