Volume VIII, Issue 28
July 29, 2019
Dear ,
What a lively, engaging, wonderful weekend I had in Lexington, North Carolina, at the North Carolina Writers Conference, "the
oldest general organization of writers in the state," and how lucky I feel to have had the opportunity.
Maybe you know at least one of these smiling faces? (Hint: there's a past North Carolina Poet Laureate among them.)
From the left, that's Ed Seel, husband of Pat Riviere-Seel, Gilda Morina Syverson, Paul Jones, Joseph Bathanti (NC's Poet Laureate from 2012-2014), Janice Moore Fuller, and Allison
Elrod. We were gathered Saturday evening to honor Dannye Romine Powell for her tremendous contributions to our state-wide literary community, through her own writing and her long career at The Charlotte Observer. My friend Gilda Morina Syverson (third from left)
and I didn't want to miss that! We got a bit choked up seeing her choked up at the accolades and acclaim. (I'll be featuring Dannye next spring, when Press 53 publishes her new poetry collection.)
The best part of these kinds of events for me is getting to reconnect with writers I haven't seen for far too long.
What luck that one of them, this time, was Kathryn Schwille, whom I first met in the early 1990s when I was a contest chair for the Charlotte Writers' Club. I had the honor of calling Kathryn to tell her that her short story won first place. She was a delight to talk to, and her story was superb.
Kathryn and I had run into each other a few times in the intervening decades, but it had been years since I'd seen her. Then, not even a week ago, I encountered her
through one of Landis Wade's Charlotte Writer's Podcasts, as she and Landis—who is doing such a great thing for writers and readers through these podcasts—discussed her critically acclaimed 2018 novel, What Luck, This Life. (I chose
this podcast to listen to first from a number of options, not only because of my knowledge of the quality of Kathryn's writing, but also because I love her book title.)
Their conversation and the excerpts Kathryn read led me to learn more about What Luck, This Life. Here's a part of the description I found on Kathryn's
website:
In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster’s surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the novel’s unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality’s
grip and a luminous book emerges—filled with heartache, beauty and warmth.
I added it to my "must read" list when I read popular novelist and writing teacher Judy Goldman's five-star review:
November 10, 2018
Format: Hardcover
I really loved this book. And everybody I know who's read this book also really loved it. What Luck, This Life is smart, heartbreaking, original, beautifully written, surprising, and totally captivating. Can you tell how highly I recommend it? A winner!
I'm sure you can imagine how good it was to run into Kathryn at the conference, having just spent a great hour with her and What Luck, This Life through the podcast. She graciously agreed, on the spur of the moment, to let me share a short excerpt of her book with you.
In gratitude for the luck of having your life and mine connect,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION:YOUR WRITING
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing)
This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You’ll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You’ll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools and methods. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process, whatever your preferred genre. Through examples of
accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: W12 Wednesday mornings from 10:00 a.m. – noon, starting in September, 2019.
COST: $435
TO REGISTER: Please email us at info@wordplaynow.com to start the registration process by filling out a short “Clarity Tool” to share your writing dreams and goals and where you are in the process. (Anywhere you are is a perfect place to begin.)
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POETRY ROCKS!
(Learning the Ins and Outs of Poetry; Strengthening Your Writing Skills; Adding a New Layer of Beauty to Your Life)
Would you like your writing — prose and/or poetry — to be more graceful, powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you.
Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres.
It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
HERE’S WHAT YOU GET:
- 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox — in honor of National Poetry month. Use them as you get them, use them when you can, use them over and over to create poems. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem. Many of them are great for creating prose,
too. The tools include:
* a purpose, so you’re clear what you will learn
* background information when helpful
* “how-to” directions to create a poem
* an example that illustrates the poetry tool in action
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
* “Hone Your Craft” suggestions for further exploration
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
- A PDF document of each tool that you can print or save on your computer
- An audio recording of each tool, so you can learn by listening and/or reading
- Instruction on the role of audience, reading like a writer, and the process of revision, including a handy Revision Checkpoint Chart — this information can be applied to strengthen your prose as well as poetry
- Additional poetry resources
- An e-book that contains the information and resources covered, as well as your 23 poetry creation tools for ongoing use
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via the web.
WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come.
COST: $45
TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. To register for Poetry Rocks online, click here.
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CLASSES AT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
TELLING YOUR LIFE STORIES WITH GRACE
(Week 7)
Our life stories are a precious legacy, imbued with grace we can often see only in hindsight. Capturing these stories “gracefully” in words is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us – they’ll be treasured for generations to come. Come learn engaging tools and techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses, successes, mistakes, and more with ease and, yes, grace, no matter where you
are in the process.
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution. 1 Ames Ave, Chautauqua, NY 14722. Hultquist 201B
WHEN: Monday, August 5th – Thursday, August 8th, 2019. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
COST: TBA
TO REGISTER: Register directly through the Chautauqua Institution website
here
DELICIOUS MEMORIES
(Week 9)
Food not only nurtures and sustains us, it’s also a rich source for writing. We’ll explore our culinary connections as we write of when, where, what, with whom, how — and even why — we ate. We’ll also learn from the work of accomplished writers. You can use the tools you’ll learn to create a family cookbook, individual essays, stories, or poems, scenes in fiction or memoir, a food blog—or just for your own
pleasure.
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution. 1 Ames Ave, Chautauqua, NY 14722. Hultquist 201A
WHEN: Monday, August 19th – Thursday, August 22nd, 2019. 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
COST: TBA
TO REGISTER: Register directly through the Chautauqua Institution website here
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured Writer
Kathryn Schwille
Kathryn Schwille is the author of the novel, What Luck, This Life, selected by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as one of nine best southern books of 2018. Her short stories have appeared in
New Letters, Memorious, Crazyhorse, Literary Hub and other journals, and have twice been cited for special mention in the Pushcart Prize. In 2013, she received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council. She lives in Charlotte and teaches at Charlotte Center for Literary Arts..
Featured Writing
Kathryn Schwille
Coyotes, weasels, green flies, crows. The animals heard it first. Along the weedy edge of Route 20, a turkey buzzard quit the possum she’d lucked into and took cover in a stand of pines. The wild pig under Cecil Dawson’s oak trees snorted twice and froze. To us, it came from out of nowhere: two blasts and the roar of a crashing train that rumbled far too long. Our windows rattled, our
floorboards quivered, our breakfasts trembled on their tables. We thought terror, we thought bombs, we thought of our loved ones. A few of us thought to scream. Those of us who ran outside, the ground beneath us shaking still, saw wobbling plumes of smoke in a Texas postcard sky.
From What Luck, This Life,
available for purchase here.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "luck."
PROMPT: What experiences have you, or one of your characters, had in which luck, either good or bad, was a defining factor? How did you, or the character, react to this luck? What did you, or the character "make of" it? Write about this experience.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide
to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water.
She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another." Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best
learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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