workshop
February 22, 2010
- The weeklong workshop I spent with Ray was at Centrum in 1980, two years after John Irving published The World According to Garp...
Ray used Irving's title to explain how a writer has to take responsibility for the world he or she creates. He said a similar phrase was the subtitle of every artistic work--for example, the subtitle of "The Hunger Artist," would be "The world ...
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January 18, 2010
- I’m ready to come out of my writing cave. My office looks like the inside of a broom closet. I can’t find anything – not the last chapter I wrote, not the checkbook, not the scrap of paper I told my self I could not lose or I would go to jail. I need to get out into the sunshine for more than Vitamin D.I need to commiserate with other writers and talk about our dysfunctional characters, our ...
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January 11, 2010
- The Tales of the Lonesome Pine Bookstore will host a free workshop on the basics of memoir writing. The class takes place January 22, 7:00 PM at the bookstore, 404 Clinton Avenue East in Big Stone Gap. To register for the class, please contact the bookstore at 276-523-5097. The deadline to register is January 20. Neva Bryan is the workshop instructor. She has taught memoir writing ...
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January 7, 2010
- A song entitled "Moving Song" was the first thing I wrote. It's one of the 41 songs in the JOAN CARTWRIGHT SONG BOOK. I am the first woman in the world to publish a Jazz and Blues song book. These songs are a part of my first book IN PURSUIT OF A MELODY, a compilation of memoirs of my 38-year career as a jazz singer, 35 poems and two lectures - "Amazing Musicwomen" and ...
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December 28, 2009
- Esalen Institute, Big Sur, Weekend of April 9-11, 2010Autobiography for Poets, Fiction and Non-fiction WritersRobert Sward"If someone asked you to sum up the story of your life in one sentence, what would it be?" asks Robert Sward. "If you had to choose just half a dozen family photos to tell your life story, what photos would you choose? Why? In which of those photos is there a ...
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September 29, 2009
- When workshopping became a verb, I took a closer look. What is this verb doing? What does it mean to have a story workshopped? As I've written in an earlier blog, some people have nothing good to say about this process. "...a combination of ritual scarring," writes Louis Menand in a June 8 & 15 The New Yorker article.When I gave a recent lecture to a group of students about what ...
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September 24, 2009
- I'm teaching a short story workshop at The Grotto this fall. Come join us! Email me with any questions.Short Story IntensiveInstructor: Elizabeth BernsteinContact: eb@elizabethbernstein.comNumber of sessions: 8Meeting times: Tuesday evenings, 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm; October. 20 - Dec. 15 (no class Nov. 24)Course fee: $425.00Spots reserved with $100 deposit. Full fee due by second class.A short ...
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September 9, 2009
- Esalen Catalog listing for workshop I'll be leading April 9 - April 11, 2010. If someone asked you to sum up the story of your life in one sentence, what would it be? If you had to choose just half a dozen family photos to tell your life story, what photos would you choose? Why? In which of those photos is there a contrast between appearance and reality? You want to tell the truth, of ...
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September 2, 2009
- A student in my online creative writing class wrote to me last night, wanting to know how to deal with critique. Part of him wanted to defend himself, and another part of him was forcing himself to be restrained, to keep his fangs retracted and his spittle in his mouth. One part of him wanted to go over the minutiae of broken grammar and illogical, ridiculous sentences in other students' ...
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August 25, 2009
- In nearly every class or seminar I’ve ever taught, and with many of my clients as well, the question of copyright comes up, mostly in the context of How can I be sure no one steals my work? Despite one obscure author’s recent claims that Stephenie Meyer plagiarized her novel, this does not happen very often — and when plagiarism does happen, it usually involves the lifting of entire ...
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