the muse & the marketplace 2010

session 6

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, from 2:45-4:00pm

SESSION 6A: “Meaningful Repetition: Rhyming Action in Fiction & Non-Fiction”

Description: Consider the orange. In The Godfather, every time one appears, bad things happen. A character gets a fist to the face, a bullet to the chest, over and over again, until the very sight of the fruit makes us cringe: it has somehow become a harbinger of evil. This rhyming action--in which the recurrence of an object, a setting, an image, a manner of speech creates meaning--will be the focus of our discussion. We will discuss their use--as the building blocks of plot, character, and thematic development--by looking at the work of Eula Biss, Vladmir Nabokov, David Mamet, Tim O’Brien, and Zora Neale Hurston, among others. If there’s time, we’ll explore their potential through writing exercises.
Type: Lecture with Q&A
Author: Benjamin Percy. Benjamin Percy is the author of a novel, The Wilding (Graywolf, 2010), and two books of stories, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and The Language of Elk (Carnegie Mellon, 2006). His fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio, performed at Symphony Space, and published by Esquire (where he is a regular contributor), Men’s Journal, the Paris Review, Orion, and Glimmer Train, among others. His honors include the Whiting Writer’s Award, the Plimpton Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories. A graphic novel adaptation of “Refresh, Refresh”—co-authored by filmmaker James Ponsoldt and illustrated by Eisner-nominated artist Danica Novgorodoff—came out in 2009 with First Second Books (a division of Macmillan). He teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State University.


SESSION 6B: “'I Love It, But...' The Author-Editor Tango”

Description: "I love it but...." "This is great, however...." "Nice job, if only...." Phrases like these are at the heart of the author/editor relationship. Rather than be adversarial, the author and editor both want the same thing:to produce the best book possible. The key is to have an editor who loves your work, but isn't you. In another words, someone who can see your fine work with a cool, detached eye, and ask the questions/make the suggestions that help you improve it. In this workshop, Lesléa Newman will read first, second, third, seventh, and fourteenth drafts of various picture books and sections of YA novels interspersed with actual letters from editors at top New York City publishing houses, to show the audience just how an author and editor work together to bring a book from idea and first draft to final product. Audience members will be surprised at the amount of thought, time and effort that goes into all manuscripts, whether they are composed of 400 words or 400 pages.
Type: Lecture with Q&A
Author: Lesléa Newman. Lesléa Newman is the author of 60 books for adults and children including the novel, The Reluctant Daughter, the short story collection, A Letter to Harvey Milk, the poetry collection, Nobody's Mother, the young adult novel Jailbait, the middle-grade novel, Hachiko Waits, the children's book, Heather Has Two Mommies, and the writing guide, Write From The Heart. Her literary awards include creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, a James Baldwin award in cultural achievement, a Parents' Choice Silver Medal, and four Pushcart Prize nominations. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. From 2008-2010, she was the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. Visit www.lesleanewman.com for more information.


SESSION 6C: “The Big Book of What Really Happened: Historical Research, Fiction Writing”

Description: If one of the great pleasures of fiction lies in its ability to transport us to another reality, that pleasure holds doubly true for historical fiction. Good, absorbing historical fiction is able to treat readers to a time machine sensation, bringing us so fully into a true-seeming experience of the past that we feel we are learning something real about history as we read. The backbone of this kind of writing is the research done beforehand. In this course we will talk about how to use historical sources to their best advantage in fiction writing, how to locate the one trenchant detail that makes a lost time period come back to life, and how to know when we finally have learned enough so that we can be free to imagine.
Type: Lecture with Q&A
Author: Katherine Howe. Katherine Howe is the author of the novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, a novel of the Salem witch trials which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. She is completing a PhD in American and New England Studies at Boston University, where she has taught in the history, art history, American studies, and writing programs. She lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts with her husband.


SESSION 6D: “From Journalism to Memoir: The Authors of Three Wishes”

Description: Until writing Three Wishes, Carey Goldberg spent her entire professional career in newsrooms (NY Times, LA Times, Boston Globe). Beth Jones went from writing fiction (Bennington College, BU Master's program) to journalism (NY Times, Boston Globe). Pam Ferdinand left the newsroom (Miami Herald, Washington Post, Boston Globe) to freelance and she also wrote fiction. They all had habits to unlearn. Whether it was allowing their own voices into the story, balancing the opportunity to be lyrical with the restraints of also being literal, embellishing as well as withholding. They found themselves struggling against the influences of journalistic training in all kinds of ways, subtle and not-so. At one point, an agent refused the book and said her main reason was that she felt "there was a wall between us and the reader" -- presumably the very wall that journalists are expected to maintain. How do you bridge the gap between journalism and memoir? Where is the line and what are the differences? In this session, two of the three Three Wishes authors -- Carey Goldberg and Beth Jones -- will try to answer these questions and also talk about the process of co-authoring a book.
Type: Lecture with Q&A and Discussion Class
Author: Beth Jones and Carey Goldberg. Carey Goldberg grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and decided in tenth grade that someday, she wanted to be a foreign correspondent in Moscow. She went to Yale and Harvard and eventually lived out her dream for six years, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Associated Press and then The Los Angeles Times. In 1995, she came home to work for The New York Times and “get a life.” She quickly rose to be Boston bureau chief of the Times, but discovered that lives can be hard to get. When she turned 39, still unwed, she decided to become a single mother, and launched the chain of events described in this book. With the help of a year-long fellowship at MIT, she made the transition from general reporting to science journalism, and worked as a part-time health and science reporter at The Boston Globe for several years, covering brains and other organs. The Globe laid her off amid a sweeping cut of part-timers in early 2009 and she now happily writes books at home in the Brookline, Massachusetts house that she shares with her family. (But it would be giving too much away to say who the members of her family are.)

From an early age, Beth Jones wanted to be a writer. She would buy blank books and fill them with her own stories. A rebel by age 13, she preferred to write than go to school. She was a student at Bennington College during the 1980’s literary heyday with Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem. After college, she hopped between jobs, moved to Europe with a boyfriend to try the expatriate lifestyle, and when she returned, was admitted to Boston University’s graduate creative writing program. She’s been in Boston ever since, and is finally fulfilling her life’s ambition of publishing a book. Jones is a freelance writer and educator. She has written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and various magazines and websites. She taught writing and literature at Boston University, Emerson College, and in several Massachusetts prisons. She spent seven years running The Education Initiative, a school based behavioral medicine program, under the auspices of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She taught stress resiliency skills to educators and students from pre-school through college, primarily at inner city schools in Los Angeles, Boston, and Newark, NJ. In addition, she is an occasional contributor to National Public Radio. Currently, she lives in Brookline, MA with her husband and son.


***SOLD OUT*** SESSION 6E: "Writing the Big Scene"

Description: One of the most important tasks required of any good fiction writer is an ability to craft crucial scenes that, in some way or other, change the tide of the short story or novel in which they appear. Each participant must read two masterful scenes from two different novels: Outerbridge Reach, by Robert Stone and Shadowplay by Charles Baxter, located here. There will be a discussion of the techniques used by each novelist, the combination of narrative and dialogue and description, as well as defining gestures and movements that bring interacting characters into greater relief. There will be an in class exercise devoted to the principles of scene-writing under discussion.
Type: Discussion Class and Guided Writing
Author: Joseph Olshan. Joseph Olshan is an award-winning American novelist. His first novel, Clara's Heart, won the Times/Jonathan Cape Young Writers' Competition and went on to be made into a feature film starring Whoopi Goldberg. He is the author of eight novels, the most recent of which, The Conversion, was published in 2008/2009. In addition to his novels, he has written extensively for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), The Guardian (London), The Independent (London), The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Observer, Harpers Bazaar, People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. For six years he was a professor of Creative Writing at New York University where he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses. Joseph Olshan's other novels include Nightswimmer and Vanitas, as well as The Waterline, A Warmer Season, The Sound of Heaven and In Clara's Hands, a sequel to his acclaimed first novel, Clara's Heart.


SESSION 6F: Secrets of the Prolific: How to Boost Your Writing Productivity and Overcome a Block

Description: Underproductivity and writer's block are not just solvable problems; they're actually rather easily solved once you identify their true nature and causes. In this workshop, derived from her popular Grub class How to Write a Lot, Hillary Rettig explores the main causes of underproductivity, including perfectionism, negativity, poor time management, resource constraints, bias and internalized oppression. She also discusses how harsh criticism or cruel rejection, especially from a teacher or mentor, can trigger a block. Fortunately, she also discusses the solutions to underproductivity, which include mindfulness, cultivating an attitude of compassionate objectivity, and time and resource management.
Type: Lecture with Q&A
Author: Hillary Rettig. Hillary Rettig is an author, workshop leader and coach who specializes in helping artists, activists, academics and other "ambitious dreamers" overcome procrastination and use their time better. The leading liberal blog, DailyKos.com, said of Hillary's book The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way (Lantern Books, 2006), "If I had but one book to spend hard-earned cash on this year, The Lifelong Activist would be it, hands down." Hillary's free, downloadable ebook, The Little Guide To Beating Procrastination, Perfectionism and Blocks, is available at her website www.lifelongactivist.com/downloads and Hillary may be reached at lifelongactivist@yahoo.com. Hillary is a New York City native and current Boston resident, who has published science fiction along with nonfiction. Some of the acclaimed science fiction writers she has studied with are Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delaney and the late Octavia Butler. A lifelong writer, her other passions include her family, her dogs, social justice and veganism.


SESSION 6G: “The Essentials of Structure”

Description: Every story needs structure, a framework on which to build drama and emotional connection. While the right structure can certainly help pull a reader through a story, it can also help push a frustrated writer through a difficult draft. In this seminar, we’ll talk about the types of structures that help you tell the most compelling stories, beginning with the simplest, classic theories and progressing—with examples and exercises—to more abstract structures and devices for telling both fiction and nonfiction stories.
Type: Lecture with Q&A, Discussion and Guided Writing
Author: Michelle Seaton. Michelle Seaton is the co-author of several books, including The Way of Boys: Protecting the Social and Emotional Development of Young Boys (William Morrow, 2009) and The Cardiac Recovery Handbook (Hatherleigh Press, 2004). She is a former associate editor at Yankee magazine and a former senior contributor to Worth magazine. Since 1995, she has been a regular contributor to the NPR sports show "Only a Game," for which she has reported on everything from professional wrestling to competitive bird watching. Her essays and fiction have appeared in The Pinch, Sycamore Review, Quiddity International Journal, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been an instructor at Grub Street for ten years and serves as the lead instructor for Grub Street’s Memoir Project, teaching memoir writing to senior citizens in the neighborhoods throughout Boston.


SESSION 6H: Marketplace Panel: “Follow Me, Friend Me, Tweet Me, Trend Me – But Please Read Me!”

Description:The Internet—recently coined the “Splinternet” by Forrester Research—is an unavoidable reality for any writer looking to build readership and a viable career—and most of it is going to be DIY (Do It Yourself) and PFIY (Pay For It Yourself). Even if you have a solid book deal, much of the marketing and promotion is going to fall squarely on your shoulders. The stakes are high, and the options are virtually limitless. Our panel of Web and new media experts will shine some light on the subject and help you answer these and other burning questions: Where do you begin? Do you need a Web site? Is a blog good enough? What should it include? What about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and everything else? Is it expensive or can you do it on a budget? How much time will it take? Are there any rules or best practices? What are the risks? Do you need to think about iPhones, Kindles, and iPads? Where’s all this going anyway? Join us for what’s sure to be a lively and interactive discussion!
Level: All

Panelists: Jenna Blum, Michael Borum and Crystal King. Moderated by Pagan Kennedy

SESSION 6K: Marketplace Lecture: "The Dreaded Synopsis"

Description: You've written and revised your novel, polished your query, and then the agent/editor asks you for...the dreaded synopsis. Or: you’re applying for a grant, fellowship or residency and you want to include an excerpt of your novel or book-length work of non-fiction, and you’re asked to include…yup, the dreaded synopsis. Before you toss your computer out the window, let me prove to you that your synopsis doesn't have to be so dreadful. Instead, you can turn it into a strength that gets whoever’s reading it excited to dive into your book.

Leader: Joanna Stampfel-Volpe