With just two weeks to go until Write on Bowen, several workshops are filling up. Local writers interested in attending one, two, or more workshops (or purchasing a pass) should register soon to secure the events they want to attend.
A focus of some of the workshops and the special lunch panel on Sunday, July 10 is helping writers to write and then to perform their words effectively to the public.
Betsy Warland, mutli-genre writer and the director of SFU's Writer's Studio Program, will teach poets how to create with a focus on what is not said and then save what they exclude for the next poem. Warland has published a must-read book for all writers: Breathing the Line - Reading the Act of Writing. Come and be inspired by the Growing the Poem workshop that encourages writers to expand their talents.
Warland's message will be clear when she reads in the noonhour panel on the Spoken Word. The panel also includes Ben Nuttall-Smith, a poet and novelist who has taught theatre and voice to all ages and acted in major musicals. He will demonstrate how to claim an audience's attention by giving a dramatic reading of his novel.
Finally, the Spoken Word panel features a duo multi-media performance by Dennis E. Bolen and Soressa Gardner. Bolen is a novelist, editor, and teacher, and Gardner is a vocalist, improvisor and electronic music composer who collaborates with authors, visual artists and other musicians and performs her cross-discipline pieces internationally. After these three lively contrasting uses of voice, this panel will be open for questions.
On Sunday afternoon, Ben Nuttall-Smith presents an interactive voice workshop that will help all writers recognize and then develop their speaking skills. His guided exercises help writers to relax, develop their voice range, and learn how to project. Participants are asked to bring along a page of their own writing to share aloud.
Write on Bowen 2011 is shaping up to be a great opportunity for local and off-island writers to meet, write, interact, and enjoy. Go to www.writeonbowen.com to register.
BERNICE LEVER
Write on Bowen
