agenda |workshops | gathering | faculty | registration
This is information from LAST SUMMER!
Click here for the evalutation summary
Workshops July 9-13 |
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H E W O R K S H O P W E E K Monday, July 9– Friday, July 13 |
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Fishtrap began with the 1988 Summer Gathering. With all those writers coming, it seemed a shame not to get some workshop time with them. So we put together a couple of two-day workshops. The next year there were three or four, and it’s grown from there. There is no need to go through the entire evolution of the workshop week. We’ve gradually made it longer as a result of faculty and participant suggestions. We now limit enrollment to 12 in workshops (at a maximum), because that’s the number that faculty and attendees have found comfortable. Open mikes, once squeezed in before breakfast, are now an important part of the week’s evenings. The only problem we ever have is with a few people reading too long—it always seems that a person should be able to read 8 pages in 4 minutes! And a page or two of notes and introductions to a long and complex novel seem legit to some readers. Last year Luis Urrea blasted up to the pulpit without text or notes and “recited” four fabulous minutes of “God in a taco” from Hummingbird’s Daughter and kind of knocked those theories apart. In case anyone missed the point, Susan Power followed him with an equally spirited reading—she glanced at her book occasionally, but basically used it to gesture to the crowd for one kind of emphasis or another. Most people do read in their workshops, and we want as many as possible to read during open mikes for the bigger crowd. We also don’t mind—we actually encourage—“raw” writing developed in a workshop that day. We’re all at Fishtrap to learn and experiment. There are a few general things about Fishtrap workshops that are unique: First, we encourage new writing in workshops. Sometimes a workshop instructor will ask for previous work for review and revision, but the emphasis here is on new writing. We do not jury people in, don’t plow through old stories and poems to decide who takes a work-shop—we’re first come, first served. And we don’t mind beginners in with more experienced writers— people all bring different things to a workshop, and most writers like to help each other. We try not to discriminate on basis of age (although I talk seriously with high school students before they sign up for a workshop). Kim Stafford once had 16 year-old Rose Caslar and 80-something Alice Warnock in the same workshop. I stopped by to ask how it was going. Alice said that we couldn’t imagine how wonderful it was to be reminded of what it is like to be 16! And I think that was the year she wrote a fine and somewhat tragic story about a long-ago suitor. If you have questions about a workshop or instructor, “ Google”! If you are having trouble making a decision, you are welcome to call, and we’ll tell you what we know about workshops and instructors that didn’t fit in the brochure. Just remember that these workshops are offered on a first come basis, so get right after it. And we’ll see you in July! |
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H E G A T H E R I N G Thursday, July 12- Sunday, July 15 |
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This year’s Gathering begins with an outstanding workshop faculty, an illustrious group of past faculty members, and our special complement of “ Found at Fishtrap” writers. There will be a few new-to-Fishtrap voices: Debra Gwartney and Barry Lopez have not been previously, nor have George Aguilar or songwriter Lisa Aschmann. And here’s betting that a few additional past faculty members and well-known Western writers show up by Thursday. Thursday—because the Gathering will begin a full day earlier to accommodate the crowded roster and make sure that we all have a chance to meet, greet, and listen to each other. Our expanded faculty will “work” on panels, give readings, and be involved in the mealtime table-talks and anytime conversations that always enrich Summer Fishtrap. The week-long workshops run through Friday morning, so people from the short workshops and those who come for the Gathering only should plan on climbing a mountain or catching a fish on Friday morning (we might organize a bird walk in honor of Frank Conley). Readings and panels will resume Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Last year Ben Butzien suggested in his evaluation that workshop attendees should get a price break on the Gathering. The Board liked Ben’s idea and approved it; I hope that many of you will take advantage of it. We should call it “Ben’s deal,” because shortly after Fishtrap last year Ben found out that he had incurable cancer. He came back to the Wallowas to hunt one last time, and stopped in to talk here at Fishtrap. What strength and attitude! Ben had developed a close relationship with Luis Urrea and several people from Luis’s workshop— he and several who took Luis’s workshop last year were back for a second or even third time—which I am sure helped sustain him in his last weeks. So sign up for both, meet Luis, and thank Ben! Summer Fishtrap has become a time for honing skills, making new writing friends, and for annual re-connections with fellow teachers and students. This year especially, the specific agenda—who reads when and who is on which panel—is not as important as who is coming and what we will be talking about. The roster is in this brochure. We will be talking about Western writing and writers past and future. We will explore issues of place, of genre, of important and subtle changes in the way writers deal with our changing world, and the relationships between writers and publishers, writers and readers. Writing elders Ursula LeGuin, Bill Kittredge, and others who helped launch this boat 20 years ago will be here. George Aguilar, Sr., who won an Oregon Book Award for When the River Runs Wild: Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation, will lead a discussion of pre- Euro-American Indian religion and Indian meeting places along the rivers. It will be a privilege to have Debra and Barry here, and exciting that at least 5 of the 40 writers—Kittredge, Daniel, Stafford, Pyle, and Urrea—they pulled together for and edited in Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, will be here as well. Welcome to a long and glorious weekend of storytellers and stories in prose, poem, and song! |
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| The Workshops | ||
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O L LY G L O S S is the author of four novels and numerous short stories, yet she didn’t start writing seriously until she was thirty-five. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Gloss confesses that she has always liked to write but that she “grew up in a period when smart girls were encouraged to be teachers or nurses. Nobody ever told me I could be a writer.”After the birth of her son and a rocky adjustment period that yielded what she called a “desperate journal,” Gloss enrolled in a writing class taught by Ursula K. LeGuin at Portland State University—an experience she called “ life-altering.”Her second novel, The Jump-off Creek, was the winner of the Oregon Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Dazzle of Day was named a New York Times Notable Book, and Wild Life, her fourth novel, was recently awarded the James Tiptree Award for literary fantasy. Gloss teaches writing and literature of the American West at Portland State University. |
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The
Way It Was A workshop for writers interested in placing their fiction in the past—whether twenty years gone or two hundred. The question of how one brings life to people and places of the past (not such a different question from the one asked by any writer of fiction) will be the central focus of our week.We’ll explore problems and issues specific to historical settings; spend time looking closely at exemplary scenes in published works; and tackle some of the discrete aspects of the genre through writing exercises that use your own work in progress. |
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Favorite
Book as Personal Quest You read a book that speaks directly to you. The book will be part of your heart and mind for the duration. How is this book about you, your mission on earth? What does this book want you to do. We will each bring a book that has chosen us, and use passages from this indelible library as writing prompts, and beginnings for conversations about what we are called to do: by writing, by social action, by new human paradigms for reconciliation and surprise. |
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Launching
Poems I will provide you with a prompt for getting a poem started.We will share these, reading them outloud, and I will give you a copy of the poem from which the line comes so that you can see what the poet did with the line.We will discuss working back and forth between prose and poetry. This discussion will include a consideration of line breaking and strategies of revision. Primarily, we will look at poems you bring to the workshop, so please come the first day with 12 copies of a poem of yours. |
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J A N E VA N D E N B U R G H is the author of the novels Failure to Zigzag and The Physics of Sunset. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in the Boston Globe, the New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The Architecture of the Novel: Your Story’s Shape, Structure & Force—her book on crafting the longer narrative, is forthcoming. |
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The
Architecture of a Book This class tackles the all-important problem of structuring the longer narrative, either fiction or nonfiction. Structure is all-important because it’s almost always the reason a novel can be successfully written to the end of the draft or else collapse of its own weight. This usually happens along about manuscript page 73, just when the going should be getting not only good but becoming speedy and effortless. Suddenly gravity pertains, and you, the startled writer, find yourself surrounded by rubble. Writing a good book necessitates handling the material of your story: the three-dimensional nature of Time and Place makes it Stuff that you must manipulate. Time in a novel becomes a physical object, becomes a “volume with skin” (in the words of the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaus), the place that must be entered by the writer, so that he or she then turns and invites the reader to also enter. |
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Songwriting
With Integrity One difference between lyrics and poetry is that lyrics are intended to be sung. As such, considerations having to do with the sing-ability of a lyric and the prosody (how the words and music go together) will be explored.We’ll use some poetic devices, such as repetition and rhyme, to shape our lyrics. How does the thing SOUND? Does it hang together? Does it sound like one thing, as a song? I want to be melodically and emotionally honest, to make sure that my gestures and my intentions go together. That’s the integrity aesthetic. This workshop is designed to stoke your songwriting creativity at two places in the process: where-tobegin and where-to-go-next. Playing in new territory will be encouraged, whether you’re an old hand or writing your first song. Participants are welcome but not required to bring instruments. |
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O H N R E M B E R has taught several workshops at Fishtrap, and now teaches in the low residency MFA program at Pacific University. The title of his book of stories about Sun Valley-- "Cheerleaders from Gomorrah: Tales from the Lycra Archipelago"-- should be enough to qualify him to teach this class. John also writes occasional columns, has written travel for ski magazines and, I think, for "Travel and Leisure" mag, and a wonderful memoir, "Traplines." |
JUST ADDED - NEW 5 DAY WORKSHOP
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Handling
the Headlines: A Workshop for Writers Who Hope to Survive the News SORRY - THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL! The problem is no longer the Unbearable Lightness of Being, it’s the Unutterable Weirdness of Everyday Life. What’s a writer to do when the front page of the Oregonian is more bizarre than anything you can make up? When Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he’s okay, but the world has been transformed into a large pine beetle? When space tourists pay $20 million to orbit above Darfur? When the empty trophy home market comes to pass for an economy in the American West? When the Columbia Basin is revealed as a Cold War Artifact? This workshop will focus on techniques that non-fiction and fiction writers use to encompass the unencompassable, including black humor, satire, the grotesque as art, and the inevitable blending of fiction and non-fiction themselves. You may-- but are not required to-- bring along a workshop submission-- fiction or non-fiction--generated by a headline from the front page of a large American daily newspaper. Or just the headline! |
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O B E R T P Y L E was born and raised in Colorado, studied at the University of Washington and Yale, and while on a Fulbright Fellowship at the Monks Wood Experimental Station in England, founded the Xerces Society for invertebrate conservation, and later chaired its Monarch Project. Pyle has published hundreds of papers, essays, stories, and poems in many journals and a dozen books. His books include Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, and Walking the High Ridge: Life as Field Trip. |
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Writing
in the Wild Tense In this intensive three-day workshop, we will mine those deep experiences in our lives and in our days and nights afield that have formed who and what we are.Where were those places, what were those times, smells, sensations, and stories that we could never leave behind, even if we wanted to? That made us whole, or at least striving to be whole? Through invitations and direct encounters out of doors, we will scavenge, salvage, and constitute events and language that honor life, continuity, and celebration. In a mean and diminished world, we will find and examine that which remains rich, gentle, and nourishing, and give it voice. Bob Pyle taught a workshop at Fishtrap in 1996. Six women from that workshop, calling themselves the “ Syringa sisters,” have met in places across the Northwest to hike, talk, and write every summer since! Bob could only come for three days this year, so we decided to give the Syringa sisters and other previous Pyle workshoppers priority in this workshop. PREVIOUS PYLE WORKSHOP WRITERS— FISHTRAP OR ELSEWHERE—HAVE PRIORITY IN THIS SPECIAL 3-DAY WORKSHOP. |
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A C K S H O E M A K E R, legendary editor and publisher at North Point Press in Berkeley, California and editor-in-chief and co-founder of Counterpoint Press—is now publisher at Shoemaker & Hoard in Northern California. The new house publishes about 25 new titles a year, and many of Shoemaker’s loyal authors— including Wendell Berry, Anne Lamott, Evan Connell, Gary Snyder, and John Daniel—continue to work with him. Jack has taught the publishing workshop twice previously at Summer Fishtrap, and has recently published Fishtrap Fellow Michael FitzGerald. |
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The Publishing Committee Looks at Your Manuscript I imagine our workshop being like a publishing committee (not that such things actually exist) where we, having each read the manuscripts, sit together and discuss how to help the writer develop a manuscript we have already accepted and put under contract, how to guide them in a rewrite if that is necessary.We will work toward a strategy of publication—how can we get the proper attention paid to this book by our marketing and publicity departments, how to present the book to reviewers and other media, old and new. Then the strategy needs to provide for how we will get the book into bookstores and out of bookstores into the hands of buyers and readers. Participants need to send 8 copies of a query letter and book chapter—up to 20 pages total—to Fishtrap prior to June 15. |
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A Y N A R D W H I T E O W L L A V A D O U R is a nationally acclaimed master of traditional crafts in the plateau style. From age five, his grandmother and great grandmother instructed him in traditional crafts and culture. Maynard has taught at the High Desert Museum, Portland Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and at Fishtrap. His own work is represented at the Smithsonian and the Institute of the American Indian Arts Museum. Maynard received at Governor's Arts Award in 1997. He lives and works on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton. |
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Indian
Basketry Workshop A three day Indian Basketry workshop will be held Monday through Wednesday afternoons, from 1:30 – 4:30.We think that this can be an important link between the arts and stories of the Nez Perce people who lived in this place for thousands of years, and writers and storytellers who are new to it. The afternoon time slot will allow participants and faculty members from other workshops to join in making baskets and learning something of Plateau Indian culture. Because it is important to get the word on what promises to be a wonderful edition of Summer Fishtrap out as soon as possible, we are making this compromise: a general announcement that there will be a basketry workshop; and the promise of detailed information on our website the first week in April. |
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For this 20th anniversary edition of Fishtrap, we have invited several of the more than 200 writers who have read and taught for us to return. And we have invited George Aguilar, Oregon Book Award winning author of When the River Ran Wild, and Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, co-editors of Home Ground, as new voices in our continuing river of words. Ursula
LeGuin |
"Found at Fishtrap" Writers Over the years, many writers have found a voice, an audience, even a publisher at Fishtrap. The eight writers who have been invited to come as special Found at Fishtrap guests this year represent many others who have had a Fishtrap boost-hopefully some of you reading this sentence. Peter
Chilson
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FEES & PAYMENT Fishtrap makes a concerted effort to make events and workshops affordable. In so far as possible, we want attendance at Fishtrap to be determined by desire, and not limited by means. Prices are on the registration form. A $100 non-refundable deposit will reserve a spot for you for a workshop and/or for the Gathering. Final payment is due June 30. We do accept Visa and Master cards. Please call with your card number or complete the registration form and send it back with your deposit or payment. If you have internet access, we encourage you to register and pay online, as there are more payment options available. Full payment with registration saves $$$. Registration Form - For Reference ONLY. Do not attempt to sign up for a workshop as this is 2007 information To
pay your registration balance via PayPal click here. PayPal accepts
Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress and Discover cards. We can also
take Visa and MasterCard payments directly if you'd like to call
us at 541-426-3623. You may also mail a check to Fishtrap, PO Box
38, Enterprise, OR 97828. LODGING The Wallowa Lake Camp is the site of the Fishtrap Gathering and the base camp for workshops. Dorm style accommodations are located in rustic cabins with bathroom facilities in separate but nearby buildings. You bring your own bedding and towels. A few spaces are available for tents and campers. There are also a limited number of deluxe cabins (wooden yurts) available first come, first served. Each of these units sleeps four and has its own bathroom. Fishtrap handles reservations for Wallowa Lake Camp only. MEALS Meals are served cafeteria style at Wallowa Lake Camp, and feature fresh local produce. Please indicate vegetarian preference. CANCELLATION POLICY Your deposit is non-refundable. Any other payments you have made will be refunded if we receive your cancellation by June 30. If it is necessary for Fishtrap to reschedule or cancel a workshop because of lack of enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances, you will be notified promptly and may choose to enroll in another program or receive a full refund. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Bring seating cushions–the kind used at ball games–as some of our seats are old fashioned and hard. NO PETS ARE ALLOWED AT Wallowa LAKE CAMP; they are at some of the other housing sites listed in the brochure. NOTICE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION Fishtrap, Inc. prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age within its organization and during the conduct of any of its programs. DIRECTIONS
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Camping
and RV spaces are available at: There
are RV spaces at: For
those who appreciate more In
Joseph: B
& B’s include: Private
cabins: For information on additional nearby lodging, call the Wallowa County Chamber at 800-585-4121, or visit their web site at www.wallowacountychamber.com. It includes links to lodging providers above and more. |
