By Tim Mandell
Register News Writer
RICHMOND —
Eastern Kentucky University is offering a week-long summer writing conference open to students as well as non-students.
Creative writers will have an opportunity to work closely with faculty members and visiting writers during five days of activities, lectures and one-on-one counseling.
The annual conference, which usually consists of 15 to 20 students, is scheduled from June 7 to 11.
“Participants can immerse themselves in creative writing for a week and participate in workshops discussing their and other students’ original manuscripts,” said Russell Helms, program specialist with EKU’s MFA Creative Writing Program. “Further feedback on students’ fiction, poetry or nonfiction is provided by faculty and writers of the conference in individual conferences.”
Faculty members participating in the conference are Julie Hensley, R. Dean Johnson, Derek Nikitas and Young Smith.
Visiting writers include Libby Falk Jones, Christina Lovin, Dorothy Sutton and Alex Taylor.
“Faculty members will present craft lectures and orchestrate writing activities each morning,” Hensley said. “In the afternoon, the participants will conference about creating manuscripts in one-on-one sessions with faculty members.”
Faculty writers will interact closely with students, leading workshops, critiquing manuscripts and leading informal discussions over dinner at local restaurants, said Hensley.
Visiting writers will interact with students mainly through question and answer and book-signing sessions, she said.
Each night a faculty member and a visiting writer will read, answer questions and sign books.
The evening reads, which are free and open to the public, will be from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Jaggers room of the Powell Student Center on campus.
Students bring a prepared manuscript to the conference and will actively write throughout the week, said Hensley.
While the conference may be a mix of beginning and experienced writers, it is recommended that EKU students should have already completed Introduction to Creative Writing before signing up for the conference.
The cost of the conference for non-credit tuition is $185 for the week. The conference tuition fee is free for those 65 and older, with a non-refundable $35 application fee.
For students taking the class for credit, the fee for in-state undergraduates is $263 and for out-of-state undergraduates it is $720, For in-state graduate students the fee is $383 and for out-of-state graduate students the fee is $766.
On campus housing is available.
The application deadline is May 24.
For more information email julie.hensley@eku.edu or visit www.english.eku.edu/mfa.
Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.
