Appalachian and nationally acclaimed authors are featured in book signings and workshops, from poetry to travel writing to researching local history. Several literary workshops will be offered.
WRITING WORKSHOPSABOUT THE AUTHORSRELATED EVENTS
Creative Writing Day
Martha Washington Inn Ballroom
Monday, July 28
- 8:30 a.m. - Registration: $25 for the day
- 9:00 a.m. - Readings and introductions of writers
- 10:00 a.m. - Writing workshops
- 12:00-12:30 - Book signings and sales
- 12:30-1:45 - Lunch (on your own)
- 2:00-4:00 - Writing workshops
Writing Workshops
"One Place Understood: The Perils and Rewards of Place in Fiction" by Ron Rash
Eudora Welty once said, "One place understood helps us understand all other places better." This workshop will center on place in fiction, its perils and rewards, with an emphasis on the difference in "local color" and "regional" writing. Examples from fiction by Irish and Southern writers will be emphasized.
"Finding Your Pivotal Moments, Real and Imagined" by Bill Brown
"My best gift to participants is seeing them leave my workshop with beginnings and first drafts of real poems," Brown says. "Please come to write and share. I will present writing ideas and models, and we will write strategies designed to place you in pivotal life experiences."
"Creating Tension in Poetry" by Bill Brown
This workshop, presented by The Poetry Society of Virginia, will explore the importance of tension in poetry and flesh out strategies that have worked for established poets. Writing ideas will focus on legacy, scars, landscape, tribute, and eulogy.
"The Art of Writing for the Theater" by Rick Rose and Catherine Bush
The playwriting workshop will focus on character, structure and dialogue. After a brief discussion, the class will be given a situation and asked to write a short scene involving given characters. We will then read and critique each scene, focusing on the positive elements in each piece.
Ron Rash's debut novel, One Foot in Eden (2002), won the Novella Literary Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, and Forward Magazine's Gold Medal for Literary Novel of the Year, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and went on to become a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) bestseller. His second novel, Saints at the River (2004), was also a SIBA bestseller and won the Southern Book Award (presented by the Southern Book Critics Circle), the SIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Weatherford Award. He is the author of several collections of poetry and short stories, and the recipient of an O. Henry Prize, the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. His most recent novel, The World Made Straight, won the 2006 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and the 2007 ALA Alex Award, and is now available in paperback from Picador (April 2007). Picador published a collection of his short stories, titled Chemistry, as a paperback original in 2007. Rash holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.
Bill Brown is the author of three chapbooks, four collections of poetry, and a writing textbook on which he collaborated with Malcolm Glass. His most recent titles are Late Winter (Iris Press, 2008) and Tatters (March Street, 2007). During the past 20 years, he has published hundreds of poems and articles in college journals, magazines and anthologies. In 1999 Brown wrote and co-produced the Instructional Television Series, Student Centered Learning, for Nashville Public Television. He holds a degree in history from Bethel College and graduate degrees in English from the Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, and George Peabody College. For 20 years, Brown directed an award-winning writing program at an academic magnet school in Nashville. He retired in 2003 and accepted a part-time lecturer position at Vanderbilt University. In 1995 the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts named him Distinguished Teacher in the Arts. He has been a Scholar in Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a two-time recipient of Fellowships in poetry from the Tennessee Arts Commission. He and his wife Suzanne live in the hills north of Nashville with a tribe of cats.
Rick Rose is now in his 16th season as Producing Artistic Director for Barter Theatre. Rose has produced and directed theatre throughout the United States, most notably in New York City. He has brought Barter into the global spotlight through an international exchange with Russia, New York productions, premieres of new works, and the founding of Barter's Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights. Rose has directed, choreographed, designed, and/or written more than 135 productions at Barter, including last year's smash hits, Driving Miss Daisy and Wooden Snowflakes. Among other favorites are To Kill a Mockingbird, Keep on the Sunny Side, Fiddler on the Roof, Déjà vu, Wit, My Fair Lady, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Camelot, Sundown, Patient A and Death of a Salesman. His original adaptations of plays, which have been extremely successful with Barter audiences, include It's a Wonderful Life, A Modern Christmas Carol. Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and, acknowledged as one of the best new regional theatre plays of the year, Frankenstein. Rose received his Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Directing and Design from the University of California at Davis and his Bachelor of Arts from St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin where he was honored with a "distinguished achievement award in Humanities." Rose did post-graduate work at New York University and worked for the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City.
Catherine Bush is the author of The Other Side of the Mountain (nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), I'll Never Be Hungry Again, The Quiltmaker, Tradin' Paint, Cry Wolf! and Wooden Snowflakes, all of which premiered at Barter. Another play, Comin' Up A Storm, will premier later this year. She has recently been named a Steinberg Finalist (American Theatre Critics Association) for her play Just A Kiss, which was produced last November by the New Theatre in Coral Gables, Fla. A three-time winner of Barter's Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, Bush currently works at Barter as a playwright-in residence, creating new works and dramaturge fine-tuning existing works.
Related Events
Authors on Stonewall Square, July 26-Aug. 10: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The Appalachian Authors Guild and Associates will present different authors for book sales and signings in Booth 47. Visitors may purchase books ranging from fiction and non-fiction, to poetry, short stories, local history, mystery, novels, children's books, and more. In addition, you are invited to browse the Appalachian Authors Guild bookstore in Hidden Memories Arts & Antiques, 246 W. Main Street, Abingdon, to examine books by more than 100 Appalachian authors. For more information: 423-279-0530.
Lecture: "Writing From the Heart", Thursday, July 31: 6:30 p.m. Dr. Felicia Mitchell, who writes the weekly HeartBeat column for the Washington County News, will read excerpts from some of her favorite columns. She will discuss the art of sharing opinions and personal experience with others through essays, letters to the editor or other forums such as blogs. This lecture will be presented by Emory & Henry College at Abingdon United Methodist Church.
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