UT Martin Young Writers Conference Friday, November 1, 2019 Event Schedule ................................................................................................................1 Guest Writer ....................................................................................................................1 Workshops ......................................................................................................................2 Workshop Leaders ...........................................................................................................7 Notes.............................................................................................................................10 Registration Form...........................................................................................................11 Photography Release.....................................................................................................12 Boling University Center Maps.......................................................................................13 Introduction University of Tennessee at Martin Young Writers Conference Friday, November 1, 2019, 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. UT Martin Boling University Center This one-day conference, designed primarily for students in grades 9-12, offers a series of writing workshops taught by UT Martin faculty and visiting writer, Pamela Johnson Parker. Students can attend hands-on workshops in writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as songwriting, literary analysis, and professional story of self. Other events include a luncheon, a keynote address by Pamela Johnson Parker, and an open-mic reading for students. Students will have an opportunity to read works created during the conference or other original writing created at home or in school. Throughout the day students will create pieces of writing, connect with other young writers from the region, and learn from outstanding writers and teachers of writing. The conference is sponsored by the UT Martin Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages with help from the West Tennessee Writing Project. The conference fee is $12 for students and free for teachers; it includes all workshops, readings, and lunch. The conference is open to outstanding students recommended by their teachers on the basis of academic achievement and artistic promise. Teachers may attend the student’s workshops, along with their students. We do ask that recommending teachers follow their school’s policies in arranging for parent/guardian permissions for students who will be attending the conference. Registration is limited to 200 participants on a first come, first served basis. Registration forms must be received by Friday, October 25th, along with payment for the conference registration fee. Participants can register online at http://www.utm.edu/departments/ecos/conference.php . 8:30-9:00 Check-in and Registration,Schedule Watkins Auditorium Lobby, Boling University Center Concurrent Sessions for Students 9:00-10:30 • Ostranenie and the Image: Defamiliarizing the Familiar––Pamela Johnson Parker • Myths About Writing––Kelle Alden • “Finding Me-mo”—Melanie Young • Practical Advice: What It Takes to Write a Young Adult Novel––Merry Brown • Writing From Behind the Mask––John Galyean • Three Dimensional Interactive Poetry—David McBeth • Where Do Ideas Come From?—Tiffany Emerson • "The Wildest Fantasy"—Patrick Bishop • The Art and Crafts of Paperback Romance Novels––Lúcia Flórido • Decoding Mysterious Allegories––Chris Hill 10:45-12:15 • Making a Journal from a Single Sheet of Paper—Sarah Haig • Word Weaving–A Poetry Workshop––Anna Clark •“Three Chords and the Truth:” a Songwriting Workshop—David Carithers • The Value of Feedback: Writing with Others—Logan Musser • Writing The Narrative of Chivalry: Then and Now—Daniel Pigg • "The Wildest Fantasy"—Patrick Bishop • Using Dialogue in Writing—Jennifer Glass • The Many Delightful Personalities of the Essay—Heidi Huse • Generating Meaning: Juxtaposition of Concrete Images in Poetry––Sally Brannen 12:30-1:45 Lunch and Keynote Address by Pamela Johnson Parker, Ballroom Boling University Center 2:00-3:00 Open-mic Student Reading, Legislative Chamber, Room 111 Boling University Center Guest Writer Pamela Johnson Parker lives in Mayfield, Kentucky, and works in the Department of Art & Design at Murray State University. Her collection of poetry, Cleave, won the Trio Award for First Book and was published in 2018. Her chapbooks include Other Four-Letter Words (2009) and A Walk Through the Memory Palace (winner, Qaartsiluni Prize, 2009). Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poems have been published in many magazines and journals including Anti-, diode, American Poetry Journal, North Dakota Quarterly, KYSO Fiction, and Anomaly. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Parker has also received an Al Smith Individual Artist's Fellowship for Literature from the Kentucky Arts Council in 2018, the highest literary honor awarded in Kentucky. 1 Workshops Student Workshops: 9:00-10:30 Ostranenie and the Image: Defamiliarizing the Familiar—Pamela Johnson Parker Many writers—poets, novelists, essayists, playwrights--produce competent work in their genres, but rarely is that work compelling. How do you teach writers, beginning or advanced, to develop potent literary images, to pay attention to what makes the ordinary extraordinary? Ostranenie, the process of defamiliarizing everyday objects through awareness--what poet Nickole Brown calls "attention as a form of devotion"--teaches the writer to pay attention with all five senses. In this workshop, we'll explore how writers can unearth and develop potent images, and how those images can in turn engender or even structure poems. Myths about Writing—Kelle Alden We’ve all seen the stereotypical descriptions of writers: men of genius who, despite suffering from mental illness, barricade themselves in their New York City studios with their drink and their typewriters, churning out works of genius on their first drafts. But what do real writers look like, and how do they work? In this workshop, we will look at real writers’ descriptions of their process and develop a better understanding of the effort that goes into planning, drafting, and revising works of fiction. We will also try out one of the writing exercises recommended by these authors. “Finding Me-mo”—Melanie Young Did you know that you have been writing your professional story since you were a child? Simply exploring how you became the person you are starts you well on your professional path. One key path of exploration is identifying what is truly important to you. Just where did your values come from and how are they guiding your life? Your values play a major role in who you become—personally and professionally. Practical Advice: What It Takes to Write a Young Adult Novel—Merry Brown Are you interested in learning about the process of writing a young adult book? Do you want to know what makes a book a “young adult” book instead of something else? Do you want to know how long your book should be? What should you do if (when!) you get stuck and/or bored with your story? What do you do once you’ve finished your book? (For that matter, how do you know when you’re done?) How do you get published? If you answer yes to any of the preceding questions, join our session! 2 Workshops Writing From Behind The Mask—John Galyean The main character of your story is right in the room. However, that character is hiding behind a mask. Is “hide” the right word? Do we use masks to hide, to mislead, or to protect our precious identities? Will you be the interviewer, or the person behind the mask? It’s your choice. What is it about masks that intrigue us, frustrate us, even scare us? Interview the masked subject asking any and all things about the subject except what the hidden face looks like. Then write a description of the person’s face in detail, as well as the opening of a story based on the character you have created. Justify your character’s behaviors based only on what you have imagined he or she looks like—behind the mask. Three Dimensional Interactive Poetry—David McBeth Literacy is important. Learning to express ourselves and doing so succinctly is also important. Poetry is a wonderful entrance into capturing the essence of a moment, a place, an experience. We will spend a short time writing short, maybe haiku-like poems. Handmade pottery offers an intimate connection between the maker of the vessel and the user. Combining poems and cups brings the written/ spoken word into a direct relationship with the intimate cup. After writing poems we will explore ways to write those poems on cups we make and explore ways to present our poems in a three dimensional, interactive way. Where Do Ideas Come From?—Tiffany Emerson After this workshop, participants will be able to answer the question, “Where do ideas come from?” We'll explore several sources of inspiration for ideas for stories and poems. We often long to tell a story or write a poem but do not know how to start or where to get ideas. Participants will explore several ways to get their creative juices flowing, including: using various prompts, writing from a different character’s perspective, using focused memory references, using “what if” questions, responding to pictures and newspaper titles, and working from a rough scratch scene to fill out. The participants will gain experience in practicing one or more