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The Scoop on the Writers’ Conference
September 3, 2010Victoria Kasten – Coming October 2, 2010
August 30, 2010
Nineteen-year-old Victoria Kasten has crammed more writing time into her busy schedule than most people manage in a lifetime. Author of nine books, she is a sophomore at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato and a newlywed! (On June 12, 2010, she married Benjamin Tecken, a young writer who co-authored Ink on Their Fingers.) Home-educated through her elementary and high school years, Victoria speaks at writing conferences across the United States.
I first heard of Victoria in the fall of 2007, shortly after the Sinclair Lewis Writers Conference in Sauk Centre. A former student of mine attended the conference and raved about a teenager who presented a topnotch writing workshop. As the LRWN started planning our “Writing Through Life, Life Through Writing Conference,” I remembered the glowing recommendation and checked Victoria’s website <http://www.epicscrolls.com>. To my delight, she was scheduled as a workshop leader for the Spring 2010 Young Writers Conference in Fergus Falls.
Being resourceful, I phoned our children’s school and volunteered to chaperone a group of young writers to the conference. It took just a few minutes sitting in Victoria’s workshop for me to reach the same conclusion as my former student. Victoria (Kasten) Tecken is a gifted educator as well as a seasoned writer!
Now, Lake Region Writers Network is delighted to include Victoria as one of our three keynote panel members for our October 2, 2010 conference, “Writing Through Life, Life Through Writing. In addition, she’s teaching workshops on character development and description.
Read more about Victoria at <http://www.epicscrolls.com> and <http://www.homeschoolhalloffame.com/bio_kasten.html>.
Advance registration for the conference is only $35, so do it today at <http://www.lakeregionwriters.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Advance-Registration-Form.pdf>.
Written by: Gerri Stowman, Vice President of the LRWN
Call for Manuscripts – Lakes Area Theatre
August 30, 2010
So what of fate?
To Henry Miller: “We create our fate every day we live”
In the cheesy (apologies to any fans of this movie for that editorial descriptor) The Mummy 2 fate is such: “My friend, there is a fine line between coincidence and fate.”
One quote is from a fine mind, another from a playful romp. At Lakes Area Theatre we hope we can collaborate with area writers to combine the two and have a fun and fulfilling time producing live radio theatre. As fate goes…now is the time!
Lakes Area Theatre is a start-up production company whose focus is on developing radio theatre productions. We are located in Alexandria, MN and overlook beautiful Lake Geneva.
Our goal is to produce at least 26 radio shows during our 2010-2011 season. The shows will be performed live every other Friday night before an audience, recorded, and played back on the following Sunday afternoon on KXRA A.M. from 12:30-1:00 p.m.
We would like to be producing shows by local writers. Below is our script submission policy. I am happy to work with writers in editing suggestions, etc. Please note the writer will retain all rights to his/her work while LAT retains the replay rights to the recorded production.
Format: Your script must be a radio play format which differs from stage plays and screenplays. There are no stage directions, visual cues, lighting directions. The scripts should include only easily discernible audio cues such as dialogue, sound effects (sfx), and music cues.
Content: The broadcasting time slot for our show is Sunday afternoon from 12:30-1:00 p.m. on KXRA A.M. (1490). We ask that content be suitable for all ages. If you include innuendo and/or adult humor, please keep in mind some “children’s shows” which appealed to adults as well Rocky and Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairytales, and the like.
Length: LAT has a 30-minute broadcast space to fill every other week. Plays should be a maximum 28 minutes which usually means about one page per minute.
- We will accept scripts for single shows (25-28 minutes).
- We will accept scripts that would run for two or more installments (with each installment filling the 25-28 minute time commitment).
- We will accept a series of shorter plays which would then add up to fit the 25-28 minute timeframe.
We do pay a royalty fee of $30 for use of scripts. This is based on input from radio script authors from around the United States as well as a BBC radio script author.
Royalty Agreement: If we accept and use your script, we will send you a writer’s agreement. This agreement will grant us the right to produce the script; it will grant us the right to reproduce as many copies of the script as needed to produce the script; it will grant us the broadcasting rights to the taped production (radio and podcasts); and the writer retains all rights to their original work.
Return Policy: We may not take the opportunity to use your script. There could be a number of reasons for this such as its length, content not deemed suitable for our audience, or just that we believe it needs more work. We will try to give feedback so that writers can edit and resubmit their work.
Script Submission: We accept hard copies and electronic copies of scripts. Electronic copies are preferred.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. We look forward to long and profitable collaborations with you all.
Ann C. Hermes, Artistic Director
Lakes Area Theatre
2214 Geneva Road NE
Alexandria, MN 56308
Email: lakesareatheatre@gmail.com
Phone: 320-808-8584
Writers Conference – Update
August 27, 2010Go to the Writers’ Conference tab (top menu, 3rd from left) to find out what’s happening at our 2nd annual conference on October 2, 2010. Meet the keynote speakers, find out about workshop offerings and leaders, and more. The Advanced Registration Form and Scholarship Application are also available for downloading.
Barbara Ehrenreich at NDSU
August 16, 2010Posted by: Linda Frances Lein, LRWN Board Member
On Thursday, September 2, 2010, author Barbara Ehrenreich will deliver a public lecture at 7:00 p.m. in Festival Concert Hall at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo. Ehrenreich is a journalist, historian, and social critic, and she is the author of 15 books.
Her book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (2001) became a New York Times bestseller. Over one million copies have been sold. When researching and writing this book, Ehrenreich attempted to live on minimum wage.
Ehrenreich’s book Bait and Switch (2005) deals with white-collar unemployment, a more prevalent problem in today’s world. Other books of interest by Ehrenreich include This Land Is Your Their Land (2008) and Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2009).
Mark your calendars to hear Barbara Ehrenreich speak at NDSU.
2010 Writers’ Conference in October
July 26, 2010Mark your calendar now!
Our second annual writers’ conference will take place on Saturday, October 2 at M-State Fergus Falls.
The theme this year is Writing Through Life, Life Through Writing, and we have three outstanding keynote speakers to take us through the writing life.
Victoria Kasten, a rising young author, shares her experiences writing and publishing as a teenager, while Lin Enger, noted author and director of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Minnesota State University Moorhead, inspires us to write through the middle years. Mark Vinz, winner of numerous awards and Professor Emeritus of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead, encourages writing through the older adult years.
Watch this post for more on the conference, including opportunities to apply for scholarships to the conference, information on workshops, and more.
Summer Writing Workshops – Glendalough
May 13, 2010Check out two excellent memoir writing workshops that are being offered this summer. Reservations can be made by emailing firefly@arvig.net or calling 218.862.5510.
“Memory as Discovery” on June 15-16, 2010
(Register by June 1, 2010)
Writing is an act of discovery. Dive into your writing and find out what you know. The workshop is a place to write, share writing, discuss elements of craft, and connect with other writers. In addition to group learning, students meet with Kate individually to delve more deeply into their writing and learn to take risks on the page.
Presented by Kate Hopper – Kate, award-winning writer and teacher, teaches creative writing online and at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals and magazines, including The New York Times online. She is currently working on two books. Hopper writes about reading, writing, teaching and motherhood on her blog, Mother Words: Mothers Who Write. She is Literary Reflections co-editor at Literary Mama.
“Writing Your Personal Story” on August 10 – 11, 2010
(Register by July 27, 2010)
Learn important techniques for effective memoir writing as you engage in writing your own story. Mark will address issues that often arise during the course of memoir writing such as truth telling and narrative techniques, but the majority of the workshop will be devoted to generating, editing, sharing and responding to autobiographical writing.
Presented by Mark Vinz – Mark’s poems, stories, and essays have appeared in over 200 magazines and anthologies. He has won the New Rivers Press Minnesota Voices competition, the Milkweed Editions Seeing Double book competition, six PEN Syndicated Fiction awards, and three Minnesota Book Awards. His most recent book of poems is Long Distance. Vinz recently retired after 39 years in the English department and MFA in Creative Writing program of Minnesota State University Moorhead. His memoir-writing workshop is built upon insights gained from years exercising his craft as well as teaching writing to students.
$175 course fee includes workbook, lunch and park day passes. Participants will receive more information upon registration.
Workshops takes place at Glendalough State Park in the Historic Lodge.
Visiting Writer: Kristin Naca at MSU-Moorhead
April 7, 2010Kristin Naca will be at MSU-Moorhead on Thursday, April 15, 2010. At 4:30 p.m. she will present a talk on the writer’s craft and at 8:00 p.m. a reading from her work. Both events are held in King Hall Auditorium 110. Both events are open to the public.
Bird Eating Bird (Harper Perennial, 2009) is Kristin Naca’s first collection of poems. It is also the winner of the 2008 prestigious National Poetry Series mtvU prize, chosen by Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa. Naca holds a BA from the University of Washington, an MFA from the University of Pittsburg, and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska. Playful and serious all at once, Naca’s poetry explores the richness of her Puertao Rican and Filipina cultural and linguistic heritage. She is a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Fellow at Macalester College where she teaches Asian American and Latino poetry and creative writing. She lives in Minneapolis.
For more information on Kristin Naca, go to <http://www.kristinnaca.com>. To watch Kristin’s interview with Yousek Komunyakaa on mtvU, go to <http://www.mtvu.com/shows/my-shot-with/yusef-komunyakaa/>.
Information for this blog entry was provided by Dr. Thom Tammaro, but it was posted by Linda Lein, a LRWN Board Member.
Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series
March 4, 2010On Tuesday, March 30, 2010, Rachel Coyne will be at Minnesota State University Moorhead. At 4:00 p.m., she’s presenting a “Talk on the Writer’s Craft” and at 8:00 p.m. she’s doing a reading from her work. Both events will be held at CMU 101 and are open to the public.
Rachel Coyne is the author of the novel Whiskey Heart (New Rivers Press, 2009). She is a graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, a public arts high school in Golden Valley, Minnesota. She earned a B.A. in International Studies and French from Macalester College in St. Paul, and JD from the Washington College of Law at Merican University. She also is the author of a children’s book-length poem Daughter, Have I Told You? (Henry Holt & Co., 1998). Since 2005, Coyne has worked as a research attorney in municipal law for the League of Minnesota Cities. She lives in Lindstrom, Minnesota.
To read more about Rachel Coyne’s novel Whiskey Heart, go to <http://www.minnesotareads.com/?s=rachel+coyne>.
Note: The information for this blog entry has been provided by Dr. Thom Tammaro, director of the Tom McGrath Visiting Writers Series. It has been posted by Linda Lein, LWRN Board Member.
Fergus Falls debut: Otter Tail Review, Volume Three
November 30, 2009Dear contributing authors and friends:
I am happy to announce the debut Fergus Falls reading event for Otter Tail Review, Volume Three! It will be at the Victor Lundeen Company, 126 W. Lincoln Ave. (phone 218-736-5433), on Saturday, December 12, 2009, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. Buzz Lundeen and staff will be our hosts, and the store will have a reading/ signing area set up for us.
If you would like to participate, whether by reading one of your pieces, assisting with publicity, or in any other way, please let me know, by reply e-mail or phone (218-998-0780).
I look forward to seeing you there. Please bring friends and family, and tell anyone else whom you think might be interested!
Thanks again, Tim Rundquist