I first became aware of the North Carolina Writer’s Network back in 2006 when I returned to writing after my about 5 year absence. Thank goodness for the internet because I learned about all kinds of organizations. I attended their spring conference at UNC-Greensboro (where I was an undergrad) in the April of 2007 and found it amazing but given that I also started my MFA in 2007 – I never went to a fall conference until this year!
Man, I’ve been missing out.
This first image is actually from the last day. As a faculty member for the conference, I was able to attend other sessions but I made a rule that I wouldn’t stay if there were limited seats etc and Kevin Winchester’s lecture on character was definitely too packed (yay for Kevin!) so I instead went and hung with some of the exhibitors. There were reps from my MFA program there as well as many NC based publishing companies and authors.
But, let’s go back a bit.
The first day of the conference was actually Friday night. I didn’t want to deal with paying $20 to park downtown (or as they call it in Charlotte – uptown) so I decided to drive the two miles to a park and ride. Discovered the park and ride isn’t really a great option because the park and ride is really only for the express and you have to walk further over (or park at Panera which I’m sure they don’t like!) to take the regular buses. It was an interesting experience but I was glad my husband’s nighttime freelance job was only a few blocks away from the Omni where the event was held so I could just catch a ride with him back to my car.
I didn’t stay for everything Friday night but there was some great stuff including a talk by fiction writer Michael Malone.
Saturday – I took the train. I was up WAY WAY early but I still didn’t quite make it in in time for the early morning panel. I look forward to attending a conference where I’m actually staying at the conference hotel so I can attend more of the events. I did have a chance to sit in on two poetry workshops that were great! One was titled “The Passing Moment” in which I drafted a poem and the second was “Story in Poetry” which I couldn’t stay for the whole thing because I met up with my husband for lunch.
Which means I also missed the luncheon with a talk and literary walk through Charlotte. I heard terrific things about all of these! I stayed around for a regional rep meeting (of which I am one) and the faculty readings at 5pm (which I read in). I really had a great reading! It can be disheartening – at times – to read and then have no one pick up your books but *sigh* that’s just the way it goes sometimes. It really made me love my books again. I had been growing tired of reading from them but there was such a great energy in the room and on Sunday I did sign a few copies of things so YAY!
I wish I had taken more pictures but I got caught up in running around trying to see people and balance being local so wanting to do some grading and such (it never ends). I taught my workshop on Sunday. I was one of the last presenters but I still had about 9 people who showed up and they were very engaged. I was able to do some lecture/discussion then discussion/critiquing of poems people had brought with them before giving some writing prompts. The whole workshop I taught came out of a blog post titled I vs Eye which you can go back and read for a gist of what I covered in the workshop.
I can’t say enough about how well the conference was run and put together and I’ve been to bigger conferences such as AWP. If you have conferences in your state or local area, look into them. Sometimes they have scholarships! NCWN does as well as additional services I didn’t need this time around such as the Manuscript Mart and Critique Services. There were also Master classes that you could apply for such as the one taught by NC Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers who also gave a dinner time talk on Saturday.
I’m still decompressing and taking everything that I learned in. Feel free to send me questions about the conference, the NCWN etc etc and I’d be happy to help!
Only negative? This reminded me just how much I love teaching creative writing; how much I wish that was what I did all day everyday 
For all the photos click here.
Thanks for this awesome update! I can’t wait to be cool enough to go to such a thing. Maybe next year. Of course, that’s when they’ll probably hold it 5 hours away.
I hear that next year it may be Boone or Asheville. They try to move it around the state. We could be roomies!
I may be up for something like this in a year or so! If you were my teach, well you would get goodies on your desk, no apples though, but good stuff
he he
Chef E
http://tmi-chef.blogspot.com/
I’m sure you’d cook me up something fantastic! Still deciding what to do for the week including March 11th when my husband and his brother attend a conference in Boston. I’m thinking of going with but using that Saturday to take the train up to the NY/NJ area!
I’m so glad that you had such a great time there. A lot to take in!
I went back to the I vs Eye post, to know what you were teaching for sure. Have you had much feedback or questions from family and friends? I have written a few things, then pulled back from them when I thought there was too much “I” in them and it didn’t show someone else in a very positive way. Guess that is up to each of us to decide?
Thanks, Jessie, for recapping! You are like a mini writer’s conference for me!
I did discuss feedback from family and friends in the class. The issue with the “I” really occurred to me when my first chapbook came out and people in my family were interested in buying it. That surprised me. I wasn’t worried about my siblings but my Mom’s family. I did preface to them that not everything I wrote was autobiographical. They have been very supportive.
It really is up to each of us to decide if we are willing to write about people, especially if it is in a negative way, with the possibility that the work will be seen by others. I was very hesitant when writing about my father, for example, and I still am. If you are really concerned about it – as I told my class – try changing things to free yourself up. Make the narrator of your poem male. Cast the person you are talking about in another role: cousin, co-worker etc. There are many things you can do to change the “facts” so you can get at the truth!
You guys really are why I keep blogging!
Those are such great suggestions. I am so narrow minded! ha! Something about how you said that, how we can still keep the truth of the poem/story but not in a negative way towards anyone, really excites me. That is what you did throughout Paper House.
Thanks, Debbie! I really wanted “Paper House” to not come across as cruel to anyone or to make the speaker seem like a victim. Early on in my writing I was very tied to “truth” which meant never wavering from the point by point event and then you have to remember – we all see things differently anyway so shape the events to get to the heart of why you wanted to write about it in the first place.
thanks for sharing the conference moments. sounds so inspiring and joyful. loved the train image, this mood of going to a place, of arriving. great about the drafting in the workshop. i look forward to the poem already.
I really had a good time taking pictures from the train. I actually have an idea about using the public transportation more in the city just to look at things from a different perspective. The city looks very different from up high as the train comes into the stations versus down in a car. It “feels” like a real city versus just a loose conglomeration of suburbs which is what Charlotte has really always felt like to me.