WIWA Sponsored Workshops

Take advantage of these WIWA sponsored workshops to improve your writing craft, find new inspiration and meet other local writers. For more information, contact wiwa@whidbey.com or call (360) 331-6714. To register, send your name, address, phone number, e-mail, and check for tuition to:

WIWA

PO Box 1289

Langley, WA 98260

The Curse of Me, The Opportunity of I

The first person can be a problematic figure in narrative nonfiction, sometimes getting in the subject's way, occasionally even becoming an obnoxious presence. How do we judge when to use first person, how do we introduce the "I" into the story and how do we shape the narrator into, as Timothy Egan puts, it, "a person the reader wants to hang out with?"

Strong Measures and Nonce Sense:  an Exaltation of Forms in Poetry

Despite those sonnets that scared us off in high school, forms have a delightful ability to draw poetry out of us that we didn't know we had!  We'll read and talk about and try writing some of these strong measures -- sestina, villanelle, ghazal, pantoum and syllable-count forms like haiku and hendecasyllabics. And we'll enjoy "nonce" forms such as the abecedarian, the acrostic, the anaphoric "rant," the round, word-counted verse and “the poet writes back / the poet strikes back” poem that replies to works by other poets - -to extend the conversation of poetry in new ways

photo by Bob Richardson