LVW 2014 Brochure - Ligonier Valley Writers

27th Ligonier Valley
Writers’ Conference
"A writer's work is nothing but this slow trek to
rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or
three great and simple images in whose presence his
heart first opened." -- Albert Camus
www.LVWonline.org
and published writers.
sustain both emerging
creative inspiration to
practical tools and
committed to providing
1986. LVW is
good writing since
It has been promoting
western Pennsylvania.
readers throughout
serving writers and
is a nonprofit group
Ligonier Valley Writers
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Westmoreland County Community College
Youngwood, PA
Register by June 10 for early bird discounts.
Conference Sessions
Fiction: Timons Esaias will try to inoculate you against the nods, smiles, POV
expressions, clenched jaws, anachronisms, vanilla verb-pairs and other "bobbleheadisms" that can choke your prose to death and poison your chances for a
sale. He'll also address the Moon Muddle and raise the Pack Animal Question.
His talk will be the bane of your bad habits and a guide for your good ones and
will include "Additional Things Tim Is Tired Of." The workshop will involve
several exercises to sharpen your craft. We'll do some writing, we'll heighten
tension, we'll get POV into description, and we'll discuss issues in the
manuscript you're working on, if you care to bring it in. The workshop is
intended to be useful for all levels of proficiency.
Nonfiction: Sue Baugh will teach "The Power of Story in Words and Images."
You’ll learn techniques for developing your narrative by using images and text
to find deeper story lines and themes in your work. You’ll tap into the spatial
side of the brain to overcome creative blocks, solve plot problems, and create
more vivid narratives. You are invited to bring in or create in class sketches or
collages for illustrations, book covers, or movie stills or posters for your work.
You will also use images to write a short piece integrating two genre topics,
such as nature and spirituality or science and nature. These image/word
exercises use the deeper aspects of the mind and explore the mysterious process
by which a story changes as we write.
Poetry: Lori Jakiela’s seminar will address “Where I’m Calling From: On
Cultivating a Poetry of Place.” Where we are, where we came from, where we
imagine ourselves to be: place is central to our identity and it can be central to
our poems. In this interactive talk, we’ll discuss place as landscape, as memory,
as culture, as a rich and palpable source for meaning, metaphor, insight and
more. We’ll find ways to re-see a poem as its own landscape and open ourselves
to constructing poems that are free to navigate as they please. We’ll read some
writers of place, dive into the rich well of first memories/first places, and do
writing prompts designed to take us back to those places that, as Camus would
say, first gained access to our hearts.
Songwriting: Mike Vale will talk about "Digging for Gold: How to Turn the
Material of Your Life into Musical Treasure." Like novelists, poets, and most
other artists, songwriters take the raw material of everyday of life, both the
joyful and the painful, and transform them into art. Mike Vale will describe how
experiences from his life, guided by imagination, found their way into his
music. In the workshop, you’ll use your own life experience to begin writing a
song of your own. A guitarist will join Mike Vale so you can set your words to
melody. You may bring your own instruments and recording devices or
smartphones to document your work.
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Conference Schedule
8:15 a.m.
Registration.
8:30-8:45 a.m.
Welcome and opening remarks
(Ed Kelemen, LVW president)
9:00-10:15 a.m.
Two concurrent sessions:
Fiction and Nonfiction
10:15-10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30-11:45 a.m.
Two concurrent sessions:
Poetry and Songwriting
Noon-2:00 p.m.
Lunch, followed by readings by faculty
members. There will be time to browse
the book room after lunch.
2:00-5:00 p.m.
Four concurrent workshops:
Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Songwriting
5:15-5:45 p.m.
Thoburn Lecture by Lori Jakiela.
“Write One True Sentence and Then
Write Another:”
Basket raffle. Must be present to win.
August 15. Deadline for Flash Fiction Contest submissions. The topic this
year is "Creepy, Haunted, and Scary Places." Winning stories will be read
aloud at Halloween events. Submissions open April 15.
September 7, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Annual LVW picnic. St. Michael’s Church.
October. Readings of the winning Flash Fiction stories at local venues.
Specifics TBA.
November 9, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Karen Dietrich on how to submit your work to
literary agents. St. Michael’s Church,
December 7, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Annual LVW Christmas Party. St. Michael’s
Church, Rector.
Please check www.LVWonline.org for the most up-to-date information
about program times and places.
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Conference Sessions
Fiction: Timons Esaias is a satirist, poet,
essayist, and writer of short fiction, living in
Pittsburgh. His works have appeared in 15
languages, with a sixteenth (Galician) in the
works. He has been a finalist for the British
Science Fiction Award, and he won the 2005
Asimov's Readers Award. His story "Norbert
and the System" has appeared in a textbook and
in college curricula. Recent genre appearances
include Asimov's, Analog, and Future Games.
Literary publications include 5AM, Connecticut Review, and
Barbaric Yawp. He teaches the writing of novels in Seton Hill
University's Writing Popular Fiction MFA Program, and his students
are publishing more books than he can afford to buy. He advises for
SHU's art & literary journal, Eye Contact. His current project is a
book on Warfare for Writers.
Nonfiction: Sue Baugh earned a BA in creative
writing from the University of Iowa and an
MFA in creative writing from the University of
North Carolina. For the past 30 years, she has
worked as a writer, editor, and illustrator
developing materials for earth science, language
arts, social studies, business, medical, and other
types of programs, while also writing poetry
and fiction. She self-published Echoes of Earth,
a photo-essay book about her life-changing journey to some of the
world’s oldest rock and mineral sites in Western Australia,
Greenland, Canada, and the Grand Canyon. She traveled 54,000
miles by camper car, fishing boat, floatplane, and river raft to study
these formations. The book has won numerous awards, including the
gold Indie Award for science, a gold Ben Franklin Award for
nature/environment, and a silver Nautilus Award for photography/
art. She and her husband live in Evanston, Illinois, where she is
working on a science fiction trilogy.
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Poetry: Lori Jakiela is the author of the
poetry collection Spot the Terrorist!
(Turning Point 2012), as well as the
memoirs The Bridge to Take When Things
Get Serious (C&R Press 2013) and Miss
New York Has Everything (Hatchette 2006).
Her third memoir, Belief Is Its Own Kind of
Truth, Maybe, is forthcoming from Atticus
Books in 2015. Her work has been widely
published in magazines and newspapers
including the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Creative Nonfiction, The Rumpus, and
Hobart. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize many times,
this year for her essay-in-vignettes, “Free to a Good Home,”
published in Superstition Review. She teaches at Pitt-Greensburg and
Chatham University and lives in Trafford with her husband, Dave
Newman, and their children. For more about Lori and her work, visit
http://www.ljwritesbooks.com.
Songwriting: Mike Vale served as bass
player, vocalist, and songwriter for Tommy
James and the Shondells from 1966 through
1970, selling more 100 million records
worldwide, with 23 gold singles and nine gold
and platinum records. He helped write many
Top Forty hit singles, including “She,” “Ball
of Fire,” “Loved One,” and the smash hit
“Crystal Blue Persuasion,” which hit No. 2
on the Billboard charts. His songs have been recorded by artists
such as Tom Jones, Della Reese, and The Clique. After leaving
the Shondells, Mike continued his songwriting and recording
career with the influential country-rock band Hog Heaven,
releasing two albums in the early ’70s. He has written 150
songs that have been a part of more than 25 albums. In 2012,
Mike released “It’s a Pittsburgh Thing.” He followed that up in
2014 with “In My Dreams,” a 10-song collection of new
material that is among his finest work yet.
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Conference Logistics
Registration Form
Directions. Exit PA Turnpike at New Stanton Interchange (Exit 75).
Take ramp for I-70 West toward Delmont/Greensburg/Connellsville.
In 1.3 miles, the road name changes to US 119 North. Go 1.4 miles on
119. Turn right onto Depot St., which becomes Armbrust Rd. In 0.8
mile, turn right onto Pavilion Lane at WCCC. Parking is free.
From
Route 30: Take Route 119 South into Youngwood. At third
_
traffic light (Depot Street), turn left and go one mile to the college
campus (on right).
Name _______________________________________________
Manuscript critiquing. You may bring manuscript you’ve already
written for critiquing during your workshop if you prefer not to write
new material at the workshop. Please limit it to five pages maximum
(double spaced, 12-point type). Bring at least 10 copies to share.
9:00-10:15 a.m.
____Fiction seminar OR ____Nonfiction seminar
Book sales. If you are an LVW member and you’ve published a book,
you may arrange for us to sell it at the conference. The book room
will be staffed all day; you can stay and sign your books when you
wish. For details, contact Mary Ann Mogus, [email protected]
or (724) 836-1099. For a membership application, check
www.LVWonline.org.
Special needs or concerns? All conference venues are handicap
accessible. Vegetarian options are available at lunch. Please don’t
hesitate to contact us regarding special dietary or other concerns. Ruth
McDonald is at (724) 836-0588 or [email protected].
Ligonier Valley Writers Events Calendar
April 26, 4:00 p.m. Student Poetry Awards ceremony and bookfair at
Greensburg Barnes & Noble. LVW’s Bookfair ID# is 11308780.
May 1. Loyalhanna Review submission deadline. We publish high-quality
fiction, essays, poetry, photos, and art (both B&W and color).
May 6. Day of Giving for Westmoreland Gives.
May 18, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Playwriting workshop with award-winning
playwright F. J. Hartland. St. Michael’s Church, Rector.
July 18, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Loyalhanna Review publication party at SAMA
Museum in Ligonier.
July 19, 8:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. 27th Annual LVW Conference.
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Address ______________________________________________
Email ___________________________ Phone ______________
Choose one session in each morning time period and one workshop in the
afternoon.
10:15-10:30 a.m. Break.
10:30-11:45 a.m.
____Poetry seminar OR ____Songwriting seminar
2:00-5:00 p.m.
Choose one: ____Fiction workshop OR ____Nonfiction workshop
OR ____Poetry workshop OR ____Songwriting workshop
Tuition, Lunch/ Faculty Reading, and Thoburn Lecture
Early Bird until June 10
LVW Member $95
How many? ___
____
Nonmember
$115
How many? ___
____
June 11–July 10
LVW Member $105
Nonmember
$125
How many? ___
How many? ___
LVW membership $30
How many? ___
____
____
____
TOTAL ENCLOSED:
____
Enclose check or money order payable to Ligonier Valley Writers.
Mail to Ligonier Valley Writers’ Conference,
PO Box B, Ligonier, PA 15658
Questions? Contact Judith Gallagher: [email protected] or
724.593.7294, or Ruth McDonald: [email protected] or 724.836.0588.
Put “LVW Conference” in the subject line.
The Early Bird registration deadline is June 10.
The full-price deadline is July 10.
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