The Hamline University Graduate School of Liberal Studies Summer Writers’ Workshop is a week-long, intensive residential retreat set on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Those attending choose from seminars in creative nonfiction, poetry and fiction, as well as an optional session on book arts. REGISTER NOW.
Summer 2008: Sunday, July 27 through Saturday, August 2
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creative nonfiction
Robin Hemley |
poetry
Clare Rossini |
fiction
Michael Martone |
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summmer writing workshop: creative nonfiction
Robin Hemley is the author of seven books of nonfiction and fiction. He has published his essays and stories widely in such places as The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Southern Review, Conjunctions, Boulevard, Prairie Schooner, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and many other literary magazines and anthologies, including Sudden Fiction, Continued (Norton), The Best American Fantasy, Best American Humor, and The Touchstone Anthology of Creative Nonfiction. His work has won such awards as first place in The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction from the Chicago Tribune, the George Garrett Award for Fiction, Story Magazine’s Humor Award, The Governor’s Award for Nonfiction from the State of Washington, the Independent Press Book Award for Nonfiction, Foreword Magazine’s Award for Nonfiction, the Walter Rumsey Marvin Award from the Ohioana Library Association, and two Pushcart Prizes.
His work has been published in Great Britain, Germany, the Philippines, Sweden, and Japan. His short fiction has been heard on NPR’s “Selected Shorts,” “Chanukah Lights,” “The Sound of Writing,” performed onstage, and adapted into a short film. His book Turning Life Into Fiction is a widely-used craft text reissued by Graywolf in April, 2006 and now in its second printing, and his book Nola is often cited as an important work dealing with schizophrenia. His most recent book, Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, Nebraska 2006) was named an Editor’s Choice Book of 2003 by the American Library Association. An anthology of nontraditional stories, EXTREME FICTION: Formalists and Fabulists, co-edited with Michael Martone, was published in 2004 by Longman. His latest book, DO OVER: A Middle-Aged Man Takes a Second Shot at Youth’s Disappointments, will be published by Little, Brown in early 2009. He is Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and founder of the biennial NonfictioNOW Conference.
seminar description
The contemporary essay is an exciting, ever-changing and developing genre within which to work. And so, this workshop will focus on the writing and reading of nonfiction of various kinds: the Lyric Essay, the Personal Essay, Memoir, and the Experimental Essay. We'll be reading nonfiction from The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction and generating nonfiction in and outside of the classroom.
The emphasis will be placed on breaking new ground for each individual writer, in terms of subject matter, reading, and form.
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summmer writing workshop: poetry
Clare Rossini’s third collection, Lingo, was published by the University of Akron Press in February, 2006 and has been nominated for the 2007 Poet’s Prize. Her first collection, Selections from the Claudia Poems, an art-book edition, was published by the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts; her second, a full-length collection titled Winter Morning with Crow, was selected by Donald Justice for the l996 Akron Poetry Prize and went on to be a finalist for a Small Press Book Award and for PEN’s l999 Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Rossini’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, and Poetry, as well as in many textbooks and anthologies, including Manthology (University of Iowa Press: Iowa City, 2006), Poets for the New Century (David Godine: Boston, 2002 and subsequent editions) An Introduction to Poetry (Longman: New York, 2002, and subsequent editions) and the Best American Poetry series. She has received fellowships from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts (two), the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Maxwell Shepherd Foundation, and the Bush Foundation. Rossini is currently on the faculty of Trinity College in Hartford and the MFA program at Vermont College in Montpelier, VT.
seminar description
Drafting, Revising, Abandoning: A Workshop in Making Poems
The French poet and critic Paul Valery said that a poem “is never finished, only abandoned.” This is a workshop on how poems get made, from the initial generative burst called the rough draft to the moment that you’re ready to abandon a poem—i.e., call it done. We will focus on generating new work, every which way; I want you to go home with a stack of rough drafts that you’re excited about. But we’ll be talking about each step of the writing process, not just beginnings, and allot time near the week’s end to the critical work of revision, experimenting with various strategies that can help turn rough drafts into finished poems. There will be daily writing exercises, optional take-home assignments, and readings from a short packet of poems that I’ll make for you. Please bring along the following: one of your own poems-in-progress, with enough copies for the group (we’ll use this to get our workshop going); also, copies of a poem by a poet whom you particularly love.
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summmer writing workshop: fiction
Michael Martone's most recent book is Double-wide, his collected early stories. Michael Martone, a memoir in contributor’s notes, Unconventions, Writing on Writing, and Rules of Thumb edited with Susan Neville were all published recently. He is also the author of The Blue Guide to Indiana, published by FC2. The University of Georgia Press published his book of essays, The Flatness and Other Landscapes, winner of the AWP Award for Nonfiction, in 2000. With Robin Hemley, he edited EXTREME FICTION. With Lex Williford, he edited The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction. Martone is the author of five books of short fiction including Seeing Eye, Pensées: The Thoughts of Dan Quayle, Fort Wayne Is Seventh on Hitler's List, Safety Patrol, and Alive and Dead in Indiana. He has edited two collections of essays about the Midwest: A Place of Sense: Essays in Search of the Midwest and Townships: Pieces of the Midwest. His stories have appeared in Harper's, Story, Antaeus, North American Review, Benzene, Epoch, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, Third Coast, Shenandoah, and other magazines.
Martone was born and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Butler University and graduated from Indiana University. He holds an MA from the The Writing Seminars of the Johns Hopkins University. Michael Martone is currently a Professor at the University of Alabama where he has been teaching since 1996. He has been a faculty member of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College since 1988. He has taught at Iowa State University, Harvard University, and Syracuse University.
seminar description
Fiction: A cross-sectional workshop.
Instead of looking at one complete story one at a time in the workshop, I would like to look at all the stories in the workshop at the same time. We will do this by focusing on various parts of the stories—titles, first lines, first paragraphs, first pages, middles, endings etc. considering both the specific part before us in the work and what that part is or does or means generally. That is to say, we will talk about the title of a piece and about Title in general. To that end, the convention of the author sitting silently while his or her work is discussed will not be followed. Instead, every author will be encouraged to speak on his or her work, the work of the other writers in the room, and how he or she thinks about these various parts of composition. The workshop, then, will be more about the process of writing than about the product of the writing. Writing will be considered as a series of problems the writer sets for oneself and the tactics and strategies employed to solve those challenges.
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registration & pricing information
HOW TO REGISTER:
Download the registration form and policies & procedures page (.pdf documents). Return registration and payment to the address listed on the form. Online registration is not available.
See pricing/policy information before registering.
PRICING/POLICY INFORMATION:
Credit:
Students may choose to register for two Hamline University graduate credits, or for no credit. Those choosing credit may be required to complete additional writing assignments and must attend the faculty reading. Students must possess a bachelor’s degree to earn graduate credit. Work expected of those opting for credit will be equivalent to campus-based courses in Hamline’s Graduate School of Liberal Studies. The cost is an additional $75 and includes a one-on-one meeting with the instructor.
Tuition:
Two graduate semester credits: $850
Non-credit: $775
Room & Board
Students are housed in air-conditioned, single-room dormitory housing. Rates include bed linens, blankets, and towels. Bathrooms are shared. Meals are in the cafeteria, and rates include three meals per day during the seminar week, dinner Sunday evening, and breakfast on Saturday.
Cost: $425
Commuter Fee: $65
Includes no meals. Covers facilities fees and copy charges. Meals may be purchased separately in the cafeteria.
Alumni Discount: MFA and MALS graduates receive a 20% discount on the price of tuition. (NOTE: Discount applies to spring 2008 graduates.)
Registration/Tuition Deadlines:
Priority registration:
February 25-June 25. Payment for tuition, room and board, and commuter fees is due in full by June 25. After the priority registration period, registrations will be accepted on a space-available basis only (contact GLS directly). Full payment is due with registration after June 25. Confirmation of registration will be sent via email.
Cancellation Policy:
Tuition, room and board are fully refundable until June 25. After June 25, there will be no refunds for room and board or for commuter fees. Tuition will be refunded at 50 percent June 26 – July 25. After July 25, tuition is non-refundable.
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retreat in the natural beauty of St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College rests on a beautiful 345-acre campus. Adjacent to the main campus are 700 acres of land, including woodlands, prairies, wetlands, and farmlands. A walk around campus could take you from Norway Valley through dense woods, across open prairie to the shore of a small wetland. It is a setting conducive to reflection, writing, and simple appreciation of the campus’ natural beauty. Northfield is less than an hour’s drive from the Twin Cities, so that students wishing to commute may do so. Dining in St. Olaf’s impressive student center is provided by Bon Appetit.
St. Olaf College: www.stolaf.edu
City of Northfield, MN: http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/
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