Torrey House Press and Zion Canyon Mesa announce Voices for the West: Writing Workshop Friday, February 10 - Saturday, February 11, 2023.
Instructors and Workshop Descriptions:
Craig Childs (Nonfiction)
Writing like Water.
Flow, pattern, turbulence, and volume are intrinsic elements of writing. How you direct them is the story. Using water as our guide, we will workshop select parts of your written samples. We'll also generate new work in short writing sessions. Send in a single written piece from 1,000 to 4,000 words. We will not workshop whole pieces, but selections. Come prepared to read, discuss, revise, and create new material.
Craig Childs is known for following ancient migration routes on foot throughout the Southwest. He has published more than a dozen books of adventure, wilderness, and science, including Virga and Bone: Essays from Dry Places and the forthcoming Tracing Time: Seasons With Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau. He has won the Orion Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, the Galen Rowell Art of Adventure Award, and the Spirit of the West Award for his body of work. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, and Outside. The New York Times says "Childs's feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he's a modern-day desert father." He has a BA in Journalism from CU Boulder with a minor in Women's Studies, and an MA in Desert Studies from Prescott College and has taught writing at University of Alaska in Anchorage and the Mountainview MFA at Southern New Hampshire University. He lives outside of Norwood, CO.
Laura Tohe (Poetry)
Poems are alive and speak to us. Poems are spirit. Poems are transformative.
We’ve all been under a year of quarantine from the pandemic. Perhaps there will be common themes, images, metaphors, and feelings in our poems as we have made our way through the year, or you might have poems on other topics. It’s okay if you haven’t written about the pandemic. Using students’ selected poems and poems written by established poets, we will learn from their work and improve our own writing. In a supportive environment, you will have time to write and revise poems you would be willing to share with the class. You’re invited to attend whether you’re a beginning poet or not.
Laura Tohe is the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate. An award-winning poet, her books include No Parole Today, Making Friends with Water, Sister Nations, Tséyi, Deep in the Rock, and Code Talker Stories that have appeared in the US, Canada, and Europe with French, Dutch, and Italian translations. Her commissioned librettos are Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio on the Naxos Classical Music label and Nahasdzáán in the Glittering World with performances in France in 2019 and 2021. Among her awards are the 2020 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the 2019 American Indian Festival of Writers Award, the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund Award, the Dan Schilling Public Scholar Award, and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Award. She is Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University.
Kase Johnstun (Fiction)
Finding voice. Growing story.
Kase Johnstun’s fiction workshop pushes back on the traditional model where the author has no voice. Johnstun will help writers grow in a strictly positive way through inquisition instead of criticism, highlighting each writer’s work first through a lens that all story ideas bear fruit and finding a way to best help them strengthen story, character, and voice. His workshops aim to be more of a conversation between creators than critique of words.
Kase Johnstun lives and writes in Ogden, Utah. His novel, Let the Wild Grasses Grow, is forthcoming in October 2021 from Torrey House Press. Author of Beyond the Grip of Craniosynostosis and coeditor of Utah Reflections: Stories from the Wasatch Front, his essay collections have been named finalist for the Autumn House Press Awards (2013, 2020) and the C&R Press Awards (2020). His essays can be found in literary journals, trade magazines, and online zines, nationally and internationally. He is the host of The LITerally Podcast, a podcast devoted to sharing the successes of other writers. Johnstun is a graduate of Weber State University, Kansas State University, and Pacific University, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing. Johnstun can be found running the trails of the Wasatch Front.
Registration Fees:
Full registration (pay by 12/15/22): $375
Early bird registration (pay by 10/15/22): $325
Limited scholarships available. Download the scholarship application form here.
Registration fee includes a full-day workshop on Friday, February 10 and a half-day workshop on Saturday, February 11 with Craig Childs, Laura Tohe, or Kase Johnstun. A light breakfast will be provided both days, and a catered lunch will be provided on Friday.
Deadlines:
Application deadline: October 1, 2022
Notification of acceptance: October 10, 2022
General payment deadline: December 15, 2022
Early bird payment deadline: October 15, 2022
Lodging:
Zion Canyon Mesa and Torrey House Press will secure a block of rooms in Springdale hotels for Voices for the West. These rooms will be available to attendees for purchase. Click the button below for more information on hotel lodging and local campgrounds.
Schedule:
This schedule is subject to adjustment.
Friday, February 10
8:30-9:00: Registration
9:00-9:20: Plenary opening
9:30-12:00: Workshops
12:00-1:00: Catered lunch
1:00-4:00: Workshops
7:00-8:30: Public event with Laura Tohe, Kase Johnstun, and Torrey House Press publisher Kirsten Johanna Allen
Saturday, February 11
9:00-11:50: Workshops
12:00-12:30: Keynote by Laura Tohe
7:00-8:30: Public event with Craig Childs
To apply:
Please submit a writing sample of 2,000-5,000 words (if applying for fiction or nonfiction workshop) or three poems (if applying for poetry workshop) in a single Word document. Please name the file with your last name and the writing track you are applying for (i.e.: Lastname_Poetry). Applicants will be informed of their registration status by November 5.