STORYFEST - June 26-27, 2020
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StoryFest—the first incarnation of the North Fork’s new annual literary symposium-will celebrate the written word with stories through virtual workshops, speakers, readings, and performances.
With a keynote address on June 26 by award-winning author-adventurer Craig Childs followed by a full day of workshops and performances from talented faculty on Saturday, June 27, this celebration of wordcraft will provide inspiration and instruction for writers and lovers of literature alike.
In addition to Childs, StoryFest presenters for this inaugural year include: activist-author Amy Irvine, Boulder author/teacher Lisa Jones, self-publishing guru Polly Letofsky, Moth Story Slam winner Matthew Taylor, multi-talented Yuri Chicovsky, songwriter J Morley, and fabulous performance poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
Learn more about our speakers & workshops below or visit our website .
Register now! - $75 Includes ALL Workshops & Keynote w/Craig Childs
Purchase the Keynote Presentation Only - Now - $20
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Keynote: The Power of Story
Friday, June 26, 6:00 - 7:30 PM
$20 Single Ticket or Included in the StoryFest Registration
Purchase now!
Workshop:
Maelstrom & Epiphany w/ Amy Irvine
Learn how to take the emotional and structural chaos of narrative and turn it into an elegant, readable form. This will be a crash course workshop in story writing, fiction or nonfiction, taught by two master of the art and craft. Childs and Irvine taught together for more than a decade and have worked as MFA instructors in Creative Writing across the country. They will lead the group through prompts and exercises boiling down writing to its core elements, from the nature of your story to the rhythm of its sentences and paragraphs. Come prepared to write.
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Workshops:
Maelstrom & Epiphany w/ Craig Childs
Learn how to take the emotional and structural chaos of narrative and turn it into an elegant, readable form. This will be a crash course workshop in story writing, fiction or nonfiction, taught by two master of the art and craft. Childs and Irvine taught together for more than a decade and have worked as MFA instructors in Creative Writing across the country. They will lead the group through prompts and exercises boiling down writing to its core elements, from the nature of your story to the rhythm of its sentences and paragraphs. Come prepared to write.
Uncertain Times
Take inspiration from a presentation/reading by award-winning author-activist Amy Irvine on “How We Live Now: Art & the Animal Body in Uncertain Times.”
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Workshop:
Songwriting: From the Caves to Today: Storytellers & Troubadours
Local songwriter J Morely will share his knowledge of songwriting as a craft. We will get into the historical & contemporary aspects of the song, as it pertains to communicating ideas in story form & beyond. We will listen to modern song structure and the evolution of music up to current & future trends, and the impact songs have had on the human condition. Attendees will have a chance to dive into building a song or songs together. Brainstorm some song ideas beforehand and lets see what song stories we can tell.
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Workshops:
Creating Suspense!
The SUSPENSE prompt was born when teacher Lisa Jones was in the bathtub, reading THE MIST, by Stephen King. Why did such a dumb-seeming premise (a mist lands on a supermarket in Maine, creating terror and death) result in a book so hard to put down? Lisa pondered. She poured in some more bubble bath. She looked for patterns. She found a three-step method embedded in THE MIST that will bring suspense to your writing about a scary canoe trip, a first date, or a trip to Costco. Suspense is EVERYWHERE in our lives, and should be everywhere in our writing, too, for audiences both literary and genre. Tension matters!
Where I'm From
We’ll start with an accessible list-style poem that invites writers to excavate memories from their lives or that of their fictional characters. Then writers will be guided through a series of short instructions designed to develop a particularly juicy part of their list/poem by writing a scene through their five senses. This injects extra emotional heft into the piece, because the sensory processing centers of the brain are located right next to the emotion-processing area, creating a lot of cross pollination between these centers. A slam-dunk description of the smell of your grandma’s banana bread can actually make a reader cry…
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Workshop:
Quenching the Thirst for Human Connection
More than ever people are talking about feeling isolated. The simplest way to connect? Story. Your story. Your personal narrative. We all have thousands of stories in us. In this fun and interactive workshop Matthew Taylor, current Denver Moth Grand Slam Champion, and national award-winning author, will guide you to find, craft, and tell your personal narrative. During the journey we will discover the science that drives the irresistible power of story while gathering tips and techniques to immediately elevate your storytelling to another level. Come join us and witness the simplicity of true human connection.
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Workshops:
Publishing 101: A Beginners Guide to Self-Publishing, Parts 1 & 2
Self-publishing has exploded in the past few years allowing all of us to get our stories into the world with no more gatekeeper. But if you were to Google “How to self-publish a book,” 9- million items come up. So which option is the right one for you? We want you to enter your publishing journey fully informed and avoid the very expensive pitfalls. This two-part workshop will introduce you to the basic steps of self-publishing so you’ll know what to expect, and what you should never put up with. The good news: it’s the best time in world history to be a writer because there is no longer a gatekeeper standing between you and your reader.
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Workshop:
Sweating the Small Stuff: Writing the Narrative Poem
The narrative poem is one of literature’s oldest forms, but in this class, we make the practice new. We’ll take some of what lyric poems do best—play with sensory images, descriptive language, and repetition—and apply these tools to storytelling. This fun hybrid form allows for play and invites us to re-see and retell the familiar in a fresh way.
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Workshops:
Memoir Writing: The Art of Remembering
In this 90-minute class with Yuri Chicovsky, explore the surprising role of the imagination in memoir writing, and learn to access and trust the memory like a seasoned memoirist. Discuss the process of translating a memory into written words, and those words into powerful, poignant, relatable stories, timeless lessons for future generations, and subtle, personal works of art.
Beginning Biography: Writing Your Grandad's Story
Choose a relative – living or late – and write the story of their life! Come prepared to share anecdotes, memories, and details about your loved one, and discuss how to weave these elements together into a powerful biographical sketch that adds meaning to their life, and to yours. Come prepared with a story to share.
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PLEASE SUPPORT THE BLUE SAGE
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Blue Sage Center for the Arts is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that thrives because of your generous support. As we navigate this unprecedented time of closures and social distancing, your patronage becomes even more important. Please consider supporting the Blue Sage by becoming a member, a monthly sustaining member or making a one time donation. Your generosity helps to keep this community resource available to all.
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