Poetry Workshop with John Morrison
Write new poems from models to mayhem ~ June 25 - July 23
Travel Writing with Caitlin Dwyer
Get it down and share it with others ~ June 30 - July 28
'Fridays on the Boulevard' Monthly Open Mic
Next Date: Friday, July 5, 7-9pm. CLICK TO LEARN MORE
Writing Queer Workshop with Wayne Gregory
Writing as a means to explore identity ~ June 30 - July 28
Kick off your literary shoes this summer
Register now for writing workshops in June, July, & August
Award-winning poet Andrea Hollander to begin teaching in fall 2013Andrea Hollander is the author of four full-length poetry collections: Landscape with Female Figure: New & Selected Poems, Woman in the Painting, The Other Life, and House Without a Dreamer, which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize.
Charming Gardenersby David Biespiel
The formally nuanced and wise epistolary poems in David Biespiel’s new collection are grounded in friendship, camaraderie, and the vulnerability and boldness that defines America.
Roving from the old Confederacy of Biespiel's native South to Portland, Oregon, Charming Gardeners explores the wildness of the Northwest, the avenues of Washington, D.C., the coal fields of West Virginia, and an endless stretch of airplanes and hotel rooms from New York to Texas to California.
These poems explore the “insistent murmurs” of memory and the emotional connections between individuals and history, as well as the bonds of brotherhood, the ghosts of America’s wars, and the vibrancy of love, sex, and intimacy. We are offered poems addressed to family, friends, poets, and political rivals — all in a masterful idiom Robert Pinsky has called Biespiel’s “own original grand style.”
PRE-ORDER DISCOUNTS
Amazon: 34% off | B&N: 32% off
Powell's: Pre-order | UW Press: Pre-order
PUB DATE: OCTOBER 1, 2013
Teaching Fellow Emily Whitman is teaching the Novels for Kids and Teens poetry workshop this summer, June 30 – July 28. Here she invites you into the process.
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Sometimes people ask me why I write books for kids and teens. Telling them all the reasons would take longer than they’ve bargained on. So I’ve made a list. Maybe I should keep copies in my bag to hand out as needed.
Teaching Fellow Catie Bull is teaching the Made of Words poetry workshop this summer, June 30 – July 28. Here she invites you into the process.
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I was flipping through my Dictionary of Contrasting Pairs this morning, because the radio keeps playing a song that says, "The opposite of love's indifference," which has me thinking about opposites, traditional and re-defined. And I came across the entry for "austral/septentrional," which I now know are rareish equivalents of north and south when used adjectivally (so a 'septentrional state' is a northern country, an 'austral wind' a south wind).
Which is cool, if pretty obscure, but the entry also had this tidbit about Australia: "The 'southern' sense of 'austral' lies behind the name of Australia, which was marked on maps in classical times, when its existence was only conjectured, as Terra incognita australis, 'the unknown southern land.'"
Congratulations to Atheneum Fellows (class of 2013) for an amazing two-day retreat this weekend at the Attic Institute.
Upcoming Atheneum EventsAtheneum Reading on June 6, 6:30pm, at Stonehenge Studios.
Atheneum Reading on June 13, 6:30pm, at Stonehenge Studios 3508 SW Corbett.
June 2013: New Atheneum Fellows announced.
More information about the Attic Atheneum master writing program
Hear the graduating class of 2013 of Atheneum Fellows read new fiction, memoir and poetry.
June 6: Shana Kusin, Melea Seward, David Melville, Amy Seaholt, JoAnna Prahl
June 13: Michael Sterling Farris, Nina Lary, Shelley Stearns, David Buchta, Katja Dilmann, Sara Fischer
Stonehenge Studios: 3508 SW Corbett Ave (503) 224 - 3640
Reminder: Attic Atheneum class of 2014 applications due May 31.
The Attic Institute is proud to announce the 2013 summer teaching fellows:
Former Atheneum Fellow and Hawthorne Fellow to teach 'Writing Queer' this summerWayne Gregory is one of the most honored writers to study at the Attic Institute. A veteran of workshops with senior fellow Merridawn Duckler and associate fellow Ariel Gore, he was a 2010-2011 Atheneum Fellow and also a 2011-2012 Hawthorne Fellow. He has taught at Willamette University and Portland State University. Wayne is a linguist, a proud grandfather, and a card-carrying member of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus. He has recently completed a memoir about growing up gay in the conservative Christian South, which has been accepted by Rebel Satori Press.
Register for Writing Writing Queer workshop
You are invited to join the free Attic Atheneum information meeting on Friday, April 26, 4pm, at the Attic Institute. Learn about this groundbreaking alternative to the MFA. Meet faculty. Ask questions about how the program can benefit your writing. For fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and poets.
We're hiring! If you possess significant literary experience and want to teach at the Attic Institute, apply to become a Summer Teaching Fellow.
Summer Teaching Fellows offer five (5) week workshops in fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, or poetry, as well as in general literary subjects such as publishing or literature.
Sunday, June 23, 2013. These two-hour workshops are free for writers in one of our Feb-May classes.
Check out the Spring Writing Festival offerings.
New writing by the Hawthorne FellowsRead new pieces: Jim Newman. Kristen Rainey. Chip Kosboth. D. M. Nowell. Paul Rogers.
Write. Edit. Publish.
Learn more about the Hawthorne Fellows.
Read past issues of The Boulevard, the publication of the Hawthorne Fellows.
Meet Jennifer Lauck who will lead the next group of Hawthorne Fellows beginning in April.
The Art of Design: Gardening, Woodworking, and Writing PoetryJanuary 24, 6-7:30pm at the Northwest Woodworking Studio (1002 SE 8th)
Engage your own creative side. Participate in an intimate panel discussion with three notable Portlanders.
Sean Hogan, owner of Cistus Nursery on Sauvies Island, Portland, and a world renown garden designer, lecturer, and author.
Gary Rogowski, Director of The Northwest Woodworking Studio, A School for Woodworkers. Gary is a well known woodworking designer, author, and lecturer.
David Biespiel, President of the Attic Institute, author of the Oregon Book Award winning collection of poems, The Book of Men and Women, and the inspiring book on creativity, Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces.
Join these three Portlanders as they each discuss their process, the triumphs and pitfalls, and the value of failure in the creative process. It is sure to be a lively evening of discussion. Come be inspired.
For more information: nws@spiritone.com
The Attic Institute is pleased to announce that New York Times Bestselling novelist Whitney Otto, Oregon Book Award winning novelist and Sundance Film Festival screenwriter Jon Raymond, and First Unitarian Church of Portland Minister Emerita Reverend Dr. Marilyn Sewell have been appointed adjunct fellows beginning January 2013.
"These are three amazing writers, speakers, and teachers here in Portland, and we're delighted to have them join our roster of exceptional literary teachers and to work with Portland's emerging writer in fiction, film, and spiritual writing," notes David Biespiel, president of the Attic Institute. "Any writer who wants to advance and learn would do well to take course or more with these three outstanding writers."
Otto, Raymond, and Sewell join a dynamic, national faculty of teaching fellows at the Attic Institute that includes David Biespiel, Cheryl Strayed, Karen Karbo, Paulann Petersen, Jennifer Lauck, Matthew Dickman, Wendy Willis, Merridawn Duckler, Elizabeth Rusch, Vanessa Veselka, Peter Zuckerman, and others, including critics Jeff Baker, Barry Johnson, and Shawn Levy.
New prose by:
Paul Rogers, Kristen Forbes, Jim Newman, and Chip Kosboth
Learn more about the Hawthorne Fellows
Applications to the next clas of Hawthorne Fellows are due March 25, 2013
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Congratulations to Emily Harris, adjunct fellow, who will reporting from Jersusalem for NPR beginning March 2013. Emily joined the Attic in late 2011 and remain on the faculty (on leave) for the next three years when she plans to return to Portland.
Learn how to work one-on-one with Emily (before March)
LEARN TO CREATE A BLOG IN THREE HOURS
These days it's all about platform for new and up and coming writers. Writing, blogging and social media can be overwhelming. How do you juggle it all? Join Kelly Wallace for a three-hour class for writers on December 15, 2012 that will teach you the first step in the platform process: how to create a blog. Want to share the message of your small business? Campaign? Life story?
One of the Attic's most beloved faculty fellows begins 2013 by offering POETRY 101, a place to begin, restart, or renew your love for writing poems.
SPEICAL OFFER: The first person to register for this workshop will receive a free book of poems.
Historic first reading together of Oregon poet laureate and Attic Institute Associate Fellow Paulann Petersen and Washington poet laureate Kathleen Flenniken on the Attic Institute poetry stage.
Writers compete in the Attic Institute / Wordstock OPEN WRITE improv writing competition.
Attic Institute Adjunct Fellow Wendy Willis and John Daniel read on the Attic Institute poetry stage.
Writers gather at the Attic Institute booth.
Our booth!
Peter Zuckerman's book, BURIED IN THE SKY, received the George Orwell Award for "outstanding analysis of public discourse."
Learn more about Peter Zuckerman
Peter, who has been on book tour since the spring, will resume teaching at the institute in 2013.
"A writer must "learn about what is possible." —David Biespiel, President of the Attic Institute, appearing on the Back Page with Jody Sea, May 14, 2012.
Meet David Biespiel | Learn more about the Poets Studio at the Attic Institute
Shawn Levy, Oregonian Film Critic and Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute
Upcoming workshop with Shawn Levy
I think of writing as partly an athletic act, partly a curatorial act, partly labor, and partly (and this may be the biggest part) gratifying pleasure.
James Bernard Frost, Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute
Learn more about James Bernard Frost
Upcoming workshop with James Bernard Frost
“I sit at my table and wage war on myself. It seems like it’s all, it’s all for nothing.”
These are the lyrics from a song by R.E.M. called World Leader Pretend that inspired my first novel. It’s also how I feel on those days when the writing simply isn’t going well.
Study with Matthew Dickman at the Attic InstituteMeet Adjunct Fellow Matthew Dickman
On Writing Learn more about Jennifer Lauck
Upcoming classes with Jennifer Lauck
As a writer of memoir, your primary job is to re-create your lived experience on the page.
Follow Attic Institute president David Biespiel's blog on the Rumpus. Part watchdog, part poetry punditry, 'David Biespiel's Poetry Wire' compliments, challenges, and comments on poems, poets, books, po-biz, reviews, controversies, and the contemporary state of affairs of the art and culture of poetry.
Letter announcing the new Attic Institute
"Eleven years have gone by in a blink. But today begins a new era as we renew our dedication both to the word and to the world."
Interview about the founding of the Attic Institute
"All sorts of excellent pieces of writing get started and finished here. That's what it means to be a literary studio."
Farewell commentary as editor of Poetry Northwest: " A Sense of Form and A Sense of Life"
"I realize now that the divide between Modernist American poetry and, let's call it, Rilkean American poetry is largely unnecessary. Poetry can be both a repository of wisdom and contain revolutionary feeling -- even in the same poem."
Essay on poets and democracy in Poetry magazine: "This Land Is Our Land"
"America's poets have a minimal presene in American civic discourse and a miniscule public role in the life of American democracy. I find this condition perplexing and troubling -- both for poetry and for democracy."
