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Annual Poetics Lecture: “Taste, Fad, and Authenticity (Poets Inside and Outside the Law)” What people read, wear, eat, believe, and care about is connected to a whole complex of experiential vectors: habit, political affiliation, racial affiliation, gender affiliation and sympathy, information hunger, literary education, personality, religious conviction, availability, finances, visual esthetics, regional bias, reading level, psychological balance, pathologies of normalcy, attention span, and many other matters. All these factors are obviously in play, too, for the writer striving toward a work that embodies not only what is recognizable, but what is unique. The old, old question is: how does one know one’s own taste is strictly one’s own and not some fad-driven amalgam of socially determined forces and affects? Then, too, what is the relationship between taste—as expressed in private market behavior—and fad? Does authenticity, for the writer, require that he/she shuck as much of this programming as possible, and doesn’t this move the writer toward the margins of what the mass culture would call acceptable, or even legal, behavior? My talk will spar with and tease these questions while looking askance at recent events and political developments, at the ominous shadow of Homeland “Security,” and at the situation of poetry in the world. Workshops Saturday, October 13, 9:00 – 11:00 am Workshops will be held at the Holter Museum of Art, the Lewis & Clark Library, and at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. Be sure to check the location of your workshop when you sign up. Cost for workshops is $25.00 per person. Seating is limited. Please call 442-6400 to register. “Your workshops are amazing. I wish I could attend them all!” – Participant, 2006 “I found the workshop helpful, inspiring, enjoyable, and incredibly useful. Worth driving across the state for.” – Participant, 2006
Art of the Essay In this workshop, we will discuss the evolution and direction of the essay form; read essays by Orwell, Montaigne, Didion and others; figure out what makes a good essay tick; and talk about how to avoid common mistakes. We’ll also discuss the magazine market and other markets. Lastly, we'll do an in-class exercise, designed to generate 10 to 12 pages of an essay. All in two hours, with grace and humor. Bring your own coffee. Matters of Life and Death Bring your notebook and favorite writing instrument! “Matters of Life and Death” is an active workshop designed to help writers at all levels transform potent autobiographical material into exhilarating fictional explorations. The instructor recommends seeing the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” before the workshop. The subject matter (global warming) is riveting, and the narrative strategy sublime. I think it’s useful to see one’s intimate stories in a larger frame, and Al Gore’s film provides a stunning example. Slice of Life: The Art of Biographywith Kim Todd Lewis and Clark Library How do you craft something as formless and inherently messy as a life into a narrative with plot, characters, and a sense of meaning? What is the relationship between biographer and subject? Between daily decisions and the overall arc of an individual’s story? In this workshop, we’ll look at models and techniques, discuss ethics and sources, and try our hands at some biography writing exercises as well. Food Writing
Food writing is much more than just writing recipes. It's conveying story through food and includes writing cookbooks, magazine travel pieces, memoir, fiction, restaurant reviews, articles on cooking equipment, and chef profiles. In this workshop, Greg Patent will discuss the nuts and bolts of getting into this business and becoming a success.
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The Helena Festival of the Book thanks our major sponsors: Myrna Loy Center for Performing and Media Arts And acknowledges major support from: Montana Committee for the Humanities/Montana Center for the Book And many other donors listed on our “Sponsors” page |
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