Flagship City
Creative Writing and Poetry Conference
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Erie Art Museum, 411 State Street, Erie, PA 16501
(Use the E. Fifth St. at State St. Entrance)
Through the efforts of Guild member Marisa Moks-Unger, Poet Laureate of Erie County, the IWWG will offer this one-day event which will feature two workshops directed by poet and memoirist, Myra Shapiro, and poet and essayist, Marj Hahne. The workshops are appropriate for all skill levels of women age 18 and older.
REGISTER!
Schedule for the Day
9:00 a.m. Registration and coffee
9:30 a.m. Welcome and Introduction to The Guild
10:00 a.m. Workshops – Myra Shapiro and Marj Hahne
12:00 p.m. Catered Lunch and Keynote by Erie County Poet Laureate Marisa Moks-Unger
1:00 p.m. Book Fair *
2:00 p.m. Workshops - Myra Shapiro and Marj Hahne, Groups Switch
4:00 p.m. Open Readings
5:15 p.m. Closing
*Members of IWWG are invited to participate in a book fair to be held during lunchtime. Participants will also have the opportunity to share the work created at that day’s workshops at a late afternoon open mic reading.
Keynote Speaker
Marisa Moks-Unger, Poet Laureate of Erie County, PA
Instructor Bios & Workshop Descriptions
Myra Shapiro - Poet and Memoirist
Myra Shapiro is the author of three collections of poetry: I’ll See You Thursday, In Greenwich Village We Talk of Love, and 12 Floors Above the Earth. She has also written a memoir, Four Sublets: Becoming a Poet in New York.
Myra, born in the Bronx, returned to New York City after 45 years in Georgia and Tennessee, where she married, raised two daughters, and worked as a librarian and English teacher.
She was awarded the New School’s Dylan Thomas Poetry Award, named a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Award, and nominated for a Pushcart Award. She serves on the Board of Directors at Poets House as well as teaches poetry for the International Women’s Writing Guild.
Community and Solitude: Reading and Writing Poems
We write in solitude but we are never alone. We'll explore the bridge between self and other, writing out of that experience. Please bring to the workshop something that has called to you, and you pick up, from nature.
Marj Hahne - Poet and Essayist
Marj Hahne is a freelance editor and writing teacher from Longmont, Colorado. A 2015 MFA graduate from the Rainier Writing Workshop, she has performed and taught at over 100 venues around the country, as well as been featured on public radio and television programs.
Her poems have been published in Paterson Literary Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Mad Poets Review, and Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts, as well as in the anthologies Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, An Eye For An Eye Makes The Whole World Blind: Poets On 9/11, Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the police. Marj’s poems have also appeared in several art exhibits, as well as been incorporated in the work of visual artists and dancers. She has a poetry CD titled notspeak.
Hybrid Lit: To Genre-Bend/Blend/Blur/Bust for Truer Narratives
“Emotional truth is the reward of digging deeply enough to find the truth about how one really feels, but in order to convey this truth with any force, or artistry, one needs to create a form of expression, and this form determines its own genuine information,” says poet Philip Schultz, in a 2008 interview (Five Points, Vol. 12, No. 2). We’ll survey the prose poem, flash fiction, flash nonfiction, haibun, zuihitsu, the lyric essay, surreal memoir, and the graphic poem and essay to elicit fresher ways of seeing and saying the scenes and stories that compose your life.
Cancellation Policy: Full refund minus $25 admin fee through October 21st. No refund starting October 22nd.