Hoffman Center Blog

You want writing to be a priority in your life, but you keep getting side-tracked?

You wish you could focus on your writing, but you keep self-sabotaging?

You want to move from writing-as-hobby to writing-as-profession, but you don’t know how?

Lauren Kessler (www.laurenkessler.com <http://www.laurenkessler.com> ) and Thomas Hager (www.thomashager.net <http://www.thomashager.net> ) – who between them have written 18 books – will help you get serious about your writing life, from daily inspiration to annual budgeting. This one-day, high-energy workshop – with exercises and expert tips – will inspire you to up your game, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Learn from two writers in the trenches who have weathered the storms…and crafted successful writing lives for themselves as they raised three children.

Lauren Kessler, Author and Professor at the University of Oregon

 Lauren Kessler is the author of 12 books, including 6 works of narrative nonfiction. Her newest book, just released, is My Teenage Werewolf: A Mother, A Daughter, A journey through the Thickets of Adolescence. She is also the author of Pacific Northwest Book Award and Oregon Book Award winner Dancing with Rose; Washington Post bestseller Clever Girl; Los Angeles Times bestseller The Happy Bottom Riding Club and Oregon Book Award-winner Stubborn Twig, which was chosen to be the book for all Oregonians to read on the occasion of the sesquecentennial last year.

Tom Hager is the author of six nonfiction books and the former publisher of the University of Oregon

Tom Hager, Author

 Press. His most recent book, The Alchemy of Air, was named a “Best Book of 2008″ by Kirkus Reviews, and is a national finalist in Border’s “Original Voices” award program.

Saturday, August 21st from 10-3 Cost: $50.

Download and complete the Crafting Workshop Registration Form, and mail it in with your check to register.

Artist Audene Jay will lead a “Fearless Drawing” course July 13-29

Award winning artist Audene Jay will lead a three-week “Fearless Drawing” course at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita in July. Class sessions will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 2 to 4 p.m., beginning July 13 and running through July 29. Classes will be held in the Hoffman House Studios at 595 Laneda Avenue, in Classroom 7.

Jay described Fearless Drawing as “a course for complete beginners or anyone wishing to improve their drawing skills,” and will teach artists to draw what they see with confidence. “You’ll learn the skills to see as an artist sees, which is the key to drawing with ease,” she added.

The course is limited to eight students and costs $199. The curriculum has a beginning and an end, so a commitment to six sessions, at two sessions per week, is needed to give students the full benefit. Preregistration is required. A $40 materials fee is due at the first class.

Click here to download and complete the Fearless Drawing registration form.  More information about the classes can be obtained from Jay at 503-368-6901 or audene.artist@gmail.com.

Audene Jay is a full-time coastal resident. Before settling on here she traveled full-time across the United States for four years. During her travels she concentrated on photography and put her artwork in storage. “I am so deeply inspired by the North Coast and am looking forward to meeting new people in the arts and getting back to my first love — drawing and painting,” she said.

Jay was a scholarship recipient at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Houston and also attended The Advertising Arts College in San Diego, where she received a scholarship based on her work and graduated with a Communications degree. She was a gallery artist in Houston for a decade. She is also a poet and performance artist with a one-person show entitled “Little Secrets We Call Ourselves” performed at several Houston venues.

Cathi Howell, arts educator and artist in her Manzanita studio.

Cathi Howell, artist and arts educator, will lead a series of workshops Monday, July 5th through Friday, July 9th. The workshops will be held at the Hoffman Center at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita.

Part-time 15 year Manzanita resident Cathi Howell will put on an arts curriculum that emphasizes short, one-day creative art projects. The classes will last from 9 to 11 each morning that week. Each class will feature a different technique, including simple printmaking processes, collage, simple sculpture from recycled materials, and self-portraits. No art experience is necessary. This is not technical art training, however experienced artists are welcomed. Students can attend just one or two of the classes—they cost just $20 each, or sign up for the entire week and get a discounted rate of $85. Students get a special discounted rate of $10 per class.

Cathi Howell is a retired arts educator, arts entrepreneur, and studio artist. Currently she teaches an arts program for Rosemary Anderson High School in Portland Oregon several hours each week. She was one of the founding board members of the Hoffman Center.

To register download the art camp registration form, to print off and send in with your check. You can also get more detailed information about each class directly from Cathi Howell at 503.720.9686.

Art ‘Camp’ Class Schedule by Day

Monday July 5– Basic Relief Printing: Students design, carve and create simple printmaking tools to print and embellish a variety of surfaces and decorative paper.

Tuesday July 6 — Mixed Media Collage/Personal Histories: Students select from photos, clips, quotes, stories of their own and combine them with an array of papers and materials to create personally themed collages.

Wednesday July 7– “Recycled” Scrap Sculpture Constructions: Each participant will create a small scale 3-D “sculpture” using recycled and/or re-usable materials with simple glue gun technology

Thursday July 8– Self-Portrait Collage: Students begin with a basic introduction to a contour drawing technique. Through the use of torn and cut papers, participants will create a combined self-portrait collage.

Friday July 9– Extended Drawing: Awaken your visualization skills! Students select a photo, art poster or other printed art and use these as focus for extending what that art might look like beyond its edges. Pencil, charcoal, and colored drawing media will be used.

Author Robert Pyle

The “En Plein Air” workshop at the Alder Creek Farm Conservation Site led by award-winning author Robert Michael Pyle still has room.  Sign up this week and take the opportunity to study with a master, to spend a day that will combine lecture with observation, writing and “workshopping” your words.

Click here http://hoffmanblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/en-plein-air-registration.pdf to print off and complete your registration form and order your lunch. 

 “Imagination and the interior life are all very fine,” says Pyle, “but we should not neglect the fact that we live in a sensual and sensory wonderland whose close observation can only enrich every story, poem or essay.”

Pyle has published hundreds of essays, stories and poems along with fourteen books, including Wintergreen, Where Bigfoot Walks, Walking the High Ridge, and Sky Time in Gray’s River. His latest book, Mariposa Road, is due out later this year. Pyle has his Ph.D. in conservation biology from Yale. He’s won numerous awards to include the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harry B. Nehls Award in Nature Writing, and the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature.

 Alder Creek Farm is a 52-acre conservation site preserved as open space by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. You’ll have a chance to wander the property for your observations, with views of the bay, an estuary, permaculture gardens, lots of wildlife, and often a herd of elk.

 The workshop will run from 9am to 3pm. The fee is $95, $85 for LNCT members, and includes a box lunch. There is space for 20 participants.  For additional information, or to give us a ‘heads up’ that you’ll be coming, email vwildauer@gmail.com.

 This workshop is a collaboration between the Hoffman Center’s Manzanita Writers’ Series and the Lower Nehalem Community Trust.  To become a member of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust, go to www.nehalemtrust.org.

Bryan Harnetiaux to lead playwriting workshop.

Playwright Bryan Harnetiaux will conduct a playwriting workshop from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita. Registration will be limited to ten people.

Have you ever wanted to write a play, or possibly turn your short story or novel into a play? Here’s your chance. The playwriting workshop will focus on the art of playwriting, the process of playwriting, and the business of playwriting. It will also include a brief writing exercise designed to focus on the elements of playwriting.

Harnetiaux, a playwright-in-residence at Spokane Civic Theatre, has written over 30 plays, 13 of which have been published, including commissioned adaptations for Dramatic Publishing Company of the stories of Ernest Hemingway (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers) and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Long Walk to Forever).

Mr. Harnetiaux’s most recent published play, National Pastime (Playscripts, Inc., NYC) has received professional productions on the West and East coasts. His cycle of plays on end-of-life (Vesta, Dusk and Holding On ~ Letting Go) are now specially licensed for productions in clinical settings by Duke University’s Institute on Care at the End-of-Life and have been performed throughout the country; these plays have also enjoyed mainstream theatre productions. Harnetiaux is an associate member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Harnetiaux’s play Vesta will be performed at the Hoffman Center on Friday, May 14, at 7:30 pm as a reader’s theater with local resident and national actor Liz Megan Cole directing and acting. On Saturday evening, Harnetiaux will read from his play National Pastime and answer questions at the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

The workshop is a program of the Hoffman Center and will be held at the Hoffman House Studios Classroom at 595 Laneda Avenue (next to the library). Admission fee is $50.  Click here to print the registration form.

Sage Cohen’s two-part workshop on Saturday, April 17, has been moved to the Center for the Contemplative Arts in Manzanita, which is located at the Underhill Plaza on the corner of Manzanita Avenue and Division.  The workshop will cover the creativity and the business of poetry.
 
Poetry: From Pen to Page to Published, will run from 1pm to 3:30pm.
 
Have you always wanted to write a poem, but don’t know how to begin? Are you already writing poetry and want to connect with your muse more often? Spend the first half of this lively workshop to get your poetic juices flowing with a mix of inspiration, craft tips, and exercises.
 
After a break, get down to the business of poetry. Participants will learn to develop the skills, tools and systems they need to publish their poetry:
How to identify the right publications, contests, prizes and residencies for your poetry.
How to establish a submissions tracking system that keeps you moving forward.
How an online presence can help you get in the public eye, and stay there.
Sage is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009), The Productive Writer: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success(Writer’s Digest Books, forthcoming in 2010) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World.
Sage won first prize in the Ghost Road Press poetry contest, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was awarded a Soapstone residency. She is a columnist for Read Write Poem and publisher of the Writing the Life Poetic Zine.
Sage holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA in comparative literature from Brown University. She teaches, lectures and reads widely at writing conferences, libraries, universities, bookstores, as well as the popular online class “Poetry for the People”. Learn more about Sage and her books at www.sagesaidso.com <http://www.sagesaidso.com> . 

The workshop is a program of the Hoffman Center.  Admission fee is $25, $25 for students. Download a registration form at http://hoffmanblog.org/manzanita-writers-series/workshops or contact Kathie Hightower, 503-739-1505; kathie@jumpintolife.net.

Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary

Chip MacGregor, president of MacGregor Literary, will present a workshop from 1 to 3pm on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at the Hoffman Center in Manzanita, titled “How to Find and Approach a Literary Agent.” This workshop is one in a series of writing workshops presented by the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

In this two-hour seminar you’ll learn exactly what a literary agent does and why they are a crucial part of today’s publishing process. Find out how to research and identify an agent, how to approach and pitch them, and how to create eye-catching proposals. Chip will cover the keys for successfully working with an agent once you have one, plus how current trends in publishing are changing the author/agent relationship.

 Attendees are invited to bring a proposal to the workshop, for a short in-class evaluation of each entitled, “Will I read on?”

The registration fee is $25. Click here for a registration form.

Chip MacGregor has been in the publishing business for more than two decades, first as author/collaborator on two dozen titles himself. As a literary agent he’s represented more than 1,000 books, including many award winners. He’s negotiated deals with some 40 publishers, including all the major US publishing houses and had books on all the bestseller lists, including one at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Prior to being an agent, Chip worked at several publishers including Time Warner Book Group. He offers a well-rounded perspective on the publishing business.

Jennie Shortridge at the first Manzanita Writers' Series event in June 2008

Get ready for another fascinating line-up for the Manzanita Writers’ Series in 2010.  We’re welcoming back Jennie Shortridge to kick off the year on January 16 with her new book–When She Flew.  It’s a suspenseful and heartwarming story inspired by the true story of a man and his daughter who were living in Portland’s Forest Park.

On February 20, we’ll feature three finalists from the Oregon Book Awards.  Gina Ochsner will be reading from her novel The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight; Bonnie Henderson will read from her non-fiction work Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris; and Carmen Bernier-Grand will be reading from her young adult book Diego: Bigger Than Life.

On March 20, Seattle author Stephanie Kallos will be reading from her new book, Sing Them Home.  Her first novel, Broken For You, was a big hit with Northwest book clubs.

Click on the Manzanita Writers’ Series 2010 Schedule to see the other authors we have coming this year.  If you’re a writer, be sure to check out the wide array of writers’ workshops we’re offering.

Local writers get creative with Susan Wooldridge

When it comes to getting creative, there are few writers that haven’t picked up an exercise or two from Susan Wooldridge’s book poemcrazy.  There’s at least one writing group in town that regularly uses that resource in its weekly writing sessions.  But, just ask anyone who was in the workshop on Sunday, November 8, and they’ll each say having the author lead the exercises was even better.

“The impact was so much bigger than just reading the book,” said Kathie Hightower, co-founder of the Manzanita Writers’ Series.

In addition to creating a group ‘word pool’,  doling out her famous ‘word tickets’ , pages from an old dictionary, and books by other poets, Susan also passed around postcards of paintings and paint chips from a hardware store to inspire participants and trigger new ways of expressing themselves.

“I want you to steal words,” she exclaimed.  ”Be a thief!”  And that’s just one way she gets writers to get off their regular track.  She also exhorted participants to lie.  ”Lie to tell the truth,” is how she puts it, again to encourage writers to stretch beyond their usual writing habits. Along with the writing, Susan had the group laughing and dancing.

If you don’t already have poemcrazy, there are still some signed copies at Cloud & Leaf Bookstore in Manzanita.  Plus, Susan’s new book Foolsgold:  Making Something from Nothing (and freeing your creative process) is also available.

Local writers Garry Gitzen, Judy Crandall, and Marko Smith at the Self-Publishing Workshop

Local writers got an in-depth look at all the options available for publishing their work.  Print-on-demand technology has opened the door for a lot of writers who might otherwise not get their work in print.  According to Helen Gallagher, author of Release Your Writing, there are many writing projects that lend themselves very well to the self-publishing model.  If you have a very specialized topic that’s aimed at a narrow audience, need the book to establish your professional credentials, have a collection of essays or articles, or want to release a book that has gone out of print, you’ll be well-served to explore your options.

In the past, self-publishing meant you had to contract with a printer on your own and then ended up with a garage full of books to sell.  That’s still an option–especially for books where the paper quality or images are especially important.  However, now you can upload your book to a variety of print-on-demand publishers and order books just as they’re needed.  Several will also make your book available at online retailers and in the databases regular retailers use to order books.

Just because you can easily get your book into print, though, doesn’t mean you can forego important key elements.  The cover has to be well-designed and compelling, and solid editing is mandatory.  And once your book is available online, it’s all the more important to focus on marketing it.

For more information and resources, go to Helen’s web site www.releaseyourwriting.com, or pick up her book at Ekahni Books in Manzanita.