WORKSHOPS
NEW!
SOME DREAMERS OF THE GOLDEN DREAM
A Reading Group of Joan Didion’s
Essays on the American West
Joan Didion essayed obsessively about the American west—from the California Governor’s mansion, to the hippies in Haight-Ashbury, to the graves within Honolulu’s Punchbowl Cemetery. In this 4-week seminar we’ll read and discuss several of Didion’s essays, while exploring what her rendering of the West mirrored in the United States, politically and socially. What makes Didion’s voice so compelling? Why do we relate to her, love her, hate her, revere her?
This seminar will meet for four consecutive weeks, with essays assigned and read in advance of each session. Liz Prato will set the curriculum and facilitate and participate in conversations, but will not be lecturing. The purpose of the group is to exchange and explore ideas in a friendly, non-academic atmosphere that increases our understanding of Didion’s work and its context. Every participant’s voice is valued. All readers welcome, with no prior familiarity of Didion’s work required.
Dates: Tuesdays in February, 2019
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Corporeal Writing Center
Fee: $115 per participant*
Limited reduced-fee scholarships available on a first-come, first-served basis
* Participants will also need to supply their own copies of the two texts, which are easily available at used bookstores and the library.
__________________________________
FALL 2018
SUBMIT TO LIT JOURNALS
LIKE A PRO
Tuesday, September 25
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Do you want to submit your stories, poems, and essays to literary journals, but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’ve already submitted to a few places, but a handful of rejections has you doubting if you’re on the right track. This class will streamline and demystify the sometimes confusing submission process for you. We'll cover researching and targeting markets, formatting work, how to interact with editors, whether to enter contests, decoding vague rejections, and what happens when you get accepted. After this fun and information-packed class, you’ll be ready to charge the world of publishing. (Note: Not for book-length publishing). All levels welcome!
FEE: $70* (includes handouts)
WHERE: The Corporeal Writing Center
510 SW 3rd Avenue, Portland
* A limited number of sliding-scale fee slots
are available; just ask!
|
LIZ PRATO taught at the revered Attic Writers Workshop in Portland from 2008-2013. She has guest-taught/lectured at The Muse and the Marketplace in Boston, Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, The South Coast Writers Conference in Oregon, Write on the Sound in Washington, and Willamette Writers and Wordstock in Portland. In addition to guest-lecturing from coast-to-coast, Liz teaches 1-day workshops and short classes in Portland.
Liz's most popular classes include:
PERFECT YOUR FIRST TWO PAGES
How to Keep Your Reader Reading
The first two pages of your story or essay determine whether an agent or editor keeps reading, or sends a rejection. Two pages – that’s all you have to grab their interest! But what makes them turn the page, or hit the “decline” button? Liz Prato will read the first two pages of your manuscript in class and evaluate what works, and what might send your piece to the recycling bin. The good news is, you won’t be left hanging. You’ll learn practical tools for sharpening the critical beginning of your piece, using published examples and classroom discussion. This fun and information-packed class is a rare opportunity to get an intimate look at what makes a piece stand out in the submission pile.
WRITING OUTSIDE THE BOX
All stories and essays are different, so it stands to reason they don’t all require the same structure. Maybe your story is best told through a document (like a birth certificate, or autopsy report), or a PowerPoint presentation, or another work of art, or an owner’s manual, or a series of recipes. In this class, we’ll break out of the standard box and have fun exploring the forms available for telling your best story. The essence of being an artist is exploring not just content, but also form, and this class helps you expand your imaginative boundaries.
MASTER POINT OF VIEW
You, Me, and Everyone We Know
Writers often put more thought into the title of their story than choosing their point of view. But POV controls the intimacy, breadth and depth of your story. In this in-depth presentation, we’ll examine modern examples of how POV works in fiction & nonfiction, from the modern classics of Harper Lee, and Alice Walker to contemporary works from Junot Diaz, Jo Ann Beard and Nick Hornby. This talk will open up new worlds that will transform your writing and revision process.
for more information
|
