I’m pleased to be partnering with the Attic in SE Portland to offer three exciting literary enrichment opportunities for middle, junior and senior-high students. Please feel free to share with any colleagues, family or friends who may be interested.

• SPRING BREAK WRITING CAMP – a week of writing and creative expression.

  From March 22- 26, coinciding with Portland Public’s spring break, Writing Camp offers multiple opportunities for middle school and junior high students to express themselves. During morning sessions, students will work with guest poets, including Sage Cohen, Pam Steele and Peter Sears. In the afternoon, writers will explore various fundamentals of creative and expository writing, including narrative structure, character development, dialogue, setting, and place, as they launch new pieces of writing and work on existing ones.

• FUNDAMENTALS OF FICTION, FANTASY & PERSONAL JOURNAL

  Saturdays from April 10th – May 15th, junior and senior high writers will work toward moving their ideas and stories beyond their first lines, first paragraphs and first pages toward completion. In so doing, they’ll focus on the fundamentals of good storytelling, including narrative arch, characters, plot development and more, with the goal of finishing their stories.

• WEAVING EXPERIENCES INTO WRITING

  Also on Saturdays from April 10th – May 15th, junior and senior high writers will uncover the steps it takes to turn their personal experiences into stories, poetry, essays, fiction and more. This workshop will be especially helpful for students preparing for college entrance essays, who want to write a book, and who are interested in exploring personal narratives.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER at the Attic’s classes page, or email me at info(at)davejarecki(dot)com.

ABOUT THE ATTIC

Founded in 1999, the Attic Writers’ Workshop is widely regarded as a literary gem–a place that encourages & develops your talent, helps you focus on your writing, & invites you into the camaraderie & community of other writers. In addition to individualized consultations for writers at all levels, the heart of the Attic is the workshop: small, supportive, innovative, & intensive. Students receive generous attention, geared to their present & future writing.



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Oregon poet Shaindel Beers will be making her way into Portland this weekend (from Pendleton, where she teaches at Blue Mountain Community College) for a one-day workshop at Writers’ Dojo.

During the three-hour workshop, writers will explore the voice that begs to cry out in their work, discuss ways to access and drive a strong, personal style throughout their writing, explore personal history as springboards and much more.

THE FACTS

DATE: Saturday, November 7th

TIME: 2-5 p.m.

PLACE: Writers’ Dojo, 7518 N. Chicago Ave., Portland, OR, 97203

COST: $59

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This workshop is part of the Dojo’s upcoming November workshop series. Register and find out more about this and other upcoming workshops at the Dojo’s events page, or by calling 503-706-0509.

MORE ABOUT SHAINDEL BEERS

Shaindel Beers’ writing, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. In January of 2009, Salt Publishing released her first full-length poetry collection, “A Brief History of Time”, which is steeped in personal narrative, internal musings, and the personal longings of a girl reared in a flat country. Beers is currently an instructor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, and serves as Poetry Editor of Contrary.

You can learn more about Beers and her work by visiting her newly launched website.

Something I’ve been doing in workshops lately is asking business owners to write the haiku of their business. Why do I do this, and why does it matter? With regards to the content – the haiku itself – it doesn’t. The process, however, is another story.

You can read the entire article at Art of Cultivation, a site for business growth.

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Join Paulann Petersen in a poetry workshop dedicated to creation, reflection, and craft.

DOWNSTREAM: WRITING WITH THE CURRENT

Using notable poems as springboards, the workshop will help you turn loose in the river of word as language carries you along in its current. You’ll generate some new work in each session, while also exploring other poems you’ve written (new or ones you bring with you) for possible ways to strengthen them through revision.

This workshop is open to writers of all levels of experience.

Sundays, 12-3 pm, April 26th to May 31st

Visit Attic Writers to learn more and register today!

One of the Pacific Northwest’s leading voices, Paulann Petersen, will be sharing her love for poetry this Saturday, March 14th, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Multnomah County Central Library, with a free workshop is entitled ANYONE’S DOMAIN: A BASIC POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP.

While it’s listed as a workshop for beginning writers, the two-hour gathering will be devoted to creating and generating poems, and is open to anyone who wants to write in a supportive, congenial group.

From Paulann: “Poetry is not the domain of just a few. It’s as natural and accessible as heartbeat and breath. Writing poetry requires nothing more than a love of words and a willingness to let your pen move across a page, following language wherever it takes you.”

Read more, and register here.

The following entry comes courtesy of Alice, a fifth-grade student in SE Portland. I’ve been working with Alice for two years – she’s a heck of a writer and has a great mind.

Below I’ve pasted the original skeletons, followed by Alice’s replies.

It’s ________ __________ “___________ ___________” and it’s ___________ __________ __________ “___________”. This is, __________ it’s _________ ___________ the __________! The _________ ___________ _________ the _________ __________ for __________, which _______, “_______ __________.” This is __________ _________ it is to _____________.

Alice writes:

It’s tomorrow buddy “seven days” and it’s today dear that’s “here”. This is, look it’s Safe Chap the hero! The weird dork from the planet Zuok for $4, which says “Yo dude”. This is how fun it is to dream.

When ______ _________ at ______ _________ of ________ ___________ in the ________ _________. ____________ ___________. I _________, “what are __________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________?” I _________ I’ll __________ a ____________ of _________ ____________. Then I __________ ___________ _____________ to ____________ ___________, I ___________ in ____________.

Alice writes:

When I cry at night love of life springs in the dark well. I’m desperate. I scream “what are you on these bleak lands?” I swear I’ll cry a river of salty tears. Then I sink down slowly to my knees, I struggle in vain.

Evan Billups is a fifth-grader who’s been in the after-school writing program for two years. She wrote Moms Without Their Daily Coffee during winter break. I made very small grammatical edits to Evan’s original piece.

When moms don’t get their nice cup of coffee in the morning, it gets nasty. First they notice when they’re driving you to school.

“Oh no! I couldn’t get my coffee pot to work so I didn’t get my coffee!” Mom says.

“Oh, mom! Please get it later!” you say.

“No, no, and no! I have a terrible headache and I left my aspirins at home,” Mom says. She pulls off Woodstock Street and quickly drives to the nearest Starbucks. “Stay in here. This will take five minutes.”

“Yeah right,” you mutter.

She’s in there staring at the menu board. You can actually hear her asking, “Pike Place or French Roast?” After ten minutes, you get up and go in.

“It’s 8:10, Mom! I’m going to be late if you don’t hurry up.”

“Oh, well, I’ll get Pike Place then,” Mom says. “But please take your time, I don’t want it rushed or it will taste too light. I want extra bold coffee.”

So then the coffee-maker person takes lots of time and does five extra stirs. By then you give up about not being late. It’s 8:20 and Mom is searching for a five dollar bill. She finally finds it and then slowly walks out the door.

By the time you get to school, it’s 8:30. You walk in and explain to Carla at the front desk, “I was late because my mom wanted a perfect coffee.” She is about to write a running late slip, but then puts her pen down.

“Seems like a suitable excuse. Go to class now,” she says.

You walk down the hall congratulating yourself on not being counted late. You walk into Mrs. Yochim’s and Miss B’s. They start to say, “Where’s your late slip?” but you quickly say, “My mom wanted a perfect coffee.” Mrs. Yochim and Miss B. shrug and say, “Sounds like a suitable excuse. Now start reading the Reading Street books.”

I guess coffee is really important in grown ups’ lives.

A new round of workshops started yesterday. The kids came ready. I gave them each a notebook prior to winter break; Chineyere filled hers up in a month. Everyone else at least filled their pages half-way.

Noah presented me with a poem when he walked in, which he later read to the class:

Poem by Noah

Time like water rushes ever onward,
never stopping, always moving, rushing
onward
following the many paths of people,
irrigating the fields of history
onward shall time flow, forward past the
bond of the universe
onward time, onward!

Meanwhile, Alice ripped off two great quotes, both of which I wrote down and now can’t find them. Sorry Alice – I told her I’d add them to the Blog this morning. They’re around here somewhere, buried among the papers and thoughts.

This week’s assignment for the Monday class: write a short, personal essay that is “true to the truth of the story” without worrying about the “truth of the truth”; then write the same story as a haiku.

On October 23rd, 7 pm, at 23rd Avenue Books (NW 23rd Avenue, near Lovejoy, in NW Portland), poets Penelope Scambly Schott and Madeline Tiger will give a short reading followed by a fun poetry workshop, STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW, for beginners and experienced writers. No registration required. Just show up to listen and play. Everyone is welcome to participate and no one will be put on the spot.

If you have questions, call Penelope at 503-291-0159.

What rests at the core of good storytelling? From classic tales to the yarns spun around the campfire, the answer we continue to find is myth. I’ll be facilitating “The Role of Myth” at Ink & Paper Group, a Portland-area publishing house, on Saturday, September 20th. Writers and workshop participants will explore how archetypal elements—from the Innocent’s call to adventure to the Hero’s return—continue to illumine our stories as well as our personal journeys. The event will also mark the official release of Bowler Hat Comic’s Kid Beowulf and the Blood-Bound Oath.

The event will feature a two-hour writing workshop on the use of archetypal themes in storytelling. Dan and Stacy Chariton, a married screen writing team, will be partnering with me on the workshop. Afterwards, there will be a 90-minute panel discussion on the place myth has in our daily lives. We’ll be joined on the panel by Rick Watson, practicing integral coach; Eleanore Hunter, a doctor in depth psychology; and Alexis Fajardo, author and illustrator of Kid Beowulf.

Visit Ink & Paper Group online to learn more about the event, and to register for the workshop.