13th Annual Kentucky Writers Conference
Friday, April 22, 2016
9am-3:30pm
WKU South Campus (adjacent to Knicely Conference Center)
2355 Nashville Road
Sponsored by Dollar General
Note: We’ve added an extra workshop during each session block for this year’s Writers Conference!
The Kentucky Writers Conference will be held at Western Kentucky University’s South Campus location this year,
conveniently located next door to the Knicely Center. Taking into account survey feedback from 2015’s Conference, we
have reserved classrooms and an additional conference room to make it easy to hear authors, take notes, ask questions,
and receive feedback. Each classroom holds a limited number of registrants, so sign up now!
More information about South Campus, including a map, is included on the last few pages of this document. A summary
of workshops, including info about each instructor, is below. Questions should be directed to sara.volpi@wku.edu.
Session 1:
9:00-10:15am
Session 2:
10:30-11:45am
Session 3:
12:45-2:00pm
Session 4:
2:15-3:30pm
Conference Room 303
Conference Room 303
Conference Room 303
Conference Room 303
Virginia Smith:
Humor in Fiction - It's no
Joke!
Catherine McKenzie and
Jamie Mason:
Crafting Compelling
Characters
Michael Hingson:
Adapting in Challenging
Times
Room 215
Room 215
Room 215
Katherine Howe:
When Witches Fly, which
Way Should They Hold the
Broom? World Building in
Fiction
Room 215
David Madden:
Revision are Acts of the
Imagination
Michael Morris:
Capturing our Stories: A
Southern Tradition
Erica Wright and Dana
Chamblee Carpenter:
Using All Our Senses
Laura Benedict:
It's All Genre--Find Yours
Room 217
Harper C. Lee:
Scriptwriting for Beginners
Room 217
R. Dean Johnson:
You’ve Got a Complete
Manuscript, Now What?
Room 217
Julie Hensley:
Sculpting and Polishing
Lines in Poetry
Room 217
Crystal Wilkinson:
Writing from Multiple
Voices in Fiction
Room 218
Room 218
Room 218
Room 218
Molly McCaffrey:
To Tell the Truth: The
Implications of Honesty in
Memoir
Karen Salyer McElMurray:
The Art of the Essay
C.J. Redwine:
Query & Book Copy
Writing 101
Courtney Stevens and
Kristin Tubb:
First Page Critique
Workshop
SESSION 1: 9-10:15AM
CONFERENCE ROOM 303
1. Virginia Smith: Humor in Fiction - It's no Joke! – Regardless of genre, the effective use of humor will engage your
readers and keep them turning pages. But there's more to writing humor than telling jokes. Learn how to infuse your
story with humor. Come prepared to laugh and learn!
Virginia Smith is the bestselling author of twenty-four novels, an illustrated children’s book, and over fifty articles and
short stories. An avid reader with eclectic tastes in fiction, Ginny writes in a variety of styles, from lighthearted
relationship stories to breath-snatching suspense. Her books have been finalists in ACFW’s Carol Award, the Daphne du
Maurier Award of Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the Maggie Awards, and the National Reader’s Choice Awards. Two
of her novels, A Daughter’s Legacy (2011) and Dangerous Impostor (2013) received the Holt Medallion Award of Merit.
Learn more about Ginny and her books at www.VirginiaSmith.org.
ROOM 215
2. David Madden: Revision are Acts of the Imagination – Madden will talk about the transforming role of the
imagination in the revision process. For instance, one may imagine the effects of a change in the point of view technique
upon style and imagery. Madden will also talk about imagining revisions that create what he uniquely calls “the charged
image."
David Madden was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1933. He graduated from U-Tenn., served in the Army,
earned an M.A. at San Francisco State, and attended Yale Drama School on a John Golden Fellowship. He was writer-inresidence at LSU from 1968 to 1992, Director of the Creative Writing Program 1992-1994, Founding Director of the
United States Civil War Center 1992-1999, and is now LSU Robert Penn Warren Professor of Creative Writing., Emeritus,
living in Black Mountain, NC.
In 1961, Random House published his first novel, The Beautiful Greed, based on his Merchant seaman experiences. For
Warner Brothers, he adapted his second novel, Cassandra Singing, to the screen (not yet produced). The Shadow Knows,
a book of stories, won a National Council on the Arts Award, judged by Hortense Calisher and Walker Percy. His second
collection, The New Orleans of Possibilities, appeared in 1982. His stories have been reprinted in numerous college
textbooks and twice in Best American Short Stories. His best-known novel, The Suicide's Wife, was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize and made into a CBS movie. Pleasure-Dome, On the Big Wind, Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War,
Abducted By Circumstance, and London Bridge in Plague and Fire are his most recent novels. His third book of stories,
The Last Bizarre Tale, appeared in August of 2014. The Tangled Web of the Civil War and Reconstruction (essays)
appeared in the fall of 2015.
ROOM 217
3. Harper C. Lee: Scriptwriting for Beginners – Information forthcoming
Harper Lee is a writer and theatre professional living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. She loves her city and the arts
community there. She freelances as a copy writer and editor and regularly reviews theatre for the alt weekly in Cincy,
CityBeat.
ROOM 218
4. Molly McCaffrey: To Tell the Truth: The Implications of Honesty in Memoir – Memoir has become an extremely
popular genre over the past twenty years: memoirs from writers as diverse as Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Patti
Smith (Just Kids) have stormed the bestseller list. The rise of the memoir has raised many questions: Is it ever acceptable
to embellish (as James Frey did in A Million Little Pieces)? Does the memoir writer owe it to the reader to be completely
honest? Also, is it appropriate to re-create events and dialogue that the writer doesn't remember verbatim? And then
there are the questions about the other people who appear in the memoir: When is too soon to tell family stories? And
what does the writer do when family or friends are not happy about or have their feelings hurt as a result of appearing
in the memoir (even if their names are changed)? What is your obligation to those people? And how do you balance
your desire to tell your story with others' desire for privacy? Also, what happens when the writer's subjects disagree
with the writer's version of events (like they did with Augusten Burrough's Running with Scissors)?
Of course, all of these questions raise an even bigger one: Simply, what is the truth? And can we, as writers, ever do it
justice? This workshop will address those questions and offer an approach to dealing with these complicated issues.
Molly McCaffrey is the author of the memoir You Belong to Us and the collection of stories How to Survive Graduate
School & Other Disasters. She received her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati and
has just been nominated for her fourth Pushcart Prize. She lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with her husband, novelist
David Bell.
SESSION 2: 10:30-11:45AM
CONFERENCE ROOM 303
1. Catherine McKenzie and Jamie Mason: Crafting Compelling Characters – Great characters bring life to fiction, but
how do you develop them? How do you make your characters feel realistic without creating caricatures or clichés? Join
authors Jamie Mason and Catherine McKenzie for a workshop on crafting compelling characters that will help bring your
fiction to life.
Catherine McKenzie, a graduate of McGill University in History and Law, practices law in Montreal, where she was born
and raised. Catherine's novels, Spin, Arranged, Forgotten, and Hidden are all international bestsellers and have been
translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Slovakian and Czech. Hidden
was also a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Digital Bookworld bestseller for five weeks. She has also published a novella,
Spun, which is a sequel to Spin.
Jamie Mason, author of Monday’s Lie and Three Graves Full, grew up in the Washington, DC area and now lives and
writes from her home in the mountains of North Carolina.
ROOM 215
2. Michael Morris: Capturing our Stories: A Southern Tradition – A workshop that will explore the Southern tradition of
storytelling and how to draw stories from family, folklore, place and time.
Michael Morris, a fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, knows Southern culture and characters. They are the
foundation and inspiration for the stories and novels he writes. While studying under author Tim McLaurin, Michael
started the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. The debut book won the Christy
Award for Best First Novel. Michael’s second novel, Slow Way Home, was compared to the work of Harper Lee and
Flannery O’Connor by the Washington Post. It was nationally ranked as one of the top three recommended books by the
American Booksellers Association and named one of the best novels of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Publishers Weekly named his latest novel, Man in the Blue Moon, a best book of 2012 -- calling it “a magical and
mesmerizing page-turner…with overtones of Flannery O’Connor and the rural Florida backdrop of Their Eyes Were
Watching God.” Man in the Blue Moon was also an Indie Next List book club selection – ranking number three on the
independent bookseller association’s list of recommended reads.
ROOM 217
3. R. Dean Johnson: You’ve Got a Complete Manuscript, Now What? – Whether you’re a writer of poetry or prose, at
some point you’re going to have a complete manuscript on your hands. Do you submit it to contests or small presses?
Should you find a literary agent or maybe revise one more time? And what are the do’s and don’ts of query letters? This
will be a nuts & bolts discussion and Q&A about what is the right path for what you’ve written.
R. Dean Johnson is the author of the story collection, Delicate Men (2014) the creative nonfiction chapbook, Something
L.A. (2015), and the forthcoming novel, Californium (forthcoming July 2016). His essays and stories have appeared in
Ascent, Hawai'i Pacific Review, Louisville Review, New Orleans Review, Ruminate, The Southern Review, and elsewhere.
An Associate Professor at Eastern Kentucky University, he directs the Bluegrass Writers Studio Low-Residency MFA in
Creative Writing Program. Originally from Anaheim, California, he now lives in Richmond, Kentucky with his wife, the
author Julie Hensley, and their two children.
ROOM 218
4. Karen Salyer McElMurray: The Art of the Essay – Information forthcoming
Karen Salyer McElmurray’s Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey was an Associated Writing Programs prize
winner in Nonficton and a National Book Critics Circle Notable Book. Her novels are The Motel of the Stars and Strange
Birds in the Tree of Heaven. The recipient of a National Endowment from the Arts Fellowship, McElmurray teaches at
Gettysburg College and West Virginia Wesleyan College.
SESSION 3: 12:45-2:00PM
CONFERENCE ROOM 303
1. Michael Hingson: Adapting in Challenging Times – Information forthcoming
Michael Hingson, blind since birth, was born in Chicago to sighted parents who believed in raising their son with a cando attitude. Treated like all other children in his family, Michael rode a bike, did advanced math in his head, and learned
to read and write – Braille that is! Whe was five years old, Hingson had his first adventure with Guide Dogs for the Blind
and received his first guide dog. He received a BA and MA in Physics from the University of California at Irvine. Michael
enjoyed a nearly-30 year career working largely in management roles for high tech companies.
His life changed dramatically on September 11, 2001 when he and his guide dog, Roselle, escaped from the 78th floor of
Tower One in the World Trade Center moments before it collapsed. Soon after, Michael and Roselle were thrust into the
international limelight where Michael began to share his unique survival story and 9-11 lessons of trust, courage,
heroism, and teamwork. Mike has served as The National Public Affairs Director for one of the largest Blind Nonprofit
organizations in the nation: Guide Dogs for the Blind. He serves as the vice president of the National Association of
Guide Dog Users and holds seats boards including the Marin Senior Coordinating Council where he completed his term
as president in 2014. Michael is The National Ambassador for the Braille Literacy Campaign of the National Federation of
the Blind and the Founder of the Roselle’s Dream Foundation – helping the blind obtain the technology they need to not
only excel in school and at work, but to live out their dreams!
He is the author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller: Thunder Dog – selling over 2.5 million copies Worldwide.
Aside from his talents and advocacies, Mr. Hingson has traveled the globe speaking to some of the worlds most elite:
from George W. Bush to Larry King to Fortune 500 clubs and Universities Nationwide. After sharing his story of survival
on hundreds of TV and Radio programs, Michael is now an Expert hired by many of today’s major corporations and
organizations. Consulting on the importance of Teamwork and Trust, Moving From Diversity to Inclusion, as well as
offering Adaptive Technology Training – spearheading innovation for ALL! – Thus bringing organizations to the forefront
of the ever-changing competitive modern world.
ROOM 215
2. Erica Wright and Dana Chamblee Carpenter – Using All Our Senses
While visual imagery is certainly useful, it has a tendency to overshadow our other senses when we write. While it's best
not to take our eyes off a copperhead, perhaps we can back away, notice how the gravel crunches beneath our feet,
how the sulfur from a nearby spring overwhelms the honeysuckle. This workshop focuses on engaging all the senses,
choosing the best ones for our stories and poems. Our hands-on session will explore scents, textures, and sounds with
the hope of sparking new ideas for everyone. The techniques we practice can be used for starting, revising, or even
overcoming writer's block.
Dana Chamblee Carpenter teaches literature and creative writing at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. Her debut
novel, Bohemian Gospel, won Killer Nashville’s 2014 Claymore Award and has been praised as “A grand, thoughtprovoking adventure in sorrow, joy and magic,” by J. T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of What Lies Behind.
Mark Richard, author of The Ice at the Bottom of the World says, “Like a rushing river, Bohemian Gospel, flows bright,
dappled with a patina of legend, and has a current that runs deep and wonderfully dark. The reader will be swept along
in this bold debut.” Carpenter’s award-winning short fiction will also be featured in a forthcoming anthology and has
appeared in The Arkansas Review, Jersey Devil Press, and Maypop.
Erica Wright's debut crime novel The Red Chameleon was one of O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of Summer 2014
and was called "riveting" by Publishers Weekly. A sequel, The Granite Moth, will be released in November. She is also the
author of the poetry collection Instructions for Killing the Jackal (2011) and the chapbook Silt (2009). She is the poetry
editor and a senior editor at Guernica Magazine as well as an editorial board member for Alice James Books. She grew
up in Wartrace, TN and received her B.A. from New York University and her M.F.A. from Columbia University.
ROOM 217
3. Julie Hensley: Sculpting and Polishing Lines in Poetry – Information forthcoming
Julie Hensley was raised on a sheep farm in the Shenandoah Valley and traveled West to earn a MFA from Arizona State
University. Now she makes her home in Richmond, Kentucky, with the writer R. Dean Johnson and their two children.
She is a core faculty member of the Bluegrass Writers Studio, the low-residency MFA program at Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems and stories have appeared in dozens of journals, and several have been Pushcart-nominated.
VIABLE is her first book of poems. A collection of her fiction, LANDFALL: A RING of STORIES, won the Ohio State
University Non/fiction prize and will be published in summer 2016.
ROOM 218
4. C.J. Redwine: Query & Book Copy Writing 101 – Learn how to hook an agent, editor, or prospective reader with a
short, powerful description of your book.
C.J. Redwine loves fairy tales, Harry Potter, and Sherlock. She is the author of the Defiance trilogy, a post-apocalyptic
fantasy from Balzer + Bray. C.J. lives in Nashville with her husband and children. If the novel writing gig ever falls
through, she’ll join the Avengers and wear a cape to work every day. To learn more about C.J., visit her website at
www.cjredwine.com
SESSION 4: 2:15-3:30PM
CONFERENCE ROOM 303
1. Katherine Howe: When Witches Fly, which Way Should They Hold the Broom? World Building in Fiction – As fiction
writers, we spend much of our time building worlds that differ from the one in which we live. How do we decide which
rules of reality to break? How many is too many? What's the difference between world-building in literary fiction and
genre fiction? This discussion-based class will think through strategies for making (and breaking) the rules of reality in
your fiction process. Perfect for novelists and short-story writers across the spectrum, from sci-fi to magical realism and
everything in between.
Katherine Howe is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels and a nonfiction book. Her best known work is
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and which was named
one of USA Today’s top 10 books of 2009. Her first novel for young adults, a story of the Salem witch trials called
Conversion, received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature. Her newest novel, a New York Citybased literary thriller called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen, was released in September 2015.
ROOM 215
2. Laura Benedict: It's All Genre--Find Yours – Good writing is good writing. No genre is intrinsically superior to another.
Find the genre you love and work it!
Laura Benedict is the author of five novels of dark suspense, including Charlotte’s Story and Bliss House, the first books
of the Bliss House trilogy. Her work has also appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, PANK, and numerous
anthologies like The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers. She lives with her family in Southern Illinois.
ROOM 217
3. Crystal Wilkinson - Writing from Multiple Voices in Fiction – Information forthcoming
Crystal Wilkinson is the author of Blackberries, Blackberries, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature, and
Water Street, a finalist for both the UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The winner of
the 2008 Denny Plattner Award in Poetry from Appalachian Heritage magazine and the Sallie Bingham Award from the
Kentucky Foundation for Women, she serves as Appalachian Writer-in-Residence at Berea College and teaches in the
Spalding low residency MFA in Creative Writing Program.
ROOM 218
4. Courtney Stevens and Kristin Tubb – First Page Critique Workshop: An editor or agent will often remark that they
know on Page One if they'll continue reading a manuscript. This First Page Critique Workshop is a unique opportunity to
gain insight into the techniques involved in crafting an attention-grabbing first page. Anonymous first pages will be
chosen randomly, read aloud to the group, and Courtney C. Stevens and Kristin O'Donnell Tubb will discuss the everimportant question: how do I keep readers reading? Attendees of the workshop will need to bring two copies of the
first page of a manuscript-in-progress. Please do not include your name on the manuscript and please use traditional
formatting (12-point font, double-space paragraphs), to strive for enough time to cover all attendees' stories. Positive
critiques, thoughtful feedback, and constructive discussion of what constitutes an excellent first page is the goal!
Courtney C. Stevens grew up in Kentucky and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is an adjunct professor and a former
youth minister. Her other skills include playing hide-and-seek, climbing trees, and being an Olympic torch bearer.
Kristin O’Donnell Tubb wrote John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy (as E.F. Abbott), after hearing the incredible
story of Johnny Clem, a nine-year-old runaway who because a famous Civil War drummer boy.
Additional Information
All sessions are held at WKU’s South Campus (adjacent to the Knicely Center). They are free and open to the public,
but seating is limited, so please register in advance on our website. Drop-ins are welcome, but preference for seating
will be given to registered attendees.
Online registration is available through the Southern Kentucky Book Fest website: http://sokybookfest.org/kwcform/.
If you prefer to stay on site during lunch, Smarts Think Tank Café will be open until 1:00pm. Additional options are
available down the street on Campbell Lane, such as Cheddar’s, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, Burger King, and
more.
Directions
For Internet and GPS mapping, use 2355 Nashville Road.
From Nashville: Follow I-65 North to Bowling Green. Use Exit 20 (Natcher Parkway). Follow Natcher Parkway north to
Exit 4 (US 31-W). WKU South Campus is on the left about one block past Campbell Lane.
From Lexington and Louisville: Follow I-65 South to Bowling Green. Use Exit 20 (Natcher Parkway). Follow Natcher
Parkway north to Exit 4 (US 31-W). WKU South Campus is on the left about one block past Campbell Lane.
From Owensboro: Exit Natcher Parkway on US 31-W or Exit 4. WKU South Campus is on the left about one block past
Campbell Lane.
Phone South Campus: 270.780.2506
Phone SOKY Book Fest Coordinator: 270-275-4502
Special thanks to the presenting sponsor of the 2016 Kentucky Writers Conference
Map of South Campus
*Highlighted rooms indicate workshop locations. Maps will be available on-site.