"Speaking Truth" We are keeping some of the changes
tried out at the 20th: a four day Gathering
overlapping with workshops,
and an extra jolt of guest writers
brought in for the weekend. For the
first time, we are offering a writing
workshop for children concurrent
with the morning workshops. You can
now make Fishtrap a family affair!
And Jane Vandenburgh will begin
Fishtrap’s year-long workshop in
the novel! |
| Most years we choose a theme and gather writers around that theme. This year is different, because we’re in the midst of big changes. Fishtrap will have a new Director, Rick Bombaci, and current director Rich Wandschneider will be turning his attention to Fishtrap’s Josephy Library. So we’ve gathered writers up from last summer to now—some who couldn’t come for the 20th bash, others who we had missed over the years—as we’ve made these changes, and we wrapped a program around them. We’re calling it “Speaking Truth.” Read on for the details. And join us in July! |
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| The Workshops | ||
ROBIN CODY |
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Writing in Nature Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. The best writing weaves PLACE into narrative to make literature. Get the rivers right—or the woods, the garden, the critters, the flora—to enliven and deepen your story. Ken Kesey, Kathleen Moore, Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez are masters at writing in (not necessarily about) nature. That’s what my own work aspires to. Students may—but don’t have to—bring to this workshop an introductory two or three pages of prior writing. The main emphasis, though, will be on launching new work. And having fun doing it. |
BRENDA MILLER is the author of Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002) and co-author of Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Her newest collection of essays, Blessing of the Animals, is forthcoming from Eastern Washington University Press. Her work has received four Pushcart Prizes and has been published in such journals as Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun, Utne Reader, Georgia Review, and Witness. She is an Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Bellingham Review.
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“Voice Lessons”: a creative nonfiction workshop Memoirist Lawrence Sutin writes, “The truth of writing is the discovery of one’s voice—a voice that is unimpeded by anger, the desire for praise, or the fear of self-disclosure. This is the voice that knows more than we do, that manifests itself only in the act of writing.” Together, we will court this sense of discovery through intensive writing sessions that generate rich and unexpected work, and we may do some meditations that will help us navigate toward the core of self from which the “true voice” emerges. We will shape some of these unexpected writings into polished pieces and hold concluding sessions in which participants spontaneously respond to this new and wild work. |
PETER CHILSON was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa, and later a news correspondent there. His first book, Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa, won the Associated Writing Programs Award in nonfiction. Disturbance-Loving Species, a collection of short stories and a novella, received the 2006 Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize for fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His essays and short stories have appeared in The American Scholar, The North American Review, Audubon, High Country News, Rain City Review, and elsewhere. Chilson currently coordinates the undergraduate creative writing program at Washington State University.
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Short Fiction– How do fiction writers give their work a feeling of authenticity? Some call it a sense of believability or integrity. Research in fiction—the task of doing extra work to develop knowledge of subject, character, and setting—cannot replace imagination. But it certainly helps to give your work a stronger authority, a sense that you own your characters, your setting, and story. It helps, whether writing fiction or nonfiction, to be a student of the human condition. Our workshop will involve exercises, short studies of works by other writers, and feedback on our own work to understand how writers “own” a story. Our goal is that every workshop member produce one new “owned” story in the workshop week. |
LUIS ALBERTO URREA, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, Urrea has published extensively in all the major genres. The Devil’s Highway, his 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the 2004 Lannan Literary Award and was named a best book of the year by The Los Angeles Times. His most recent book, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, is a historical novel that tells the story of Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as
The Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. Luis is a frequent and popular reader and teacher at Fishtrap.
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Ghosts and Small Gestures: Trusting the Spirit of Writing We often miss the message that the spirit of Writing sends us because we are looking for volcanoes, avalanches, epic novels, explosions. But the muse often whispers, or hides her voice in the sound of wind, water, trees. This cross-genre class intends to open our eyes, ears and minds to the endlessly singing voice of Writing. Through writing, meditations, conversation, play, memory, confession, we will open our notebooks to the bounty of the green fuse that burns through the world. It works if you let it. The best way to get started in this work is to...play
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MARV ROSS is a composer, musician, playwright, and producer. In 1981 he formed Quarterflash with his wife Rindy, and their debut album went platinum with four top-forty hits. He has written for stage, television, and film, with songs in Nightshift, Gremlins, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In 1993, Marv won an ASCAP award for his first musical, Voices from the Oregon Trail. In 2007, his musical, The Ghosts of Celilo, was presented by Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. Marv and Rindy received Western Oregon University’s Alumni Award
of Excellence for their
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Tools for Contemporary Songwriting–Learning the Process The workshop will use a wide range of practical exercises and methods to enhance the songwriter’s listening and writing skills. Contemporary songwriting forms will be analyzed and applied in challenging but non-threatening exercises. An electronic piano and guitar will be available, and students are encouraged to bring guitars or other chordal instruments, but proficiency on an instrument is not required. The emphasis will be on the “lyric” aspect of composing. Topics include: learning to listen on different levels; developing a process to write songs; ways to “stay fresh” and find new directions; using poetry as an inspiration; organizing the creative process; developing skills of co-writing; the role of studio production in the songwriting process; songwriting as therapy. |
JANE VANDENBURGH
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Becoming a
Novelist—A Year-long Workshop This is a new and experimental workshop. Participants will spend one week at Fishtrap this summer, meet for a January weekend in Portland, and finish the workshop—and the first draft of a full-length book—at Fishtrap 2009. During the year participants will have 8 exchanges of materials—chapters from Jane’s forthcoming Architecture of the Novel, and chapters of their own books. Participants will be juried in, with a $50 reading fee. For full information on application, fees, and content of this workshop, click here or call the office (541-426-3623). |
ANITA HELLE is the editor of The Unraveling Archive: Essays on Sylvia Plath. She has published articles, reviews, and critical essays on a range of modern and contemporary writers, including Kay Boyle, Louise Gluck, William Stafford, and Audre Lorde. Anita teaches 20th century literature and advanced writing at Oregon State University. PETER SEARS teaches teachers for Community of Writers in Portland, and is on the faculty of the MFA writing program at Pacific University. He is the author of The Brink, Tour: New and Selected Poems, and Secret Writing. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone,
Orion, and New York Times among others.
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A Reading and Writing Poetry Workshop Two poems by well-known poets will be handed out in class for each day of the workshop. The next day, we will discuss the two poems and look at them as models for writing poems. Those who wish may write a poem using the model as springboard. Strategies for launching poems will be an ongoing subject, as will be approaches to revising poems. Clearly, |
PUALANN PETERSEN'S books of poetry are The Wild Awake, Blood-Silk, and A Bride of Narrow Escape, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. A Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and the recipient of the 2006 Holbrook Award from Oregon Literary Arts, Paulann serves on the board of Friends of William Stafford, organizing the annual January Stafford Birthday events. She’s been on faculty at the Creative Arts Community at Menucha, and has given workshops for Oregon Writers Workshop, Mountain Writers Series, and the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, among many others.
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Downstream: Writing with the Current Join Paulann Petersen in a poetry workshop dedicated to creation, reflection, and craft. Using notable poems as springboards, we’ll turn ourselves loose in the river of words, letting language carry us along in its current. Each day we’ll generate considerable new work. We’ll also look at your poems—ones you’ve written at Fishtrap, or ones you’ve brought with you—for ways to strengthen them through revision. We’ll linger in a few eddies, examining significant elements of craft such as line integrity, dramatic strategy, voice and trope. The goal is to have each participant leave the workshop with both an outpouring of new material, and some new tools for revision. |
| ROBERTA LAVADOUR is a book artist and
papermaker who lives
and works in the foothills
of the Blue Mountains
outside Pendleton, Oregon.
Her artist’s books
and sculptural pieces
have been exhibited
and collected across the
country and internationally and she was recognized with an Oregon Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellowship in 2001. Her work can be viewed at www.missioncreekpress.com. |
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Traditional Bookbinding Participants will learn
the basics of traditional
bookbinding while creating
a sturdy hardback
journal of their own.
There will be plenty of
opportunities to personalize
your book and
you’ll leave the class series
armed with the skills and
information to make
more books on your own.
This is a great primer for
those who may wish to
bind small editions of
their own writing or just
more blank books for |
AMY KLAUKE MINATO is author of a poetry collection, The Wider Lens, and a creative nonfiction book, Siesta Lane, which is forthcoming from Skyhorse Press this fall. She holds both an MFA in Creative Writing and an MS in Environmental Studies. Amy has been published in Wilderness Magazine, Poetry East, Windfall, Cottonwood, and Oregonian Poetry Corner among others. She and her family split their time between Portland, Oregon and the Wallowa Mountains. |
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Write the World– Ever really watch an osprey collect a fish? It turns the fish face forward for less wind resistance on its flight. In this workshop we’ll observe, collect data, take notes, eavesdrop and speculate on the natural and human worlds at Wallowa Lake. We may go up the tram, lounge on the beach, snoop at the bumper cars and/or hike to a heart-stopping view. After each experience, we’ll pour words onto paper, share them, cut and paste and polish, then come back and do it again the next day. Finally, we’ll awe the adults at open mic (optional). |
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Tom Spanbauer is a Pulitzer Nominated author and the founder of Dangerous Writing. As a writer he has explored issues of race, of sexual identity, of how we make a family for ourselves in order to surmount the limitations of the families into which we are born. Tom has four published novels and is at work on a book about his “Dangerous Writing” program. His introductory workshop is an underground legend among emerging writers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Jim Hepworth has been publisher at Confluence Press in Idaho for many years, has taught and read at Summer Fishtrap, fished Wallowa streams with Greg Keeler, Craig Lesley, and Jack Shoemaker. He once taught a workshop on “Angling and Literature.” Marc Jaffe came to the first Summer Fishtrap as a publisher at Houghton Mifflin, after a distinguished career at New American Library, Bantam, and Random House. He’s a long-time Fishtrap advisor and regular participant. Sara Miller was a founding Board Member of Fishtrap. She is a poet and has studied poetry translation at the University of Iowa and
in Ecuador. Lawson Fusao Inada is an emeritus professor of writing at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, currently the poet laureate of Oregon, and the author of five books: Legends from Camp, Drawing the Line, In This Great Land of Freedom, Just Into/Nations and Before the War. Greg Keeler is a poet, songster, composer of Montana operas and author of a book on Richard Brautigan. David Quammen says that “Greg Keeler has written lunatic masterpieces. He sings pretty good for such a big guy. He’s my absolute favorite practitioner of whatever the hell it is he practices, in all of America.”
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Fellowships The call for Fellowship applications goes out in November and submissions are due in February. There is no reading fee, the judging is “blind,” and Fellowships are awarded on the basis of writing quality alone. This year there were 295 submissions! Every one was read by at least two local judges—current and former Fishtrap board members. Final judges in 2008 are Sue Armitage of Washington State University and Bob Greene of Bookpeople in Moscow, Idaho. Fellows will be announced on the Fishtrap web site. Scholarships |
Registration opens April 1. Many workshops were so popular last year that they filled before some of you even had a chance to consider them. This year we will regard all registrations as equal until April 15. On that date if a workshop is more than full, we will draw names from those who indicate that workshop as their first choice. After that, it is strictly first come, first served. Click here to register securely online. Click here for a printable registration form to mail in with your payment. If you would like to pay your balance online, please go here. Fees & Payment Fishtrap makes a concerted effort to make events and workshops affordable. In so far as possible, we want attendance at Fishtrap to be determined by desire, and not limited by means. Prices are on the registration form. A $100 non-refundable deposit will reserve a spot for you for a workshop and/or for the Gathering. Final payment is due June 30. We do accept VISA and MasterCards. Please call with your card number or complete the registration form and send it back with your deposit or payment. If you have internet access, we encourage you to register and pay online, as there are more payment options available. Full payment with registration saves $$$. Lodging The Wallowa Lake Camp is the site of the Fishtrap Gathering and the base camp for workshops. Dorm style accommodations are located in rustic cabins with bathroom facilities in separate but nearby buildings. You bring your own bedding and towels. Spaces are available for tents and campers. There are also a limited number of deluxe cabins (wooden yurts) available first come, first served. Each of these units sleeps four and has its own bathroom. Fishtrap handles reservations for Wallowa Lake Camp only. Meals Meals are served cafeteria style at Wallowa Lake Camp, and feature fresh local produce. Please indicate vegetarian preference. Cancellation Policy Your deposit is non-refundable. Any other payments you have made will be refunded if we receive your cancellation by June 30. If it is necessary for Fishtrap to reschedule or cancel a workshop because of lack of enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances, you will be notified promptly and may choose to enroll in another program or receive a full refund. Additional Information Bring a seating cushion—the kind used at ball games—some of our seats are old fashioned and hard. NO PETS ARE ALLOWED AT WALLOWA LAKE CAMP; however they are at some of the other housing sites listed in the brochure. Notice of
Non-Discrimination: Fishtrap, Inc. prohibits discrimination on the
basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age within its organization and during the conduct of any of
its programs. Directions
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Camping
and RV spaces are available at: There
are RV spaces at: For
those who appreciate more In
Joseph: B
& B’s include: Private
cabins: For information on additional nearby lodging, call the Wallowa County Chamber at 800-585-4121, or visit their web site at www.wallowacountychamber.com. It includes links to lodging providers above and more. |
