Workshops, Conferences, and Residencies

Getting away . . .

When I graduated from my Creative Writing MFA program (Queens University of Charlotte) in 2003, I guess I was aware of writing conferences and residencies, but I’d never attended one. After all, I had just spent two years in writing workshops and craft lectures, so, surely, I had done all I needed to do to become a successful writer. The very next year, though, I found myself at two conferences that were really workshops with the addition of craft talks and readings.

Workshops

While busily writing short stories and sending them out to magazines after receiving my MFA, I saw an advertisement in Poets & Writers magazine for a writing workshop in Mexico with Russell Banks. I had worked with some prominent writers in my MFA program, one of whom, Elizabeth Strout, would soon publish a breakout novel, but Banks, it seemed to me, was already on another level. Plus, I had never been to Mexico, so it seemed like a great opportunity.

In January 2004, I flew to Mexico City and spent a few days as a tourist there—it’s a fascinating city—and then made my way to the village of Tepoztlán, about one hour from the city, for the workshop. Under the Volcano was in only its second year but seemed well organized. It now calls itself a residency with workshops, but at the time, I thought of it as a conference because it was focused on classes and workshops rather than time to write.

In any event, my experience there was great. Banks was wonderful. My workshop-mates were wonderful (and I’m still in touch with some of them). I got great feedback on the stories I’d been working on. I learned some Spanish. (The experience was so good that I returned a couple of years later in order to study with the incomparable Grace Paley and then a third time, in part because Paley was ailing and would be there as an honored guest.)

Also in 2004 I attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. (This newsletter was actually prompted because I’d been seeing social media posts about Sewanee 2024, which was held recently, and I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since I first attended.) Sewanee takes place at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Having come to writing after my legal career, I was older than most of the participants, but there were quite a few people my age or older too. My workshop was led by Richard Bausch and Jill McCorkle, both of whom were brilliant. Sewanee is a bit like an extension of an MFA program in that there are workshops in which creative writing is critiqued but also craft lectures and readings. Lots of readings. I loved it.

I’ve been back to Sewanee several times, including earning a fellowship after the publication of my first book. (My workshop leaders there have included Tim O’Brien and John Casey, two writers and teachers I greatly admire.) I’ve also been twice to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, which is very similar to Sewanee except that it’s in Vermont and is associated with Middlebury College. Both of these conferences have very competitive admissions, so they aren’t easy to get into. There are lots of other workshop/conferences around (I’ve attended the Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop, for example), so there many options for writers who want a workshop experience but may not be able attend Sewanee or Bread Loaf.

Conferences

The AWP Conference is another animal altogether. (AWP stands for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.) Instead of a couple of hundred writers that you might find at Sewanee or Bread Loaf, AWP attracts upwards of 10,000 writers. The conference moves to a new city each year and is geared primarily toward people connected to college or graduate-level creative writing programs. My first AWP Conference was held in Atlanta in 2007. I’ve been to several of them since—New York, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, Tampa—and find them fun but exhausting. They include countless panel discussions and parties, but the big attraction for a lot of people is the “book fair” where hundreds of exhibitors display the offerings of their small press, magazine, writing program, editing service, etc. The last couple of AWP Conferences I attended found me—apart from parties—exclusively in the book fair, where I either browsed endlessly or staffed the booths of one of the presses or organizations I’m connected to. The older I get, the less interested I am in AWP, which seems increasingly aimed at much younger writers and identity-focused discussions. Nothing wrong with that, but I do feel I’ve aged out of the target demographic.

Residencies

And then there are writing retreats and artists’ residencies, formerly called colonies, where creative folks come together to spend time away from their regular lives in order to practice their craft.

For me, the first of these was my stay at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in the fall of 2005. The VCCA hosts more than 20 artists at a time, year-round—writers, visual artists, and composers—on a beautiful campus near Sweet Briar College, just south of the town of Amherst, Virginia. One thing I love about being there is that the residence building (where the bedrooms and dining room are) is separate from the studio building, so living is distinct from working. Also, because of the diversity of the artists there, I am always inspired by the work other people are doing.

Since that first visit, I’ve been back many times and have also been to several other residencies, including VCCA-France (a property VCCA owns in Southwest France), Ragdale (Lake Forest, Illinois), Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska City, Nebraska), and Hambidge Center for the Arts (Rabun Gap, Georgia). Each of these operates a little differently, but the basic idea is the same: they provide time and space in which to create. I have not been to the two oldest and most famous residencies, Yaddo and MacDowell.

Some Residencies, like Workshops, can be very competitive, but there are others that may only require finding an available time to attend. Of course, you can always just book a room somewhere and make your own residency in a place that is conducive to your creative practice. I’ve also done that countless times.

In other news . . .

I continue to schedule readings, talks, and interviews. Please check the Events page on my website for the latest additions to my calendar. And I’m also going to begin making better use of the Press page on my website to archive reviews and interviews, including videos and podcasts.

On August 9, I’ll be at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, North Carolina for a reading and conversation with novelist and poet Valerie Nieman. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you.

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

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