| The Writer's Loft: Orientation Weekend
September 18th and 19th, 2009/January 15th and 16th, 2010
The Orientation Weekend takes place over two days at the beginning of the Spring and Fall semesters. Although schedules may change from semester to semester, the first evening of a typical orientation will feature a reception/mixer at which students can meet and talk writing with students and mentors. This is a great way to build a sense of community among program members and one of the activities students say they enjoy the most. On the second day, mentors and students will meet, discuss the student's work and goals for the semester, and prepare a semester plan. Three copies of the plan are made, with the student and mentor each retaining a copy and the program keeping a copy for the student's file. There will be a presentation on The Loft, a Q&A period, and refreshments will be served. Students will be given orientation packets for each semester. As part of the orientation, lectures and panel discussions will be offered. Some orientations will include readings by both faculty and students of their own work. When possible, the orientation weekend will include a visit by a published author and a Q&A session with the students. See photos from past orientation weekends here. The Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 Orientation Weekends were the best yet and the Fall 2009 weekend promises to be even better. Click here for the full Summer 2009, Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semester schedules.
The Writer's Loft is excited to welcome an outstanding, accomplished writer as our featured author for the fall orientation weekend.
September of 2009 features Neela Vaswani, the author of Where the Long Grass Bends, a collection of short stories published by Sarabande Books in 2004. Her fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including Shenandoah, Epoch, the Cimarron Review, and have been anthologized in such books as The O. Henry Prize Stories: 2006, and Mixed: A Norton Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience. In 1999, she won the Italo Calvino Prize. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in 2006, and teaches in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Spalding University and Knox College in Indiana.
The September orientation weekend schedule will be:
| September 2009 Loft Orientation Weekend Schedule | | Friday, September 18th - Workshops at The James Walker Library at MTSU | | 8:30-9 AM | Coffee, pastries and registration | | 9 - noon | Workshop with Bill Brown - Poetry and Memoir (description below) | | 12-1:30 PM | Lunch | | 1:30-2:15 PM | David Pierce reading and discussing his new book, "Don't Let Me Go" | | 2 :30- 4:30 PM | Workshop with Terry Price - Vision and Re-vision (description below) | | We will schedule mentor meetings for returning students throughout the day. | | | | There are a limited number of spots available to the general public, on a first come, first serve basis, for the Friday workshops and lecture for $50 for the day. The workshop fee only includes the actual workshops and does not include lunch or any of the other Loft weekend activities. However, any paid workshop attendee who wishes to enroll in The Writer's Loft will receive a $50 credit toward the student's first semester tuition. | | | | 7 PM Reception | Foundation House of Middle Tennessee State University | | Featured author, Neela Vaswani, will read, we will have our graduation, plus a time to visit and network among our writing community. | | | | Saturday, September 19th - All Sessions at The Honors College at MTSU | | 8:30-9:15 AM | Orientation for new students | | 9:30-10:30 AM | Q & A with Neela Vaswani, author of Where the Long Grass Bends | | 10:45-11:30 AM | Linda Busby Parker | | 11:30-1 PM | Lunch & Mentor meetings | | 1-1:45 PM | Neela Vaswani | | 2-2:45 PM | Randy O'Brien - Pitching your story to someone who has the power to say yes | | 3-3:45 PM | Panel discussion on "The Writing Life" | | 4 PM | Wrap-up session and extra time for mentor meetings | Friday Workshop Descriptions:
Bill Brown: Poetry and Memoir
Bill Brown says: my best gift to participants is seeing them leave my workshop with beginnings and first drafts of important poems and short prose pieces. Please come to write and share. I will present writing ideas and models, and we will fast write strategies designed to place you in life experiences, real or imagined. We can spend some time discussing issues related to shaping a draft, what journal editors are looking for and submission for publication. But my focus is the joy of creating, finding, turning over the rocks of experience and looking underneath—writing and sharing writing, not just talking about writing.
Terry Price: Vision and Re-vision
Janet Burroway says, "We write for the satisfaction of having wrestled a sentence to the page, for the rush of discovering an image, for the excitement of seeing a character come alive." In broad terms, writing is a two-fold process, getting something on the page, then revising, or "re-visioning," it until it feels right or whole or complete. Seldom does a writer have a finished piece without both elements. Writers, in fact, are often stymied with a work because they don't fully utilize both. Some writers will get bogged down trying to create that "perfect" work in a first draft. Others will pour out an initial rough draft, never re visit it, then wonder why it's not being accepted for publication. This workshop will focus on getting your vision on to the page, then will help make you aware of all of the choices and tools writers have as they hone and polish their work. We will study published stories and analyze choices authors have made and why they work. Bring your paper and pen or a laptop and be prepared to create and revise your own work. You will come away with a better sense of control over your own writing.
Directions: From I-24 exit onto Medical Center Parkway, exit 76.
If you are traveling east on I-24 you will turn left onto Medical Center Parkway. If traveling west, you will turn right onto Medical Center Parkway. Travel on Medical Center Parkway for 3.8 miles to Memorial Blvd. Turn left onto Memorial Blvd. and travel 1 mile to the third intersection and turn right onto Northfield Blvd. The name of Northfield Blvd. will change to Rutherford Blvd. Travel a total of 3.6 miles on Northfield/Rutherford Blvd. until you arrive at MTSU Blvd. (just past the intersection of Rutherford Blvd and Greenland Drive.) Turn right onto MTSU Blvd., and then turn left at the roundabout onto Blue Raider Drive. You may park in the parking lot immediately on your right or any of the adjacent parking lots requiring a green parking permit. The building with the carillon is the Honors College. We will be in room 106. Place your green parking permit on the dash of your car. |
