Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2012)
W ednesday^M ay 23, 201-2 newsed@clackamas.edu The Clackamas P rint (Left),Lidia Yuknavitch, author o f “The God People" a n d “Films o f W arp teaches how to write about real life in her workshop called “M em oir a n d Truthiness: Breaking Down L ife.” (Right) A m ber „Spring singer!songwriter, strums a ukelele as she teaches writers how to turn their words into song. Her workshop was titled Anyone can write a song. COMPOSE: Writers rock McLoughlin Hall Don Weston is an author who has written manuscripts Writer’s conferences usually and is hoping to get published. include a fee, but COMPOSE He attended Monica Drakes and all of its workshops were ' session titled “Breaking and Continued from Page 1 free t o a t t e n d : T h e w rite rs -crab shop a t the C O M P O SE luncheon. Coupon: G et one Fatboy and get th e I tn á o n e l/lV r ic e (Double cheeseburger, small Sry and medium drink) w , j| -Tí M l . r -.Ml kj Open 7 Days a Week at i t a.m. created this conference,. two years ago. The English depart ment’ has taken it over this year and worked to make the conference larger. According to Trista Cornelius, the depart ment has decided to spend all the money allocated, for writers’ workshops throughout the year and provide one large event. “We decided rather than paying an author to come to an event now and then, we just put all the money into this event,”- said-Cornelius. “We are basically saving. alLof our, pen nies for this to really reach out to people.”7 ., As the featured special guest, Petersen taught a work shop titled “With Words from the Mouth of a Stranger.” She spoke at lunch and was intro duced by Kate Gray,, English instructor who had , nothing but words of respect for. her. “It gets a little bit brighter when she walks into, a room,” said Gray. “Opening her books is like opening .70 layers of chocolate.” The applause was thunder ous as Petersen took the podi um. Her presence was stately and her voice rang through out Gregory Forumwlth calm power and impact as she pre sented her thoughts to the eager audience. Petersen began her speech by thanking those who organized the event and then spoke to the advantages of COMPOSE. 3 “I- think all of you who are. here realize how unusual such- a gathering/workshop is,” said Petersen. ‘Refreshments, a lunch, a lovely lunch; anti everything is no charge. What a generous event to" offer to the ' community.” £ turn their words into music. “I think writers always kind óf want to’ be musicians and musicians always want to be writers,” said Vittels, “so we’re E n te rin g : G e ttin g an A nsw er W h e ^ .t h e A nsw er is N o .” H e j u st try in g to talk a b o u t h o w to m a rry th o se tw o. is particularly impressed th a t, no money is coming' out of his pocket to attend the seminars. 3 “I guess I came today to see if there was something that I could learn,” said Weston, “and it was free, which is always a good price. I try to go to a couple of conferences, a year.” ,. Tae Gordon, part time English- instructor and C C C - Writer’s Club adviser, talked about how proud she is of the event. She was particu larly" impressed with how/well the event was attended. There were roughly 90 participants at the conference. Building writ ing skills and networking with other authors were important aspects of the conference to her. 9 “I’m shocked at how quickly registration was filled and then I’m also shocked at how wide spread the news seemed to get out .there,” .said Gordon. “I think that writing is an iso lated act; to be able, to meet other people who practice, it is important. There is something about the energy of having so many writers together.” Cornelius and Gordon along student helpers were available in the hallways of McLoughlin to answer ques tions and direct attendees to workshops throughout the day. A workshop was presented by musicians and songwriters, Amber Spring and Julie Vitells of Portland. The session taught participants the fundamentals of songwriting. A song was cre ated by teachers who used lyr ics written.by the students and melded together for a unique musical art piece.: It gave writ ers-a chance to, learn how to The program '^included workshops that taught the fun damentals of creating prose and poetry for authors of all* styles. Unusual sessions that brought out of the box think ing to the aft were available. Trevor Dodge, CCC English Instructor, hosted a work shop that used Craigslist as a way to develop characters and create fiction from, real life ads on the website. Matthew Schumacher’s ¿¿esson titled “How to Write the Weird: The WKys, Ho\y and Ways, of Valuable Estrangements” , that taught ways to develop unusual writing styles to enhance the odder side of writing. , ii There is something about the energy o f having s'o many writers together Tae Gordon Part-time English instructor ,*-There were several work shops that concentrated on les sons for authors who wanted to learn how to market themselves and their work. Writing about veterans was another work shop that focused -on a specific style of writing. The variety of lessons to be learned were received well and attended at full capacity by writers of many abilities arid genres.
