Future Writers Notice: Nimrod Literary Awards Conference for Readers and Writers 2009

Here’s an email I received that I thought I would share with everyone.

Dear Writer,
 
Greetings from Nimrod International Journal!  We’re getting ready to host our annual Conference for Readers and Writers, this year on October 24th at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
 
The workshop will feature sessions on fiction, poetry, memoir, fantasy, travel writing, and submitting work to journals, agents and contests, as well as panel discussions and readings. You can also sign up to have a one-on-one editing workshop with a member of the Nimrod board of editors. It will feature as master teachers Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler, celebrated poets Marie Howe, Marvin Bell, and James Ragan, acclaimed fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle, travel writers and memoirists W. Scott Olsen and Linda Watanabe McFerrin, science fiction writer K. D. Wentworth, and over thirty others.
 
This is a conference for writers and readers alike.  The cost is $50.00, but scholarships are available. To register to receive a scholarship, please send in your completed registration form, 2-3 sample pages of your writing, a note requesting a scholarship, and $10 for lunch.
 
I have included the complete schedule below. If you have any questions, please contact me at 918-631-3080 or nimrod@utulsa.edu. You can also visit our website, www.utulsa.edu/nimrod.
 
I hope to see you in October!
 
Best,
 
Eilis O’Neal
Managing Editor
 

Nimrod Literary Awards Conference for Readers and Writers 2009
 
Words at Play
 
One-on-One Writing Workshops
Masterclasses
Panel Discussions
Readings
 
Schedule for Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Allen Chapman Activity Center, The University of Tulsa
9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

9:30-10:00 a.m.
Late Registration

10:00-10:40 a.m.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Words at Play:
Peter S. Beagle, Marvin Bell, Robert Olen Butler, Alicia Case, Lacey Jane Henson, Marie Howe, Margaret Kaufman, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Mike Nelson, W. Scott Olsen, James Ragan
            
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 noon                        
Morning Masterclasses (Concurrent Sessions)*
 
Hands-on One-on-One Editing Workshops: Gearing Up for the Game: Session I
Meet one on one with a Nimrod editor who will help you revise your work.  Submit 2-3 pages of poetry or 4-5 pages of fiction.  Materials must be received by October 19th. Each one–on-one editing session is 15 minutes long.
 
Fiction I: What Is Art? The Fundamentals of Literary Fiction — Robert Olen Butler
 
Poetry I: 32 Statements About Writing Poetry — Marvin Bell
 
Poetry II: Lively and Living Poetry in the Global 21st Century — James Ragan, Alicia Case
 
Treasure Hunt: The Travel Writer’s Notebook and the Missing Person — W. Scott Olsen            
 
Rules of the Game: A Beginner’s Guide to Submitting to Journals, Contests, and Agents — Eilis O’Neal, K. D. Wentworth, A. J. Tierney                                    
 
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Lunch and Readings by the Judges

1:35-2:50 p.m.
Afternoon Masterclasses (Concurrent Sessions)*
 
Fiction II: “Truthiness”: Bringing Real Life Experience to the Fictional Page — Carol Johnson, Lacey Jane Henson

Fiction III: Checkmate: Having a Really Bad Day — Margaret Kaufman, Mary Cantrell
 
Poetry III: Negation, Hesitation, and Restatement — Marie Howe, Mike Nelson
 
The Ventriloquist and the Puppet: Establishing Voice in Fantasy — Peter S. Beagle
 
Memoir: Bringing the Inside Out . . . to Play — Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Francine Ringold
 
2:50-3:00 p.m.             
Break: Bread & Butter and Tea
 
3:00-4:00 p.m.            
Hands-on One-on-One Editing Workshops: Gearing Up for the Game: Session II
Meet one on one with a Nimrod editor who will help you revise your work.  Submit 2-3 pages of poetry or 4-5 pages of fiction.  Materials must be received by October 19th. Each one-on-one editing session is 15 minutes long.
 
Invitational Readings: Peter S. Beagle, Marvin Bell, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, W. Scott Olsen, James Ragan
 
The full Saturday conference package ($50) includes workshops, panel discussions, readings, lunch, tea, and one-on-one editing sessions.
 
*Registrants may attend the a.m. panel discussion and one morning and one afternoon masterclass, as well as the entire after-tea reading from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Afternoon one-on-one editing participants may move from their session to the Invitational Reading as time permits.
 
Full and partial scholarships are available, particularly for students.  For scholarship information, call 918-631-3080 or email nimrod@utulsa.edu.

Scholarship recipients are asked to send payment for the meal ($10) at the time of their registration if they wish to have lunch with us. Recipients who do not plan to join us for lunch should inform us at the time of their registration. Menu includes options for vegetarians.

 
Judges and Master Teachers
 
Fiction Judge Robert Olen Butler has published eleven novels and five collections of short stories, including A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993.  His stories have twice won a National Magazine Award.  His latest book is the novel Hell, set entirely in that place. His book on the creative process, From Where You Dream, is widely used in writing workshops. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
 
Poetry Judge Marie Howe’s debut volume of poems, The Good Thief, was selected by Margaret Atwood as winner of the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series, and published in 1988 by Persea Books. Since then, she has published two more collections, What the Living Do, and The Kingdom of the Ordinary. She edited (with Michael Klein) the anthology In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. Her work has been recognized with a fellowship at the Bunting Institute, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She has served on the faculty of several schools, including Tufts University and Dartmouth College. She currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence, New York University, and Columbia University in New York City.

2008 Nimrod Award Winners and Instructors
 
Winners

Alicia Case, second-prize winner of Nimrod’s 2009 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, is an M.F.A. candidate in poetry at American University and works as a content writer and web administrator for the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Her poems are forthcoming in Poet Lore.
                                    
Lacey Jane Henson, first-prize winner of Nimrod’s 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, earned an M.F.A. from the University of Washington in 2006. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Portland Review and MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine. She lives in Seattle, where, in addition to writing stories, she is currently at work on a novel.
 
Margaret Kaufman, second-prize winner of Nimrod’s 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, leads poetry workshops in Marin County, California, and edits fiction for The Marlboro Review. Her honors include a Marin County Artists’ grant and the Anna Rosenberg Award; she was a semi-finalist in Nimrod’s 2007 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. Snake At the Wrist is her first full poetry collection; Chronicle Books published a trade edition of Aunt Sallie’s Lament, which first appeared in a limited letterpress edition, as have others of her poems. Her next collection, Inheritance, is forthcoming from Sixteen Rivers Press in spring 2010.
 
Mike Nelson, first-prize winner of Nimrod’s 2009 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland and is currently finishing a Ph.D. in English at Western Michigan University. His work has appeared in The Penguin Book of the Sonnet.

Master Teachers
 
Peter S. Beagle is the author of one of the most beloved fantasy novels, The Last Unicorn, which was made into an animated film in 1982. His other novels include A Fine and Private Place, The Folk of the Air, The Innkeeper’s Song, and Tamsin. He has also published many short story collections, including Giant Bones, The Line Between, and, most recently, We Never Talk About My Brother. His story “Two Hearts” won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novelette in 2006. He is also the author of several screenplays and teleplays, including the screenplay for The Last Unicorn.
 
Marvin Bell is the author of twenty books of poetry, including Mars Being Red, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, 7 Poets 4 Days, 1 Book (co-authored with poets from five countries), Rampant, Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000, The Book of the Dead Man, and Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See, a finalist for the National Book Award. His honors include awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Academy of American Poets, and The American Poetry Review. He taught for The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop for forty years, served two terms as Iowa’s first Poet Laureate, and now teaches for the brief-residency M.F.A located in Oregon at Pacific University. He lives in Iowa City and Port Townsend, Washington.
 
Mary Cantrell is an associate professor of English at Tulsa Community College and a long-time fiction editor for Nimrod. Her creative work has been published in Mochilla Review, Iowa Woman, and Big Muddy. She has written several articles on creative writing pedagogy, including articles published in The Authority Project: Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom and The Handbook of Creative Writing.
 
Carol Johnson, a member of the Nimrod Editorial Board, has published short stories, essays and articles, as well as a non-fiction book.  Her first novel, Everlasting, was published in 2006 by HAWK Press, and was nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award. She teaches composition and creative writing at Tulsa Community College.
 
Linda Watanabe McFerrin is a poet, fiction author, and travel writer. She is the author of a novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber; a short fiction collection, The Hand of Buddha; and two poetry collections, Chisel, Rice Paper and Stone and The Impossibility of Redemption Is Something We Hadn’t Figured On. Her work has been included in Wild Places, among other collections, and she edited The Best Places in Northern California, Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel, as well having work in those collections. She was the 1997 winner of Nimrod’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction.
 
W. Scott Olsen’s stories and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Ascent, Willow Springs, Kansas Quarterly, and other publications. He is the author of the books Hard Air, At Speed: Notes from the Long Line Between Two Points, and Gravity—The Allure of Distance, among others. A new essay, “What Remains,” appears in the current issue of Nimrod. He teaches English at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
 
Eilis O’Neal is Managing Editor of Nimrod. Her young adult fantasy novel, The False Princess, is forthcoming from Egmont USA in 2010. Her short fantasy has appeared or is forthcoming in Fantasy Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Interfictions II Online Anthology, Zahir: A Journal of Speculative Fiction, Leading Edge, and elsewhere.
 
James Ragan is the author of seven books of poetry, including In the Talking Hours, Womb-Weary, The Hunger Wall, and Lusions, and co-editor of Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Collected Poems. Translated into 10 languages, he has read for five heads of state.  His honors include three Fulbright Professorships, the Emerson Poetry Prize, an NEA and a PSA Gertrude Claytor Award, among others. He has read at Carnegie Hall and the United Nations and recorded for Sony Records. Plays include The Landlord and Commedia, produced in Moscow, Beijing, Athens, and elsewhere. He has worked in film on The Border, The Voyager and the Oscar winner The Deer Hunter. For 25 years he directed the University of Southern California Graduate Professional Writing Program.
 
Francine Ringold is the Editor-in-Chief of Nimrod. She recently completed her second term as Oklahoma’s Poet Laureate (2003-2005, 2005-2007). Her historical play, Mercy, was presented at a National Chautauqua conference under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Her most recent book of poems, Still Dancing, won the Oklahoma Book Award in 2005.  Her books include The Trouble with Voices: Poetry, another Oklahoma Book Award winner; Every Other One, with Manly Johnson; and Making Your Own Mark: Writing and Drawing for Senior Citizens. Her newest book, How Not to Write a Memoir, is forthcoming.
 
A. J. Tierney, a member of Nimrod’s Editorial Board, earned her M.F.A in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She interned as a literary agent assistant to Peter Rubie of Fine Print Literary Management in New York City. In 2006, she was the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar award.
 
K. D. Wentworth, a Tulsa native, is an active member of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and Coordinating Judge for the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.  She has sold over eighty short stories to such markets as Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Pulphouse, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Realms of Fantasy.  Her novels include The Imperium Game, Moonspeaker, House of Moons, Black on Black, and Stars Over Stars.  Four of her short stories have been Nebula finalists. Her most recent book was The Course of Empire, with Eric Flint, and her next book, Crucible of Empire, will be published in March 2010.
 
A supplement to the biographical notes will be available at the conference and will introduce additional one-on-one editors, including Diane Burton, Britton Gildersleeve, Sue Gronberg, Cynthia Gustavson, Ellen Hartman, Lisa Ransom, Diane Seebass, Charlotte Stewart, Fran Tibbetts, Bruce Tibbetts, Krista Waldron, and others.

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