Yearlong Workshops 2012-2013

This coming year, Fishtrap is offering two Yearlong Workshops, one, with novelist and memoirist Jane Vandenburgh for prose writers who already have a manuscript underway, and another, with poet and essayist Kim Stafford, for beginning work in any genre.

Architecture of the Longer Narrative 
Jane Vandenburgh

Jane Vandenburgh offers a year of individual instruction, practical guidance and spiritual encouragement to writers who have a book-length project already underway. Memoir, fiction, and non-fiction narratives are all welcome. A book length work — be it a novel or a collection of linked stories — often fails to be completed for reasons of its own length: the narrative weight of all its novelistic material so easily defeats a story’s need to feel effortless. Structural problems are, in fact, almost always the reason these good books of ours are not completed.  By working closely with the knowledgeable and engaging instructor first at Summer Fishtrap, then in monthly telephone conferences, students develop those habits and skills critical to getting the whole story down and bringing it to a successful conclusion. Jane Vandenburgh is herself a prize-winning novelist and memoirist: her recent book on structuring the book-length narrative, The Architecture of the Novel: A Writer's Handbook, is quickly becoming the standard of the industry.  Why? Because she's broken what might seem the too-ambitious journey into a series of rewarding steps.

Gathering Your Book of Story         
Kim Stafford 
Writers in this venture will take a year, and the generous help of one another, to each compose a collection of pieces in a genre of your choice. Each writer may compose stories, essays, poems, letters, episodes of memoir, dreams, blessings, epiphanies, or other forms of deep discovery.  The goal will be to complete a compelling manuscript by July of 2013. The workshop will proceed on the principle that One can compose a work of any length, given solitudes of any brevity, by inventing a cell-like structure that can gather toward a unified whole. This process is described in the chapter “Quilting Your Solitudes” in Stafford's book The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft. We will help each other experience this process, and then see what we want to do with what we make, by exploring a range of publishing directions beyond our time together. Kim Stafford — poet, essayist, photographer — is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute, a zone for exploratory writing at Lewis & Clark College.

Overview of the Yearlong Workshop Structure:

Fishtrap's Yearlong Workshops are 13 month intensive writing programs modeled after low-residency MFA programs, with short, intense group sessions framing a year of long-distance instruction.  If you don't need a degree, but just want high-quality, sustained support and instruction for your writing, at a modest cost, this program could be the perfect one for you.  The year begins and ends with attendance at Summer Fishtrap, where students and faculty meet for five mornings as a group. A mid-year meeting in the Portland metro area brings the group back together in January. In between these face-to-face meetings, participants work closely with their instructor, exchanging monthly packets of writing. With each packet the writer moves toward the development of a full-length manuscript with a goal of having a complete draft by the end of the course.  Now in its fifth year, the Yearlong Workshop has already helped Fishtrap writers generate many manuscripts. Recently, Pam Steele has published the novel she worked on in a Yearlong Workshop with Jane Vandenburgh, Greasewood Creek.

Generally, writers submit a packet of writing to the instructor each month for critique and comment. Feedback may be via email, regular mail or phone, depending upon the situation and the format preferred by the instructor. Developing the discipline required by these intensive writing workshops is deeply rewarding — writers who have completed one of Fishtrap's Yearlong Workshops report major breakthroughs and life-changing experiences. The personal commitment on the writer's part is echoed by that of the teacher.

The 2012-2013 Yearlong Workshop Schedule:

The Yearlong Workshops will start on Monday July 9, 2012, at Summer Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. Participants will join their instructor daily during the workshop week, and will enjoy all of the activities available to other Summer Fishtrappers, including the keynote presentation, faculty readings, open mic readings, and panel discussions. Summer Fishtrap concludes on Sunday, July 15. For more information about Summer Fishtrap, please visit our website at www.fishtrap.org.

The entire workshop group will convene for a four-day session in January 2013 in or near the Portland metro area. The course will conclude with a weeklong return visit to Summer Fishtrap in 2013, which will start on Monday, July 8, 2013. Between these workshops, participants will correspond with the instructor individually on a monthly basis, each sending a packet of new pages each month for critique and discussion.

To Apply:
 
Prospective participants should submit a manuscript (up to 10 pages, double-spaced) that can be, but does not have to be, an excerpt from a book-length project, and a statement (up to 5 pages) that outlines his or her idea for the project and thoughts on how this course will meet the writer's needs. A $25 non-refundable reading fee must accompany this proposal.

Application Deadlines:

We will work on a rolling admissions policy this year. To be considered in the first round of applicants, your completed application must be received by Friday, March 9, 2012. All applicants will be notified of their status by March 30th. If any positions remain after the 30th, we will accept applications on an ongoing basis until filled. Electronic submissions are preferred. Email them to director@fishtrap.org. To pay the reading fee, go to www.fishtrap.org/payment.htm and submit your payment using credit card or PayPal account.  Please include in the buyer’s instructions that this payment is for the Yearlong Workshop reading fee. We will reply to your email submission to confirm receipt. Hardcopy submissions will also be accepted, and should be mailed, with payment, to Fishtrap, PO Box 38, Enterprise, OR 97828.

Tuition:

The course tuition for the 2012-13 Yearlong Workshop is $6,240. This includes:
* Registration for Summer Fishtrap 2012 and Summer Fishtrap 2013
* Meals at Summer Fishtrap 2012 and 2013
* Enrollment and lodging for the January 2013 session
* All individual instruction during the course

Tuition does NOT include:
* Lodging at Summer Fishtrap 2012 or Summer Fishtrap 2013
* Transportation to or from Summer Fishtrap or the January 2013 meeting
* Meals during the January session
* Materials or postage expenses for monthly mailings
* Communications expenses (e.g., telephone calls) with instructor

Payment:

Once you have been accepted into the course, you must reserve your spot with a $520 non-refundable tuition deposit. The remainder of the tuition is payable either in monthly installments of $520 for 11 months, starting June 15, 2012, or in a lump sum by June 15, 2012, in which case a $240 discount will be granted.

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