_Either Eastern Nevada or Western Utah, August 2011
Written While Earning My MFA
On Attending Writer's Conferences
_Whenever I’m at a writer’s
conference I feel slightly giddy among admired writers who struggle with words
on the page, just like I do. When listening to an author who gets it right, it
can feel like all of us are breathing in unison.
Maybe you’re like me. As a practicing writer, I search for answers to craft-related questions through other writers’ examples. How far can we stretch the truth in creative non-fiction before it becomes a lie? What makes prose flow as beautifully as poetry and still retain its clarity? When authors and poets read their own work, the emphasis they use sometimes answers these and other questions. Literary conferences are some of the best places to listen to best-selling authors read and discuss their craft. Over the last year, I have attended three conferences, and in early 2012 will return to the biggest one, Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).
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Maybe you’re like me. As a practicing writer, I search for answers to craft-related questions through other writers’ examples. How far can we stretch the truth in creative non-fiction before it becomes a lie? What makes prose flow as beautifully as poetry and still retain its clarity? When authors and poets read their own work, the emphasis they use sometimes answers these and other questions. Literary conferences are some of the best places to listen to best-selling authors read and discuss their craft. Over the last year, I have attended three conferences, and in early 2012 will return to the biggest one, Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).
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Dancing Anarchist
_First,
I check the old hiking boots. The soles are still solid and the ankle support
is good. Lace them up, not too tight. Next, check my equipment. Four-inch
squares of bicycle tread still good and in position, nails are secure,
platforms and guard pieces – stable. Ready. The top of the dumpster is clean
enough. I scramble up, careful not to rip the fringe on my homemade pants.
While sitting atop the dumpster, attach my homemade stilts. The ties that
fasten the stilts, like the costume itself, are made from donated designer
fabric. They wrap around the foot platform and then up and around the shin pads
before securing the foot to the stilt with a square knot in front. Secure
another set of ties just below each knee and around more foam pads, and I’m in.
Stand up, take a deep breath, enjoy the now lower horizon line, feel that
involuntary smile spread across this face that generally looks out at the world
from a 5’ 3” stance.
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I Am Not An Adventure Kayaker
_I returned five times over two years to the Klamath River
to white water kayak, even though I was terrified of getting carried
through water that could double in speed and depth or churn like a
washing machine. Having been thrilled by extreme kayaking on adventure
TV, I wanted to experience that exhilaration and overcome a fear. I
thought after I got the hang of it, I would start to love it. I couldn’t
stop imagining drowning, bleeding, and hitting sharp boulders that
would break my head. Even in the gentle water of the first trip, I felt
the water’s power. I decided to master the basic skill of reading a
river and then retire a “champion” in my own mind. I chose a section of
the upper Klamath, just beyond Happy Camp. It has a difficulty rating of
class two-plus, the equivalent of a step up from a skier’s bunny slope.
After my first kayak trip, I stuck with kayaking just to be sure that I
didn’t like it.
There is much to love about kayaking. The terrain and the river are usually beautiful. It can be exhilarating to interact with nature. Kayaking white water requires a fair amount of upper body strength, pretty good swimming skills and keen eyesight. There are also risks, like drowning or losing control of the kayak and being washed down ever-dangerous water.
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There is much to love about kayaking. The terrain and the river are usually beautiful. It can be exhilarating to interact with nature. Kayaking white water requires a fair amount of upper body strength, pretty good swimming skills and keen eyesight. There are also risks, like drowning or losing control of the kayak and being washed down ever-dangerous water.
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Corporate FIST
_Corporate FIST is a dialogue-driven work-in-progress novella
blended with essay. It will show how reasonable, educated, hard-working people
respond when the world’s economic, social and cultural underbelly enters their
steady work environment. One will take up humorous hobbies, one will act on
rage, one will bury rage in ways they think is unseen, and one will go bonkers.
Sometimes they will surprise themselves in their attempts to re-build their
lives. The story will be primarily told through the Vice President of Sales,
and one HR administrative staff member.
The story is set in a 50-year-old suburban corporation between in the in late 2008, a time of internationalization and widespread lay-offs.
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The story is set in a 50-year-old suburban corporation between in the in late 2008, a time of internationalization and widespread lay-offs.
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Contact Wendy Sterndale: ws(at)wendysterndale(dot)com