Compose Creative Writing Conference

As we all stay home as much as possible for just a bit longer, this workshop will help us find sources of inspiration in the places we inhabit. We’ll write together, drawing on language in our immediate surroundings and considering the broader homes of our communities, countries, and planet. You’ll have the opportunity to share work, and we’ll end with an audacious Q&A, where we’ll consider the questions about writing that have been dwelling within us too long. Bring one question that has felt too taboo, silly, serious, awkward, or overwhelming to ask elsewhere, and we’ll talk through them together.

Jennifer Perrine is the award-winning author of stories, essays, and four books of poetry: "Again, The Body Is No Machine," "In the Human Zoo," and "No Confession, No Mass." Jennifer is an editor at Broadsided Press and Airlie Press, co-hosts "Incite: Queer Writers Read," and teaches writing and anti-oppression practices.

Using a rhetorical device called ekphrasis, the poet engages with a painting, drawing, sculpture, music, or other art form hoping to expand on its meaning. Ekphrastic poets analyze the original artwork, explore symbolic meanings, invent stories, and find fresh ways of exploring politics and culture. Artwork will often lead to new insights and surprising discoveries about the very nature of artistic creation and conversation. In this generative workshop, we will study diverse contemporary ekphrastic poems, exploring the many facets of ekphrasis through poetry/art analysis, active discussion, and a progressively challenging set of writing activities that fosters conversation among multiple art forms.

John Sibley Williams is the author of four award-winning poetry collections: "The Drowning House," "Scale Model of a Country at Dawn," "As One Fire Consumes Another," and "Skin Memory." A twenty-six-time Pushcart nominee and winner of various awards, John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and founder of Caesura Poetry Workshop.

We want freedom for ourselves and for others. We want to understand and convey the complexity of things. We want global transformation. But it's too much to do, and who are we to do it. We'll start with the concrete. Through guided exercises and discussion, we'll consider our experiences, vulnerabilities, intuitions, and obligations. We'll explore the potential held within the personal and collective imagination. We'll discuss how we might express the inexpressible, the risky, the traumatic, the downright offensive. Let's wander around in the brainpan–autonomous, brave, sensitive, and expansive in our writing practice and in the world.

Jenny Forrester has received awards for fiction and nonfiction, and creates micro-communities of writers, readers, and others through writing, teaching, organizing, and publishing. She runs Creative Study Hall and the Unchaste Variety Show. She's the author of the books "Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir," and "Soft Hearted Stories: Seeking Saviors, Cowboy Stylists, and Other Forms of Authoritarianism," a 2020 Colorado Book Awards Finalist.

If you are feeling stuck in your creative work, if you wish you could finish (or revive) a creative project, or if your creative process feels scattered or overactive, this workshop is for you. Opening the Creative Mind combines simple meditation techniques with writing prompts that have proven effective for breaking through creative blocks and finding new perspective. We create a cheerful and supportive atmosphere for you to overcome blocks, clear mental clutter, and silence self-doubt.

Trista Cornelius is a writer and illustrator cultivating cheer through her warm and whimsical cards, coloring books, and snail mail. Previously, Trista taught college English and loves helping students of all ages and abilities find their writing voice. You can see her creative work at CarrotCondo.com.  

Robin Vada has practiced meditation for most of her life, and began teaching in 2010. As a filmmaker, musician, and poet, she has used these techniques to find her way through creative blocks more times than she can count! Her work has been featured in multiple film festivals, including Dances with Films (Oscar-qualifying fest). You can see her creative work at RobinVada.com.  

Join critically acclaimed author Michelle Ruiz Keil in a discussion about passion, ambition, and the practical magic of publishing her first novel at age fifty. Bring all your questions about writing and publishing and prepare for a fun, informative, and interactive session where Michelle will share her unexpected author origin story and help you start writing your own!

Michelle Ruiz Keil is a writer and tarot reader with an eye for the enchanted and a way with animals. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, "All of Us With Wings," called "...a transcendent journey" by the New York Times and "...a fantastical ode to the Golden City's post-punk era" by Entertainment Weekly, was released from Soho Teen in 2019. Her second novel, "Summer In the City of Roses," comes out July 6th, 2021.  

Workshop Description: Wallace Stevens sought to "make it new," a blackbird, a poem, a line in a poem. This workshop is for poets who want to start fresh and recover what is fresh in your poems. You'll generate new writing in response to prompts, see what you've written in a new light, and cast that light on something you've written before (which you'll bring). No experience necessary. Fiction and CNF writers welcome, too. Afterwards, you will know that the blackbird is involved in what you know.

Kate Gray's passion stems from teaching, leading salons, and volunteering. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, two full-length poetry collections, and one novel. Kate and her partner live in a pine and oak forest in the mid-Columbia River Gorge with an impetuous, city dog.

If you've spent any time with your nose in a book, or eyes on a screen, you've no doubt found yourself rooting for a character who, perhaps, doesn't exactly share your value system. What has made the anti-hero such a popular literary device? Why do we love the bad guy/bad woman so much? And, more importantly, how exactly do you write a character who breaks all the rules and ends up being the hero after all? In this talk, we'll go through the rich history of the anti-hero and also teach you how to write one. 

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including "The Low Desert," "Gangsterland," a finalist for the Hammett Prize, "Gangster Nation," "The House of Secrets," which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and "Living Dead Girl," a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he founded and directs the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts.

What is a story without interesting characters? In your time together, Josie will introduce you to some of her favorite characters she's created and discuss her process on writing complex characters who eventually tell you what to write.

Josie Seid is a proud member of the LineStorm Play Writes Collective. She is the author of "Petite Dames," which was nominated for the Kilroy list in 2015 and was recently workshopped at Lewis and Clark’s Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Revolutionary Struggle. Other works include but not limited to: "Fezziwig’s Fortune," "Path of Glory," "The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud," "Jordan’s Wisdom," "Overdue," "Stand by Me," and "This is Message Number 13."

Agents? Small press? Royalties? Publishing is so complicated! Join author Kate Ristau for a short presentation and Q&A about publishing. We'll talk about how to get your work published, and the routes to finding your way to the printed page. Bring your questions, and we will find your answers!

Kate Ristau is the author of the middle grade series, "Clockbreakers," and the young adult series, "Shadow Girl." You can read her essays in The New York Times and The Washington Post. In her ideal world, magic and myth combine to create memorable stories with unforgettable characters. Until she finds that world, she'll live in a house in Oregon, where they found a sword behind the water heater and fairies in the backyard. Find her online at kateristau.com.

To write a memoir is to put ourselves on the page and drag other people along. It takes curiosity and empathy to create characters from the people in our lives. In this workshop, we will begin to look at ourselves as a bridge to imagining our way into others. We’ll write to prompts that help us embody characters and imagine their motivations and relationships to space. Through this work, we can better create characters that are accessible to readers. This workshop is open to writers of any genre at any level.

Tina Ontiveros grew up below the poverty line and went to community college. Her memoir, rough house, was a PNBA Bestseller and 2021 PNW Book Award winner. Her essay, The Life We Pay For, was among the top ten most read of 2019 Oregon Humanities features. She teaches at Columbia Gorge Community College