This residential weekend retreat includes seminars, workshops, readings, individual consultation, and writing time. Participants choose a genre, either poetry or fiction. The retreat setting and interaction with established authors allows the participating writers to devote full attention on their craft. They will also discover new perspectives in the company of other writers and develop a sense of community with other writers who can help guide revisions.
The 2007 retreat will be held at Grand Valley’s Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids. Participants will be lodged in Winter Hall, which features apartment style rooms and private bathrooms. Apartments are furnished and air-conditioned. The $495 registration fee includes workshop instruction, materials, lodging/linens, all meals, parking, and computer access. A $100 scholarship, based on financial need, may be available for the retreat. If you need financial assistance, complete a one-page statement explaining your financial need and explain how you hope to benefit from the retreat. The scholarship deadline is July 13, 2007.
For more information or to register, please visit www.gvsu.edu/learn/writersretreat.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPATING AUTHORS:
• Heather Sellers is the author of Georgia Under Water (Sarabande Books), a book of linked stories which won a place in the Barnes and Noble New Discovery Writers Award in Summer 2001. For two years, she was the Viebranz Visiting Writer at Saint Lawrence University, where she completed a memoir of the writing life, Page after Page: how to start writing and keep writing no matter what!, (Writer’s Digest, 2004). Page has been a bestseller for Writer’s Digest. She is completing a second book in that series, Chapter After Chapter. She earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing/English from Florida State University. She taught at the University of Texas, San Antonio, before moving to Hope College, where she is an associate professor. Her first children’s book, Spike and Cubby’s Ice Cream Island Adventure!, illustrated by Amy Young, was published by Henry Holt in October 2004. A poetry collection, Drinking Girls and Their Dresses, was published in November, 2002 from Ahsahta Press (Idaho). Her textbook for introductory creative writing students, The Passionate Beginner, is forthcoming from Bedford/St. Martins.
• Eliot Khalil Wilson is a native of Virginia. He
received a Ph.D. in critical theory and American drama from the
University of Alabama in 2000. His work has won awards from Pushcart
Press, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for
the Arts. His book, The Saint of Letting Small Fish Go won
the 2003 Cleveland State Poetry Prize.
• Patricia Clark’s latest book, My Father on a Bicycle, was published by Michigan State University Press and was named a finalist for the 2005 Book of the Year Award by ForeWord magazine. The award winning poet-in-residence and professor of writing at Grand Valley State University, was poet laureate for the city of Grand Rapids from 2005-2007. Clark won the first book award from Women in Literature for her previous book of poetry, North of Wondering. She is also the co-editor of Worlds in Our Words: An Anthology of Contemporary American Women Writers. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Slate, Stand, New England Review, Pennsylvania Review, Black Warrior Review, and Seattle Review.
• Ander Monson lives in Michigan where he edits the magazine DIAGRAM (http://thediagram.com) and the New Michigan Press. He is the author of three books: Neck Deep and Other Predicaments: Essays (Graywolf Press, February 2007), Other Electricities (a sort-of novel, Sarabande Books, 2005), and Vacationland (poems, Tupelo Press, 2005). He teaches poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at Grand Valley State University.
