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WORD-for-WORDS
A monthly newsletter with news for the WWW Community, writing wisdom,
prompts, and information on upcoming events.
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On June 19, 2012, five writers, along with workshop leaders Jessica Bram and Suzanne Hoover, took off from JFK airport bound for Nice, France, to begin the Westport Writers' Workshop Collobrières Writers' Retreat. Here is a report from one of the writers ....
A Week In Provence
 
I must confess, after signing on for this trip to France, I had a case of buyer's remorse. I had vowed to do something exciting, different, meaningful this summer so when I saw the invitation to a Provence writer's retreat, I leapt.
Yet not long after sending in my deposit, regret began. Had I acted too soon? And what about a little thing called money? My husband's starting his own business and here I am jetting off to Europe. And speaking of jets, aren't I the one who doesn't like flying, let alone long, overseas flights? Nevertheless there was no backing down. I'd committed and reneging would've felt stupid and somehow depressing. The day of departure came and after 8 hours at 35,000 feet, our group arrives jet-lagged and blinking in the Nice sun. After getting lost in the confines of the airport parking garage for what felt like weeks, we finally emerge into the French countryside, driving past green fields and vineyards that look like a wine commercial. Read on...
To see more photos from our France retreat, follow us on Pinterest.
Want to join us next year? It's not too early to consider joining us! For more information on our upcoming retreats, including our 2013 retreat in Collobrières, France, please call (203) 227-3250
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What's New
What is your teen doing this summer?
Write Your College Essay: 1-Week Intensive with Julia McNamee
July 23-27
2 - 4:30 pm
 Writing a college essay need not be daunting, but approached as an exciting opportunity to tell the world who you are. Julia McNamee has extensive experience as an educator, an award winning journalist, and private college essay coach. Known affectionately as "Ms. Mac" at Westport's Staples High School, where she currently teaches honors, college-bound, and Advanced Placement English, as well as introductory journalism, she has also been coach of the Staples Debate Team and an advisor to Inklings, the school's award-winning newspaper. Only eight spots total and space is going fast! Register now! Writopia Lab: Creative Writing Workshops for Teens and Young Writers  At Writopia, kids enjoy individual attention, fun writing games, loungy couches and laptops, and, best of all, completing a wonderful original story with the help of a published author! The Westport Writers' Workshop is excited to host Writopia Labs for the first time this summer. Five-day workshops are offered each week in August. Register Now! Ever Dream of Writing a Screenplay? Screenwriting Immersion Workshop Saturday, July 14, 10-4 pm  You have a great story idea that you know would make a great feature length film. But how do you make that idea spring to life in script form? How do you write a great screenplay that's compelling, cinematic, and has the potential to grab the attention of a studio or production company?
Join screenwriter GiGi New for an intensive workshop that will introduce and guide you through the screenwriting craft.
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Events
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Do you have work you want to share?
Open Mic Night
Thursday, August 9, 7 - 9:30 pm
Read a selection of your work to an audience of your peers and other interested listeners. All genres including Fiction, Memoir and Poetry are welcome. Or just come to listen and be inspired. Only $5 to attend. Coffee, tea, cookies and inspiration are included.
Don't Miss Out!
Register Now
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Under the Spotlight
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Congratulations to Westport Writers' Workshop Leader Marcelle Soviero!
 "Missing Man" earned First Place in Writer Advice's Flash Prose Contest. The story will run in the summer (July-Sept) issue.
What an accomplishment! Here are a few of the judge's comments:
"The voice & a mixture of acceptance & sadness are quite strong. Alcoholic brother-shown with love, compassion, and appropriate boundaries. Heart-wrenching."
"This has some wonderful, beautifully written lines. The reader can feel the angst and sorrow of the narrator, the sense of loss all around."
Publishing News
Check out workshop leader Valerie Seiling Jacobs' piece, "The Appealing Earnestness of 'Say Yes to the Dress'" in the July, 2012 issue of The Atlantic.
Did you know the WWW leader Steve Otfinoski, MFA has written more than 150 published books for children and teens, more than 50 plays that have been performed off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and throughout Connecticut, and is currently writing historical fiction?
Here's what reviewers have said:
"In sweeping but crystal-clear descriptions, Otfinoski provides a brief, solid view of mid-twentieth century history that makes plain the mobsters' wayward thinking and activities. Shared in straightforward prose, the revelations of the destructive aftermath of each gangster's tenuous glory vividly verify that, in this arena people reap exactly what they sow."
-Booklist on Bugsy Siegal and the Postwar Boom
"Ten exciting narratives recount sensational historic crimes, solved by the trailblazing forensics experts who invented now-routine scientific techniques - blood analysis, fingerprinting, and more. These thrilling and gruesome stories will draw even reluctant readers into the mysterious world of scientific experiment and observation."
-American Bookseller Fall 1995 "Pick of the Lists" on Whodunit? Science Solves the Crime.
Steven Otfinoski leads WWW's Historical Fiction workshop.
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Coming This Fall
The publishing world is rapidly changing. If you want to learn what this means for you, don't miss this workshop:
Saturday, September 15
9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Space limited
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Fall workshops begin Sept. 17, and
registration will begin August 1. Watch for email announcements, and don't delay if you're thinking of registering. Workshops fill quickly. For information call (203)227-3250
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What I'm Reading...
by Suzanne R. Hoover, Ph.D.
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After a busy semester, I'm giving myself the huge treat of re-reading Middlemarch by George Eliot.
This time, I'm stru ck by Eliot's fascination with moral weakn
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Suzanne R. Hoover Ph.D.
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ess and self-deception. While on the one hand, she expresses an appropriate Christian compassion for weakness all around, on the other hand, she has no impulse to minimize the shocking depths of our human selfishness and cruelty. (There is goodness in some of the characters, as well. But goodness is never allowed to obscure the greater power of destructiveness.)
As a magical storyteller, Eliot fills her pages with the shrewd,
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George Eliot
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deluded "stories" we tell ourselves about what we are doing. The style is, of course, "old-fashioned," but the knowledge of human nature in this novel comes very close to that of Tolstoy--which is the highest praise I can think of.
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Westport Writers' Workshop
3 Sylvan Road South
Westport, CT 06880
203-227-3250
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Well Said...
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"Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. ... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus."
-Enid Bagnold
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| Please feel free to forward this newsletter WORD-for-WORDS to your friends and fellow writers. Visit our website to sign up for newsletters. You can also read past archived issues here.
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