2012 Squire Summer Writing Residency

Registration is now open for the 2012 Squire Summer Writing Residency, July 19 – 22 at Queens University of Charlotte.


The Squire Summer Writing Residency offers an intensive course in a chosen genre, with ten hour-and-a-half sessions over the four days of the program. Registrants work in-depth on their own writing, while also studying the principles of the genre with their instructor: Morri Creech for Poetry, Robert Inman for Fiction, or Pat MacEnulty for Creative Nonfiction.

The 2012 Residency will begin Thursday evening with registration, a welcome get-together, and a “Writingest State” trivia contest.  It will kick into high gear on Friday morning, when registrants will hit the ground running in their chosen workshop:

Poetry with Morri Creech
"In our time together we will examine closely at least one of the three poems submitted for the course; we will also turn our attention to formal composition, examining the possibilities of metrical composition and formal structures such as the sonnet. It is my hope that everyone will leave the workshop with raw material for several new poems that negotiate a balance between free and formal strategies, and with sharpened formal skills that will add metrical composition to the tools available to poets."

Fiction with Robert Inman
"I'm a storyteller, and I believe that all stories -- regardless of genre -- are about people.  Fiction that engages and resonates with readers is fiction driven by strong characterization -- not what a story is about, but who?  We'll talk a lot about imagining character, and how that helps drive the other elements of the story.  Each participant will submit up to fifteen pages of recently-produced work and share it with all workshop participants.  In a collegial and constructive atmosphere, we'll look at how we can make our work memorable through the use of strong, intriguing central characters who confront compelling dilemmas. We'll also look at how the techniques of other genres -- stage and screen -- can help us sharpen the impact of our prose stories.  We'll explore aspects of the writing life such as our work habits -- how diligently we apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and sustain the momentum of our imagined worlds.  Our goal will be to nurture each other and come away with work that excites us with its possibilities.  It's your workshop, so come prepared to work, support, encourage, experiment, and be open to the joy of discovery.  I'm there to help."

Creative Nonfiction with Pat MacEnulty
"In these workshops, we will discuss the transformative aspects of voice, craft, and structure in our nonfiction writing. Through a variety of writing exercises, we will explore the key components of personal writing and practice writing as an act of intimacy. We will experiment, share, and learn workshopping techniques that nurture our own and others' writing. You'll leave the workshops with techniques for mining your own material, seeds for new works, and a renewed sense of the joy of writing. You'll also leave with new tools for committing to your writing process."

Register online at www.ncwriters.org, or by calling 336.293.8844.

We look forward to a weekend of excitement and inspiration in the Queen City, and we hope you will be a part of it.

Poem for the day

To celebrate National Poetry Month
Poems by authors in CHatham/Lee counties

After a Month in New York

at 68^th and York

We all want a fresh fruit and vegetable stand

down the street around the corner

but the destiny of the endless prairie

laid out under a sky bigger than God.

Judith Stanton

Poem for the day

To celebrate National Poetry Month

Poems by authors in Chatham/Lee counties.

Twin Fawns

Two fawns barely old enough

to graze slip inside the white

taped fence from the shelter

of the woods, their spots still

bright, their mother on patrol.

I look away and sigh

at the disorder of

my kitchen—last night’s

pasta with Italian sausage

onions and green peppers

took a lot of pots. I ought

to clean up my mess now.

But these are the first twins

I’ve seen this year, fresh

and glittering, so I look back

only to find them gone.

Any pursuit of wonder

requires obsessive vigilance.

Judith Stanton

From The Deer Diaries

Poem: For You, Daddy

For You, Daddy

One day you finally realize you’re no longer 11

and he is no longer 45, but rather 49 and 86.

And you will not always have him to correct your grammar,

fuss over how you boil spaghetti, or tell you not to spend

your money on all those hats, even though you’re an adult.

And you will not always have him to call every morning

just to hear him yawn and to tell you he’s already out of bed

even though he’s not.

But you will continue to call his number when someone else’s voice

answers the phone, and you won’t say a word.

You will be that ghost.

By: Patty Cole     

4/15/15             

Poem: Taxes

Taxes

(My apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary as I struggled, weak and weary,

over a changed Form 1040 I had never seen before.

Back and forth I did the sums, looking for deduction crumbs,

hoping, ever hoping that I’d find a way to score.

But, alas, twas not my lot to escape an awful blot

upon my worldly fortune, Uncle Sam keeps wanting more.

My mind grows dim with sorrow; the due date is tomorrow,

and I must find the answer else I’ll end up very poor.

Can I claim those gambling debts resulting from my stupid bets?

Should I try to itemize my bar bill from the club?

What about my one contribution, will that not bring absolution?

Surely I can claim deduction for the new pants that I tore.

Alas tis midnight past, and the time is flying fast, and I must find an answer

to the question: How much more?

You may think my answer funny: I’ll just send them all my money,

and request that they return to me all that not spent before.

It is now six months gone by, and as yet there’s no reply,

Could it be that Uncle Sam will grant me no succor?

Then the Raven came rapping, rapping

the Raven came rapping, tapping at my window door.

Oh to be so doubly blessed, a messenger from the IRS!

Surely he has come to tell me that my problems are no more.

And I said “Oh bird austere, do you bring me news of cheer?

If you brought to me a refund, then together we will soar.

I am down to bread and beans, for I do not have the means

to buy a decent meal. Tell me, Raven

am I affluent, as I was in days of yore?

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore!”

By: Al Manning                                    

4/13/12                                             

Poem: Who can know?

Who can know?

Who can know incredible joy,

Can know incredible sorrow.

In the difference lies Hell.

The Unity is God.

By: Sharon Graham                                                                      

4/8/12                                                                                       

Poem: These Woods

These Woods

What know these woods of our passings?

How could we think they should care?

We’ve done little to deserve their compassion

We've defiled them

Scarred them

Pushed them far from our lives

They should have no use for us

But as I stumble along

Head bowed below bare branches

Gathering tinder for this week’s fires

Fires to warm our now somber home

Fires to pierce the desperate chill in our hearts

These woods comfort me

Embrace me

Soothe me with calm, gentle silence

Wrap me in their blessed endlessness

For man is animal

Like fox and deer and bear

Despite our attempts to deny it

Despite our claim to be more

Man is animal

And these woods embrace all of their innocents

Even the wayward ones

They celebrate our birth with their spring

Energize our life with their summer

Acknowledge our maturity with their fall

And mourn our return to the roots with their winter

And winter is here

Winter is here

So together we mourn a return to the roots

Together

These woods

and I

By: Mike Sepelak

4/7/12