It is not that I forget to blog on Thursdays but that I forget what day it is. Besides, I caught that cold that lingers, making my mind foggy.
I am blogging today, Friday, to give two thumbs up to three organizations:
Oregon Literary Arts:
It's Arts & Lectures series is bringing to Portland Edwidge Danticat (April 22) and Isabel Allende (May 11). I am hoping to be able to interview Allende so I can write a book about her.
Nothing better than sitting at a bus and reading poetry from the well-known to students. This Literary Arts program is called Poetry in Motion.
My biographies of César Chávez and Diego Rivera have been finalists of Oregon Book awards. If you are a finalist, you go on tour in Oregon to talk about your books. This year I went to the Oregon Coast.
I have applied to Literary Arts' Fellowship many times. I had no luck, until this year. The money will allow me to go to Málaga, Barcelona, and Paris to research Picasso.
But to me the best program of Literary Arts is Writers in the Schools. It places writers in high schools for students write. At the end of the year the students read their work at a cafe and some get published in an anthology. Actually, if their works get published they get to read it in places such as Powell's City of Books.
For more information visit: http://www.literary-arts.org/
Whidbey Island MFA Program:
This is a low-residency program, meaning that you go to Whidbey Island,Washington for ten days in August and ten days in January and the rest of the semester is online. The program teaches most genres. Students are required to take courses outside of their genre. For a writer of books for children this is ideal because poetry, short-fiction, and non-fiction are important in our field. I actually sat in a poetry craft class taught by Carolyn Wright, and boy, did I learn!
Each afternoon during the residencies we have famous authors speak. Virginia Euwer Wolff will be one of them in August.
This program is so nurturing that its alumni can't stay away. The faculty is planning a course on teaching writing just for them.
For more information visit: www.writeonwhidbey.org/mfa
Multnomah County Library:
It's 13th Annual Children's Author Lecture is bringing us Jane Yolen on April 12.
For more information visit: www.multcolib.org/kids/lecture
5 comments:
Carmen, how lucky you are to live in such a place. A tour of the Oregon coast is a pretty fine reward. Thanks, Oregon, for such fine programs. And good luck, Carmen, on that cold.
Carmen, It was just about a year ago that you and I met in Oregon! Ruby has applied to Lewis & Clark and with any luck she will choose that college and then I can come visit you and Oregon again-- what a rich state you live in. That Whidby Island low residency is very enticing. I know Marla Frazee has presented there many times. Thanks for all of this information.
What a wealth of wonderful writing organizations you have in Oregon, Carmen. I can attest to the dedication of the folks in the Multnomah County Library system; a couple of years ago they hired me to illustrate their bug-themed summer reading program poster and they were a delight to work with.
About a week and a half ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Carmen face to face in Portland! And after our trip to Oregon, my husband and I would be ready to pick up and move there if it weren't for friends and family in Maryland. It certainly is a great place for writers. Thanks for filling us in, Carmen!
I wish I were a little closer to Portland so I could attend more things. And I miss Whidbey:) Hopefully Wayne will ask me up again one of these winters...
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