Friday, November 13th

Saturday, November 14th

Session listings:

A2: Harry Potter Fan Fiction
Alison Balaskovits
What is Harry Potter fan fiction? Where is it? Why is it? In this session, we will break down the internet trend into what it means in the literary world and how valuable it is in the world of fans. We will learn the lingo ­ slash, femme slash, pairings ­ of fan fiction, and we will also engage in a writing activity centered on fan fiction.

A3: Compelling Alliances: Text From Image
Nikkita Cohoon, Jessica Zinz
This will be a cross-genre generative workshop in which we will consider images as a means of exploration for writing—image as an artwork, found photograph, ephemera, a visually interesting object, image rhyme, or a mental picture reconsidered. Participants are encouraged to bring objects to share as a source for prompts.

A4: The Literary Jock
Matthew Ferrence
In this workshop, ideas and exercise will be presented on writing personal essays that employ sports activities as a motivating theme. This will not be a sports-writing workshop but, instead, one that seeks to move sports-related writing into a more lyrical space.

A5: Oh, Canada! Writing Without Borders
Lori A. May
There is much to be gained by exploring regional works, but more so in discovering the joys of work that transcends borders. In this workshop we'll discuss contemporary Canadian writers who speak to the international landscape. From Vancouver to Halifax, we'll discuss Canadian writers, publications, and opportunities for you to explore with your own work—regardless of where you live. Discussion and workshop with writing prompts.

A6: Religion in Poetry
Melissa Shaner, Jade Ramsey
By examining religious imagery in poetry, we will discuss in this session how we can further our own writing techniques without coming across as overly "religious" to the reader.

A7: The Many Facets of Non-Realist Fiction: Surrealism, Magical Realism, Fabulism
Jacqueline Vogtman, Anne Valente, Stephanie Marker
In this session, we will discuss the multiple forms that non-realist fiction can take, how to infuse elements of the fantastic into your writing, and end with a brief exercise in writing a surrealist, magical realist, or fabulist prose piece.

A8: Midwestern Resources for Writers
Isadora J. Wagner
A lively and informative discussion about sources of funding and community for writers and poets in the Midwest. The session will cover regional writer's colonies, grants, fellowships, conferences, residencies, and academic programs (BFA, MFA, Creative Ph.D.), as well as how to research, apply to, and select the programs best for you, with handouts and resources.

2:30 to 3:45 Sessions

B1: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: The Role of Setting in Fiction
Jessica Vozel
This workshop will explore the role of setting in contemporary fiction and end with a writing prompt designed to explore how setting can affect the mood, tone, and even the course of events in fiction.

B2: Squish Art: A Creativity Tool
Hod Doering
Squish Art creativity workshops are designed to recharge and enhance creativity by offering writers a repeatable creative experience. In this session, participants will create original abstract art to generate idea pebbles for poems or stories. They will leave with original art, original writings and a set of pre-generated pebbles for future use.

B3: The Accidental Memoirist CANCELLED
Gail Baker
In this session, author Gail Baker discusses how she happened upon her writing career by accident, through writing about her own experience which launched a popular column, an agent and a book deal. Come learn about her experience and how accidental projects can become avenues for successful writing careers.

B4: Perfect Synergy: Print and Electronic Media Collide, Peacefully
Zach Tarvin
Electronic media is nothing to fear, and may in fact be print media's great collaborator. We'll explore the changing technology that can be married to writers and editors' lives. Also on tap, a tracking of where electronic media has been and where we can expect it to go in the coming years. No experience necessary.

B5: Midwest Gothic
Brian Kornell
This session will discuss how to render the Midwest in non-realist fiction by taking cues from Southern Gothic writers. The larger question we will grapple with is whether there can also be a Midwest Gothic.

B6: Writing and Publishing Online
Matt Bell
Matt Bell, editor of the online literary journal The Collagist, will give a brief presentation, followed by a Q&A-style discussion. Topics covered will include the current state of online literary publishing, how submitting is different (and the same) online, and how the Internet provides new opportunities for writers, editors, and readers alike.

B7: Monster Mash
Meredith Doench
This fiction workshop will work with the latest method of smash-ups that recently published books like Ben H. Winters¹ Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, as well as Seth Grahame-Smith¹s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, employs. The workshop will follow the basic guidelines that Winters and Grahame-Smith have used for their own works.

B8: Contemporary Arab Poetry
Khaled Mattawa
In this session, poet Khaled Mattawa discusses contemporary Arab poetry.

Saturday, 9:00 to 10:15 Sessions
C1: Online Publishing
Aaron Smith, Stephanie Pyle
In this presentation, NOP Magazine editors Aaron Smith and Stephanie Pyle will discuss the goings-on behind the scenes of a new online literary magazine. Publishing format, design, demographics, programming and more will be discussed.

C2: Agape-philia: Collaboration and the Creative Process
Robin Morrissey, Amanda Marbais, Heather Momyer
This panel will explore collaboration and writing as we discuss ideas and issues that emerge when creative boundaries are opened and knowledge revolves in a shared space of writing, creating, and responding. We encouraged registering with one or two partners and sharing work prior to the workshop, but this is not mandatory.

C3: The Curious Poem: Writing from the Wunderkammer
Kathryn Neurnberger
Wunderkammers were Enlightenment-era cabinets of curiosities devoted to artifacts and relics from the natural world. In this session, we will discuss the imaginative possibilities of writing poems with a collector's eyes for the marvelous and strange. We will look at examples of curious poems by Marianne Moore and Anne Carson, and we will conclude with writing exercises inspired by artifacts from actual wunderkammers.

C4: Flash Fiction
David Spiering
This session will include a discussion of how flash fiction differs from regular fiction, the transitory nature of flash fiction, and how it blends with the form of poetry. We will then write and discuss.

C5: Writing, Intuition and Embodied Knowledge
Heather Pristash
In this workshop, we will use Sondra Perl's concept of felt sense to try and get in touch with our authorial intuition. Come prepared to write!

C6: Between Art and Information: Using Research in Memoir Without Killing Voice
David Giffels
David Giffels, Ohioana Book Award-winning author of All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House (William Morrow/HarperCollins 2008) and an upcoming Rust Belt memoir, draws on his experience using objective research to richen personal writing.

C7: Three Intentional Scars: African Masks as Revision Tools
Brad Modlin
The pocket-sized mask with gashes on the cheekbones was a passport in Burkina Faso decades ago. One mask wards off dead spirits. Another summons them. We'll discuss the characteristics and purposes of several masks and consider letting a "stuck" draft try one on. Bring something you want to revise. Any genre.

C8: Food Writing 101
Amanda McGuire, Sarah Lenz, Karen Babine
Have you been called a food snob? Do you find yourself thinking about food more than you "should"? Is watching Food TV your kind of pornography? Join us around the table for a discussion about how to get involved in food writing and where the journey of food writing can take you.

C10: How to Build Your Career as a Writer
Isadora J. Wagner
This session takes the long view of building up a literary career, looking at the fact that many famous authors from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Ernest Hemingway to Jane Austen took nearly a decade to hone their craft into publishable format. Given this, and given the competitiveness of the current market, what can individual writers and poets do to build up their credentials and knowledge of the industry while at the same time continuing to write? The session will discuss reading projects, field work, speaking engagements, reviews and articles, friendships, and involvement in the literary community more broadly as a platform for establishing a lifelong literary career.

10:30 to 11:45 Sessions
D1: Is This a Poem Yet?: Discovering Your Poem's Conclusion
Christina Veladota
Beginning a poem is often easy, but how do we decide how to conclude our poems so our images resonate with the reader? How do we know when a poem is actually finished? We'll discuss poetic closure, share examples from our own poetry, and talk about which techniques seem successful.

D2: Exploding a Kernel
Brad Felver
In this session, participants will discuss how to take story kernels ­ a skeletal plot arc, an intriguing turn of phrase, a curious title, an interesting character ­ and explode them into a full-scale story. This session aims not to locate a secret method for extrapolating a story from a small idea, but rather, to explore various methods for doing so. We will discuss, write, and share our writing and best practices.

D3: Embracing Emotional Autobiography Over Factual Representation in Fiction
Eric Wasserman
"It really happened that way!" How many times have you heard this from a writer facing criticism? Come explore techniques for tapping into the "emotional autobiography" of writing fiction from real situations, abandoning factual circumstances and instead capturing the very personal representation of the "spirit" of an experience. Eric Wasserman has written on this subject for Glimmer Train's "Writers Ask" quarterly and looks forward to sharing his approaches with you.

D4: Read to Write: Collecting Inspiration
Natalie Sypolt and Melissa Minsker
One of the most essential lessons a writer can learn is how to be a good reader. Sure, we can take the classes, follow the "Best Books of..." lists, but it's often the stories and poems we come to on our own ­ the happy accidents ­ that can be the most inspirational. If you were going to create your own anthology, what would it be and why? In this session, we'll share our own lists and discuss the importance (and value) of undertaking a personal anthology project. We'll also discuss the art of modeling (or imitation) and how writers often find their own voice by first ³modeling² one they respect.

D5: The Sweet Sound of Place
Daniel Lockhart
This session will help illustrate how the use of poetics can better capture the tactile and musical sense of place in the scene construction of fiction. Examples from both poets and fiction writers will be used to illustrate key points. Attendees will construct a scene based upon points discussed in this session.

D6: Hints and Troubleshooting: How to Apply to an MFA Program with Moderate Success
Jessica Vozel, Bess Winter, Michelle Zuppa, Alison Balaskovits
This talk will feature the sources prospective MFA applicants can use to help them select a program that suits them, and will also discuss the application process itself. Tips such as what blogs to read, what to send and where to send, that personal essay and more will be covered by various voices and opinions. D7: ³That I Was Blessed and Could Bless²: Toward a Poetics of Joy
Michael Cherry
The image of poet as miserable, death-besotted wretch has long been stereotypical, and contemporary discussions of poetry routinely inflict words ­ such as interrogation, disruption and subversion ­ that seem more appropriate for CIA operatives than for poets. What has happened? Is there still room in poetry for joy? If so, how might poets reclaim this fugitive territory? In this session, we will engage these questions with readings, discussion, and writing exercises.

D8: What I Learned on my Summer Vacation to the Arctic Circle: Changing Perspectives Through Research
Jane Varley
This presentation will outline techniques for using researching in poetry, guiding participants to consider their own experiences with reading and travel.

D9: The Five Stages of Grief (Writing)
Heather Frese and Rebecca Schwab
Sometimes life sucks ­ our panel will explore the ways in which grief and loss can serve as inspirational starting points for your creative writing. Loss is an unavoidable and universal part of the human condition, but the ways in which we articulate and channel that grief into creative expression can be healing. This session will focus on the process through which life experiences can be transformed into meaningful works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

D10: The Raptors Press Young Writers' Workshop
The Raptors Press
This is a workshop for young writers in which individual poems and stories will be read and considering for publication by The Raptors Press, an up-and-coming small press created by and for kids and teens. The workshop will also include a brief overview of The Raptors Press and its other programs. Open to young writers and their parents.

1:00 to 2:15 Sessions
E1: The Language of Literary Writing
Lawrence Coates
Have you ever used an epizeuxis? How about a polysyndeton? In this workshop/presentation, we will see how some of the most notable writers of contemporary fiction make use of classic rhetorical figures, and how you can incorporate them into your own work.

E2: OMG! WTF! What Will Happen Next?: Creating Immediate Tension in Short Fiction
David McClure
In this workshop, participants will compare and contrast different strategies for creation tension in contemporary and recently published short fiction. We will focus on opening paragraphs. Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite opening paragraphs and share them with the group. Lastly, writers will have time to draft, read, and discuss their own story openings.

E3: The Relevance of Fairy Tales in Creative Writing Today
Catherine Templeton and Stokely Klasovsky
Why should we continue creating fairy tales? Is it possible to use written words to communicate archetypes that emerged within the oral tradition of fairy tales? In this session, we will discuss fairy tales in light of their relevance to contemporary writing today.

E4: How to Fit Writing in Your Life When You're Working Full-Time
Michelle Zuppa
With full-time jobs and family responsibilities, many people find it hard to fit writing into their daily lives. In this session, we will discuss an array of workshops, online courses and other venues for managing a writing lifestyle among other obligations.

E5: Writing Poems in a Series
Joannie Stangeland
How do you take an idea from one poem to a whole chapbook? How do you keep going? In this session, we'll discuss the poems written on a theme and poems in a series. We'll also try some techniques for continuing to explore that idea that sparked your passion.

E6: Finishing Your Novel
James Braziel
Whether you just started writing a novel or find yourself stuck somewhere in the middle, this panel will discuss strategies for transforming your ideas into outlines, moving from rough draft to final draft, working with agents and editors, and ultimately finishing your novel.

E7: Sentimentality in Poetry: Stripping the Goop and Salvaging Emotion
Rachel Contreni Flynn
In this session, we will define sentimentality and will discuss salvaging the emotion while stripping the goopiness, focusing on craft elements of tone and diction. Poems can be written about beloved grandmothers or cute children so long as writers realize they are on sloppy ground and employ techniques to overcome the pitfalls of sentimentality.

E8: Undergraduates Gone Wild: An Experimental Poem
Muskingum University undergraduates
Three undergraduates will lead participants in an exercise of experimental writing using lively writing prompts, juxtaposing unexpected ideas to create mind-freeing poetry.

E9: Pudding House Publications: the Largest Literary Small Press in America
Pudding House Editors
Pudding House Publications produces chapbooks, anthologies, prints, Pudding Magazine, and dead bundles. Are you the next plum Pudding poet?

E10: The Lyric, Obsessed
Dustin Parsons
One need not be an obsessive person to become obsessed. In fact, it is often the form that creates the need for obsession rather than the obsession that chooses the form. We will discuss the short lyric essay and obsession through the work of several contemporary writers, and we will work on a short lyric essay of our own through writing prompts.

2:30 to 3:45 Sessions
F1: Travel Writing Remixed
Andrew Wright
In this session, we will examine the intersection between traditional non-fiction and new genres such as blogs, Twitter, hypertext, etc. Andrew Wright will focus on his experience creating an interactive travelogue, documenting trips while soliciting suggestions and interactions online. However, he'll also invite discussion about potential interactivity in other writing, including memoir, fiction, journalism and essays.

F2: The Plot of the Undergrad: Tips for the Undergraduate Writer
Zach Tarvin
There's more to being an undergraduate than taking a set number of courses, completing a portfolio, and submitting a thesis. Join us as we discuss a whole world of opportunities to seize in your average creative writing program that may lead to new skills, and may help you become more employable after graduation.

F3: Publishing in Literary Journals
Mike Czyzniejewski
In this session, we will discuss both the nuts and bolts of sending out work, as well as the more intricate dealings of publishing that could help get your work accepted.

F4: Postcards, Paragraphs, Prose Poems and Brief Lyrical Non-Fiction
M.J. Iuppa
This writing workshop will discuss ³landscape as informant² by looking closely at selected writing samples to discover how authors reveal their (interior) emotions/motivations in particular (exterior) settings. How does using landscape transform metaphor? How can a landscape trigger both imagination and memory? Using postcard (painting and photography) landscapes, we will create new work (paragraph, prose poem, brief lyrical non-fiction); and of course, you will leave with ideas and assignments that will generate new work.

F5: Form in All its Forms: Traditional Form and Your Modern Poetry CANCELLED
Telaina Eriksen
Are you scared to use form in your poetry? Stuck in a free-verse rut? Come learn about the structure and history of the villanelle, sestina, ghazal and more, and try your hand at several forms during this session.

F6: Strategies for the Story Cycle
Clifford Garstang
Is it a short story collection? A novel? Or is it something else altogether? From Winesburg, Ohio to Olive Kitteridge, the linked story collection has captured our attention. This session will examine some of the more successful examples of the form and suggest strategies for writers considering such a project

F7: Surprise! An Aesthetic of What Happens Next
Alan Michael Parker
Learning to surprise a reader means learning to surprise yourself; there's an aesthetic involved, the art of unveiling information and countering expectation. We'll focus on how, in this hands-on session.

F8: Love and Politics
Rachel Gray and Michael Duaro
In this session, we will discuss the intersection of love, politics and activism in poetry, specifically in the forms of Japanese Tank and Filipino Kundiman, among a few others. Participants will also write their own poetry intersections of love and politics.

F9: Fish Out of Water: The Benefits of Studying Across Genres
Frank DePoole, Tara Kaloz, Marissa Marangoni, and Cody Rush-Ossenbeck
As creative writers, it is nearly impossible for us to be influenced by only one genre—and it should be. Experiencing genres outside of one's own comfort zone is crucial to the development of effective and well-versed pieces of art. This panel will look to inspire an engaging, informative discussion on the benefits of reading and writing outside of one's chosen genre. The panelists presenting will offer their experiences with fiction, poetry, non-fiction, literary theory, composition theory and classic literature to make a case that good writing requires participation in genres outside one's primary form.

F10: The "Duracell" Series: Writing Poetic, Short-Short, and Creative Non-Fiction Series That Just Keep Going and Going
Angela Gentry, Ryan Futrell, Brad Modlin
This panel session will be a cross-genre study of series writing, discussing our own experiences from generation to publication. We will explore questions such as: Where do I begin? Should I begin with an idea or a character? How do I keep going when it doesn't feel fresh to me anymore? How do I create a narrative arc or coherence to the work? When is it finished? Please join our active panel discussion where we'll brainstorm prompts, solve order questions, and offer suggestions on editing for coherence—don't worry—we promise not to keep "going and going."

F11: When You're Strange: Mastery and Disobedience in Creative Writing Workshops
Laural Adams, Stokely Klasovsky, Wendell Mayo
Creative writers often find themselves in a quandary, navigating the paradox that demands they know rules of craft yet disobey them—become "strange"—in order to create novel work. Panelists discuss how understanding the roles of mastery and disobedience can engender confidence and originality in writing.

F12: Postmodern Narrative Strategies
Christian Moody and Peter Grimes
This panel will discuss features and examples of postmodern fiction, with particular reference to the theories of Brian McHale. After the brief discussion, we'll share two exercises in postmodern narrative technique.