MA in Writing

Conference

Jim Kendrall — 2009-03-26T22:19:06 -05.00

Worth looking into:

http://writersconnectconference.com/wordpress/

Goodnight room...

Jim Kendrall — 2008-12-17T14:17:28 -05.00

Goodnight room,
Goodnight moon,
Goodnight forum,

Hopkins Alum Publishes Story Collection

Dana Cann — 2008-11-14T21:08:53 -05.00

MA in Writing alum James Mathews' short story collection, Last Known Position, won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, and has just been published by University of North Texas Press. For those who've never read them, Jim's stories have a rare quality of somehow being both literary and entertaining. And funny. Very, very funny. Jim will be doing a number of area readings over the next few months, including one at Hopkins in DC in March. Check out Jim's website, www.jamesmathewsonline.com for details. You'll also find a shout out to the Hopkins' MA in Writing program.

The 13th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference

Jim Kendrall — 2008-09-29T10:54:02 -05.00

The 13th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference will be held on Saturday,
October 25, 2008 at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland.

The day-long conference is a rare opportunity for area writers and lovers of literature to meet and work with some of the best instructors and professionals in the writing world today. This year features panels and all new workshops that offer advice on screen adaptation, nonfiction style, the editor/author relationship and straight talk from publishers. Workshops on Short Fiction, Memoir, the Novel, and Poetry, will be led by authors new to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, including Nani Power, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Dave Housley, and A.M. Juster.

New Conference Feature: Manuscript Consultations The editors of the Potomac Review are excited to announce a special opportunity for writers in the DC/MD/VA area. The annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference will for the first time be providing conference attendees with the chance to meet face-to-face with major literary journal editors for personalized manuscript consultations. Registrants may meet with the editor of choice (please note: this is a first come, first served basis as the number of appointments are limited). Editors in attendance will include:Mark Drew - Gettysburg Review; Patricia Schultheis - Narrative; Greg Donovan or Mary Flinn - Blackbird; and Amy Holman - NYC Literary Consultant.

More information about the conference, registration, and fees can be found at:
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacreview/fscott/

Workshops, West Virginia, and Writing what you know.

Jim Kendrall — 2008-07-14T10:30:44 -05.00

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

The Craft of Fiction

Arlene Sanders — 2008-07-04T08:30:54 -05.00

Description of Characters in Fiction

A basic issue in fiction writing is how much physical description of a character you offer the reader. I'd like to know what you think about this.

In Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, the protagonist has had an affair (now over) with the wife of the man he visits one evening. The woman returns from her walk. We hear her footsteps as she approaches the room where the two men are talking. The protagonist, who narrates the novel in the first person, interrupts his story to tell us this about the woman he loved:

"How can I make a stranger see her as she stopped in the hall at the foot of the stairs and turned to us? I have never been able to describe even my fictitious characters except by their actions. It has always seemed to me that in a novel the reader should be allowed to imagine a character in any way he chooses: I do not want to supply him with ready-made illustrations. Now I am betrayed by my own technique, for I do not want any other woman substituted for Sarah, I want the reader to see the one broad forehead and bold mouth, the conformation of the skull, but all I can convey is an indeterminate figure turning in the dripping Macintosh, saying, 'Yes, Henry?' and then 'You?' She had always called me 'you.' 'Is that you?' on the telephone, 'Can you? Will you? Do you?' so that I imagined, like a fool, for a few minutes at a time, there was only one 'you' in the world and that was me."

I see Greene's conflict.

What do you think? How much do you give the reader? How much is too much?

One thing to consider is that some of us are good at physical description, and some of us are not. I am not, and so I have learned not to drone on and on about the woman's red hair, white daisies, and blue stocking hat, or my reader will sink into a bog of boring details. And yet, some authors can produce such dazzling descriptive writing -- Charles Talkoff comes to mind -- that a reader can get just delightfully lost in its brilliance.

I think in the above passage Greene answers his own question. This is a woman who can make you feel as if you are the most important man in the world. She is a woman who can do this to a man. Nothing Greene could have written about her physical appearance would rivet my attention on her more intensely than the way he describes her use of the word "you" and the effect that had on the man who loved her.

With this one salient fact about the woman, I will "see" her the minute she enters the room. A woman who can make a man feel like this - I know what she looks like. Sometimes she will be an actress who is familiar to me. In this case, Audrey Tautou. But this is not a lengthy selection process on my part; the woman appears at the foot of the stairs, and then I will see her when the men do, as I think other readers will, too.

The danger a writer faces when giving too much physical description is that the reader may balk. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Should the writer leave an enormous amount of leeway for the reader to picture the character as he wishes?

I think so. But then I fail in this over and over again, because it's so easy to fall into the traps that daisies and blue stocking hats can set for writers (and one day I realized that nearly all of the women in my stories had - dear God - red hair).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you think about too much vs. too little in character description.

Arlene

225 Literary Magazines Looking for Your Work

Arlene Sanders — 2008-07-01T11:43:51 -05.00

Just received in email the Poets & Writers Newsletter. Here is the link to their list of
225 literary magazines looking for your work:

http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?apage=*

For those of you who don't subscribe to Poets & Writers Magazine, a good time to start is now.
There are many great magazines for writers, but I subscribe to two (this one and Writer's Digest).

(As soon as I send Eugene a quarter, I hope he will link up the link!)

Arlene

The Christian book market is a big one

Eugene Chay — 2008-06-24T16:12:44 -05.00

NY Times article on "The Shack."

A book called "The Shack," by a former office manager and hotel night clerk, has been No. 1 on the NY Times trade paperback best-seller list virtually all month. The same with Borders' and Barnes & Noble's trade paperback best-seller lists.

Published by a small publisher that was formed by a former pastr expressly to publish the book, "The Shack" has enjoyed its success through word of mouth and probably got some notoriety by being lambasted by some conservative Christian leaders and bloggers.

Between this book's success, the success of the Left Behind series of books, and the success of The Purpose-Driven Life, it's safe to say if you can capture the imagination of devout Christians, you've got a hit on your hands. See also The Passion of the Christ.

I don't really have anything interesting to add, but I thought it was worth noting.

"Hopkins"

Jim Kendrall — 2008-06-24T09:47:47 -05.00

Like many of you, I'm not a big fan of sitting in front of a T.V., most of the programming being mindless crap. But there are possible exceptions. The upcoming documentary series, "Hopkins" may be one of them, especially for the writer with a science/medical bent to her/his fiction. Who knows, there might be a story or two lurking in the series. The ingredients will be there: character, conflict, setting, dialogue, and drama.

Here is an invitation to watch the series from the Dean/CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"Dear Colleagues,

In late 2006, Johns Hopkins Medicine agreed once again to a request from ABC News to give unusually wide access to a large team of documentary film makers led by many of the same network producers and journalists who created the award-winning documentary "Hopkins: 24/7" eight years ago. After more than five months of filming in The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Health System facilities, ABC News will air the new prime-time documentary - called "Hopkins" - on six consecutive Thursdays in prime time, beginning June 26, at 10 p.m. EDT.

The new series focuses more than the earlier one on young physicians still in training, on the dramatic work of some special nurses, and so very importantly, on our patients, who agreed to share remarkably private moments so that the real practice of real medicine can be shown. More than 100 Johns Hopkins faculty, residents, nurses, students, patients and family members gave their consent and participated in the production.

For nearly 120 years, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has opened its doors to millions of patients. With "Hopkins," millions more will be able to share the experience and to know we are here if they need us. We invite you to tune in June 26, and to learn more now at

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hopkinsabc
and
http://hopkins.abcnews.com/

Sincerely,

Edward D. Miller, M.D.
Dean/CEO Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System"

The Garden of Last Days

Bob Jones — 2008-06-21T16:40:25 -05.00

Here's a link to a short interview with Andre Dubus, III, the author of the book, The Garden of Last Days.
I hope you like it.

http://blip.tv/file/851251/