Antioch Writers Workshop
When: July 10-16
Where: Antioch University McGregor, 900 Dayton St., Yellow Springs
Tuition: Ranges from $125 for the Saturday only session to $735 for first-time, full-week participants
Deadlines: Scholarship applications and Young Writers deadline is May 1, deadline for others is June 1
More information: www.antiochwriters workshop.com
YELLOW SPRINGS — With the Antioch Writers’ Workshop celebrating a 25th anniversary, it seems fitting to let some of the participants help write their own story. Elsewhere on this page, they share thoughts.
The famous retreat offers a mix of inspiration, instruction and networking targeting both beginning and advanced writers. There are sessions on fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and memoir.
This year’s event is slated for July 10-16. Keynote speaker will be Sigrid Nunez, the New York-based author of five novels including “A Feather on the Breath of God” and “Naked Sleeper.”
For the first time in its history, the workshop will include a Young Writers’ program. Students ages 15-18 can submit writing samples and recommendations and apply for partial scholarships. Another change involves session options. The workshop has traditionally required a week-long commitment, this summer enrollees can also opt to attend morning, afternoon or Saturday sessions.
“We restructured because we realized not everyone has the time, resources or desire to devote a full week of all-day everyday attendance,” said, workshop director Sharon Short who took over the job in 2009. Short, a writer from Centerville known for her “Stain Busting” mysteries, also writes the “Sanity Check” column for the Dayton Daily News.
The goal of the workshop, Short said, “is to inspire, cultivate, encourage and motivate creative writers of all genres and at all phases on the writing journey.” In addition to group classes in the mornings and afternoons, one-on-one critiques with faculty members are also available.During the years, the prestigious event — which began as a way to use the campus in the summer months — has hosted more than 2,000 men and women who are passionate about expressing themselves through the written word.
“The Antioch Workshop has a long tried-and-true tradition of nurturing writers and it’s one of the top workshops of its kind in the country,” said Crystal Wilkinson, author of “Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street.” The Morehead State University writing instructor, who teaches fiction at Antioch, says her goal “is always to meet workshop participants where they are and get them to stretch as individuals.”
Featured authors have included Sue Grafton, Ellen Gilchrist, William Least Heat-Moon, Joyce Carol Oates, Melissa Fay Greene, Natalie Goldberg, Sena Jeter Naslund and Nicholas Delbanco. Prominent Ohio authors, including Allan W. Eckert, John Jakes, and Virginia Hamilton, also have served as instructors.
The workshop now partners with Antioch University McGregor.
Cyndi Pauwels
“It was a remarkably eclectic gathering. The 24th annual Antioch Writers Workshop brought together more than 70 attendees, staff and faculty from all across the globe. I met a classroom full of teachers, enough Catholics to fill a small chapel, and a clan of adoptive parents; a sculptor, a psychologist, a barber and a non-disgruntled postal worker. I met widows, divorcees, the happily married and the independently single. I met Californians, Michiganders, Kansans, an international couple with a Greek romance and a lady from Shanghai.
‘‘We were black and white, young and old. But in all our diversity, we shared our dedication and passion and talent for writing.
‘‘It was a struggle convincing myself I belonged. Like the small town valedictorian who suddenly finds herself lost in the freshman class at Ohio State University, firmly in the middle of the pack as far as talent and potential, I felt out of my league. Story after story, poem after poem, one incredible speaker after another, in my mind my work paled in comparison to the talent which filled the sessions from early morning to sunset.
‘‘The long-fiction workshop group proved to be my salvation. With the instructor’s comments and with the thoughtful interaction of what became a close-knit group, I came away energized and encouraged that my work may truly stand a chance of communicating all that I want to share.”
— Cyndi Pauwels, Spring Valley, author of “Historic Warren County: An Illustrated History”
Katrina Kittle
“It’s really important to me — as it is to all the faculty at AWW — that a workshop setting be safe and supportive. You can be constructive and honest and kind at the same time. This is not a workshop where anyone will get their work ‘ripped apart.’ The goal is for every writer to leave really energized and inspired to make revisions and take their work to the next level.
‘‘I’m really excited about the Young Writers’ Seminar. I love this age group for their boldness and curiosity. They tend to be like sponges, wanting to soak up everything they can, and they’re not jaded yet. It’s energizing to be with them.”
— Novelist Katrina Kittle, author of “Traveling Light,” “Two Truths and a Li” and “The Kindness of Strangers”
Tami Absi
“Last spring, one of the members of my writing group told me after a meeting, ‘I learned more at Antioch Writer’s Workshop in one week than I had learned in four years of college working on my bachelor’s degree in English.’ Since we attended the same university to acquire the same degree, I was intrigued. I attended AWW last summer, and in the area of novel-length composition, I learned a great deal.
‘‘Some of us who attended have continued to read one another’s work either by meeting face-to-face or through the Internet. We call ourselves the Antioch Firehouse Writers since our group met in the firehouse while reading and critiquing one another’s pieces. We plan to return this summer.”
— Tami Absi, Dayton
Mary Ann Schenk
“To find a workshop of this caliber so close to home is amazing. I’ve attended most of the workshops over the years and they have all been extraordinarily good. I call it my summer camp.
‘‘The workshop forces students out of our comfort zones (literary or commercial) and into places that we might never otherwise go. It also gives attention to the practical and business sides of writing, as well as to the art of crafting prose and poetry. From the beginning, the workshop has included presentations and panels of editors and publishers and agents, and they don’t pull their punches.
‘‘For me, one of the earliest take-aways was something that William Least Heat Moon said in 1992. It seems that, like me, the blank page intimidated him. So he found a way to ‘trick’ himself into writing. He said that he went to the dime store and bought some pencils and some grade school lined-paper newsprint tablets, the kind that kids use when they’re learning to write. Then, telling himself that he was just going to make some ‘notes’ and not really do any writing at all, he began what ended up as ‘Blue Highways.’ Since I have the same problem when I’m starting something new, I adopted his method and have been writing — er, making notes — in pencil on legal pads ever since.”
— Mary Ann Schenk, Cincinnati
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