Highlights Abound at Squire Summer Writing Workshops
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RALEIGH—Registration for the North Carolina Writers' Network 2018 Squire Summer Writing Workshops ends July 5. On-site registration will not be available, and spaces are very limited.
This year's workshops will be led by Paul Cuadros (Creative Nonfiction); Rob Greene (Poetry); and Elaine Neil Orr (Fiction).
"The Squire Summer Writing Workshops introduced me to NCWN, and that connection has been key for me,” said Janet Ford, winner of the 2017 Guy Owen Prize from Southern Poetry Review. “Through this organization, I have discovered the members of my writing group, as well as the Spring and Fall Conferences and many meaningful opportunities to publish and read.”
The Opening Session on Thursday evening will give writers the opportunity to rewrite North Carolina's official State Toast, "Here's to the Old North State."
Friday evening will offer a panel discussion, "The Cross-Pollination of Page and Stage," featuring distinguished playwrights Ian Finley and June Guralnick, as well as screenwriter Ellen Shepherd.
The long weekend also includes faculty readings, open mics, and the opportunity to purchase books by faculty and attendees.
There will be a celebratory dinner on Saturday night.
"Because the pace of the weekend is slower, participants tend to build strong bonds with one another," said NCWN communications director Charles Fiore. "There's space in the schedule for writing, and reading, and going to meals together, and there's plenty of time for sitting around and talking about all the things that inspire us."
Registration is open through July 5 at www.ncwriters.org.
Swim into Fiction with Elaine Neil Orr
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Raleigh—Elaine Neil Orr's new novel, Swimming Between Worlds, was published in April.
New York Times bestselling author Charles Frazier called Swimming Between Worlds "A perceptive and powerful story told witih generosity and grace." And Buzzfeed named it one of seven coming-of-age tales to pick up this April.
Fiction registrants for the North Carolina Writers' Network 2018 Squire Summer Writing Workshops will have the opportunity to spend a long weekend learning from Elaine, July 19-22, on the campus of North Carolina State University, in Raleigh.
Registration is open.
In Elaine's workshop, "From Character to Plot to Atmosphere in Fiction," attendees will explore how the heart of the fiction workshop is their own writing, which they will prepare to discuss in advance and give attention to in every session. This work naturally leads participants to think about all the key elements of fiction: conflict, character development, place, dialogue, structure. In addition, students will place special emphasis on how to improve language and develop atmosphere and mood. For guidance, conferencegoers will read and discuss selected passages from great writers whose work they might emulate. In the course of the weekend, registrants will also begin one or two new pieces of fiction in response to prompts.
Each registrant should be ready to handle the intensive instruction and atmosphere of the workshop.
Elaine Neil Orr writes fiction, memoir, and literary criticism. Swimming Between Worlds is her newest novel. In a starred review, Library Journal said of Orr’s last novel, A Different Sun, “this extraordinary novel shines with light and depth.” Her memoir, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life, was a Top-20 Book Sense selection and a nominee for the Old North State Award. She is associate editor of a collection of essays on international childhoods, Writing Out of Limbo, and the author of two scholarly books. In 2016, she was Kathryn Stripling Byer Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. Orr has published extensively in literary magazines including The Missouri Review, Blackbird, Shenandoah, and Image Journal. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
The NCWN Squire Summer Writing Workshops offer attendees the chance to study one genre with one instructor over the course of the weekend. There also will be programs, panels, readings, open mics, and more.
Paul Cuadros will lead the track in Creative Nonfiction, "Storytelling from the Point of Truth." Rob Greene will lead the track in Poetry, "Poems of Experience." Registration is capped at forty-two registrants, first-come, first-served.