The 3rd Annual Lewes Creative Artists’ Workshop

Saturday, August 21, 2010  at the

Lewes Public Library 

Sponsored by:

 The Lewes Public Library, The National League of American Pen Women, Diamond State Branch, The Delaware Division of Libraries, The Delaware Division of the Arts, and The Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild

Please click the following  links for: 

Registration Information

Workshop Presenter Biographies 

Schedule

Please Note: Masters Sessions are now full. Please register for one of the other workshops. Thank you!

SESSION I - Select One

9:00 – 10:55 a.m.

A. “Learning  How to Self-Edit to Make Publishers Say, “Yes!’”

      Terry Plowman, founder, editor and publisher of Delaware Beach Life Magazine  (Room 1)

Sometimes it really is all about editing. This workshop is all about learning how to look at your writing through an editor’s eyes to double your chance of getting published. We will look at a sampling of stories submitted to Beach Life and how the edited versions looked – sort of a “before and “after” comparison that shows what works and what doesn’t. We will also discuss a common problem: a story is good, but the writing wrong for the magazine or the writing is strong and the story wrong for the magazine. The goal of this workshop is to give publishers every reason to say, yes!

B. “Triptychs and Multiples: Creative Ways to Capture Images and Tell Stories

     with Photographs”

     Beth Trepper winning award-winning photographer  (Room 2)

In this workshop, you will be seeing double, triple,  even quadruple, as you go beyond posed family portraits to capture laughter and movement in a series of images. You will also learn imaginative ways to shoot, crop, and edit vacation pictures to tell your personal travel stories.  Lastly, you will learn creative ways to present your photographs, with three to six images, even mosaics all in one picture frame. The result will be one-of-a-kind pieces of art reflecting your unique point of view.

This workshop is open to all ages, all levels of photography, and all types of cameras from point-and-shoot to SLRs to digital.

C. “A Masters Session in Poetry”  

      Gerry LaFemina, poet, short story writer, and director o the Frostberg Center for

      Creative Writing, Frostburg University  (Delaware Room)

Prospective participants are asked to submit two poems by August 2. Please email the poems to btravalini@aol.com for forwarding. Notification of acceptance into the workshop will arrive via email August 10 or before. Notification of acceptance into the workshop will arrive via email August 10.

If accepted, participants will be asked to email a copy of his/her poem to the other members of the workshop for courteous, and (hopefully) helpful comments.

*Workshop is limited to eight participants

SESSION II

11:00 – 12:50

A. “Scriptwriting: Getting it Write”

      Drury Pifer, playwright, novelist, and short story writer (Room 2)     

Our concentration during this session will focus exclusively on practical scriptwriting with an emphasis on what makes for an effectively written scene. We will avoid windy generalizations and focus on practical means to achieve what you intend.  While no two writers are the same, most scripts do have something essential in their makeup.  This will be our subject.  Participants should send in scenes and class members will be asked to adopt the actors' role.  Before we "cast" these scenes, I will spend some time attempting to give workshop participants essential ideas that I discovered to save playwrights from wasting time, indigestion and suicidal impulses.    

B. “Poetry: More than Story”

      Gerry LaFemina, poet, short story writer, and director of the Frostburg Center for

      Creative Writing, Frostburg University  (Room 1)

Workshop participants will look at several poems and discuss how the poems use narrative and language differently than fiction writers, examining the differences between the poem and the short short story and helping poets get the most out of both their "stories" and the "poetry."


C. "A Masters Session in Fiction"

      Maribeth Fischer, essayist, novelist, and founder and executive director of the Rehoboth Beach

      Writers Guild  (Delaware Room)

Prospective participants are asked to mail a maximum 2,000-word story (complete or not), by August 2. Mail stories to Maribeth Fischer, P.O. Box 1326 Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971. No electronic submissions. We will primarily focus on the use of in-depth characterization with an emphasis on how such characterization not only affects, but determines, the shape of plot. We will also look at the use of setting in terms of developing the story’s subtext. Notification of acceptance into the workshop will arrive via email August 10. If accepted, participants will be asked to email a copy of his/her story to the other members of the workshop for courteous and (hopefully) helpful comments.

*Workshop is limited to eight participants

 LUNCHTIME Chats:  See Registration Form for lunchtime options

1:00- 1:55    Book Sales and Signings

“Is a Low Residency MFA Program for You?”

Mary Pauer, award-winning short story writer, and recent graduate of the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing   (Room 2)

A look at how a regular writer would benefit from the time/energy/expense of a low residency program; how a low residency program is structured; how classes are taught, and how all this differs from a daily program. In other words, we will take a casual, but realistic look at what you may expect to get for your money. A question and answer session will follow.

“No Place Like Here: An Anthology of Southern Delaware Poetry and Prose”: An Update and More”

Abby Millager, publisher and Billie Travalini, editor (Room 1)

The staff of the Lewes Public Library came up with the idea to gather the best poetry, prose and photographs around to celebrate Southern Delaware, and, hopefully, generate some funds for the library in the process. The result is an anthology that promises to be as visually interesting as it will be to read. 

"What the Delaware Division of the Arts Knows about Grants and Fellowships and What You Need to Know”

Kristin Pleasanton, DDOA (Room 1)

Kristin Pleasanton of the Delaware Division of the Arts will discuss grants & fellowship opportunities.

SESSION III – Select One

2:00 – 3:55 p.m.

A. "Turning Fact into Fiction: It's all About Voice."

     Viet Dinh, short story writer and editor    (Room 1)

 This workshop will explore the difference between nonfiction and fiction by focusing on voice. We will look at a number of fiction writers to see how they use the voice of a narrator, characters, even setting to help tell a story that has the believably of nonfiction, while offering something much, much more. 

B. “A Masters Session in Scriptwriting”

     Drury Pifer, playwright, novelist, and short story writer (Room 2)

Prospective participants are asked to email a maximum 2,000-word script or short story  (complete or not), by August 2, tobtravalini@aol.com for forwarding. We will primarily continue what was discussed in my earlier session “Scriptwriting: Getting it Write,” only here we will use participants work to guide our discussion and responses. Notification of acceptance into the workshop will arrive via email August 10. If accepted, participants will be asked to email a copy of his/her story to the other members of the workshop for courteous, and (hopefully) helpful comments.

*Workshop is limited to eight participants

C.  Learning Journeys

      Annie Norman and Beth-Ann Ryan, Delaware Division of Libraries (DDL), with Victor Letonoff

Annie Norman and Beth-Ann Ryan will lead an interactive workshop to examine virtual exhibits from the British Museum to the Library of Congress and illustrate how journal keeping, whether through lists, diaries or more complex journals, is an intensely personal creative and learning process. Following this, Victor Letonoff, master journalist and artist, will explain how his journals gave life to his painting through a brief study of his lifelong collection of journals and a DDL-produced video. After the Q & A and sharing of a variety of journaling experiences, participants are invited to walk to Victor’s studio near the Library to view – with the fresh eye of a journaler - some of his recent paintings.

*Participants are provided with a well-organized, hardbound journal, Between the Lines. 

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This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.