More Workshop Fun

Hi, Terri!!

I am delighted you will return to the Workshop and join 29 other talented area writers who aspire to capture the attention of New York editors and agents and sell their fiction, memoir, or non-fiction works. I want to remind all those who attend the workshop that the registration fee includes the events of the 2009 Maine Literary Festival on Novebmer 7, beginning at 6:30 PM–please be early or on time as we wil begin promptly!!). So, no one who has paid for the Workshop needs to hock the famlily jewels to attend the Festival portion of the weekend on Saturday evening–it already is part of the registration fee. OK?!! The workshop is now sold out, but if anyone wishes to be on the waiting list, perchance a change, please do not hesitate to let me know.

The evening of November 7 contains a rich, full and exciting array of authors, poets and presentors, and is NOT to be missed. Take a look at our wonderufl line-up and buy your ticket now to Cross Cultural Experience, Literature of New Voices in America.

Maryanne Shanahan

About an Author 2009: Shilpa Agarwal

Shilpa Agarwal is a Los Angeles-based writer and academic. Born in Mumbai to a family uprooted by India ‘s Independence movement and subsequent Partition in 1947, Shilpa’s early writings explored how colonialism and the chaos of dislocation shaped human interaction. As an undergraduate at Duke University , Shilpa specialized in Asian and African literatures and Women’s Studies. She pursued her interest in post-colonial literatures as a doctoral student at the University of California , Los Angeles . She taught at both UCLA and UCSB, including a course on South Asian diaspora, and spoke regularly on the politics and poetics of community. Shilpa’s current writing is informed by glimpses into moments of alienation and awakening, especially during geographic and metaphoric crossings: east meets west, centers meet the peripheries, the living meet the dead. She writes to call up the haunting utterances of the excluded, to excavate fragmentary memories that edge consciousness, and to imagine a more nuanced narrative of history itself. Shilpa’s first novel, Haunting Bombay, is a winner of the 2003 First Words Literary Prize for South Asian writers

The Publishers Are Coming!

I attended the 2007 Maine Literary Festival. I paid rapt attention, imagining myself one of those successful writers in the spotlight, awed by those Maine authors who spoke so supportively to all our Maine writer-hopefuls. Personally, I felt their experiences described exactly my own long struggle to become a published author, that they were directing their encouragement and inspiration directly at me. Consequently, with the help of a very knowledgeable editor, I buckled down to finish a young adult novel that I had been working on for several years. The following summer, my story was published by Down East Books.

Writing is a lonely business, with questionable return on the time spent. If you are anything like me, you know that the road to publication is a long and arduous one. Well, summer is over, and just when I need a shot in the arm or a kick in the pants to jump start my creative juices, here comes the 2009 Maine Literary Festival. And with not one, but several professional editors, agents, publishers and writers, practically within walking distance, to tap into Maine’s rich ethnic culture, focusing exclusively on its multifaceted literary community.

I’m signed up for the Festival again this year, and put my money on the writer’s workshop where I’ll take advantage of one-on-one discussions with the pros, pick their brains for information leading to the “big guns” in publishing. See, I have a goal and a manuscript that requires attention. If the Festival is anything like the first one in 2007, could my next book be far behind?

You can’t afford to miss this opportunity. I sure hope to see you there.

Rosemarie Nervelle
Camden, Maine

The Power of Language

So, here’s an interesting question for us, given the topic of this year’s festival, cross-cultural experience.  Stanley Fish writes a blog for the NY Times, and lately he has been discussing the teaching of writing.

( http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/what-should-colleges-teach-part-3/)

One issue he has addressed is the imposition of traditional grammar and writing forms on a writer’s own patterns and varieties of language.  The writers speaking this year are all ‘from away’, as we say in Maine.  Because of their cross-cultural experience, they have to find a balance between keeping their special, divergent view and making what they have to say comprehensible to the rest of us.  Convention dictates that certain forms must be followed, and yet, as we said before, one of the reasons we read is to learn about things that are unfamiliar.   How do we know when the application of these rules is so heavy handed that the originality will be crushed?  What is it like for writers trying to convey their individual experience and yet make their work something readers can relate to? How do publishers judge when that balance is reached?

 And, maybe most important for us readers, how much are we willing to stretch in order to learn, and even enjoy something new?

 Looking through the list of people presenting it is obvious we will have a chance to confront this issue for ourselves at the festival, and probably to hear what these writer’s have to say about finding their own forms.

Scarlett’s David

Stories about the stories…………

You might wonder what a reader gets out of a literary festival. Writers get tips on how to market their work, the chance to share with other writers, critiques of their writing, if they attend such a workshop. What do readers get: what do they want? First off, they get to see authors, people they admire or are curious about. By listening to writers speak, a reader gets to expand that sense of belonging to the world created in the writing. The stories about how ideas evolve into books are fascinating, and become a prolongation of the enjoyment of the book. Listening to authors speak about their processes also allows readers to hone their sense of what makes writing good, why they particularly like something, or even why they don’t. There’s a sort of expansion of awareness as we see what methods and techniques the author uses to make a point or convey a mood. Readers learn about the transmission of ideas from these discussions, what works, what doesn’t. And that’s not including the content of the writing. I know an elderly man who never was much of a reader. His wife is, though, and she remarked to me once that he has very little understanding of other people, and she thought it was because he never read anything, only watches golf on TV. We don’t want to draw too many conclusions here, but there is another result of reading, and that is learning, be it factual or experiential. And it is fascinating to see and talk with those who arrange those lessons, the writers, especially since that is often not their expressed intent at all. So, we readers may not be gathering publishing tips for ourselves, but we are very interested in hearing from those who do, seeing them in the flesh, and learning more about what makes the magic in the writing they do.

Scarlett K

Why I Keep Returning to This Festival

Camden. In spite of its small size, well known for major forums, festivals and events of national stature and acclaim. The Maine Literary Festival, only three years old, from its inception has shown all the hallmarks of such celebrated gatherings as Pop!Tech and the Camden Conference, drawing people from the farthest corners of the country.

How do I know this? I’ve attended every year. The festival provides many opportunities for “chatter and gather,” both before and after the presentations. Just pop the question: Where are you from? The answers are surprising.

OK, enough about those people. Let’s talk about me.

This year’s “New Voices” multi-cultural theme is convergent with an historical fiction project that has consumed the past decade of my life: a four book, four family saga tracing the interconnected American lives of African, German, Native and English characters from the 1600s through the 20th Century. Hey, it keeps me off the streets and at home, where my children can properly supervise me. They’ve done an awfully good job, I might add.

But now that I have plunked down $350 of wampum for the Writer’s Workshop, I might have to mortgage the wood pile to attend the festival proper. (Or I’ll be the kid with the candy bar and flashlight, sneaking in through the side door to sit in the front row.)

But worth it, well worth it. I attended the first MLF workshop given in 2007, which gave me the necessary tools to organize my book(s) for market. From this workshop, I got a strong, focused referral, resulting in an exclusive first read from a major NY agent whom I never would have met were it not for what I learned.

Um, not published yet; it’s a tougher publishing market out there than ever. But I was encouraged mightily from the experience.

Let’s be honest, here. What most writers crave, after slogging along in the lonely wilderness cave of the writing life, is company and attention. Unless they are entirely jaded from book tours and lugging that huge advance to the bank

Only sunlight runs a close second.

And, attention, $350 worth of the finest kind, is exactly what you will get at the workshop. Not only from major NY agents and editors, but from fellow writers, a treasure of company in its own right. That’s what that is.

From that 2007 workshop, a local WRITER’S BLOCK PARTY was formed – a social gathering of local writers, agents, editors, illustrators and book jacket designers who meet socially at my home to talk about All Things Writing. If you have an interest in attending, email me at mainespring@aol.com.

If you go, look for me at the workshop. That’s me – the one resembling a Blind Mexican Cave Catfish, with the QWERTY tattoo on her forehead.

Terri Mackenzie
Rockport, ME

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for the Maine Literary Festival.  The Festival is a great opportunity to come together to talk about writing and reading, to meet professionals; editors, publishers, and writers, for instance, and this year, to consider the particular effect of the varied ethnic cultures in America on its literature.  And, we accomplish all this in what is, for me, my own back yard; northern New England.

This year the Festival consists of events for readers spread throughout the year, all focusing on the literature of crosscultural experiences  in America.  It also includes a terrific workshop for writers, which promises not only information and advice, but a credible amount of face-to-face time with the professionals involved: editors and agents.  The deadline for registration for the workshop is September 22, so get your thoughts together and sign up. 

More information is available on the workshop info page, http://maineliteraryfestival.com/writersworkshop.htm.

When you look it all over, you will see that participants may submit content for the faculty to review.  Actually, that is the purpose of the workshop.  Although it is a scary prospect in some regards, the chance to have this level of discussion and advice about one’s own writing is invaluable.  Sharing this experience with other writers adds its own bit of solidarity and usefulness.  How do I know all this?  I attended the workshop myself a couple of years ago, and it was great.  I didn’t have a clue what to expect, but wanted to get advice about writing, and how to get published, and I wanted some encouragement in the form of meeting other people who had a dream about all this. All of that happened for me, and this year’s workshop has even more faculty to provide more time for each participant to consult with them.

So, get your work together.  Read the information on the workshop, follow the guidelines, and remember, this is a low-risk but high-return opportunity to get guidance on your writing.

Scarlett K