6th Annual Meredith Young Writers' Camp
July 8-12th, 2013

Rising 6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls are invited to the Meredith Young Writers' Camp, where they will have a chance to sharpen creative writing skills, read and discuss lively works of literature, and write fiction, drama, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The week includes recreation and fun activities. Meals and snacks provided. Contact Ashley Hogan for more information: hogana@meredith.edu

 

17th Annual Focusing on Form Workshop for Women Writers
June 24-28, 2013

Each summer since 1997, the Meredith College Department of English has sponsored a writing workshop for women who are writing, who want to write, and who want to try writing. The workshop offers instruction, critique of manuscripts, and—not the least of its advantages—new friends who share a common interest. Dozens of women have benefited from these workshops and from other writer events sponsored by Meredith.

Join us this summer, June 24-28, for the sixteenth annual writing workshop, Focusing on Form. During this one-week workshop, outstanding instructors will guide you in the form of your choice: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction or journaling (course descriptions below)

Contact Ashley Hogan for more information: hogana@meredith.edu

Fiction with Zelda Lockhart

In this workshop, Zelda Lockhart will guide you through the experience of creating a whole work of short fiction. Lockhart will share her expertise in crafting a story well told, and offer a series of exercises designed to eliminate writer's block. Other writing tools will give depth to character development and plot development and enhance the language of your story. Participants will also learn invaluable skills on becoming a constructive peer reader.

ZELDA LOCKHART is author of award winning novels Fifth Born and Cold Running Creek. Ms. Lockhart held the honor of the 2010 Piedmont Laureate for Literature in North Carolina, and June 2010 witnessed the release her third novel, Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle, which is currently a finalist for a 2011 Lambda Literary Award. Her other works of fiction, poetry, and essays can be found in a variety of anthologies, journals, and magazines. Ms. Lockhart lives in North Carolina, teaches Creative Writing at North Carolina State University, and continues to lecture and facilitate a variety of workshops that empower adults and children to self-define through writing. She welcomes visits to her website: www.zeldalockhart.com.

Creative Nonfiction with Nancy Peacock

This workshop is a journey into women's personal essays, including your own. Through writing exercises designed to help you mine your material, through encouraging and specific feedback on your works-in- progress, and through the discussion of published essays, we will tap into the vein of women's creative nonfiction. In addition we will learn, like all writers have had to do, how to establish a writing practice from where you are in your life rather than waiting for that perfect day without stress or obligations. Participants are encouraged to bring the opening five pages of a personal essay for class discussion.

NANCY PEACOCK is the author of A Broom of One's Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning, and Life. Part writing guide and part memoir, A Broom of One's Own is a collection of personal essays recounting Peacock's transformation from maid to writer and teacher. Her novels include Life Without Water, chosen as a New York Times Editor's Choice Book, Home Across the Road, and most recently, The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson. Peacock lives in Hillsborough, NC, and runs workshops in her studio, as well as coaching writers privately. To read the first chapters of Peacock's novels, and to explore her offered classes, including a free prompts class held once a month in Chapel Hill, please visit www.nancypeacockbooks.com.

Poetry with Ruth Moose

Poetry is a pocket deep in the heart. You reach in and pull out the riches of your life. You claim them. You bring them to life and light. Each day we’ll write to fresh prompts, read stunning examples of great works, probe their gears, oil our own. One day at least will focus on the form of the scrumptious Sestina. I promise you will do yourself proud.

RUTH MOOSE has been on the Creative Writing faculty at UNC-CH since l996. She is author of two published collections of short stories, The Wreath Ribbon Quilt and Dreaming Color, with individual stories in Atlantic, Redbook, McCalls, Ladies’ Home Journal, and other places, including publications in Holland, South Africa, England, and Denmark. Moose has published six collections of poetry. The Librarian and Tea and Other Assorted Poems recently went into third printing. She's received a MacDowell Fellowship, an NEA grant, several PEN awards, and most recently First Place in Narrative Non-Fiction from Southeast Review at Florida State University, and a prestigious Chapman Fellowship for Teaching. She lives in Pittsboro.

Mining for Gold: Journaling into a Deeper Life with Carol Henderson

Keeping a journal is perhaps the most productive of all methods for reconsidering the world, preserving our experiences, exploring our deepest selves, and developing our writing skills. On the pages of a journal we can let our inner voices reign, delve deeply into creative projects, and find ways to tell our own life stories. In this workshop we'll learn how to unlock the full power of this multi-purpose tool. We’ll explore memory, point of view, dreams, life chapters, character portraits, poetry, dialogues with aspects of ourselves, and more. We’ll acquire new techniques to enliven our writing and help us find fresh ways to view our lives and creative selves. The emphasis is on process-not product—that means we'll write a lot. Experience first-hand how journals can help us come to terms with our pasts, discover joy in the present, and transform our futures.

CAROL HENDERSON is a writer, editor, and teacher who leads four ongoing writing groups and works one-on-one as a writing coach and editor. She also teaches around the US, in Europe, and in the Middle East. Carol writes for newspapers and magazines and has edited several memoirs and essay collections, most recently Qatari Voices (Bloomsbury) and Wide Open Spaces: Call Stories (Circle Books). She is the author of Losing Malcolm: A Mother’s Journey Through Grief, (Univ. Press of Mississippi), selected by USA Today as one of five must-read summer memoirs in 2001, and Farther Along: The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers, (July 2012). Learn more about Carol: www.carolhenderson.com

 

Workshop Coordinator

Ashley Hogan, workshop coordinator, has been writing poetry and fiction since grade school. She is a graduate of Appalachian State University and received an M.A. from North Carolina State University, where she studied fiction writing with Lee Smith, Angela Davis Gardner, and John Kessel. She has taught creative writing, composition, and American literature at Appalachian State University and NCSU and currently teaches at Meredith College. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Brightleaf, and at ImperfectParent.com. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and two young sons.