the muse & the marketplace 2010

session 1

Saturday, May 1st, 2010, from 9:45am to 11:00am

***SOLD OUT*** SESSION 1A: “It’s A Wooden Leg First: The Use of Images in Fiction”

Description: Fiction relies on the transformation of the abstract into the sensual and imagery is an essential mechanism for this transformation. This material stuff of fiction embodies the abstract—those invisible big ideas we’ve all come to the page to convey—and gives it weight and extension. Imagery can also be an important element of design, structure, and movement—a way into a story, a way out of a story, a means of shifting between the ordinary and the extraordinary, a way to cultivate mystery (the kind that’s magical and engaging rather than frustratingly murky). About her story, “Good Country People,” in which a lady Ph.D. has her leg stolen by a wily Bible salesman, Flannery O’Connor wrote, “If you want to say that the wooden leg is a symbol, you can say that. But it is a wooden leg first, and as a wooden leg it is absolutely necessary to the story. It has its place on the literal level of the story, but it operates in depth as well as on the surface.” O’Connor is advocating the importance of lavishing narrative attention on the “literal level of the story” and warning against symbol hunting and, by extension, symbol-planting. The wooden leg is an image that must be created from the inside out, rather than the outside in, in order for it to eventually become—through pattern and repetition—greater than the sum of its parts. In this workshop—a combination of informal lecture and group discussion—we’ll consider the importance of imagery in fiction and look closely at the way it serves as an element of design in one or two very short stories.
Type: Lecture with Q&A

Author: Maud Casey . Maud Casey lives in Washington, D.C. She teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Maryland. She also teaches in the low-residency MFA Program at Warren Wilson and was a faculty member at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2009. She is the author of two novels, The Shape of Things to Come, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Genealogy, a New York Times Editor's Choice Book, and a collection of stories, Drastic. She has received international fellowships from the Fundacion Valparaiso and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, and is the recipient of the 2008 Calvino Prize and a 2008-2009 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship.

SESSION 1B: “Writing the Child”

Description: Although all writers were once children, it can be surprisingly difficult for writers to create a child’s voice on the page. What are the challenges and dangers we face when we attempt to write the child? How do we pinpoint the ages of our youngest characters? How do we recreate the interactions between children when there are no adults present? And what are the artistic benefits of writing through a child’s eyes in the first place? This discussion will be useful for fiction writers, young adult writers, and memoirists who want to include true-to-life children in their work.
Type: Discussion Class

Author: Lauren Grodstein. Lauren Grodstein is the author of a short story collection and two novels; her more recent novel, A Friend of the Family, was named a Washington Post Book of the Year, a New York Times Editor’s Pick, and an Amazon.com Best Book of the Month and Spotlight Pick. Her essays, stories, and reviews have been widely anthologized, and her work has been translated into eight languages. She is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers-Camden, where she helps administer the MFA program in creative writing.

SESSION 1C: “Creativity and a Sense of Place”

Description: A good story is often deeply rooted in place. The where of narrative can strongly influence the who and the what. This applies not only to the places we write about but also to where we are in the real world when we’re writing. We will begin by talking briefly about our writing spaces, the physical places where the ideas flow and what it is about them that makes them special to us. Next, we’ll discuss the places we write about and the ways that more deeply exploring the world of our stories can enhance our creativity and reveal narrative possibilities. Finally, we’ll do a group exercise by creating a biography of place as character, uncovering layers of depth by examining not only its history and geography but its needs and desires as well. You are encouraged (though not required) to bring a writing sample to share, something that you have written or something that has inspired you with its strong sense of place.
Type: Guided Writing

Author: Brunonia Barry. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire. In a prior career incarnation, she created brain teaser puzzles for Smart Games, a company she co-founded. Barry lives in Salem Massachusetts with her husband, Gary, and their fifteen-year-old golden retriever, Byzantium. Barry has written the New York Times bestseller, The Lace Reader, which has been published in thirty languages. In September, The Lace Reader was awarded the International Women’s Fiction Festival’s Baccante prize for best fiction of 2009. Her second novel, The Map of True Places will come out in May 2010.

SESSION 1D: “Privacy and Memoir: Can They Coexist? At What Price?”

Description: “May your house be free of memoirists, they cause such trouble.” I taped this bit of fortune cookie wisdom (clipped from an article about a family feud) to my refrigerator when I published my memoir, and have found it perversely comforting since. Writers generally, but memoirists particularly, can make themselves unpopular with their kin. And with reason. Our idea of vibrant material is often our relative’s cherished intimate recollection or shameful hidden secret. At the same time, the fear of alienating family members can easily interfere with our writing by causing us to hedge our frank perspectives. This workshop will explore the conflicts between privacy and memoir writing. I will begin by briefly discussing privacy and its importance in family life, psychological development, in creative expression, and in art making. Then, using n excerpt from a memoir, we will discuss together the various concerns writers encounter while writing memoir, most of which circle around the predicament of how to balance the demands of the artistry against the wish not to unduly violate loved ones, and the fear of the consequences of such violation. What can one do to reduce the collateral damage? When does one indeed have to censor oneself? How does one comprehend and bear the psychological process of working through one’s own fear of exposing family stories and secrets? And, finally, how does one decide what really must not be said?
Type: Discussion Class

Author: Janna Malamud Smith. Janna Malamud Smith is a writer and psychotherapist. She has lectured widely, and has published in many newspapers, magazines and journals. She is the author of three books. The first two, Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life. (1997) and A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear. (2003) were both chosen as “Notable Books” by The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Her latest, My Father is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud (2006) was selected as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her essay, “Shipwrecked” is reprinted in Best American Essays 2009; another essay was reprinted in an earlier volume. She has worked part time since 1979 in the Cambridge Health Alliance, in Cambridge Massachusetts, and has a private practice. She is currently writing a book about the emotional perils that inhibit art-making; and researching a book about fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

SESSION 1E: "This Is How A Caged Writer Sings"

Description: Can listening to the right songs make your prose sing? Steve Almond says yes. And he’s got a whole record collection full of proof. In this strange and potentially aerobic session, Steve will play a number of his favorite literary songs and discuss the relationship between songwriting and prose writing, with a particular emphasis on the melody and rhythm inherent in language, and the importance of overt emotional involvement. (Unless requested, Steve will not be perform his world-famous rendition of “Your Song” on harmonica.) Bring a pen, an open mind, and your dancing shoes.
Type: Lecture with Q&A

Author: Steve Almond. Steve Almond is the author the story collections: My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the novel Which Brings Me to You (with Julianna Baggott), and the non-fiction books Candyfreak and (Not That You Asked). His new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, is just out. He has also, crazily, self-published a book called This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey, composed of 30 very brief stories and 30 very brief essays on the psychology and practice of writing.

SESSION 1F: “Faking the Real: Actual People as Characters in Fiction”

Description: This talk deals with the questions—both ethical and aesthetic—that are raised by using real people in novels and short stories. We’ll consider a variety of situations that the fiction-writer may have to deal with: incorporating nonfamous friends and acquaintances into a narrative; refracting well-known figures into roman à clef variants; and allowing very famous figures into stories under their own names.
Type: Lecture with Q&A

Author: Thomas Mallon. Thomas Mallon’s seven novels include Henry and Clara, Bandbox and Fellow Travelers. He has written non-fiction books about plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book of One’s Own), letters (the just-published Yours Ever) and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine’s Garage), as well as two volumes of essays (Rockets and Rodeos and In Fact). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Book Review and other publications. He received his Ph. D. in English and American Literature from Harvard University and has taught at Vassar College, the George Washington University and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. The recipient of Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, as well as the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing, he has been literary editor of Gentlemen’s Quarterly and deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in Washington, D.C.

***SOLD OUT*** SESSION 1G: “The Essentials of Character”

Description: Developing characters - or creating “activated” characters - means writing people who are human: that is, as layered, complicated, flawed, hopeful and contradictory as we are. This workshop will teach you the fundamentals of character and reinforce those concepts through a few short exercises designed to put some flesh and bones on the characters you’ve already created. We'll also look at how other parts of a story, like plot and theme, can enliven your characters. Come to this session with one or two of your characters in mind.
Type: Lecture, Q&A, Guided Writing
Level: Beginning/Intermediate

Leader: Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara has taught writing at the college level and in community-bases settings and prisons. She received a 2010 NEA Literature Fellowship and her stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Harvard Review, Puerto del Sol and other publications. Her non-fiction has appeared in The Democratic Strategist, Alternet.org, and The Advocate. She is currently a student at Harvard Divinity School.

***SOLD OUT*** SESSION 1H: Marketplace Panel: “A Glossary for the Publishing World”

Description: What is the difference between literary and commercial fiction? What makes your novel “up-market?” What’s a platform and how do you establish one? Can a man write “women’s fiction,” and is that the same thing as “lady lit.” What’s the market for “lad lit?” How do agents and editors distinguish genre from commercial? How do they distinguish YA from adult? What’s the difference between narrative non-fiction and memoir? These questions, and others, will be answered by a panel of editors, agents and authors.

Panelists: Pamela Dorman, Amy Einhorn, Stephany Evans, Jofie Ferrari-Adler and Mitchell Waters. Moderated by Lynne Griffin.

SESSION 1K: Marketplace Seminar: “Writing the Non-Fiction Book Proposal”

Description: Every non-fiction book which has moved you, informed you, and made somebody money began as a proposal. The non-fiction book proposal is the sales tool to help land you an agent, and for your agent to entrance a publisher. The non-fiction book proposal is a specialized form akin to a grant, and it can be learned. In this informative session, the instructor(s) will go over the basics of the 7 elements of the proposal, point you to other resources, and talk a bit about the ineffable qualities that can make your proposal stand out as professional and fresh.

Leader: Alexis Rizzuto, Editor (Beacon Press) and Stuart Horwitz (ENTITY Book Architecture)