Registration for Zoom Workshops is now closed.

 

COVID-19 UPDATE: 

Owing to new social distancing requirements, the number of available seats for each workshop has been reduced.  There will be six feet between all seats at the event.  Per 1912 Center policy, wearing a mask is strongly encouraged.  Masks will be available to those who may have accidently left theirs at home. Some workshops have been moved to Zoom, others will be Zoom hybrids.  We will update this page as more information becomes available.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

The Most Pleasurable Parts: Strategies for the Art of Revision.

(Zoom Hybrid Workshop.)

Keynote Speaker: Jennifer Anderson.   Cost: $15
To register for the Zoom hybrid workshop, click here*
*Jennifer Anderson will join us via Zoom. A screen will be set up in the Arts Workshop so all participants can view Ms. Anderson without needing a computer, internet access, or their own zoom accounts.

To participate from home, register for the Zoom only workshop by clicking here. (Closed)

(Re)vision means to re-see.  And it’s often said that revision—arguably the most important part of writing—comprises 90% of the process. Even so, revision can seem like a daunting task. How, as writers, do you actually go about re-seeing work that is so close to you in order to make it better? Join Jennifer Anderson as she presents various practical (and enjoyable!) approaches for successfully re-envisioning your writing, techniques that will help your writing reach its full potential.

Jennifer Anderson teaches creative writing at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID, where she is also the faculty advisor for the college’s student-run literary journal, Talking River Review. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in the Colorado Review, the Cimarron Review, and Brevity among other places. In 2019, she was the recipient of The Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize for Creative Nonfiction. She also makes documentaries with her husband, Vernon Lott. Their most recent film, The Act of Becoming, focuses on John Williams’s 1965 novel, Stoner.

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SESSION 1,  1:00 PM to 2:15 PM

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Workshop A
WHAT DID THEY SAY?—Bringing Dialogue to Life.

(Zoom Hybrid Workshop.)

Presenter: Paula Coomer.  Cost: $15
To register for the in-person workshop click here*
*Paula Coomer will join us via Zoom. A screen will be set up in the Arts Workshop so all participants can view Ms. Anderson without needing a computer, internet access, or their own zoom accounts.
To participate from home, register for the Zoom only workshop by clicking here. (Closed)

Writing believable dialogue is one of the toughest parts of penning both fiction and non-fiction.  Every character must have idiosyncratic voice rhythms and patterns. Think of it as a fingerprint.  It’s not the case that one approach to writing dialogue fits all. A writer must redevise her path each and every time she imagines someone new. In this engaging and active workshop, Paula Coomer provides tried and true tools and practice for learning who a character is as a precursor to developing character voice and by extension dialogue.

Paula Coomer spent most of her childhood in the industrial Ohio River town of New Albany, Indiana. The daughter of more than two hundred years of Kentucky Appalachian farmers, she moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1978. She has been a migrant farm laborer, a waitress, a bean sorter in a cannery, a cosmetics saleswoman, a federal officer, a nurse, and a university writing instructor. Her work has appeared in Gargoyle, Ascent, and The Raven Chronicles, among others. Books include the novels Jagged Edge of the Sky, Dove Creek, and Summer of Government Cheese, short stories, the Blue Moon health and wellness series, and two poetry collections, Nurses Who Love English and Devil at the Crossroads. Ms. Coomer has been a nominee for the Pulitzer, the Pushcart, and other awards. Her newest book, Somebody Should Have Scolded the Girl is a BuzzFeed recommended title. She lives in eastern Washington State, in the tiny farming village of Garfield, where teaches and promotes writing in the community.

Learn more about Paula Coomer on her website: http://www.paulamariecoomer.com/

Panel Discussion
KidLit 101:  The Low-Down on How to Get a Children’s Book Published.
(Discussion held via Zoom.)

Presenters: Nancy Attebury, Jessica Linn Evans, Annette Bay Pimentel, and Diane Worthey.  Cost: Free
This workshop sponsored by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  Space is limited, preregister on the SCBWI website.

How do I move from idea to published book? What’s the difference between young adult and middle grade writing? How many words are in a picture book? Who chooses the artist for kids’ books? Do I need an agent? Where do I find an editor? What’s the difference between big and small presses? A look at the quirky world of children’s publishing and how the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) can help you along the path. Bring your questions!

SESSION 2,  2:30 PM to 3:45 PM

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Workshop B
Artful Writing: Finding Inspiration for Creative Writing in Other Art Forms.

(Zoom Hybrid Workshop.)

Presenter:  Alexandra Teague.  Cost: $15
To register for the Zoom hybrid workshop click here*
*Alexandra Teague will join us via Zoom. A screen will be set up in the Arts Workshop so all participants can view Ms. Teague without needing a computer, internet access, or their own zoom accounts.

To participate from home, register for the Zoom only workshop by clicking here. (Closed)

Countless writers have found inspiration in visual art, music, dance, and other art forms. How can these other arts help inspire our own written works? How might a story or essay or poem not only be about a photograph but somehow “photographic?” Or sculptural? Or painterly? Or like a piece of jazz music? In this interactive workshop, poet and fiction writer Alexandra Teague will help writers of all levels explore what they can learn from responding to the other arts. We’ll discuss a few short readings as models, and try some exercises to jumpstart our own writing.

Alexandra Teague’s most recent poetry collection, Or What We’ll Call Desire, was published by Persea in 2019. Her prior books of poetry are The Wise and Foolish Builders and Mortal Geography, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Prize and the 2010 California Book Award. She is also the author of the novel The Principles Behind Flotation, as well as co-editor of Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. A former Stegner and NEA fellow, and recent fellow at Civitella Ranieri, Alexandra is a professor at University of Idaho and an editor for Broadsided Press.

Workshop C
World-building Wizardry and Consistent Characters.

(Workshop held via Zoom.)

Presenter: Christine Cohen.  Cost: $15
This workshop sponsored by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  Register on the SCBWI website.

This workshop will examine how to create an intentional and consistent world in your novel, what questions you should be asking as you brainstorm, and how mood and setting relate. We’ll also look at how characters interact with their world, the importance of names, and how to layer personality onto your characters. Lastly, we’ll talk about the importance of setting up the world and mood in your first five pages.

Christine Cohen was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She spent most of her formative years roaming evergreen forests with her sister and a stalwart yellow lab, feeding her love of adventure a steady diet of stick forts and slingshots. Now she lives with her husband and three kids in a delightfully rural college town. When she’s not writing, she pursues other creative outlets like baking sweet things and eating more than her share. The Winter King is her first novel.

Connect with her on her social media accounts and at her website http://ChristineDCohen.com.

 

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BOOKS & BREWS, 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM

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Palouse area authors will be on hand to meet with the public and autograph their books.  The event is family-friendly and many of the participating children’s authors will read from their works in a designated “children’s corner.”

Participating authors include:
Guy Worthey,  Jessica Linn Evans, Nancy Attebury,  Corinna Nicolaou,  Daniel Orozco,  Mary Blew, William Gruber,  Sanan Kolva, Jeni Leidenfrost, and Devin Becker.

Winners of the Palouse Writers Guild First Chapter Contest will be awarded promptly at 6:30 pm.
Entries and judges score sheets will be available for pick-up after winners are announced.  Any entries not picked up the night of the event will be destroyed.

*Are you a member of the Palouse Writers Guild?  Use your coupon and get $5 off your cart at checkout!  Not a member?  Visit our membership page and join now.  When you enter your email address the coupon code will be emailed to you within 48 hours.