Updated 8//13/08

September 4, 11, 18 & 25:  Fred Shafer
Sentences: The Source of Beauty and Strength in Writing for Readers of All Ages

Fred is a literary editor, writer, workshop leader and lecturer in creative writing at Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies.  Using examples from picture books, stories and novels for children and young adults, as well as adult literary fiction, he will demonstrate the qualities that effective narrative sentences share in common and make suggestions about what writers, for all of these audiences, can do to improve their sentences.  He plans to bring out the lessons that writers at all levels can learn from each other.
By Aug. 27, send any type of manuscript to: 
2128 Lincolnwood Dr., Evanston, IL 60201 (no email, please).  This deadline will ensure that Fred can read the manuscript before Sept. 4.  Manuscripts will also be accepted at any of the first three meetings and returned with comments the following week.

October 2:  Alice George
Image, Diction & Rhetoric: Using Tony Hoagland's Taxonomy of Poetry to Read and Write Poetry in New Ways
Join award-winning poet Alice George as she leads us in a session that will encourage a disciplined yet playful method for reading and writing poetry, inspired by an essay included in Hoagland's 2006 collection of essays, real sofistikashun (described by the American Book Review as "generous, humane, and inoffensively learned.")
Hoagland compares the roles of image, diction and rhetoric to the idea of chakras or centers of power: "Images could be said to embody the intuitive and unmediated knowledge of the unconscious. Diction, with its powers of inflection, is especially useful for expressing intellectual discriminations. Rhetoric is the willful shaping of attitude in a poem."
In this workshop we will briefly discuss Hoagland's essay and proceed to explore how understanding image, diction and rhetoric can help us appreciate the poetry we read - and inform the poetry we write.  A writing exercise will help participants analyze their own relationship with these three poetic elements.  The session will culminate with a brief presentation about submitting poetry for publication.

By September 27, send up to four poems to:  1324 Ashland Ave., Evanston, IL  60201.  Alice is only able to critique the first 10 people who submit, so send your poems ASAP.

October 9: NO MEETING

October 16, 23 & 30:  Carol LaChapelle
Memoirs: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories

OCWW member Carol LaChapelle returns to present her memoir-writing workshop Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories, on which her book of the same name is based.  In this three-part series, we will discuss memoir as a particular kind of literary genre, as well as read and comment on drafts submitted by OCWW members. 
Carol LaChapelle is a Chicago-based writer and writing coach who specializes in helping people tell their stories.  She earned her BA in Psychology and MA in English from the University of Illinois/Chicago, where she then taught for several years. 
In 1990, Carol left full-time academic teaching to conduct her own writing and journal writing workshops for a variety of local and national adult audiences.  Her workshops are designed to help people tell the stories of the important people, places and events in their lives. 
For more information about Carol, her teaching and her writing, visit www.carollachapelle.com.
By October 11, send memoir manuscripts to: madmoon55@hotmail.com or 6350 N. Wayne, #206, Chicago, IL  60660.

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