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Summer in Words Writing Conference June 15-17

We wanted to pass a long a great opportunity for writers of all levels to learn from some of the best in their field…

Best-selling author Chelsea Cain will headline the roster for the 5th annual Summer In Words Writers Conference at the Hallmark Inn & Resort in Cannon Beach, Oregon. A full weekend of workshops, lectures, panels and individual consults will inspire writers at all levels. The theme for this year’s conference is Refinement, Resonance & Renewal. SIW provides aspiring and established writers the opportunity to hone their writing skills, hear inspiring advice, and network with fellow writers. Cost for all three days is $265.00; single day pricing is also available.

This year’s conference kicks off Friday morning, June 15th with workshops taught by Jessica Morrell, Bruce Holland Rogers and Naseem Rakha. Friday’s workshops will be followed by a reception and book signing with books from Cloud & Leaf Bookstore and a talk by Sage Cohen. Saturday features workshops by Jessica Glenn, Sage Cohen, and Cathy Lamb and a luncheon and keynote by Chelsea Cain. Saturday night is Out Loud, a chance for participants to read from a work in process. Sunday morning includes a workshop by Jessica Morrell, Cathy Lamb describing her road to best sellerdom, and a Q & A on Risk It to Get Published.

Conference founder Jessica Morrell said, “We are excited to celebrate the fifth year of Summer in Words with such a stellar line up of speakers and workshops. I’m especially looking forward to Chelsea’s talk on how to murder for money. Of course, she’s talking about writing her thriller series. This year’s workshops and talks will give writers a big advantage in today’s ever-changing publishing landscape.”

Both beginning and established writers are invited to attend the conference. SIW will also feature a raffle with proceeds going to Write Around Portland, an organization that helps people transform their lives through writing and the Hoffman Center a facility that provides arts in Manzanita.

Cannon Beach, Oregon is vibrant community on Oregon’s coast known for its love of the arts and books. The Hallmark Inn & Resort is located in midtown and overlooks Haystack Rock. Discounted room rates are available for conference participants. Cloud & Leaf Bookstore will be selling books at the event.

Visit any of the instructors’ websites or blogs:

Chelsea Cain http://chelseacain.com/

Sage Cohen http://pathofpossibility.com

Jessica Glenn http://mindbuckmedia.com/contact.shtml

Cathy Lamb http://www.cathylamb.net/

Jessica Morrell: http://jessicamorrell.com/

Naseem Rakha http://www.naseemrakha.com

Bruce Holland Rogers http://www.shortshortshort.com

The registration fee of $265 covers tuition for the three-day conference, Friday night’s reception, Saturday lunch and keynote, and light breakfasts each morning. Friday night’s Writer’s Reception and the Saturday lunch and keynote are $25.

Contact Jessica Morrell at 503 287-2150 to arrange an interview with any of the presenters.

About Summer in Words: Founded in 2008 by Jessica Morrell Summer in Words was created to provide writers with an intimate conference experience in an uplifting setting so that attendees are energized, enlightened, and inspired. Jessica Morrell is the author of Thanks, But This isn’t for Us, Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction, The Writer’s I Ching, Wisdom for the Writing Life, Voices From the Street, Between the Lines, Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing, and Writing Out the Storm.

For the complete schedule or any information or to register, contact conference coordinator Jessica Morrell at 503 287-2150 or jessicapage@spiritone.com or conference assistant Mary Drew at mary.drw@gmail.com

Registrations can be mailed to Summer in Words, P.O. Box 820141, Portland, OR 97282-1141. Payment can also be sent through PayPal.

Website is http://summerinwords.wordpress.com

Manzanita Writers’ Series Presents Deborah Reed

Deborah Reed will read from her novel Carry Yourself Back to Me at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012 at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Both critics and fellow authors have praised the novel.

“Part whodunit, part romance, part family drama, and part childhood remembrance, Reed’s debut is a dense, psychologically complex meditation upon the flawed yet resilient nature of family and love that is simultaneously meditative and fast-paced.” —BOOKLIST

“Deborah Reed’s novel, Carry Yourself Back to Me, marries gorgeous and wise prose with a can’t-help-but-read-one-more-chapter plot. In it, Reed weaves a complex story of love and longing that’s mysterious, intelligent and full of heart. She had me from page one.” –Cheryl Strayed, author of the novel Torch, and Wild, a memoir.

In her first literary novel, Reed triumphs with this thoughtful, graceful story of singer/songwriter Annie Walsh. Readers will enjoy the novel’s engaging characters, intricate plot, and beautifully rendered sense of place. – Publisher’s Weekly

Carry Yourself Back to Me was selected as a Best Book of 2011 Amazon Editors’ Pick. It’s also inspired an original song by Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols.

Reed’s first book, A Small Fortune, a thriller written under the name of Audrey Braun, published to critical acclaim in July 2011. Her next Braun book releases in September. Local writers (and readers) will be fascinated by the unusual path her book publishing has taken. You’ll learn how she leveraged a self-published e-book into a 3-book contract, with some interesting twists along the way.

Her work has appeared in The Center For Fiction’s The Literarian, The Nervous Breakdown, Opium Magazine, More Magazine, and elsewhere. Reed is currently getting her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Pacific University and is at work on a new literary novel.

Following Reed’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work.

Admission for the evening is $7.

Further information and the 2012 schedule are available here or contact Vera Wildauer at vwildauer@gmail.com.

Poetry Writing Workshop and Poetry Reading with Carlos Reyes on Saturday, March 31

After the workshop, Reyes will read from his latest collection of poetry--Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart.

Carlos Reyes will conduct a poetry-writing workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita on Saturday, March 31, 2012. He will do a reading from his new book, Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart, following the workshop at 2:30. This is a special event of the Manzanita Writers’ Series. The free reading is open to the public and books will be available to purchase at the event.

Writers who participated in Reyes’ March 2011 one-hour workshop can tell you that his workshops are immediately engaging, fun and creative. This workshop will involve different writing prompts from the 2011 workshop. You’ll walk away with useful handouts, a “homework” assignment, along with many new poetry drafts. Download a registration form here. There is a $25 fee for the workshop. Bring a brown bag for the half-hour lunch break.

Poet and translator Carlos Reyes lives and writes in Portland, Oregon when he is not traveling. He travels a lot, and whether he journeys to Panama, Spain, Alaska or Ireland, those experiences inspire and inform his poetry. In 2007 he was honored with a Heinrich Boll Fellowship, which gave him two weeks to write on Achill Island, Ireland. He has had fellowships to Yaddo and the Fundación Valparaíso (Mojåcar, Spain). He was poet-in-residence in 2009 at the Lost Horse Ranger Station in the Joshua Tree National Park, and recently writer-in-residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska. Pomegranate is his fifth collection of poetry to be published.

Click here to find out more on the 2012 schedule or contact Vera Wildauer at vwildauer@gmail.com.

Oregon Book Award Finalist Marjorie Sandor appears March 10th

Oregon Book Award Finalist Marjorie Sandor to read, and lead free memoir workshop

Literary Arts is pleased to announce an event in Manzanita as part of the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour. Marjorie Sandor will appear as part of the Manzanita Writers Series at Hoffman Center on Saturday, March 10th, at 7 p.m.

In addition, Sandor will offer a free workshop on Saturday, March 10th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita (594 Laneda Ave). The workshop will focus on memoir-writing and explore the power–both haunting and restorative–of our most ordinary and familiar domestic spaces. Sandor will briefly discuss her own experience of creating a book out of the bits and pieces of an early-morning gardening journal kept during a mid-life moment of intense change. From there, participants will do some of their own writing, working from simple prompts. The workshop is free but space is limited and participants are asked to register by emailing Susan Denning at susan@literary-arts.org.

Marjorie Sandor’s most recent book is The Late Interiors: A Life Under Construction, a 2012 finalist for the 2012 Oregon Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her previous books include the linked story collection, Portrait of my Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime: Stories (Sarabande Books), which won the 2004 National Jewish Book Award in Fiction; and a previous book of essays, The Night Gardener: A Search for Home (The Lyons Press), won the 2000 Oregon Award for Creative Nonfiction.

Following Sandor’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work.

Admission for the evening is $7.

 

Ismet Prcic will read from his book Shards February 18

 

Ismet Prcic kicks off the 2012 Manzanita Writers' Series season with a reading from his novel, Shards.

Ismet Prcic will read from his novel Shards at the Manzanita Writers’ Series at 7pm on Saturday, February 18, 2012 at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita. This event kicks of the 2012 series, now in its fourth year.

Also at the Saturday event, we’ll unveil the first edition of the new literary journal, the North Coast Squid, with selections from a variety of writers who have a connection to the local area.

Shards is a novel about a young Bosnian, also named Ismet Prcic, who has fled his war-torn homeland and is now struggling to reconcile his past with his present life in California.

It’s a harrowing war story, a stunningly original coming-of-age novel, and a heartbreaking saga of a splintered family. Shards has been listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Chicago Sun-Times Best Book of the Year, an Oregonian Top 10 Northwest Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.

Prcic has gotten positive reviews for his first novel:

“Prcic captures the insanity of war and its unceasing aftermath.” – Publisher’s Weekly.

“Impressive . . . Inventive . . . Pushes against convention, logic, chronology . . . Ambitious and deep . . . [Prcic] succeeds at writing an unsettling and powerful novel.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Irresistible . . . Fierce, funny, and real.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Ismet Prcic (ISS-met PER-sick) or Izzy as he prefers, was born in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1977 and immigrated to America in 1996. He holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, and was the recipient of a 2010 NEA Award for fiction. He is also a 2011 Sundance Screenwriting Lab fellow. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife.

Following Prcic’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work.

Admission for the evening is $7.

 

Chelsea Cain reads from The Night Season Saturday November 5 during the Dark & Stormy Beach Weekend

Thriller author, Chelsea Cain will read from her new book on Nov 5. Photo by Laura Domela.

So, who is Chelsea Cain and why does she write gory thrillers?

New York Times Bestselling author Chelsea Cain will read from her latest book The Night Season at 7 pm Saturday November 5.

Caine’s Portland-based thrillers, described by The New York Times as “steamy and perverse,” have been published in over 30 languages, recommended on “The Today Show,” appeared in episodes of HBO’s “True Blood” and ABC’s “Castle,” named among Stephen King’s top ten favorite books of the year, and included in NPR’s list of the top 100 thrillers ever written. According to Booklist, “Popular entertainment just doesn’t get much better than this.”

So how did this “Queen of serial-killer fiction” (Kirkus Reviews) get into writing gory books? Here’s the start of an explanation.

“In retrospect I always had a fascination with the macabre.

It started with the pet cemetery. A kitten of mine was hit by a car and I buried her in an elaborate ceremony under the Rhododendron bush in our front yard in Bellingham, Washington. Months later, I came across a dead bird. I picked it up, put it in my lunchbox, carried it home and buried it under the Rhododendron.

Eventually kids in the neighborhood started hearing about the cemetery and would appear at my door cradling their dead pets. By the end of that year I had buried fifteen birds, three cats, a hamster, a rabbit, a chicken, and about a dozen gold fish. Each corpse was laid in a shoebox, cushioned with toilet paper, and presented with a piece of costume jewelry from a collection that someone had given me. I would then bury the box and say a few words to whoever was present. I had a special vintage ladies hat I would wear for the occasion. It was black, with white silk flowers piled on it, and a torn black net veil.

I was not an ordinary child.”

Get the idea that Cain won’t be an “ordinary reader?” To find out more about how the Green River Killer, Nancy Drew and TV cops shows headed Cain down the path of gory thrillers join us on November 5.

After Chelsea’s reading and Q&A we’ll have our popular Open Mic focused on the theme of “It was a dark and stormy night” at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita.

Admission for the evening is $5.

The weekend is a joint event of the Manzanita Writers’ Series/Hoffman Center and the Manzanita Business Alliance, and is made possible in part by a grant from the Tillamook County Cultural Coalition.

 

Jess Walter to read at Manzanita Writers’ Series, Saturday, October 15th

Jess Walter to read from his book The Financial Lives of PoetsJess Walter will read from his book The Financial Lives of Poets at the Manzanita Writers Series event at 7 pm on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

After hearing Jess Walter read at Wordstock 2010, the Manzanita Writer’s Series coordinators vowed to get him to come to Manzanita. He’s funny, engaging, and so-very-down-to-earth. You won’t want to miss this.

Take a look at some of the reviews of The Financial Lives of Poets.

“The hero of Jess Walter’s novel is like a stoned Humbert Humbert … The funniest way-we-live-now book of the year.” – TIME

“Brilliant–and brilliantly funny.” – ESQUIRE

“Lifts off like a rocket … This vigorous, engaging novel is one of the sharpest satires to come along in years.” — BOSTON GLOBE

“Gasp-out loud funny.” — New York Daily News

The book has been chosen in lists of best novels of the year by Time, NPR’s Fresh Air, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Oregonian, Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Salon.com, and others.

A former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Jess Walter is the author of five novels and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published, in Playboy, McSweeney’s, ESPN the Magazine, Details, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe among many others.

Following Walter’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work. The recommended theme for this month is “Trouble.”

Admission for the evening is $5.

The series is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman Center (across from Manzanita Library at 594 Laneda Avenue.)

Naseem Rakha will read from her book The Crying Tree on August 20

Naseem Rakha reads on Saturday, August 20

Naseem Rakha will read from her book The Crying Tree at the Manzanita Writers Series event at 7 pm on Saturday, August 20, 2011.

Set in southern Illinois and central Oregon, The Crying Tree tells a story of a mother who must overcome the hate, grief, and secrets that surround the murder of her 15-year-old son, and defy church and family as she attempts to stop the execution of the man who killed her boy.

With the heart of a storyteller, Naseem explores the death penalty and forgiveness with her audience through the lens of our justice system as well as subsequent interviews with crime victims, inmates, corrections officials and exonerated death row prisoners.

Publisher’s Weekly says, “This complex, layered story of a family’s journey toward justice and forgiveness comes together through spellbinding storytelling.”

The American Booksellers Association chose The Crying Tree for its TOP 10 Indie Next list for Reading Groups <http://news.bookweb.org/news/winter-2010-2011-indie-next-list-reading-groups> . The book has been published in six international editions.

Naseem is an award-winning author and journalist whose stories have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth. She lives in Oregon with her husband, son, and many animals.

Following Rakha’s reading and Q&A, we’ll have our popular Open Mic where up to nine local writers will read 5 minutes of their original work. The recommended theme for this month is “Forgiveness.”

Admission for the evening is $5.

Further information on the Writers’ Series can be found here or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505 or Vera Wildauer at vwildauer@gmail.com.

 

Read All About It: Hoffapalooza!

Be sure to stop by the Hoffman Center on Saturday, July 23rd, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

We’re excited to show off some of the changes to our performance and gallery spaces, as well as the newly expanded Clay Studio.  Plus, you’re invited to explore all sorts of demonstrations of what the Hoffman Center has to offer, including clay, drawing, writing, reading, music, letterpress, mixed media, and book and paper arts.  Click on the Hoffapalooza Schedule for a printable schedule of events.  There’s no admission.

Local businesses and individuals have also generously donated over $1,500 worth of products and services for our fabulous raffle and silent auction prizes. Enter to win a $25 gas card from Bayside Shell & Grocery, just for showing up. Click on this list of Hoffapalooza prizes to see all of the wonderful raffle prizes and special silent auction items.  Raffle tickets are just $1 each,  12 for $10, or 25 for $20.    All proceeds go to the Hoffman Center Operating Fund.

And that’s not all!  Over 20 local artists will be showing and selling their art, including pieces made in the Hoffman Center Clay and Life Drawing Studios, and other art classes.  There also will be a display of art by kids in the Outside the Box Arts program.

Did we forget anything?  Well, there will be a lemonade stand on the front porch, plus tasty hand baked goods donated by Kim Miller.

We’ll see you there!

 

 

Manzanita Writers’ Series Presents Jennifer Lauck on June 18

Jennifer Lauck to read from her new memoir on June 18th

Jennifer Lauck will read from her new book Found: A Memoir at the Manzanita Writers’ Series event at 7pm on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at the Hoffman Center.

Found is the long awaited sequel to the 2000 international bestseller Blackbird: A Childhood Lost & Found which was featured on Oprah and an international bestseller. Blackbird was translated into 22 languages and hit the bestseller lists in London, Ireland and Spain as well as in the United States.

Blackbird was written in the voice of a little girl who attempts to make sense of a world where parents die and children fall through the cracks and are left homeless. Found is written in the voice of a confident woman determined and thus destined to find inner peace, lasting happiness and sense of the familiar.

Jennifer Lauck, with humor, clarity and urgency takes her readers on a thrilling quest that leads her first into motherhood and then into the complex spiritual traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, where Lauck discovers great masters, great teachings and the great truth of who she is. Lauck finally ends her journey when she finds her natural mother—the one who gave her life and gave her away with the hope that she would have a better life.

Lauck has published two other memoirs, a novel and a book on writing memoir. She traveled throughout Northern Europe to speak about her writing. Lauck was given the Book Sense 76 award and was featured in Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Talk Magazine, People, Glamour and Writer’s Digest. She was a select USA Today pick and nominated for two Oregon Book Awards.

Before becoming a memoir writer, speaker and teacher, Lauck worked for many years in television news for ABC affiliates from Montana to Oregon. Her investigative journalism reports appeared on CNN and the ABC Nightly News

During the day on Saturday, June 18, Lauck will teach a workshop on Scene Writing for all genres from 10-3 at the Hoffman Center.  Click here to download the registration form.