Let’s kick off the Holiday Season with some fast-paced writing and short but powerful reading sessions! This year we're kicking it up a notch by expanding the genres of both readings and workshops to include performance poetry and romance writing, as well as fiction, memoir, and poetry!
Get ready to stretch your writing muscles! This is going to be FUN!
Our readers and workshop leaders this year include well-known poets and prose writers, including Jewel Rogers, Riley Westerholt, Terese Svoboda, Steve Edwards, Bianca Swift, Sonya Huber, Cassie Premo Steele, Esman Rodas, and Brittany Brauer
The format is simple. We alternate five-minute readings with 15-minute mini writing workshops that start with a craft talk and end with a writing prompt. Five readings, four workshops, so you’ll not only leave the event inspired but you’ll have some new writing too!
Come prepared to write as well as listen!
After the presentations there’s time for a Q&A with writers and other participants.
Fill up your fountain pens, sharpen your pencils or charge those computers! This event is flat out fast-paced fun!
Schedule:
10 am CST - Introductions by Karen Gettert Shoemaker
10:05 am CST - Reading by Bianca Swift
10:10 am CST - Mini writing workshop with Cassie Premo Steele
10:25 am CST - Reading by Terese Svoboda
10:30 am CST - Mini writing workshop with Brittany Brauer
10:45 am CST - Reading by Steve Edwards
10:50 am CST - Mini writing workshop with Sonya Huber
11:05 am CST - Reading by Riley Westerholt
11:10 am CST - Mini writing workshop with Esman Rodas
11: 25 am CST - Reading by Jewel Rogers
11:30 am CST - Q&A with Presenters
Reviews from last year’s event:
“I loved everything about the workshop... A wonderful experience. Thank you.”
“The structure and format were seamless. Timing was on point!”
“I loved how organized it was, how you orchestrated the schedule to have readings juxtaposed with exercises!”
“I like seeing all the faces who loved writing; and I liked hearing from the authors.”
“Liked both the prompts and the poetry readings.”
“I loved the braiding of readings and short writing prompts.”
“I enjoyed all of it. The exercise focused on character development is something I need in my current writing, so thanks.”
“Loved the warmth and generosity and wisdom of the readers / prompters.”
“I loved hearing the readings, and the writing prompts! The whole thing was wonderful!”
“The quality of readings and workshops was fabulous and loved interspersing readings with workshops.”
“Prompts were unusual and thought-provoking. Poets varied and excellent. Schedule worked perfectly. Looking forward to next year!”
2024 Readers' Bios:
Bianca Swift has been writing poetry for over 15 years. She has a Masters in English and creative writing and has performed in Slam competitions around the country which makes her a qualified poet (so say her bosses). She works for the Nebraska Writers Collective as a Teaching Artist as well as being a Researcher on the Charles Chesnutt Archive. When she is not writing poetry she can be found somewhere in her community reading it.
Steve Edwards - Steve Edwards is author of the memoir Breaking into the Backcountry, the story of his seven months as the caretaker of a remote Oregon homestead. A Professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Terese Svoboda - A Guggenheim fellow and the author of twenty-four books of poetry, fiction, memoir, biography and translation, Terese Svoboda has won the Bobst Prize in fiction, the Iowa Poetry Prize, an NEH translation grant, the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, a Jerome Foundation and NEA media grants, the O. Henry Award for the short story, and a Pushcart Prize for the essay. Three-time winner of the NYFA fellowship, she has been awarded Headlands, James Merrill, Yaddo, MacDowell, Bogliasco, Hermitage, Hawthorden, and Bellagio residencies. Her opera WET premiered in L.A.'s Disney Hall. The novel Roxy and Coco and her collection The Long Swim garnered a full-page in the NYTBR this May. Her second memoir, Hitler and My Mother-in-Law, will be published next year.
Bios of Mini-workshop leaders:
Brittany Brauer is a book coach and writer who has worked in the indie-publishing industry since 2006. Brittany has worked with hundreds of authors and has published over three dozen of her own titles under two pen names. She is a big believer in self-publishing and specializes in Kindle Direct Publishing. Raised on a farm in a small town, she went to the University of Nebraska. Brittany lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband and three kids.
BrauerBooks.com
Esman Rodas Calderon is a slam poet based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has been writing poetry for over a year, and has over a decade of experience in the arts. In addition to being a full time band teacher, he coaches speech and is a sponsor for a slam club for youth in Lincoln. His work depicts a variety of personal and societal topics at the intersection and social justice and representation.
Cassie Premo Steele's newest book is the environmental novel, Beaver Girl, chosen as the 2024 One Book, One Community selection for the City of Columbia, South Carolina. An environmental poet, novelist, and essayist, her writing focuses on the themes of trauma, healing, creativity, and mindfulness. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The author of 18 books, including 3 novels and 7 books of poetry, her poetry has been nominated 7 times for the Pushcart Prize and has won many awards, including Archibald Rutledge Prize named after the first Poet Laureate of South Carolina, where she lives with her wife.