Upcoming Writers Workshops
and Open Mic Night
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from the Pat Conroy Literary Center |
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Upcoming Writers Workshops |
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Repetition and Evolution
A Tool For Structure
April 20, 6:00 p.m.: In this workshop, we take a close look at the children’s book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, the Marc Richard short story, “Strays,” and Donald Barthelme's "The School" to see what they can teach us about how to structure a work in progress. We discuss the natural progression and repetitions in these narratives and how each story resolves itself through evolving the repeating element. Workshop attendees take a close look at applying these principles to their own works in progress, whether in the drafting, revising or polishing stages.
Amber Wheeler Bacon is a writer and editor whose fiction and nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Ecotone, Epiphany, Five Points, Post Road, New Ohio Review, Crazyhorse and Witness. You can find her writing online at Ploughshares, Fiction Writer’s Review, CRAFT and New South. She is the recipient of the 2022 Lit/South Award for flash fiction, the 2018 Breakout Writers Prize sponsored by The Author’s Guild and a scholarship from Bread Loaf Environmental. In 2020, her story collection, “We Were Vessels,” was one of five finalists for Hub City Press’s C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize and a finalist for Moon City Press’s Short Fiction Award. She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is on the board of directors of the South Carolina Writers Association. She currently serves as daily editor at the Southern Review of Books and teaches English at Coastal Carolina University.
This workshop will be held on Zoom. $45, limited to 15 participants.
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Mapping Mother Relationships
For Better or Worse
April 30, 10:00 a.m.: This free in-person poetry workshop will open with passages written by Pat Conroy that explore his relationship with his mother, Peg Conroy. Participants will then take an active role in reading selected poems by Jamaica Kincaid, Li Young Lee, Dorianne Laux, Kiki Petrosino, Raymod Antrobus, and Sharon Olds for discussion. The focus is to have an open forum for dialogue for poets of all levels of experience that will serve as a springboard for the writing of new poems exploring relationships with the mothers in our own lives.
Charlene Monahan Spearen received her MFA degree in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of South Carolina. She is currently serving as the Public Relations and Special Projects Coordinator for Penn Center after a successful career in academia at Allen University. She served as the Program Coordinator for the University of South Carolina’s Arts Institute and was the Assistant Director for the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. In addition to her work throughout the Carolinas, Spearen has been a featured reader and Creative Writing instructor and scholar in County Monaghan and County Mayo, Ireland. She has published a full-length collection of poems titled A Book of Exquisite Disasters (University of South Carolina Press, 2008). Her poems have appeared in journals and publications throughout the United States.
This workshop will be held in person at the Conroy Center. FREE, limited to 15 participants. 2 spots left!
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The Art of Writing Supense
May 19, 6:00 p.m.: Why do people love page-turners? In this workshop, we will explore how to write a cliff-hanger and how to know when to wrap up a scene. We'll also discuss the importance of complex characters and how to lop off those wonderful setting descriptions and cling to the action. We will discover as writers how to write our own page-turners.
Kerry Peresta’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011), and magazine articles in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is the author of two novels, The Hunting, women’s fiction, and The Deadening, Book One of the Olivia Callahan Suspense Series. Books Two and Three release in 2022 and 2023 by Level Best Books. She spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, South Carolina Writers Association, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Recently, she worked as editor and contributor for Island Communications, a local publishing house. Kerry and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island, SC, in 2015. She is the mother of four adult children, and has a bunch of wonderful grandkids who keep life interesting and remind her what life is all about.
This workshop will be held on Zoom. $45, limited to 15 participants.
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Making Messes
How Character and Plot Thrive on Mistakes
May 25, 6:00 p.m.: Fiction often relies on bad behavior and making messes. In an interview about writing his movies, Ethan Coen said that many of his stories begin when he takes a situation or problem and gives it to a character who is incapable of dealing with it. Mistakes are then made, and they pile up, moving the narrative forward. In this class, we’ll look at the movie *The Big Lebowski *and a few pieces of literature where characters create difficult problems for themselves and then have to solve them.
Come to this workshop prepared to write! We’ll be doing exercises in character development with bad behavior and mistakes in mind. Problems in fiction often stem from interactions between characters. We’ll pay close attention to what kinds of interactions might create the best problems for your characters, and how these can relate to the broader narrative within a story.
Amber Wheeler Bacon's bio appears above.
This workshop will be held on Zoom. $45, limited to 15 participants.
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Find Your Storyteller's Voice with Telling Trails
June 2 & 16, 6:00 p.m.: This special pair of workshops is designed to engage with writers and creators searching for their storytelling voice. Instructor Iris Jackson will share experiences from her Telling Trails photos, poems, and writings, providing time for comments and conversation, with the goal of students creating and sharing their own narratives.Utilizing Telling Trails as a vehicle, participants will have opportunity to listen, share, write, and join in conversations about their creative journeys. After some shorter writing exercises, storytellers will have the opportunity to focus on their chosen themes to develop a larger more complete piece to be shared in the second session—with additional time for presentations, conversations, and feedback. Workshop attendees will also have the opportunity for their works to be included in upcoming blogs on the Telling Trails website, along with possible inclusion in the Telling Trails Tour Book Series.
As a longtime educator in the public schools, delivering college seminars and continuing education courses, Iris Jackson has worked with students of many ages. Continually creating as a freelance musician, theater performer, and art curator, Jackson has turned these experiences toward her Telling Trails Book Series, and she is looking for collaborators to expand the community of storytellers. She has also participated in the Savannah Book Festival, Safe Harbors of the Hudson, and numerous indie bookstore events, as well as working with schools, libraries, museums, and sports teams. Learn more about Telling Trails (and order copies of the book) at www.tellingtrails.org.
This workshop will be held on Zoom. $60 (includes both sessions), limited to 15 participants.
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Pitching Person Essays and Op-Eds
June 11, 10:00 a.m.: Let’s face it, writers today must be proficient at wearing two hats—both as writer and self promoter. Publication of your personal essays and op-eds (opinion pieces) is a valuable tool that can help market your book(s), build your platform, enhance your credibility, form relationships with editors, and land you an agent. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to craft your pitches for personal essays and op-eds, and lift them out of the slush pile. Op-eds are not just for PhDs, celebrities, and those with discrete technical knowledge. Everyone has an expertise and we’ll explore how to find yours.
The author of Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection, Beverly Willett has written for the New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, the New York Post, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, and many more. A former entertainment lawyer in New York City, she now lives in Savannah, Georgia, and serves on the boards of the homeless authority and the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. To learn more, watch her TEDx Talk “How to Begin Again.”
This hybrid workshop will be held both in person at the Conroy Center and on Zoom. $45, limited to 15 participants.
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February Open Mic Night, Featuring Len Lawson
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April Open Mic Night,
Featuring Elizabeth Robin
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Offered online on second Thursdays, our monthly virtual Open Mic Night is hosted by Brooke McKinney and presented in partnership with the South Carolina Writers Association. Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Contact host Brooke McKinney at brooke@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
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Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort, SC 29902
843-379-7025 | contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
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