Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2013)
P R IN T : Arts & Culture g »£» Wednesday,June5,2013 W riting C onference com poses a p retty p iece of prose U^eroEure U)r dirvoj Courses (W e d Volt 2.013 ENG 104 - Introduction to Literature: Fiction ENG 104 - Introduction to Literature: Fiction (a focus on literature of horror) ENG 107-W orld Literature ENG 121 - Mystery Fiction (Online) ENG 194 - Introduction to Film ENG 199 - Witness Literature (Online) ENG 199 - Introduction to Literature (Hybrid) ENG 201-Shakespeare ENG 216 - Comics & Literature (Hybrid) ENG 250 - Greco-Roman Mythology {Hybrid) For Saturday’s Compose Writing Conference, part time faculty members from the English department Nicole Rosevear and Jaime Wood ran a workshop titled “Turning Big Truth into'Art: The Essential Work o f Poetry and Fiction. ” AnnaAxelson Co-Editorin-Chief With a wrangling twist of mas terful words, classrooms full of bright, eager minds and a whole some helping of bona fide talent, Clackamas Community College’s composition seems to'have pulled together into one glorious piece of prose. Starting off June with a well-written bang, the campus played host on Saturday to the fourth annual “Compose,” CCC’s Creating Writing Conference. _ While, there were many, workr. During the fabulous lunch pro vided by Oregon City’s own Just a Bite Cafe (there were turkey and veggie offerings), accom plished playwright and Clackamas instructor Sue Mach delivered a keynote address to the satiated crowd. The fueling force - and tide - of the speech was “Failure is the only Option.” “Expect to fail,” said Mach. “You owe it to yourself to tell the story that is meant to be told.” While she went on to speak o f creative conflicts, the impor tance o f truth, the yearning for a story, her meaning can probably Grammar Concepts for Improving Style,” presented by Clackamas instructor James Bryiant-Trerise. As amped up as I was to put the pen to the page, a few moments o f reflection, revision and recon sideration were a great way for this editor to rein in the stampede tempting to overwhelm my fiction urge. . “You do not have a sentence if you do not have a subject and a verb,” said Bryant-Treise. “By being aware o f your subject and verb you can know how to empha size or de-emphasize.” There is no try. “The world needs critical thinking. Our culture needs criti cal thinking,” said Mach to ah attentive crowd. “Do it because there is a lot of important things to say.” Inspired and ready for more, my next workshop was “Turning Big Truth into Art: The Essential Work o f Poetry and Fiction” run by Jaime Wood and Nicole Rosevear, both part time faculty for the English department. The themes were reminiscent of the rest of the day (these ladies did a spectacular job of keeping truth and failure from being a depress ing topic), but the readings were inspired. First was “Failure,” by Philip Shultz, then “Girl,” by Jamaica Kincade. Both pieces, while staggeringly different, car ried a power that raised goose bumps and sparked discussions of what truths We could determine, and just how the poet or author relayed those truths. This session Was a great follow-up to Dodge’s workshop, delving deeper into the truth within the lie. For me, Compose ended with .“Sleeping With Your Verbs, ^Dancing With your Appositives: Erasmus’ Exercise. Named for the Renaissance writer, the exercise involves taking key sentences and rewriting the content in numerous different ways, practicing. your verbal flexibility, all the while ensuring you have the basics such as both a subject and verb and some semblance of balance. For the complete listing of workshops, the schedule is still available at www.ccccreativewrit- mgconference.wordpress.com. With the announcement that next year’s Compose will not be free as the last four have, I can’t , b*8 help but wonder what that means; Will the fee help to expand the conference? Perhaps allow the college to add to the workshops offered or bring in more outside speakers, resources, vendors? Compose has potential and our students and community could benefit from contributing to its growth. We’re right on the edge o f a growing world of literary love, with Portland becoming a hotspot of writers, publishers, even liter ary agents. I can’t wait to see where this trend takes us. I truly hope Compose is able to keep up; Bryant-Trerise set a room be summed up in the - immectal— ■frill ....of '"eager . writers on cours e .. with a simple writing tool: shops to choose from (16 in all I words o f Yoda: Do or f r o n o t , - up four from last year), my immediate draw was to fiction and I found myself seated before the rumored great Trevor Dodge. The published author and beloved instructor’s session,“The Beautiful Lie: Emotional Truth in Writing Fiction,” broke Sown Some o f the key aspects o f being a writer: trust, belief and risk. “If a reader trusts you, you can tell them anything,” said Dodge. “Belief is file epicenter of die reader.” You don’t have to be telling the truth to be believable. But then again, what is truth? As Dodge explained through the words o f fellow authors Lidia Yuknavitch (a fellow speaker at Compose), Tim O’Brien, Lance Olsen, Raymond Caryer and Alison Bechdel - all recommend“ ed reads by Dodge - it became, clear that die line is quite faint. We don’t love the words o f J.R.R. Tolkien because we’ve embraced the notion of a stout, furry-footed, diminutive humanoid species who inhabit the lands o f Middle-earth, but because o f the truths within Tolkien’s world and the emotions in which the words, draw the read er in. tNU ZW - American Literature WR 241 - Creative Writing: Fiction (Hybrid) WR 262 - Introduction to Screenwriting WR 270 - Food Writing (Online) www.ocac.edu ________ ........... 1 ... 8 ...‘........... OPENHRUSE Saturday, June 22 @ 1 pm Take the next step and become part of our creative community in Portland Transfer information available D iscover th e und erg ra d u a te d e g re e p ro g ra m s in C ra ft: >c 1C Clackamas instructor and accomplished playwright Sue Mach delivered the keynote address in Gregory Forum dur ing Saturday’s fourth annual Compose Writing Conference. The title and theme fo r the keynote was “Failure is the Only Option. ” Oregon college of art and craft Bachelor of Fine Arts, Certificate, Post Baccalaureate C e rtificate A re a s o f s tu d y : Book Arts, Ceramics, - Drawing, fibers, Metals, Painting,. Photography, Wood RSVP www.6cac.edu/Qpenbouse 8 245 SW Barnes Road, Portland, OR 97225 Admissions 971.255.4192 ;
