Florida Center for the Literary Arts Summer 2008:Update

Creative Writing Workshops Begin June 3

Enrollment is open for creative writing and publishing workshops offered by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts (FCLA) at Miami Dade College (MDC). The cost for each workshop is $95 (tuition for MDC staff and students is $80.) All workshops will take place in the evening at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, Florida. For more information, registration forms and fees, call (305) 237-3940 or visit www.flcenterlitarts.com.

Paths to Publication
Six Tuesdays, June 3 – July 8, 2008, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Janell Walden Agyeman

Now that you have conceived your book idea and polished a complete fiction or nonfiction manuscript--or perhaps drafted a proposal--are you ready to become a published author? Join our workshop to learn how the publishing industry works and receive personalized guidance preparing your tools for finding the right agent and publisher. Weekly “anchor” lectures and individualized critiques of query letters, proposals and submission strategies provide students professional feedback while you create effective presentation tools.

Janell Walden Agyeman has been a literary agent with Marie Brown Associates Literary Services since 1993, representing authors of books for children and adults. A publishing industry veteran, she previously held editorial positions at Doubleday & Company and the Howard University Press and administered the Howard University Press Book Publishing Institute. She is the proprietor of Blue Horizon Author Services and frequently leads seminars for new authors on the publishing process.

“Say What?” Writing Good Dialogue
Six Tuesdays, June 3 – July 8, 2008, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Nick Garnett

Dialogue is a powerful tool through which to convey and control characterization, tone, exposition, and pacing. It is also one of the most difficult (and often the last) writing techniques to be mastered. In this workshop, designed for writers of all experience levels, you’ll learn how to recognize, appreciate, and create effective dialogue and avoid the traps which can bring your story to a grinding halt. Through in-class and at-home exercises, examining the work of other writers, and critiquing your own writing, you’ll come away from this class with the skills necessary to make your dialogue work for your characters and your story.

Nick Garnett is currently revising his memoir, Straight Man—A Married Guy’s Journey to Fire Island and Back which is currently with a literary agent. He was recently accepted into FIU’s Creative Writing MFA program and has taught frequently for Miami Dade College’s Florida Center for the Literary Arts.

Poetry: A Short Course in English Metrics and Forms
Six Wednesdays, June 4 – July 9, 2008, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Michael Hettich

In this class we will examine the most commonly-employed metrical patterns in English poetry and attempt to understand how these patterns work to create the rhythms of vivid poetry. Additionally, we will examine a wide range of traditional poetic forms—from the sonnet and villanelle to the haibun and ghazal—in an attempt to understand how traditional poetry “works.” Each week we will examine sample poems, practice scansion, and listen for the rhythms of thought each poem enacts. Original writings in each of these forms will also be attempted, as a means of gaining full understanding.

Michael Hettich has published a dozen books and chapbooks of poetry, most recently Swimmer Dreams and Flock and Shadow: New and Selected Poems, both of which were published in 2005. His awards include The Tales Prize and Florida Arts Fellowships. Flock and Shadow was named a Book Sense Top Ten Pick in Poetry for 2006. He teaches at Miami Dade College.

Elements of Nonfiction—It’s Not What You Think
Six Thursdays, June 5 – July 10, 2008, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Instructor: Elizabeth Hanly

“Nonfiction” as a category is bigger, better, richer than many of us imagine.

In this course we will explore the range of the genre focusing on those who created “new journalism”–Tom Wolfe, and Gay Talese–those who are working in the ground between Latin America, the Caribbean and The States–Richard Rodriguez and Edwidge Danticat–as well as less well-known writers who are pushing the genre still further, sometimes writing essays as free verse.

This course is designed to give those attending a wider range of choices, of colors if you will, with which to approach their own work.

Recommended text: The Next American Essay, edited by John D’Agata and published by Graywolf Press.

Elizabeth Hanly is a journalist focusing on Latin America, religion, and the arts. Her work has been published in a wide range of magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and The Guardian of London. She has taught all levels of writing at FIU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and finds herself increasingly intrigued by the possibilities of creative nonfiction.

For more information, registration forms and fees, call (305) 237-3940 or visit www.flcenterlitarts.com.

The Florida Center for the Literary Arts (FCLA) at Miami Dade College (MDC) promotes reading and writing throughout the year by presenting literary activities to the community.

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