By Heidi Simmons
Creative people abound in the Coachella Valley. Musicians, artists and writers work hard to pursue their craft and natural ability. Part of the artistic process is nurturing innate talent and improving raw skills.
If you consider yourself a writer, but maybe require a creative nudge, some inspiration or professional advice, then the University of Riverside, Palm Desert’s Weekend Writing Seminar for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and travel & food might be exactly what you need.
Workshop Your Talent and Hone Your Skills at the Weekend Writers Seminars
“It’s part of our long-term initiative to provide arts education locally,” said Tod Goldberg, UCR Palm Desert Director of the MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. “The seminars are for anyone interested in taking his or her writing to the next level –- be they fiction writers, poets, or essayists. A little experience is good, but you’ll come away with the needed tools with or without an established background.”
The two-day immersive courses focus on the craft of writing and include editorial feedback. Participants have the opportunity to turn in 25 pages of work for instructional review after the close of the seminar. The program provides coffee, continental breakfast, and opening and closing celebrations.
According to Goldberg, the seminar is designed for those who haven’t received the intensive hands-on instruction that one might get in a graduate program.
Beyond the instruction, Goldberg stresses the need of a community. “It’s important to find a group of people locally who share your affinity for writing, and to find the kind of support system writers desperately need.”
The seminars are taught by UCR faculty and alumni of the MFA program. Each class is limited to eight students. The cost is $695. These workshops provide a safe and intimate setting to create, discuss and review work.
“Writers don’t always know how to get out of their own way,” said Goldberg. “What the workshop does is it allows you to get tangible stuff taught to you — character, voice, dialog, all of that — while working on the emotional part too. Writers need readers.” Goldberg added that writing is often about having a good mentor to show you how to improve your work.
Maggie Downs is calling her seminar and workshop “Travel & Food Writing 101.” “My goal is to demystify the process of writing and publishing, so anyone with a great story to tell is able to share it with the world,” said Downs. “Storytelling is a way to breathe life into complex issues and ideas, so every time someone shares their experiences – whether it’s in a magazine article, a personal essay, or a blog post – it helps us understand ourselves a little bit better.”
A former columnist for Palm Springs’ “Desert Sun” and “Cincinnati Enquirer,” Downs’ work has appeared in the “Washington Post,” “Los Angeles Times,” “Eating Well,” the BBC, “Outside” and “Smithsonian.” Downs will teach writers how to chronicle favorite trips and meals in order to bring travel to life. She will also share the skills necessary to get published in popular magazines.
Leading the non-fiction seminar is bestselling and critically acclaimed author Emily Rapp. “Your Life, Your Story: Writing Your Memoir,” Rapp will instruct how to pinpoint the pivotal moments in life, convey the drama and develop a strategy for selling your story.
Rapp is a former Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Harvard University. She is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir. Her essays and stories have been published in “The New York Times,” “The Los Angeles Times,” “Slate,” “Salon,” “Huffington Post,” “Good Housekeeping” and other publications. Rapp is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, a James A. Michener Fellowship at the University of Texas-Austin and the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence fellowship at Bucknell University. Her book, The Still Point of the Turning World, was a national bestseller. [It’s one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read.]
Award winning fiction writer Mary Yukari Waters calls her seminar “Idea Into Action: A Fiction Writer’s Toolbox.” She will guide students through the writing challenges of dialog, description and narrative. Using class exercises, readings, and discussions, Waters intends to help participants overcome common writing problems so their stories shine through.
Waters’ fiction has appeared three times in “The Best American Short Stories.” Other anthologies include The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and Zoetrope. She is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts grant, and her work has aired on the BBC and NPR.
“Finding Your Poet Voice” is being taught by Anthony McCann who will show writers how to take their poetry from notebooks to top magazines. He will introduce a variety of methods to seek out, deepen and maintain poetic inspiration while also paying special attention to crafting inspiration into rich, strong, affecting language.
McCann is the author of the acclaimed poetry collections Thing Music, I ♥ Your Fate, Moongarden and Father of Noise. He is one of the authors (along with Matthew Rohrer and Joshua Beckman) of Gentle Reader! — a collection of erasures of the English Romantics. Since 2004, he has acted as Poet Laureate of Machine Project, a Los Angeles art and performance space.
Though workshops provide an environment where writers can hone skills, nurture talent, learn new techniques and find inspiration, be prepared, because along with the creative work and energy, comes criticism.
“The best part of a workshop is also the toughest, and that’s the opportunity for critical response,” said Downs. “It’s incredibly difficult to have someone look at your work and say they didn’t get it or don’t like it.”
Downs points out that writers are almost always too close to the work to see it clearly, so having other eyes on the work can be incredibly valuable.
“That’s where the writing can really take shape and grow, and the writer is stronger because of it,” said Downs.
Believing that it really does take a village to make a writer, Downs refers to the shared artistic –- perhaps sacred — space where people can ignite their creativity and blossom into strong writers, storytellers and poets.
“There’s something about being in a room with a bunch of other writers,” said Downs. “The air is electric, the energy palpable. These are the people who can introduce me to people I’ve never met, guide me through landscapes I’ve never seen, and show me worlds I never imagined. How amazing is that?”
Seminar space is still available in all genres. For more information and to register go to www.palmdesertmfa.ucr.edu/weekend-writing-seminar or call 760 834 0926.
On a personal note: As the CVW Book Review columnist, I have a policy to not read and review self-published books because the execution most often falls short of a professionally stylized and constructed narrative however fascinating the concept. I encourage all self-publishing authors to take courses and workshops to better understand the craft and art of writing and story telling.
