'Fridays on the Boulevard' Monthly Open Mic
Next Date: Friday, May 3, 7-9pm. CLICK TO LEARN MORE
Become a 2013-2014 Atheneum Fellow
Advance your writing and seed your literary life.
Pour the art into the poet and the poet into the art.
Now accepting auditors
Kick off your literary shoes this summer
Register now for writing workshops in June, July, & August
Congratulations to Atheneum Fellows (class of 2013) for an amazing two-day retreat this weekend at the Attic Institute.
Upcoming Atheneum EventsAtheneum Reading on May 6, 6:30pm, at Stonehenge Studios.
Atheneum Reading on May 13, 6:30pm, at Stonehenge Studios.
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, Ryan Kauffman, 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
|
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.
AFTER-PARTY: Cash bar at the Blue Monk. 3341 SE Belmont.
Plus: Meet the class of 2013 Atheneum Fellows.
Willamette Week hails tonight's reading to be "like getting a free class in literary genius."
We are delighted to be EVERYWHERE at Wordstock October 13-14, including creating the 'Open Write' writing competition, hosting the poetry stage, and our faculty fellows giving talks, readings, sitting on panels, and more.
OPEN WRITE: Wordstock and the Attic Institute team up for an action-packed, fast-paced, improv writing competition. Hosted live from Wordstock's weekend Book Fair at the Oregon Convention Center, Open Write gives brave writers the chance to showcase what they can do with only a writing prompt, a computer, and nine minutes. Their prose is posted to the web, the digital audience and the judges each select a champion. Winners announced daily at 5:30pm from the Open Write podium next to the Drinkery.
ATTIC INSTITUTE POETRY STAGE
Saturday, October 13
11am: John Brehm & Stephanie Lenox
12pm: A Face to Meet the Faces: Anthology
1pm: Crystal Williams & David Axelrod
2pm: Floyd Skloot & Greg Chaimov
3pm: Bruce Beasley & Suzanne Paola
4pm: Andrew Feld & Jodie Marion
Sunday, October 14
11am: Kathleen Flenniken & Paulann Petersen
12pm: Poetry Northwest
1pm: Andrea Hollander Budy & Lisa M. Steinman
2pm: Jim Shugrue & John Morrison
3pm: Poets from the Athenuem at the Attic Institute
4pm: Wendy Willis & John Daniel
Attic Institute faculty fellows read at the following times:
Peter Zuckerman, 11am, Saturday, October 13
James Bernard Frost, 1pm, Saturday, October 13
Yuvi Zalkow, 5pm, Saturday, October 13
Paulann Petersen, Sunday 11am, October 14
Karen Karbo, Sunday 12pm, October 14
Wendy Willis, Sunday 4pm, October 14
Attic Institute faculty fellows sit on panels or giving talks at the following times:
James Bernard Frost, panelist, "Putting Words in the Mouth of God," 11am, Oct 13
Peter Zuckerman, talk, "Triage: A Better Way to Revise," 1:30pm, October 13
Karen Karbo, panelist, "The Allure of the Lives of Others," October 13
Yuvi Zalkow, panelist, "What Sex Does To a Story," 4pm, October 13
Yuvi Zalkow, talk, "Obsession X Voice," 12pm, October 14
Lee Montgomery, panelist, "The Art of the Ending," 3pm, October 14
James Bernard Frost, talk, "The Anti-Hero's Journey," 3pm, October 14
New visual arts assemblages to begin January 2013.The Attic Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of artist and teacher Margaret Eccles Yost as a senior fellow and director of our new visual arts program which will offer workshops, or "assemblages," to beginning, emerging, and established visual artists beginning January 2013.
Emerging in the late 1980s as a visual artist in Portland, Margaret's work can be found in public and private art collections both in the United States and abroad, and has been seen in numerous exhibitions worldwide in galleries, on-site installations, museums, and film festivals. Interviews and reviews of her work have been featured in Art in America, The New York Times, The Oregonian, The New Jersey Star Ledger, Willamette Week, and other national publications.
Adjunct Fellow Martha Gies invites you to write amazing stuff in her popular and inspirational creative writing workshop.
In this workshop, we will look at ways of showing and telling that make character come alive on the page. "...every feeling waits upon its gesture," said Eudora Welty, who learned her craft traveling around Mississippi during the Depression and photographing people for the WPA. In addition to writing short sketches in class, we will read assigned fiction by Dagoberto Gilb, Susan Minot, John Sayles and Miss Welty, in order to study how they how they deliver characters that we may hate or love, but always hear and see.
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."
