Registration Proposed Panels Panel Request Reading Request 2017 Program Lodging & Directions
Fairhope 2017 Open Panels
Note: These are panels seeking panelists/participants. If you'd like to join an open panel, please request to join.
Creativity in the "Required" Writing Class: Ways to Make Students Think Outside the Box in Everything From Business Communication to Freshmen Comp.
Panelists: Michael Trammell, Mary Jane Ryals, Chris Hayes (FSU faculty)
Panelists will introduce exercises they've used in the classroom that inspired students towards greater creativity.
Panelists: Michael Trammell, Mary Jane Ryals, Chris Hayes (FSU faculty)
Panelists will introduce exercises they've used in the classroom that inspired students towards greater creativity.
Gulf States Noir
Panelists: Jeff Newberry (chair), Mary Anna Evans, Lynne Barrett
Panelists whose short stories and novels look at crime in locations from Mississippi to Miami, will discuss the influence and development of “Gulf States noir,” its literary heritage as well as its prominent place in popular fiction, and the ways in which character development, plot, and setting allow us to look at ecological and/or social justice. Panelists will also share must-read recommendations, classic and contemporary, and talk about the place of teaching this genre in the classroom setting.
Note: While we have three, we could add someone to this pane, and if someone writing about Texas or Louisiana wants to join in, we will gladly expand the geography in the first line,
Panelists: Jeff Newberry (chair), Mary Anna Evans, Lynne Barrett
Panelists whose short stories and novels look at crime in locations from Mississippi to Miami, will discuss the influence and development of “Gulf States noir,” its literary heritage as well as its prominent place in popular fiction, and the ways in which character development, plot, and setting allow us to look at ecological and/or social justice. Panelists will also share must-read recommendations, classic and contemporary, and talk about the place of teaching this genre in the classroom setting.
Note: While we have three, we could add someone to this pane, and if someone writing about Texas or Louisiana wants to join in, we will gladly expand the geography in the first line,
Rapid Expansion: Ekphrasis as more than “Writing About Art”
Panelists: Tanya Grae, Michele Parker Randall, Didi Jackson
This panel explores how ekphrasis is complicated by various factors and how we can experience the potential each combination makes. Commonly defined as writing that describes visual art, ekphrasis is neither limited to visual expression nor is merely descriptive, but can instead use the art as a fixed point creating multiple vantage points. We’ll discuss the potential of ekphrasis, reverse ekphrasis, and end with a few exercises you can take back to your classrooms.
Panelists: Tanya Grae, Michele Parker Randall, Didi Jackson
This panel explores how ekphrasis is complicated by various factors and how we can experience the potential each combination makes. Commonly defined as writing that describes visual art, ekphrasis is neither limited to visual expression nor is merely descriptive, but can instead use the art as a fixed point creating multiple vantage points. We’ll discuss the potential of ekphrasis, reverse ekphrasis, and end with a few exercises you can take back to your classrooms.
Panel: Study Abroad Programs that Focus on Creative Writing
Panelists: M.O. Walsh, Jessica Morey-Collins, and Jarred Marlatt. (All, U.N.O.)
The past decade has seen the nationwide growth of both study abroad programs and creative writing programs, with a few schools running a single program that combines both. This panel will discuss those study abroad programs that focus on creative writing, and the unique challenges and benefits associated with them. We will cover the experiences of teaching abroad, studying/writing abroad, and running short-term study abroad programs, and the way these experiences differ from domestic creative writing programs
Panelists: M.O. Walsh, Jessica Morey-Collins, and Jarred Marlatt. (All, U.N.O.)
The past decade has seen the nationwide growth of both study abroad programs and creative writing programs, with a few schools running a single program that combines both. This panel will discuss those study abroad programs that focus on creative writing, and the unique challenges and benefits associated with them. We will cover the experiences of teaching abroad, studying/writing abroad, and running short-term study abroad programs, and the way these experiences differ from domestic creative writing programs
Panel focused on Teaching Creative Writing Online
Panelists: Brigitte Byrd (moderator), Mary Jane Ryals
Seeking other panelists
Panel focused on teaching creative writing online, which Brigitte Bird started to do at Clayton State University which offers a 100% BA in English (both Literature and Writing concentrations). The moderator wants to facilitate and contribute to a conversation between panelists regarding the need to reassess one's teaching method when faced with the task of translating traditional face-to-face practices into new online methods. Do we need to abandon the workshop? What are the most helpful tools available to online teaching? What makes an online creative writing course successful? How do we assess this success? etc.
Panelists: Brigitte Byrd (moderator), Mary Jane Ryals
Seeking other panelists
Panel focused on teaching creative writing online, which Brigitte Bird started to do at Clayton State University which offers a 100% BA in English (both Literature and Writing concentrations). The moderator wants to facilitate and contribute to a conversation between panelists regarding the need to reassess one's teaching method when faced with the task of translating traditional face-to-face practices into new online methods. Do we need to abandon the workshop? What are the most helpful tools available to online teaching? What makes an online creative writing course successful? How do we assess this success? etc.
Mindfulness for the Poet
Panelists: Casey Clague, moderator
Seeking other Panelists
We may not know if Keats was a meditator or familiar with Buddhist philosophy when he spoke of negative capability. However, one can clearly see the Buddhist notion of anatta (Pali: non-self) reflected in Keats’ assertion that a poet must be “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Poets from the classic to the contemporary have connected effective poetry writing to meditation practice. Jane Hirshfield said, “both writing and any spiritual practice are technologies to exceed your own capacity for presence.” The benefits of this presence are many: one can notice beauty in the quotidian, can reflect more deeply about their place in the world, and can notice the seemingly incommensurable without requiring resolution. The first portion of this panel will further examine the convergence of poetic method with meditation and include testimonials from poets who incorporate meditation in their work. The latter part of the panel will discuss the justification for and practical methods of introducing mindfulness in the classroom.
Panelists: Casey Clague, moderator
Seeking other Panelists
We may not know if Keats was a meditator or familiar with Buddhist philosophy when he spoke of negative capability. However, one can clearly see the Buddhist notion of anatta (Pali: non-self) reflected in Keats’ assertion that a poet must be “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Poets from the classic to the contemporary have connected effective poetry writing to meditation practice. Jane Hirshfield said, “both writing and any spiritual practice are technologies to exceed your own capacity for presence.” The benefits of this presence are many: one can notice beauty in the quotidian, can reflect more deeply about their place in the world, and can notice the seemingly incommensurable without requiring resolution. The first portion of this panel will further examine the convergence of poetic method with meditation and include testimonials from poets who incorporate meditation in their work. The latter part of the panel will discuss the justification for and practical methods of introducing mindfulness in the classroom.
Writing Contemporary Nonfiction from Personal and Familial Artifacts
Panelists: Zachary Michael Jack (chair), Andrea Panzeca
OPEN to more panelists
A panel to discuss the methods by which contemporary creative nonfictionists conjure pasts from luminous ephemera and artifacts.
Panelists: Zachary Michael Jack (chair), Andrea Panzeca
OPEN to more panelists
A panel to discuss the methods by which contemporary creative nonfictionists conjure pasts from luminous ephemera and artifacts.
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Examples from 2016
From 2016: Women in the Literary World
This panel will discuss the presence of women in the literary world, with a focus on the VIDA statistics over the past few years, what we mean when we say "women's writing," and how to promote the work of women and minorities through writing and publishing. Feminism and intersectionality in publishing will be a concern, though not strictly a focus. Confirmed participants are Rachael Peralez, Fiction editor for Quaint Magazine, and Kia Groom, founding and poetry edtior for Quaint. Contributing panelists welcome.
This panel will discuss the presence of women in the literary world, with a focus on the VIDA statistics over the past few years, what we mean when we say "women's writing," and how to promote the work of women and minorities through writing and publishing. Feminism and intersectionality in publishing will be a concern, though not strictly a focus. Confirmed participants are Rachael Peralez, Fiction editor for Quaint Magazine, and Kia Groom, founding and poetry edtior for Quaint. Contributing panelists welcome.
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From 2016: What are Editors Looking For?
This panel will feature editors from literary magazines and small presses around the region discussing submissions. They'll talk about what moves a submission to the top of the slush pile as well as what gives a submission a one-way trip to the rejection folder. This panel needs more small-press editors.
Panelists: Danita Berg (Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine), Randy Bates (Bayou), Tom Holmes (Redactions: Poetry & Poetics), Kristine Snodgrass (CaKe), Jim Miller (ĕm), Ralph Adamo (New Orleans Review), other panelists TBA
This panel will feature editors from literary magazines and small presses around the region discussing submissions. They'll talk about what moves a submission to the top of the slush pile as well as what gives a submission a one-way trip to the rejection folder. This panel needs more small-press editors.
Panelists: Danita Berg (Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine), Randy Bates (Bayou), Tom Holmes (Redactions: Poetry & Poetics), Kristine Snodgrass (CaKe), Jim Miller (ĕm), Ralph Adamo (New Orleans Review), other panelists TBA