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Rene Denfeld / Writing from the Margins
It’s easy to assume you need to have a fancy degree to become a writer. But writing is for everyone, and the world needs all our voices. Rene Denfeld went from being a homeless child to a bestselling, award-winning author. She talks about using your past as your best asset as a writer. Rene Denfeld is the bestselling author of The Butterfly Girl, The Child Finder and The Enchanted. Her novels have won numerous awards, including a prestigious French Prix. She lives in Portland, where she is the mother to several kids from foster care. |
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Charles Tonderai Mudede / A Writer’s Philosophy of Time
This talk will concern the ideas writers can learn from current thinking about the nature and source of time by major (and sometimes unknown) physicists. As scientists learn more about the universe, the stranger ordinary things, like the flow of time, become. This increasing strangeness should be a source of inspiration for writers. Charles Tonderai Mudede is a Zimbabwean-born cultural critic, urbanist, filmmaker, college lecturer, and writer. He is the film editor of the Stranger, a lecturer at Cornish College, and has collaborated with the director Robinson Devor on three films, two of which Police Beat and Zoo, premiered at Sundance, and one of which, Zoo, screened at Cannes. |
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workshops
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Rene Denfeld (morning keynote) / Publishing 101
The publishing industry can be confusing, capricious and just plain strange. Rene will discuss how to get published even if you lack degrees or connections. She will share tricks and tips and answer questions. |
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Cindy Williams Gutiérrez / Further, Deeper, Wilder: A Workshop on Poem Revision
If prompts plant seeds and free-writes give rise to poem-sprouts, how do we prune these sprouts into poems that will blossom? In this workshop, we will review revision strategies and explore how they can take poems, in the words of poet Jeanne Marie Beaumont, “further, deeper, wilder.” Bring your own poem-sprout or work with Cindy’s material. Poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez was awarded a 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship for Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women. She was selected by Poets & Writers Magazine as a 2014 Notable Debut Poet for the small claim of bones, which placed second in the 2015 International Latino Book Awards. |
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Marty Hughley / Before and Beyond Opinion
The era of digital and social media has democratized the realm of arts criticism; these days we all can tell the world what we think of movies, music and so forth. But truly useful writing on the arts still relies on a mix of age-old journalistic verities and deeply subjective engagement. We'll discuss how to get to deeper meaning than just what we like. Marty Hughley is a Portland arts journalist and theater editor for Oregon ArtsWatch. A former staff writer for The Oregonian, where he focused on pop music, theater and dance, his awards include a National Arts Journalism Fellowship and induction into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. |
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Kate Kaufmann / Interviewing for Juicy Book Material
Gathering stories from others helps shape our work. Whether coming up with book ideas, defining our audience, or connecting with pertinent experts, top-notch interviewing skills are crucial. We’ll explore interviewing strategies for focus groups, personal histories, and subject-matter experts that effectively and efficiently yield great material. Former Carlton resident Kate Kaufmann is an award-winning author (Do You Have Kids? Life When the Answer is No) with an MFA in creative writing and professional background in human resources and consulting. She’s been featured on NBC’s Know Your Value, CBC Radio One, and the Washington Post. |
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J.C. Mehta / Write an Antipode Poem & Experience Poetry in Virtual Reality
The Antipode is an experimental form of poetry with roots in the palindrome and reverse poetry. In this workshop, we’ll play with word pairings, create our own Antipode or Antipode lines, and experience this unique form of poetry in virtual reality. Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a multi-award-winning poet and author of over one dozen books. The Wrong Kind of Indian won gold at the 2019 IPPPY and Best Book awards. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, much of her work explores space and place in post-colonial America |
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Matthew Minicucci / Practical Advice on Placing Work in Magazines
Publishing in magazines can seem like an impossible task, a pipe dream, or an undiscovered country. But it isn’t. Not when you break it down to simple, repeatable methods. This workshop will introduce you to industry-specific submission tools and techniques to give your work the best chance to succeed. Matthew Minicucci’s most recent collection, Small Gods (New Issues), won the 2019 Stafford/Hall Oregon Book Award in Poetry. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals including The Believer, POETRY, The Southern Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. This past summer he served as the 43rd Dartmouth Poet-in-Residence. |
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Sylla McClellan / Some Ideas for Getting Your Book into Bookstores
Learn the best way to present your book shops for inventory consideration. From national distributors to DIY, self-published authors to big and small publishing houses – bookstores look at each one a different way. Be prepared and increase your chances of having your book stocked! A bookseller since 1995, Sylla has worked at both independent and corporate bookstores. In 2004 she took ownership of Third Street Books in McMinnville and has never looked back. She is a member of the American Booksellers Association and former board member of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. |
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Charles Tonderai Mudede (afternoon keynote) / Writing Images for Film
Cinema is an art that synthesizes theater, photography, music, and writing. The writing part is, oddly enough, still fundamental to the art of cinema. A film begins with writing and from this literary base, the other arts enter and participate. This workshop will be about how to write not for readers but for a director—the one who brings theater, photography, music into play with what a screenwriter has written. |
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Emily Grosvenor & Lisa Ohlen Harris / Turn Clutter into Creative Nonfiction
Home organization experts tell us to clear the clutter. But what of the kitschy figurine that meant the world to your dear grandmother or the collection of blown glass frogs you’ve been collecting since you were twelve? In this workshop we’ll explore strategies for excavating those memories and transforming guilt and clutter into literature and meaning. Emily Grosvenor is the Editor of Oregon Home magazine and creator of The Oracle House, a modern lifestyle brand. Her essays have appeared in places like The Atlantic, Good Housekeeping and Salon.com. This is her seventh year running the media machine behind Terroir. Lisa Ohlen Harris is the author of The Fifth Season: A Daughter-in-Law’s Memoir of Caregiving and Through the Veil, a memoir-in-essays of the years she lived in the Middle East. She works for a dentist in Newberg and teaches in Southern New Hampshire University’s online MA in English and Creative Writing. |
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Charlie Price / Writing Young Adult Fiction
Explore the fictional characters, settings, plots, pacing, length, and vocabulary common to the YA genre. You will have the opportunity to try your hand at some YA prompts. Charlie Price has six YA novels published by Macmillan including the EDGAR winning Interrogation of Gabriel James, the High Plains Award finalist Dead Girl Moon, Desert Angel (starred review Kirkus) and Dead Connection (starred review Publisher’s Weekly). He’s an educator and leadership consultant who’s also directed programs and led groups on locked psych wards. |
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Katherine Roy / Researching, Writing and Drawing Nonfiction Picture Books
Oregon-based author/illustrator Katherine Roy will take you on a step-by-step journey to show you how she uses inquiry, research, and innovation to write and draw her award-winning books, and how you can follow your questions to find your story, too. Katherine Roy is the award-winning author and illustrator of Neighborhood Sharks and How to Be an Elephant. She is also the illustrator of Otis and Will Discover the Deep by Barb Rosenstock and Red Rover by Richard Ho. Learn about her research, writing and drawing process, and more at katherineroy.com |
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Steve Long / The Process of Novel Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide
Broadly defined, there are two approaches to novel writing: plotters (perhaps best exemplified by John Irving) and pantsers (no better representative than Stephen King). This presentation offers a step-by-step guide to both, as gleaned from the pages of Elizabeth’s George’s Write Away and Stephen King’s On Writing. Stephen W. Long is the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and is the author of two novels: There’s a Somebody and All Hat. Stephen has been a swamper, dock worker, big-rig driver, business owner, and store manager, each of which he insists is a prerequisite for novel writing. |
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Terroir Workshop Schedule Festival Details Terroir Mail-In Registration Terroir On-line Registration
The Terroir Creative Writing Festival is sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County with support from the James F and Marion L Miller Foundation, Yamhill County Cultural Coalition, the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Oregon Community Foundation, Third Street Books of McMinnville, Linfield College, and Chemeketa Community College, Yamhill Valley Campus.