Spring Conference 2006 was held at Peace College in Raleigh, NC. The conference is over, but we have left this conference information on the site so that you can refer to it as a model of what our Spring Conference is like.

Spring Conference 2006
Saturday, May 20

Session I Classes, 9:00 - 11:00 am (choose one)

FICTION - Incorporating Fiction into Your Midlife Crisis, with Lynn York

During this informal workshop, we will explore the process of writing, rather than the end product, with a focus on: translating memory into material, launching and sustaining the writing effort, forming and joining a writing community, and moving towards publication. Discussions and in-class exercises will be geared to both beginning and experienced writers.

Lynn York's debut novel, The Piano Teacher, was published in March 2004 by Plume. She has been a guest speaker at the American Library Association National Conference, the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium, and many others. She teaches workshops for writers at the NC Writers' Network and the UNCG CALL program. A second novel, The Winemaker, will be published in 2007.

NONFICTION - Pitching Story Ideas to Editors, with Bridgette Lacy

Are you tired of rejection slips? Do you have great ideas that you want to see in print? This workshop will offer practical advice on getting newspapers and magazines to say "yes" to your work. Workshop includes extensive handouts.

Bridgette Lacy is a feature writer for the News & Observer and a freelance writer for Attaché, Southern Living, the Washington Post, and Meridian magazines. Her novel manuscript, currently being shopped around by her agent, is called The Warm Spot, the story of a savvy reporter unraveling the secrets of her mystery man.

POETRY - Generating New Writing, with Howard Craft

We'll look at poetry that inspires, try some exercises to get you writing, and have a discussion of the tools for crafting poems. We'll read poems aloud in class and talk about how they work. Bring a poem or two to share. Handouts provided.

Howard L. Craft is a poet, playwright and arts educator from Durham, N.C. He is the author of a book of poems, Across the Blue Chasm, and the four plays, The House of George, The Wise Ones, Tunnels, and The Vet Who Lived Underground: Dispatches from Beneath the Map. Craft is a two-time winner of the North Carolina Central University New Play Project and the recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship. Craft teaches through the United Arts "Artists in the Schools" program, where he conducts poetry residencies and workshops for 3rd through 12th grade students. He has also teaches writing workshops for adults through the North Carolina Writers' Network and Duke University.

ALL GENRE - A Writer's Notebook: Mining Your World for Gems, with Carol Henderson

Whether you're creating fiction, memoir, or poetry, you've got more than enough material -- in your personal life and in the larger world you inhabit. Using visual and written prompts, you'll uncover resonant stories, cultivate characters, play with dialogue and point of view, explore the idea of place, and jump-start your senses. Bring a notebook -- you'll go home with pages of writing and ideas and with plenty of tools for further work.

Carol Henderson's book, Losing Malcolm: A Mother's Journey Through Grief (2001), is "a redemptive memoir about losing a baby and learning to live" (USA Today). Henderson offers workshops around the country in journal writing, crafting memoir, writing from personal experience, and writing to heal.