This summer, some of us will be going off to writers' workshops. Eugene is going to Squaw Valley, others have mentioned Iowa, and I'll be heading to the West Virginia Writers' Workshop. Where will you be going?

When August comes, we'll announce that the topic of the month is Writers' Workshops. This will be your chance to share your summer workshop experience with your fellow Forum writers.

This'll be my fourth time at the West Virginia Writers' Workshop. I've gotten to know much of the WVU MFA faculty, and several repeat workshop participants. So for me, it's more of a reunion, complete with backyard barbeques hosted by WVU staff. These are dear heart and gentle people.

As I inch my way out of gridlocked DC, to the open highway on I-68 going to West Virginia, I know that sooner or later John Denver's song, "Take me Home Country Roads" will come on the radio. I'll turn up the volume and sing along, what the hell, no one's looking.

You probably know that John Denver and the Danoffs wrote the lyrics to " Take me Home Country Roads". But did you know that neither Denver nor the Danoffs had ever been to West Virginia when they wrote the lyrics? So, it's really not about writing what you know. Or, as novelist Ron Carlson says, "I always write from my own experiences, whether I've had them or not."

http://deenotes.homestead.com/roads.html

Those of us who are from WV know that neither Denver nor the Danoffs had ever been to our home state, BECAUSE -- the Blue Ridge Mountains are in Virginia, not WV; and the Shenandoah River runs through VA, touching the border with WV only for a few miles near Harpers Ferry.

While the errors didn't stop most people from enjoying the song, didn't hurt the song's popularity in 1970-something, didn't decrease the $ Denver made from it, and to this day do not keep a few of the state's natives from belting the song out in our cars (where, we hope, no one can hear us!), they probably prevented the song from being adopted as the state song over the traditional anthem "West Virginia Hills." Most natives, even the ones who love the rest of "Take Me Home, Country Roads," sneer snidely at the ignorance of the lyricist. It's like a little burr in one's sock.

There's probably a lesson in that for fiction writers, too. My thought is, if you're not writing what you know, get it on paper and then do some fact-checking. At least, if the sense of place matters to what you're writing. If one is writing about WV, the sense of place matters greatly to those of us who live or lived there. (You can ask the WVU faculty about that. I'd love to hear their take on it.)

Will be interested to hear how the workshop went. I usually go to the WV Writers' Conference in June, mostly to hang out with the good people who are like the people I grew up with. (Heck, if they're NOT the people I grew up with, they're usually related to 'em within three or four degrees of kinship. This also matters.)



Jerri

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Jerri Bell
Moderator

Hi Jim-

I'm in 2nd semester in the program here.

I know I could go online and look up the WVU program you're talking about, but could you give a little info here about what you like about it? What you've gotten out of it? I have a cabin in WV and always kick myself for not getting to know the state better. A writer's workshop would be a great way to do that...

Susan

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susani

Jerri--I just pulled in to DC from my trip to West Virginia. What a bummer about the Blue Ridge Mountains. You'd think that someone would have caught that when Country Roads was workshopped.

Susan--I will be happy to talk about the WVU Workshop, but I'm going to wail until August when "workshops" come up as a topic. Hope that's okay?