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
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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
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