Come share your creative writing work at a year-end reading next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in Hallowed Grounds. All work is welcome, including poetry, short stories, segments of longer fiction, plays, screenplays, and mixed media.
Co-sponsored by ENGL, SGFC, and Sliced Bread, the event will also feature campus music: Saturday Realism, and Claudie and Miles.
Uh, and there's going to be amazing catering from Fox & Obel. So you should go. Seriously, what could be better than listening to awesome writing by your peers (which you may have helped to critique), hearing great music, and noshing on upscale pastry? Come on now.
Make sure to bring friends, since a strong showing will indicate support for the creative writing community here, with which everyone is dissatisfied. Please also sign up to read as soon as possible, and if you can, include a short description of your piece, so that we can group pieces by theme.
Finally, what's the prevailing opinion on concluding the reading with an open mic?
Event details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=41168560206
5/21/2008
5/07/2008
Thanks
A huge thank-you to everyone who came and helped out last night. We had a great turnout, and lots of good questions. Let's do more of these!
Stay tuned for details about next week's meeting.
Stay tuned for details about next week's meeting.
5/05/2008
WiP Presents: Nic Pizzolatto
As I'm sure you already know, either from the listhost or Facebook or those nifty green fliers, or good, old-fashioned word of mouth, we of Work in Progress are lucky enough to have UC creative writing professor Nic Pizzolatto joining us for a Q&A session this Tuesday.
Don't know about Nic? Pity. You're missing out.
Nic Pizzolatto received his MFA from the University of Arkansas in 2005, where he was awarded the $10,000 Walton Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing two years in a row and received a Lilly Peter Fellowship in Poetry. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Oxford American, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and various other literary journals. In 2004, his work was among the finalists for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. His first book, Between Here and the Yellow Sea, was published in May, 2006. It was long-listed for the International Frank O’Connor Award, and named by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the top five fiction debuts of the year. He is currently at work on novels and stories.
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To put it bluntly, this is good. Really good. How often do you get the chance to sit down with someone who really knows the ropes and ask all the questions - from the smart ones to the really stupid ones?
We spend a lot of time at our meetings working on copy: where do I get my ideas and how can I make the ideas I have better? These are all well and good, but eventually you want other people to read your ideas, right?
Right. That's where Nic comes in because he, unlike most of us, can speak not only to ideas, but to diseminating them. Questions like, how to navigate submissions, how to write a query, how to deal with rejection (hint: I suspect this is not the way to go about it), and how to actually sell what you've created and perfected. Even if you think of yourself as a closet writer, you probably have the odd daydream about Getting Published - and what better way to Get Published than to go out and ask questions?
So, please join us on Tuesday, May 6 at 6:30 PM in Rosenwald 405 for free food, free chat, and, most importantly, free advice.
Hope to see you there!
Don't know about Nic? Pity. You're missing out.
Nic Pizzolatto received his MFA from the University of Arkansas in 2005, where he was awarded the $10,000 Walton Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing two years in a row and received a Lilly Peter Fellowship in Poetry. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Oxford American, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and various other literary journals. In 2004, his work was among the finalists for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. His first book, Between Here and the Yellow Sea, was published in May, 2006. It was long-listed for the International Frank O’Connor Award, and named by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the top five fiction debuts of the year. He is currently at work on novels and stories.
---
To put it bluntly, this is good. Really good. How often do you get the chance to sit down with someone who really knows the ropes and ask all the questions - from the smart ones to the really stupid ones?
We spend a lot of time at our meetings working on copy: where do I get my ideas and how can I make the ideas I have better? These are all well and good, but eventually you want other people to read your ideas, right?
Right. That's where Nic comes in because he, unlike most of us, can speak not only to ideas, but to diseminating them. Questions like, how to navigate submissions, how to write a query, how to deal with rejection (hint: I suspect this is not the way to go about it), and how to actually sell what you've created and perfected. Even if you think of yourself as a closet writer, you probably have the odd daydream about Getting Published - and what better way to Get Published than to go out and ask questions?
So, please join us on Tuesday, May 6 at 6:30 PM in Rosenwald 405 for free food, free chat, and, most importantly, free advice.
Hope to see you there!
4/23/2008
What we did, and what we'll do
In our last meeting, on April 22, we did a free-writing exercise that consisted of the following:
+ Write the sketch of a character.
+ Write the sketch of a character who is opposite to your first character in at least one significant way. It doesn't have to be obvious.
+ Write a scene in which these two characters interact.
For many of us, this exercise made us think differently about characters we'd already been working with.
And for next week, choose your response to one of the three prompts to read aloud. We'll talk more about character development and realistic scenes at the meeting.
Additionally, please spread the word to your classmates and friends about Nic's Q&A, which will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, in Rosenwald 405. There will be food. In case you're debating whether or not to attend, refer to Sara's account of an after-class talk with Nic, in which he decried UChicago's lack of support for writers who really would like to use their skills practically. A kindred spirit, he.
+ Write the sketch of a character.
+ Write the sketch of a character who is opposite to your first character in at least one significant way. It doesn't have to be obvious.
+ Write a scene in which these two characters interact.
For many of us, this exercise made us think differently about characters we'd already been working with.
And for next week, choose your response to one of the three prompts to read aloud. We'll talk more about character development and realistic scenes at the meeting.
Additionally, please spread the word to your classmates and friends about Nic's Q&A, which will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, in Rosenwald 405. There will be food. In case you're debating whether or not to attend, refer to Sara's account of an after-class talk with Nic, in which he decried UChicago's lack of support for writers who really would like to use their skills practically. A kindred spirit, he.
4/08/2008
Some recommendations
In our meeting today I mentioned a couple of books. I just wanted to get the names and authors out there in case anyone was interested in actually looking them up or looking for them. With bullet points and Amazon links for convenience!
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.
- An author dealing with the fact that most epic fantasy is recycled tropes.
- It's a self-conscious novel, sometimes to the point of irritatingly so, but it's interesting to see Rothfuss blend "fairy tale comfort food" with more main-stream character treatment.
- There are some neat plot ideas and spins on the genre (did I mention the vegetarian dragon addicted to narcotics?) and the logic of the magic is really solid.
- In all honesty, Terry Pratchett and even Peter David do this better, but Rothfuss is more epic than Pratchett and less bleak than David. And sort of fun on his own terms.
- Raia's Nathan made me think of this one.
- Kip gets stuck staying with his cousins while his mother and new stepfather are on their honeymoon. When he finds his father's old journals in the attic, Kip gradually begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the father he has never known.
- It's technically a kids' book, but fun to read anyway. The writing is a good reminder on ways to tell a story plainly and how to integrate humor into a more serious "grown-up" issue.
4/02/2008
Notes from Week 1 Meeting
Here's another minutes post, because you all love them so much.
+ meetings every week!
+ two or three submissions per meeting
+ Nic's talk, tentatively sched. for 4/22/08 at normal meeting time and place
+ we need publicity for this event! and funding!
+ we need someone to talk to ENGL and CRWR departments/committees to ask for funding and build networking, as well as sending out an e-mail to the listhosts ([ugrad-english] and whatever the CRWR one is, sent out by Julia Klein)
+ let's get started on the online magazine: if anyone has ideas for the website or the magazine itself, or about lj-style cuts to excerpt works on this blog, let me know
+ weekly writer's journal: blog about the problems and successes of everyday writing (this will rotate)... who's first?
And the prompt: write a piece that could only take place in a particular season. Explore the effects of setting on your action and characters.
----
+ meetings every week!
+ two or three submissions per meeting
+ Nic's talk, tentatively sched. for 4/22/08 at normal meeting time and place
+ we need publicity for this event! and funding!
+ we need someone to talk to ENGL and CRWR departments/committees to ask for funding and build networking, as well as sending out an e-mail to the listhosts ([ugrad-english] and whatever the CRWR one is, sent out by Julia Klein)
+ let's get started on the online magazine: if anyone has ideas for the website or the magazine itself, or about lj-style cuts to excerpt works on this blog, let me know
+ weekly writer's journal: blog about the problems and successes of everyday writing (this will rotate)... who's first?
And the prompt: write a piece that could only take place in a particular season. Explore the effects of setting on your action and characters.
----
3/05/2008
Notes from Week 9 Meeting
Last meeting of the quarter!
We discussed the stories by Sara and Matt. For Sara we suggested a number of ways in which the story could develop; for Matt we offered ideas on how to populate an unfamiliar world with fully human, fully realized characters.
We also talked about ways the group could grow, and plans for next quarter. We'd like to bring in a speaker, and go to various festivals in the spring. If you have any ideas, please post them! It would also be good to do something with FOTA, even in a tiny capacity. We should get involved with the English Department and Committee on Creative Writing, too. Would anybody like to be the liaison between us and those departments?
There was no prompt assigned, but I'll get one up as soon as I can. If anybody has ideas on a good technique to practice, let me know. Catalina suggested writing something from the point of view of a character with some kind of mental limitation, like being high or feverish. This could become a stream-of-consciousness narrative. If this appeals to you, go ahead and rock it!
Best of luck with finals, and have a great break.
We discussed the stories by Sara and Matt. For Sara we suggested a number of ways in which the story could develop; for Matt we offered ideas on how to populate an unfamiliar world with fully human, fully realized characters.
We also talked about ways the group could grow, and plans for next quarter. We'd like to bring in a speaker, and go to various festivals in the spring. If you have any ideas, please post them! It would also be good to do something with FOTA, even in a tiny capacity. We should get involved with the English Department and Committee on Creative Writing, too. Would anybody like to be the liaison between us and those departments?
There was no prompt assigned, but I'll get one up as soon as I can. If anybody has ideas on a good technique to practice, let me know. Catalina suggested writing something from the point of view of a character with some kind of mental limitation, like being high or feverish. This could become a stream-of-consciousness narrative. If this appeals to you, go ahead and rock it!
Best of luck with finals, and have a great break.
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