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| Classes Field’s End offers diverse classes taught by the region’s best writing instructors. Some have been Bainbridge Island residents, including authors Kathleen Alcalá and David Guterson, plus poets Linda Bierds and John Willson. Others have come from Seattle and beyond. Unless specified in a class listing, classes will be held at the Bainbridge Public Library. For directions, click here. Registration Form and more details coming soon. Click here to download the Fall 2008 class registration form.
Field’s End will begin processing registrations for Fall 2008 classes on August 19. |
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Fall 2008
Developing Your Characters Instructor: Carole Glickfeld In this five-week course for intermediate and advanced writers (those who have completed a draft of a novel or at least six short stories), we will work on giving characters depth and plausibility. Everything matters: how characters enter a story, what they do, where they’ve been, how they speak, what others think about them, their complexity, and your relationship with them. In workshop mode, we will constructively discuss excerpts from manuscripts by class members. Participants will do in-class and at-home writing exercises and analyses of published authors’ treatment of character. When: Saturdays, 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Tuition and class size: $300, limited to 15 Where: Bainbridge Public Library Secrets to a Clear, Compelling Sentence Instructor: Gary Kinder This “roll up your sleeves” workshop is an expansion of Kinder’s 2007 Round Table presentation that still has people talking and improving their prose. Students will do a variety writing & editing exercises that demonstrate how good writing works. If you don’t go home eager to apply these exercises to you own writing, you were probably napping. When: Saturday, October 4, 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. with 1/2 hour lunch break Tuition and class size: $80, Class Limit 15-20 Where: Bainbridge Public Library
True Stories: Personal Narratives and Creative Nonfiction Instructor: Barbara Sjoholm
True stories demand just as much attention to choosing detail and shaping a narrative as works of fiction. In this class we’ll look at various forms of essays that can be used to record and examine events of a life. ÊWe'll try our hands at different forms of nonfiction as we learn to write with a strong voice and describe conversations, people, and places that engage the reader. We’ll work on pruning our writing to the essential point or storyline as we retain the details that are nonfiction’s individuality and strength. When: Five Wednesdays 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Tuition and class size: $200, limited to 15 participants Where: Bainbridge Public Library
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Past Truth or Consequences: Keeping Fiction True Description: This eight hour course focused on techniques to maintain the dramatic truth in fiction. Memoir Description: A ten hour course including exercises and guidelines to strenghten the narrative arc in memoir. Dialog Description: In this five hour course offered over two Saturdays, students learned ways that good dialog reveals character and strengthens any story. Writing the Personal Essay for College Applicants Description: High school students received instruction and feedback on their college application essays. Bringing History Alive in Fiction Description: This twelve hour craft course focused on shaping historical research and source materials into fiction that appeals to the modern audience. Writing Literary Collage: New Forms in Nonfiction Description: The ever-popular Priscilla led this ten hour craft course in new nonfiction forms. The Original Idea: The Heart of Your Story Description: Our first online class took place during the month of July. Students participated in group discussions and shared their work via the internet. The Play’s the Thing Description: A 15 hour workshop in which students wrote a one-act play Writing the Picture Book Text
Description: A 10 hour craft course exploring storytelling skills for the picture book
Art of the Short Who I Am: Writing the Personal Essay for College Applicants Writing Historical Fiction Your Nonfiction Book Project: Putting It All Together Young Writers Workshop on Fiction The Art of the Paragraph Beyond Nip and Tuck: Advanced Revision in Fiction How to Write the First Page of Your Novel Craft for Prose Junkies Writing As Play: Nurturing the Young Writer An Agent’s Point of View On The Road: Exploring the World Through Writing Your Travels Don’t Dream It ... Do It
Writing Literature for Children From Imitation to Imagination From Page to Stage: Writing the One-Act Play No Tricks and No Secrets: An Editor’s Perspective on Publishing Your Work The Craft of Poetry Navigating the Past: A Guide for Writers Becoming a Writer: Measure for Measure:
Detail and Narrative Pace Revising Your Fiction Manuscript Instructor: Judith Barrington Description: A 10-hour craft class Anatomy of a Character The Arc of the Story Devotion and Discipline of a Writing Life The Art of Poetry Strategies to Unmask the Conscious/Subconscious Theme in Your Short Story or Novel: A Workshop Dangerous Sentences The Art of the Sentence (back by popular demand) Coming to Terms with the Place We Call Home Creating a Work of Short Fiction or Creative Nonfiction Writing Creative Nonfiction Revising Your Fiction Manuscript What Happens Next? Structure and Momentum in the Short Story The Art of the Sentence: Moving Your Writing from Competent to Brilliant Through More Sophisticated Sentencing The Art of Fiction |
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Class Types Field’s End offers three types of courses:
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Instructors Field’s End prides itself on the quality of our instructors, award-winning authors with proven ability to teach their craft. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
For more about Kathleen Alcalá, click here.
Linda Bierds sixth book of poetry, The Seconds, was published in November, 2001, by Putnam’s. Her prizes include the PEN/West Poetry Award, the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1998, she was named a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She teaches creative writing at the University of Washington. Michael Byers is the author of the Coast of Good Intentions, which was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award and which received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards, and he is the recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award. A novel, Long for this World, was published in 2003. He lives in Seattle. Michael Collins earned a Doctorate in English from the University of Illinois and is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. His work has received international acclaim and awards. His most recent award is novel of the year from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) for 2003 for The Resurrectionists. His novel The Keepers of Truth was shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2000 and won the IMPAC Prize. Two of his works have been cited as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. His fiction has been translated into 22 languages. Sharon Cumberland, author of two chapbooks, The Arithmetic of Mourning and Sharon Cumberland: Greatest Hits 1985-2000, has published in a wide variety of magazines and journals, including Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Verse. Her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and she was awarded the Sue Saniel Elkind Award by Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Arts. Cumberland has given many readings in Seattle at the Seattle Slam, Frye Art Museum, Bumbershoot, and the Red Sky Poetry Theater. Cumberland is an Associate Professor at Seattle University where she teaches English and poetry writing. Robin Desser is a Vice President and senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf Publishers. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Yale University. She began her publishing career in 1985 as an editorial assistant and joined Random House in 1988, first as an associate editor at Pantheon, then as an editor at Vintage. She joined Knopf in 1996. Desser has worked with Anne Carson, A.S. Byatt, Sandra Cisneros, Stephen Carter, Edwidge Danticat, Rita Dove, Mary Gaitskill, Kaye Gibbons, Arthur Golden, David Guterson, Pico Iyer, Susanna Kaysen , Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Daniel Mason, W.S. Merwin, Gloria Naylor, Richard Price, Mark Salzman, James Salter, Esmeralda Santiago, and Jane Smiley. Roger Fanning’s first book of
poems was a National Poetry Series selection. His second book, Homesick, was recently published by Viking-Penguin. He currently teaches in the low-residency MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and lives in Seattle with his wife and son.
Sam Hamill is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry, including Dumb Luck, Gratitude, and Destination Zero: Poems 1970-1995, which won a Pushcart Prize. He is also the author of three collections of essays and two dozen volumes translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese and Chinese. Hamill has taught in prisons, in artist-in-residency programs, and worked extensively with battered women and children. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lily Wallace-Readers Digest Fund, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, and two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards. Laura Kalpakian is the author of eight novels and three prize-winning collections of short fiction. Delinquent Virgin was selected by the American Library Association as one of the Top 25 Books of the Year for 2000. Her work has been awarded an NEA Fellowship in Fiction, a Pushcart Prize, and other literary accolades. She has lived in Washington for over 20 years. Two recent novels, both set on the fictional Isadora Island in the San Juans, are Harper Perennial paperbacks, Steps and Exiles (2000) and Educating Waverly (2003). The Memoir Club, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004. Educated on both the East Coast and the West Coast, Kalpakian has backgrounds in history and literature. She has taught fiction, nonfiction, and memoir in many visiting venues. Richard Kenney is a professor at the University of Washington, and the author of three books: The Evolution of the Flightless Bird, a collection of poems; Orrery, a collection of poems; and The Invention of the Zero. He has contributed to numerous anthologies and been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, most recently the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize nomination, the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, honorable mention for U.W.Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, and Royal Research Fund. David Long’s novels include The Daughters of Simon Lamoreaux and The Falling Boy. He has published three collections of short stories. He has written for The New Yorker, GQ, Poets and Writers Magazine, and many others. His writing has been awarded the Rosenthal Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and an O. Henry Award.
For a complete bio of Priscilla Long, click here. Colleen J. McElroy is a gifted writer of prose, creative non-fiction and poetry. She is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Washington. Her publications include fiction, Jesus and Fat Tuesday and Driving Under the Cardboard Pines; and poetry, What Madness Brought Me Here -New and Selected Poems 1968-1988, Queen of the Ebony Isles (winner of the American Book Award), and Travelling Music. She is also the author of a travel memoir, A Long Way From St. Louie, and most recently, Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar. McElroy has been the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Fulbright Fellowships, a Dupont Visiting Scholar Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Fellowship.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, essayist, children’s author and songwriter. She was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in many parts of the world including Asia and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity. Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than twenty volumes. Her books include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East , and Fuel (poems); Never in a Hurry (a collection of essays); Habibi (a novel for young readers); and Lullaby Raft (a picture book). Nye has worked for 28 years as a visiting writer in schools at all levels. A Lannan Fellow, she was a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Wittner Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received, among other honors, a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, four Pushcart Prizes and numerous awards and citations for her children’s literature including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. She is a regular columnist for Organica and poetry editor for The Texas Observer. Her work has been presented on NPR on such shows as A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials, The Language of Life with Bill Moyers and The United States of Poetry, as well as the PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers.
For more about Nick O’Connell, click here. Robert Michael Pyle has worked as an independent writer and biologist for twenty-three years, writing essay, poetry, and fiction. His fourteen books include award-winning natural history titles such as Wintergreen, The Thunder Tree, Where Bigfoot Walks, Chasing Monarchs, and Walking the High Ridge, and a hatch of popular butterfly books such as The Butterflies of Cascadia. His column “The Tangled Bank” appears in Orion Magazine. Pyle resides along a tidal tributary of the Lower Columbia with his wife, Thea Linnaea Pyle. After experience as a children’s librarian and professional storyteller, George Shannon published his first children’s book, Lizard’s Song (Greenwillow) in 1981. Since then, he has written 22 picture books (including Climbing Kansas Mountains, Tippy-toe Chick, Go, and Wise Acres), five collections of stories for older children, and one novel for young adults. Shannon has published essays on various aspects of children’s literature, and he continues to work with children around the country on their own creative writing. Cheryl Slean began her career in Los Angeles theatre, where her genre-and-gender bending work inspired both critical acclaim and contempt, a few awards and not much money. She relocated to Seattle for a University of Washington MFA; her prose has since appeared in Lynx Eye, IT, Parabasis, LA., Under the Influence, A Women's Anthology, Swivel, Fiddlehead and others. Her short films have been screened at festivals across the country and in Europe. Cheryl has taught prose, screen- and playwriting at the University of Washington, Seattle University, Hugo House and UCLA. Elizabeth Wales, co-founder of the Seattle-based Wales Literary Agency, Inc., has been in publishing and bookselling since 1980. Wales Literary represents 65 award-winning writers of narrative nonfiction, mainstream fiction, and literary fiction. Clients include Bruce Barcott, Rebecca Brown, Jean Hegland, Nancy Lord, David Masumoto, Farnoosh Moshiri, Dan Savage, Migael Scherer, Eric Scigliano, Robert Spector, and Duff Wilson. Agency titles have appeared on the New York Times, Publishers’ Weekly and other national bestseller lists. Wales is a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Authors’ Guild, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Association. She worked at Oxford University Press, Viking Penguin, and the Strand Bookstore in New York City before moving to Seattle in 1983. She graduated with a degree in English and American literature from Smith College and did graduate studies in Literature at Columbia College.
Amy
Wheeler�s plays �Two Birds and a Stone� and �Weeping
Woman� received world premiere productions in 2003/04 at
Seattle�s Capitol Hill Arts Center and Portland�s Stark
Raving Theatre. �Wizzer Pizzer� was developed in the Bay
Area Playwright�s Festival and will be produced at 7
Stages Theatre in Atlanta in 2005. Wheeler�s work has also
been produced in New York at the Greenwich Street Theatre
and the Guggenheim Museum. She is currently working on two
commissions: an adaptation of Paulo Coelho�s novel Veronika
Decides to Die for Freehold Theatre in Seattle, and a
new play for Stark Raving. Wheeler was a recipient of a
Yaddo residency, and she is on the Board of the Hedgebrook
Women Writer�s Retreat on Whidbey Island. She holds an MFA
from the Iowa Playwright�s Workshop and teaches
playwriting at Cornish College of the Arts, Freehold Theatre
Lab, and in ACT�s Young Playwright�s Program. Susan
Wiggs is one of the nation�s foremost writers of
historical romance and contemporary women�s fiction, and a
frequent workshop leader and speaker at writers�
conferences. She has been published by Avon, Tor,
HarperCollins, Harlequin, Mira, and Warner Books and has
received numerous awards for her work, including two RITA
Awards. Wiggs was the national keynote speaker to the
Romance Writers of America in 2000, holds writing workshops
all over the country, and is a regular at the annual Maui
Writers Conference and Retreat. A widely respected
instructor of writing, she completed her teaching degree in
Texas and earned a master�s degree from Harvard.
Wiggs�
most recent novel�number 25�is The Ocean Between Us,
published by Mira Books in 2004. John Willson is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, the Artist Trust of Washington, and the King County Arts Commission. His chapbook, The Son We Had, was published by Blue Begonia Press in 1999. An essay on one of his poems appears in Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry, a book published in April 2001. A 1995 finalist in the National Poetry Series, John lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he works as a poetry instructor and as a bookseller at Eagle Harbor Book Company, an independent bookstore. |
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Kathleen Alcalá is the author of a short story collection, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist (Calyx), and three novels set in 19th Century Mexico: Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull(Chronicle/Harcourt) and Treasures in Heaven (Chronicle/Northwestern University). Her work has received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Governor’s Writers Award, the Western States Book Award for Fiction, and the Washington State Book Award. She is a co-founder of and contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles, and was recently a writer in residence at the Richard Hugo House. A member of Los Norteños, a group of writers and performers, Kathleen co-wrote a play with director Olga Sanchez based on Kathleen’s first novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, which was produced at The Miracle Theatre in Portland, Oregon. 
Judith Barrington’s most recent book, Lifesaving: A Memoir, was the winner of the Lambda Book Award and finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. Her third volume of poetry, Horses and the Human Soul, was published by Story Line Press in May, 2004.
David
Guterson is the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, winner of the
Pen/Faulkner Award and a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, among others. A contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine, his published works include the novels Our Lady of the Forest and East of the Mountains, the short-story collection The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, and nonfiction articles.
Priscilla Long, author of Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America’s Bloody Coal Industry, has published numerous essays, creative nonfictions, poetry, and short fictions in venues such as The Southern Review,Passages North, The Women’s Review of Books, and First Intensity. Her essay “Genome Tome” published in The American Scholar won the 2006 National Magazine Award in the category of Feature Writing. She also has awards from the Seattle Arts Commission and the Los Angeles Arts Commission, among others, and serves as senior editor of 
Writer, photographer, and former East Africa bush guide, Skye Moody is the author of seven mystery novels and three books of nonfiction, including the award-wininng Hillbilly
Women, which was adapted for the Off-Broadway stage. Moody’s short stories have appeared in Penguin’s anthology, Wild Crimes; in Southern Lights; and in Double Dealer Redux, the Faulkner Society’s literary journal. A member of PEN American Center in New York City, her most recent book, Washed Up: The Curious Journeys of Flotsam and Jetsam was published by Sasquatch in 2006. 
Nicholas O’Connell, M.F.A., Ph.D., has taught courses in Creative
Nonfiction at the University of Washington Extension Writers program for over ten years. He’s the author of the forthcoming On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature (U.W. Press, 2003),
Contemporary Ecofiction (Charles Scribners, 1996), Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers (Mountaineers, 1993), and At the Field’s End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers (U.W. Press, 1998). In addition, he’s published narrative nonfiction in Gourmet,Condé Nast Traveler, Outside, Saveur, Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,Sierra, The Wine Spectator, Commonweal, Washington Journey, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and many other places.
Irene Wanner
teaches fiction writing at Richard Hugo House and the University of Washington Women’s Center. She reviews books for several periodicals, is a member of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, and was a participant in the Jack Straw Productions 2004 Writers Program. In July 2005, she will teach one of the courses at Haystack Summer Program in the Arts at Cannon Beach, Oregon.