Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014 (UPDATE III)
Room E: Registration (8:00-9:00 a.m.) & Book Fair (all day), Room D: Conference Welcome (8:45 a.m.)
Time
ROOM A
Gender, Publishing, & the Politics of Exclusion
9:00-10:00 a.m.
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Chair: TBA
Panelists: Rachael Peralez, Stephanie Doyle, Jessica Varin
Why I Write Southern Sacrilege: Reflections on Flannery
O’Connor’s “The Church and the Fiction Writer”
ROOM B
ROOM C
Peter Huggins (chair, p),
Mary Anna Evans (f),
Randy Bates (CNF)
Patti White (chair, p),
CD Mitchell (f),
Karen Gardiner (p)
Telling the Truth Telling Lies
Katie Riegel (chair, p),
Jay Snodgrass (p),
Brent House (p)
Chair: Aaron Singh (USF)
Panelists: Ashley Annis (USF),
Chair: CD Mitchell , Saundra Kelley
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Centennial Hall Auditorium (Room D)
Graduate & Undergraduate Writing Awards
Keynote Reading by Susan Cerulean
Noon-1:30 p.m.
Lunch Break1
What We Love to Teach
1:30-2:30 p.m.
2:30-3:30 p.m.
Chair: Katie Riegel (USF)
Panelists: Jim Miller (Full Sail), Ira Sukrungruang (USF)
No Creative Writing Program? No Problem: Pedagogical
and Administrative Strategies for Bringing Creative
Writing to Non-Creative Writing Institutions
Co-Chairs: Dominikia Wrozynski (Manhattan College) and
Suzanne Cope (Manhattan College), Jeff Newberry (ABAC),
Brent House (CUP)
Tad Bartlett (chair, f),
Erica DeVeer (p),
Megan McHugh (p)
Jessica Kidd (p, chair),
Laura Smith (f)
David Moody (p)
M.O. Walsh (f, chair)
Brendan Frost (f),
Barb Johnson (f)
Kristen Kuczenski (p, chair)
Anne Brettell,
Betheny Startin
Meri Culp (chair, p),
Lu Vickers (CNF),
Jamey Jones (p)
Alexandra Reisner (chair, CNF),
Carin Chapman (f),
Roxy Seay (p)
Storytelling: An Interdisciplinary Exploration
3:30-4:30 p.m.
6:00 p.m-Until
Chair: David Moody (FSU)
Panelists: Kate Pierson, Peter Wood, Justin Stuart,
Alex Palmero (FSU)
AMERICAN LEGION HALL
Conference Reception2
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ROOM D
Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014 (UPDATE III)
Room E: Registration (8:00-9:00 a.m.) & Book Fair (all day)
Time
ROOM A
Disk Golf/Sports Reading
9:00-10:00 a.m.
10:00-11:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chairs: Ira Sukrungurang (USF) and
John Henry Fleming (USF)3
The Blind Leading the Blind:
The Pleasures & Pitfalls of the
Undergraduate Workshop
Chair: Susan Finch (Belmont)
Panelists: Jessica Pitchford (UNC Pembroke),
Patti White (UA)
ROOM B
ROOM C
Tom Holmes (chair, p),
Mike Colonna (f),
Jeff Newberry (p)
Joanna Leake (chair, f),
Fredrick Barton (f),
M.E. Riley (p)
Michael Piafsky (chair, f)
Ash Bowen (p)
Vicki Hendricks (f)
Randolph Thomas (chair, f)
Andrea Panzeca (cnf)
Beth Rodgers (f)
ROOM D
Hunter McCullough
Alyssa Riveiro
Tyler Williams
Centennial Hall Auditorium (Room D)
“What Are Editors Looking For?”
Chair: Jim Miller (ĕm), Panelists: Tom Holmes (Redactions: Poetry & Poetics), Kristine Snodgrass (CaKe), Randy Bates (Bayou),
Ralph Adamo (Xavier Review)
Noon-1:30 p.m.
Lunch Break1
The Spark: Engaging Students’ Creativity
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Chair: Ash Bowen (UA)
Panelists: Kristine Snodgrass (FAMU), Beth
Rodgers (UWF), Daryl Brown (UNA)
Crime Fiction & Place
2:30-3:30 p.m.
Chair: Lynne Barrett (FIU)
Panelists: Vicki Hendricks (Broward College),
Mary Anna Evans (Rutgers-Camden)
Writing the Sex Scene
3:30--4:30 p.m.
Chair: CD Mitchell
Panelists: Chad Faries (SSU)
Jim Miller (cnf, chair)
Peter Wood (p),
Kevin Waltman (f),
CD Mitchell (cnf)
Lynne Barrett (f)
Saundra Kelley (f)
Matt Epperson (cnf)
Robin Baudier (f)
Chad Faries (cnf)
Dominika Wrozynski (p, chair)
Suzanne Cope (cnf),
Sarah Duffy (p)
Blake Gerard (f, chair),
Richard Goodman (cnf),
Ralph Adamo (p)
Aaron Singh
TBA
TBA
Unlocking the Landscape:
Poetry Workshop
Facilitator: Shannon Ward
(Methodist University)
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Kami Ownbey (chair f),
Nordette Adams (f)
Lea Downing (f)
Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
Notes
1
Downtown Fairhope is home to many restaurants and eateries and is walking distance from the Faulkner State Community College campus.
2
The Fairhope American Legion is located at 700 S Mobile Ave, Fairhope, AL 36532. Right behind the hall is a beautiful stretch of beach (a
park area). In case of rain, the reception will move indoors. The reception will feature a cash bar and the following menu:
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Muffulettas
Vegetarian pinwheels
Chicken/Sausage Gumbo
Seafood Gumbo
Assorted Cookies
3
This panel takes place at the city of Fairhope Disk Golf Course at 701 Volanta Avenue. All participants must provide their own transportation.
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Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
Panel Descriptions
“Why I Write Southern Sacrilege: Reflections on Flannery O’Connor’s 'The Church and the Fiction Writer.' ”
Much southern writing deals with religion in a rather sacrilegious manner. I propose a panel on using religion in creative writing and the special consequences and
approaches of doing so.I will be making a presentation on Flannery O'Connor's words on the topic and invite anyone else who finds that religion holds a special place
within your prose or poetry to join in. Discussions on the unique approach to religion in southern literature, observations on different approaches to using religion in
your writings, pedagogical approaches to discussing religion of southern literature in the classroom, or even general observations of the reaction of people to your
writing about religion can be shared. I invite anyone with something to say on this topic to join in.
Panelists: C.D. Mitchell (Chair), Jeffrey Vasseur (VSU), Saundra Kelley
SubVERSEive: Poetry and Politics
“I've often said that all poetry is political. This is because real poems deal with a human response to reality and politics is part of reality, history in the making. Even if
a poet writes about sitting in a glass house drinking tea, it reflects politics.” — Yehuda Amichai Is all poetry political? Indeed, when we write, we are writing against
something. Does that something have to be an issue of broad socio-cultural significance to be deemed political? Or is the act itself—the creation of art for its own
sake—subversive enough to qualify, regardless of content or intent? In our panel, subVERSEive, we will examine these questions and discuss the work and political
implications of such poets as Philip Levine, Amiri Baraka, Kenneth Rexroth, and others.
Panelists: Lacie Meier (USF), Chad Faries (Savannah State)
No Creative Writing Program? No Problem: Pedagogical and Administrative Strategies for Bringing Creative Writing to Non-Creative Writing Institutions
Dominika Wrozynski will speak about infusing a non-creative writing campus with creative writing activities (like literary journals and a reading series). Suzanne Cope
will speak about classroom strategies where she incorporates creative writing into a variety of literature classes
Panelists: Jeff Newberry (ABAC), Brent House (California University of Pennsylvania)
“The Spark: How to Ignite Students' Creativity”
Writing teachers in both the creative writing and the composition classroom face similar challenges. How can we as educators help students spark their own
imaginations? This panel invites participants to discuss various exercises, theories, practical, and not-so-practical pedagogies for the writing classroom.
Panelists: Ash Bowen (Chair, UA), Kristine Snodgrass (FAMU), Beth Rodgers (UWF), Daryl Brown (UNA)
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Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
Writing the Sex Scene
Many are aware of the Literary Review's Award for the worst written sex scene in the previous year (http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/badsex2013.php). Beth Ann
Fennelly just wrote a great article in Poets and Writers about her experience writing the sex scene in her last novel. The challenge seems to be how to describe the
familiar without using the old worn out cliches, while preserving the reality of the situation. Is it best at times to just get down and dirty with it and use those old,
nasty descriptors, or should we talk poetically using metaphors to get across our orgasms? I suggest panelists bring examples of the best and worst sex scenes and talk
about issues they have faced in writing such material. The wild popularity of Fifty Shades proves there is a market for such material, but is it the sex, or what happens
afterward that makes the sex powerful? Sex changes relationships, so should the focus in literary material be on what happens afterward? I welcome panelists to join
and make suggestions. This was an issue I struggled with in my first book, and I'd love to know what others think!
Panelists: C.D. Mitchell (chair), Chad Faries (Savannah State)
Writing and Publishing Trade Books: Options for Creative Writers
Panel chair Kate Cumiskey writes:
I have found that, as a working writer with an MFA in poetry, writing trade books has helped gain recognition for my poetry. I wrote a trade nonfiction book for one
publisher; was contacted by another interested in my poetry after he read that book; then other trade publishers for my nonfiction. I currently have a memoir contract
and a trade nonfiction contract. There is discussion in the literary world about whether to write for trade publishers. It’s a hot topic among writers; I'd like to delve
into this. For some of us who wish to write full-time (eventually forgoing teaching) this trade/literary situation is an option.
Panelists: Kate Cumiskey (Chair, UCF)
Gender, Publishing, and the Politics of Exclusion: Intersectional Feminism 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 include Rachael Peralez, Fiction editor for Quaint Magazine and Kia Groom, founding & poetry editor for
Quaint. We have reached out to Belle Journal for their participation, but not yet heard back. Contributing panelists welcome.
Panelists: Kia Groom (Editor, Quaint), Rachel Peralez (Quaint), Stephanie Doyle (UNO), Jessica Varin (UNO)
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: Randy Bates (Bayou), Tom Holmes (Redactions: Poetry & Poetics), Kristine Snodgrass (CaKe), Jim Miller (ĕm), Ralph Adamo (New Orleans
Review), other panelists TBA
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Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
Disc Golf & Writing: A Field Excursion
Ira Sukrungruang and John Henry Fleming will lead an itinerant disc golf/sports reading. Interested participants will gather at the first tee of the campus disc golf
course. Panelists and participants will take turns reading short, sports-related poetry or prose as they play nine holes of disc golf. No disc golf experience necessary.
We'll bring discs and give throwing tips. This will be an open mic/open air event; participants are invited to bring sports-related work to read, a minute or two at a
time.
Panelists: Ira Sukrungruang (USF) and John Henry Fleming (USF), co-chairs
Crime Fiction & Place
Writers of novels and short stories framed around crimes will discuss how they draw readers into the significance of place and issues like environment, development,
corruption, and social justice. We’ll also look at how the choice of point of view—whether the narration centers on a criminal, victim, witness, investigator, or uses
more than one perspective—constructs the reader’s journey across boundaries and awareness of class, race, gender, occupation, or other territorial divisions.
Panelists: Lynne Barrett--Chair (FIU) Vicki Hendricks (Broward College) Mary Anna Evans (Rutgers-Camden)
Storytelling: An Interdisciplinary Art
A search of the term “storytelling” in the Ted Talks archives results in 89 lectures. These discussions range from uses of Twitter to the place of narrative in medical
schools. Storytelling is a fundamental, archival and active function of language, yet at times the teaching and use of story in academia seems limited to creative writing
classrooms. This interdisciplinary panel brings together representatives instructors and students from varied academic departments. These panelists have taught or
participated in classes where storytelling has played a significant role. They will discuss their experiences and insight. Organized by David A. Moody of Florida State
University’s English Department, this panel will include two Florida State graduate instructors—Kate Pierson from the Theatre Department and Peter Wood from the
Geography Department—as well as two undergraduate representatives—Justin Stuart from the University of North Florida’s History department and Alexa Palmero
from Florida State University’s Theatre Department.
Unlocking the Landscape: Poetry Workshop
From mountains, seasides, cities, and small towns, poets the world over are inspired by landscape. One of the dangers of proclaiming an allegiance to place, though, is
the potential for geographic isolation. Will our work resonate with readers who are scattered across the map? Luckily, poets have a wealth of peculiar techniques for
transporting readers through time, space, and memory. This workshop will explore the craft of using landscape as a catalyst for greater insight. We will begin by taking
fifteen minutes to write a description of a memorable place (or you may bring a draft with you and revise it at this time). Afterward, we will study some of the
strategies used by the experts to lend universal appeal to local imagery. Lastly, participants will apply one of the strategies to their descriptions, and the workshop will
end with a voluntary reading.
Panelist: Shannon Ward (Methodist University, Facilitator)
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Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers 2014 Conference
Faulkner State Community College, Fairhope, AL
The Blind Leading the Blind: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of the Undergraduate Workshop Model
Flannery O’Connor wrote that writing workshops at universities are dangerous, akin to the blind leading the blind; student comments, she argued, are driven by
ignorance, flattery, and spite. Even so, the traditional model for the creative writing classroom almost always includes some kind of workshop element where students
are asked to comment on and critique each other’s work. The workshop has been an integral part of the creative writing classroom for years, but what is it really
teaching students? Is it even necessary in an introductory setting? In the undergraduate workshop, instructors often find that students may not have the vocabulary or
experience to participate successfully in this exercise. This panel would examine the pros and cons of using the workshop in the undergraduate classroom and
considers possible alternatives
Panelists: Susan Finch (Belmont, Chair), Jessica Pitchford (Belmont), Patti White (University of Alabama)
Telling the Truth: Blurring the Line Between Fiction and Nonfiction
When a creative nonfiction writer does not have enough information to write a scene confidently, the writer may choose to speculate about the event instead of
writing a flat scene lacking depth. These moments of speculation allow the writer to maintain their reliability by being honest about the amount of information they
know, or don’t know, or imagine. Likewise, a fiction writer may adopt nonfiction forms to achieve a different effect in her writing. For instance, a fictional story in
the form of a lyrical essay can allow the writer to manage a wider time frame than in a traditional narrative. In this panel, we will discuss how borrowing elements
from other genres can help strengthen a story or an essay.
Panelists: Ashley Annis (USF, Chair), Aaron Singh (USF)
What We Love to Teach
Panelists will each do a mini-lesson using a specific short work of creative writing that has been successfully used in the classroom. Some poems, essays and stories are
just perfect to get across basic craft ideas--and it works even better when we freely admit that we love these pieces, and why.
Panelists: Katie Riegel (USF, Chair), Ira Sukrungruang (USF), Jim Miller (Full Sail)
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