The rest of Day 4 here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference is in the books. Part 1/3 here.
Workshop (2/3)
Pretty fantastic. We discussed the publishing panel from this morning. As I said I would, I asked Angela about publishing longer creative nonfiction and she did give a more concrete answer, different from the morning. She said to treat it more like general nonfiction.
I have now really three answers, but Angela’s the one with one such book published and one she’s working on, so she’s been through the process and is in it right now. And you know what they say about walking in the paths made by those who have done what you want to do. And if you don’t, brush up on your cliches.
We also discussed the lyric essay, the first cousin of the prose poem, my favorite type of essay. The lyric essay’s definition and characteristics are quite tricky, but they’re fun to read and write. I wrote one as my start-of-workshop freewrite.
All of us wrote some pretty good ones during the end-of-session writing time. And the best part is that as you’re gathering these ideas that comprise your lyric essay, there’s nothing that says you can’t take them individually and expand upon them.
My workshop essay for tomorrow is one, too. We’ll see how that goes.
Evening Lecture (3/3)
First, Liz Arnold talked about Ezra Pound’s Cantos. Then we had a second participant reading. I should have read, but I was thinking I’d have to read an essay, since CNF is the workshop I’m in. However, I would read a few poems. Maybe next year. Maybe if I come back next year, I’ll go into the poetry workshop. We’ll see.
Food and Kids
No problems at lunch or dinner. I wasn’t there.
Other good stuff …
I took another trip off campus with another workshop participant, a guy who’s from here and was filling me in on a lot of St. Mary’s history –both the College and the County– that I’d missed and talking about the stuff I did remember. I enjoyed that a lot. Well worth the time spent. I’m very grateful.
The Improv participant, also from the area, agreed to ask their folks about a particular location on Great Mills Road that I remember, but not totally. It closed down because of health code violations back in the day, but I’ve been trying to remember the name and possibly write about it or at least put the issue to bed so I can complete this remembrance and put it to bed.. And now, I’ve not only come back, but I’ve met folks who have been helping me. What a time.
Whatever strong is, that’s how I’m going to finish tomorrow.
There will be a postmortem for this, perhaps more than one.