A16
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Fishtrap plans writing workshops through early 2022
Chieftain staff
ENTERPRISE — Fishtrap is
announcing its 2021-22 season of
online writing workshops, accord-
ing to a press release.
A variety of classes from
weekend seminars to month-
long courses in poetry, fi ction,
essay, nonfi ction and more will be
off ered. Join any of these classes
virtually from wherever you are.
Fishtrap will continue to add new
workshops as the season pro-
gresses, so check back often for
more opportunities to write, learn,
and connect with others.
Learn more at Fishtrap.org.
Stalking the Story
Starting Saturday, Oct. 23 from
10 a.m. to noon, Stalking the Story:
Learning Flexibility, Perspective
and Patience with Your Work will
be off ered by Karen Auvinen.
To write well,
you must learn
to circle the story
until it reveals itself
to you, Auvinen
says. Come play
in this generative
Auvinen
workshop meant
to teach you how
to stalk your writing. Exercises
will spur writing that will surprise
you and off er new perspective and
energy to whatever you are work-
ing on. Poets, fi ction writers, mem-
oirists and the mildly curious are
all welcome.
Registration is $60, or $55 for
Fishtrappers.
Auvinen also will conduct a
workshop called The Secret of
Energy: Ways to Get Your Writ-
ing to Leap, Sing, and Smash! on
Saturday, Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m.
Participants will learn how the
secret to a great story is not plot
or fantastic characters but energy.
Learn how a scene, essay, story or
poem explodes off the page when
energy is controlled by the writer.
Explore taking leaps, leaving gaps
and using language to create prose
and a story that grabs readers. All
writers of all levels are welcome.
Plan to do some reading ahead of
class and also write during class.
Registration is $120, or $110
for Fishtrappers.
Environmental Writing
Each Tuesday in November,
beginning Nov. 2, at 6 p.m., Emily
Withnall will lead
Reimagining Envi-
ronmental Writing,
a one-hour, online
nature and envi-
ronmental writing
workshop.
Withnall
These
disci-
plines are often
narrowly conceived as fl y-fi sh-
ing or backpacking celebrations,
or journalistic advocacy about an
aspect of the climate crisis. In this
generative workshop, however,
Withnall will fl ip traditional under-
standings of environmental writing
by reading work that pushes the
traditional boundaries of the genre.
The workshop will take place
for one hour each week for four
consecutive weeks. Each session
will include discussion of read-
ings and ideas, brainstorming, and
a generative prompt and writing
time. By the end of the month, par-
ticipants will have an essay drafted
as well as resources for revision
and publication.
Registration is $120, or $110
for Fishtrappers.
Writer as Mapmaker
In January, Fishtrap presents
Writer as Mapmaker: An Online
Essay Workshop with Corinna
Cook.
These will take place 6-8 p.m.
on four Tuesdays
beginning Jan. 4.
In this work-
shop,
partici-
pants will see how
maps, like litera-
ture, tell us where
Cook
we are and where
we might go. Lit-
erature, like a good map, tells us
what’s adjacent though just out of
sight, what lies underfoot, where
the fi rm boundaries lie and where
they give way. The contemporary
creative nonfi ction essay serves as
this workshop’s lens: participants
Enterprise schools mull new superintendent
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
Enterprise School District
hopes to have a new superin-
tendent by the end of Octo-
ber, School Board Chair-
woman Mandy Decker said
Wednesday, Sept. 22.
“We will be interviewing
fi ve people on Oct. 3 for the
position of interim superin-
tendent,” she said.
The successful candidate
will replace Erika Pinker-
ton, who left Aug. 30 for a
position with the La Grande
School District. She had
been at Enterprise since
2016.
While the district awaits
selection of the interim
superintendent, Karen Pat-
ton of the Educational Ser-
vice District is serving
as acting superintendent,
Decker said.
Decker said the board
received nine applications
for the interim superinten-
dent position and those were
narrowed down to the fi ve
they’ll interview.
She said the list of candi-
dates looks “promising.”
The search committee
is made up of 24 people,
including the fi ve school
board members, school
staff , faculty and area resi-
dents. The board itself will
will sample essays that treat maps
as art, essays that expand maps into
metaphor, and essays that make
maps out of language. Participants
will compile a class resource bank
of chosen maps, engage with them
via writing prompts and discussion
and develop an original piece of
writing that dialogues with a map
of their choice.
This workshop is suitable for
published authors, practicing stu-
dents, writers who simply dab-
ble and all thinkers interested in
exploring nonfi ction’s literary-car-
tographic lay of the land.
Registration is $240, or $214
for Fishtrappers.
do the hiring.
Although the district
advertised for an “interim”
superintendent, there is the
possibility the candidate
could become permanent,
Decker said. She added that
the process for a perma-
nent superintendent is much
more comprehensive.
“The possibility is there,
but it depends on who we’re
looking at,” she said.
Decker said the board
engaged the Oregon School
Board Association to assist
in the hiring process.
“We hired the OSBA to
help with the search and
we’ve been seamless,” she
said.
Moments that Endure
In March, Fishtrap presents
Ephemeral Moments that Endure:
An Online Micro Essay Workshop
with E.M. (Lizzie) Sloan.
The workshops
will take place at
6-7:30 p.m.
for
four
consecu-
tive Wednesdays
beginning March
9.
Sloan
In the vein of
fl ash/micro/brevity
nonfi ction, this workshop will play
with isolated scenes that you fi nd
are buried deep in the recesses of
your mind, your heart, your soul.
Dig into the hollows and bring to
light those hidden fl ickers of mem-
ory/experience. Participants will
dip into the popular topic of nos-
talgia (COVID-19 trauma seems to
have reawakened this psychology)
by enlivening our senses through
writing prompts of ephemeral
moments. Whether deep in a work
in progress, ready to start again or
just want to have fun writing with-
out a goal hanging over you, this
workshop should help keep ideas
fl owing and ink dripping.
Registration is $180, or $160
for Fishtrappers.
Recipes from Poems
On four consecutive Saturdays
beginning April 2, Nellie Bridge
will lead an online poetry work-
shop called Recipes from Poems
We Love.
The workshops
take place from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This generative
poetry workshop
takes as its starting
Bridge
point the appreci-
ation, wonder and
beauty in poems you love. Every-
one in this workshop will bring an
inspiring poem to share and use
some part of it (structure, voice,
occasion, style, device) to craft a
poem of your own. We will create
recipes for poems together, discuss
a poem’s parts and write freely
with a goal to create fi ve or more
new poems during the class.
Registration is $240, or $215
for Fishtrappers.
Wallowa council hears plans from ODOT
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — It was
another quiet meeting for
the Wallowa City Coun-
cil, last week, when it met
Tuesday, Sept. 21.
“It’s been pretty quiet,”
Mayor Gary Hulse said the
following day. “Things are
the same as always. Hope-
fully it’ll stay that way.”
Hulse said that the
council received a pre-
sentation from a repre-
sentative of the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion, which plans sidewalk
access work much like has
been done in Enterprise
and is planned for Joseph
to comply with the fed-
eral Americans with Dis-
abilities Act. In particular,
wheelchair ramps will be
installed at various places
in the curbs along High-
way 82.
Hulse said that in addi-
tion to the ramps, there
will be a new crosswalk
near the school and curb
“bumps” where the curb
would extend into the street
to “slow traffi c down.” He
said one is planned at each
end of town and at the
school crosswalk.
He said the work is
expected to begin next year
and take all summer. It will
be done at state expense
and cost the city nothing.
But the mayor wanted
to make sure the “bumps”
don’t cause problems for
city maintenance.
“We ask them to make it
so our guys could plow the
streets without a problem,”
he said.
In other matters, the
council approved an ordi-
nance vacating a portion
of 8th Street. Hulse said
the vacated portion never
has been paved and is near
the Wallowa Health Care
facility.
“It was a vacation of it
so they can do some land-
scaping,” he said.