Writing It Real Writer's Conference

April 25-28 2013
Nashville, TN

Start your Spring 2013 planning now and arrange to join us in Nashville, TN at the Scarritt-Bennett Retreat Center, three blocks from Music Row. We’ll meet Thursday dinner through Sunday breakfast, April 25-28. Email us at conference@writingitreal.com if you’d like us to put you on our “interesteds” list for future conference related emails. Scroll down for a description of the conference, fees, the retreat center, faculty bios and the schedule of sessions.

Faculty members Sheila Bender, Meg Files and Jack Heffron will offer you interactive craft lectures, in-class writing instruction, small group manuscript workshops limited to 12 participants per instructor, and writing and publishing consultations. Whether you are experienced or new to writing, have a special project in mind, need a jumpstart or are switching genres, our conference provides the professional guidance you are looking for in writing and publishing memoir, non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Our faculty’s trademark is enthusiasm, warmth and genuine down-to-earth instruction. Be sure to think about what you’d like to work on in your one-on-one session, appointments to be made during the conference.

Our conference fee is $575. We hope you’ll reserve your spot soon as we keep our participant numbers low to guarantee the faculty can work effectively with each participant. The conference fee includes all meals from Thursday dinner through breakfast on Sunday. Rooms are $50 a night plus tax and booked directly through the Scarritt-Bennett Retreat Center’s reservation desk. Reserve your room asap as the rooms are limited and you can cancel the reservation up to 48 hours prior.

Tel: (615) 340-7500
Toll-free: 1.866.420.5486
Fax: (615) 340-7551
reservations@scarrittbennett.org

Sheila Bender is an award-winning and widely published poet, author and writing facilitator. She founded Writing It Real in 2002 for those who write from personal experience, whatever the genre. A contributor to Writer’s Digest Magazine, she has written a dozen popular instructional books on writing from personal experience, including Creative Writing DeMystified, Writing Publishing Personal Essays, Second Edition, Writing Personal Poetry: Creating Poems from Life Experience, and Keeping a Journal You Love, among others. She has also written instructional prompts and writing tips for LifeJournal for Writers software (Chronicles Software). Her memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, was published by Imago Press in September 2009 and in 2012, Pixelita Press published Behind Us the Way Grows Wider, a poetry collection.

Meg Files is the author of Meridian 144, a novel; Home Is the Hunter, a collection of stories; Write from Life, a book about using personal experience and taking risks in writing; The Love Hunter and Other Poems; and Galapagos Triptych: Three Ways of Seeing the Galapagos Islands. Her novel The Third Law of Motion was a finalist for the University of Michigan Press’s Michigan Literary Fiction Award. She edited Lasting: Poems on Aging. Her stories and poems have appeared in many publications, including Fiction, Writers’ Forum, Oxford Magazine, The Tampa Review, and Crazyhorse. Her awards include a Bread Loaf Fellowship. Her work has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, for the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, and for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was the James Thurber Writer-in-Residence at Ohio State University. She teaches creative writing and directs the Pima Writers’ Workshop in Tucson.

Jack Heffron has been a professional editor for more than twenty years, serving as editorial director for three publishers in that time. He currently is managing editor of Man of the House, an online magazine. He is the author of a number of books, including The Writer’s Idea Book, published in an expanded tenth-anniversary edition December 2011. He also was a founding editor of Story magazine, which twice won the National Magazine Award for Fiction. His own fiction has been published in numerous literary journals and twice was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His nonfiction has been included in Best American Travel Writing and has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and Authors. His column in Cincinnati magazine was selected as the best in Ohio in 2009. He teaches magazine and feature writing in the journalism program at the University of Cincinnati.

The Scarritt-Bennett Retreat Center has comfortable rooms, delicious food, and wifi. It is within blocks of Vanderbilt University, Belmont University and Music Row. Join us and meet new writing colleagues and friends. You might want to add on some days to visit historic sites. If you’d like a friend or spouse to stay with you, there a limited number of rooms with double beds as well as some with two twin beds. Most rooms are single beds. Conference pricing will include conference fee, room and your meals.

For questions or to let us know  you want us to contact you with conference registration information, send us an email at conference@writingitreal.com. If you’d like to reserve your spot now, mail a check by February 1, 2013 for $525 to Writing It Real, 394 Colman Drive, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Schedule of Sessions 

2013 April 25-28 Schedule – Writing It Real Conference Nashville, TN Writer’s Conference

Thursday April 25
5:30 — 6:30 pm — Dinner in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
6:45 — 8:45 — Introductions and Warm-up writing exercises from Meg, Jack and Sheila                                      in the conference room; contest announcement

Friday April 26
7:30 –  8:30 –  Breakfast in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
8:45 —  9:45 –  Meg’s lecture “Saying the Unsayable: Deepening Writing”
10:00 –11:15 — Jack’s exercise “Using Journalistic Strategies to Bring Characters to                                           Life”
11:30 –  2:00 –  Lunch in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room and free                                                      time
2:00 –   3:00 –  Sheila’s exercise “Point and Shoot: Practicing the Art of Sudden                                                  Nonfiction”
3:15 –   4:30 — Manuscript workshops
4:30 –   5:15 — Jack, Sheila and Meg – Tips on publishing
5:30 –   6:30 — Dinner in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
6:45 –   7:30 — Faculty Readings: Sheila, Meg, Jack

Saturday April 27
7:30 –   8:30 — Breakfast in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
8:45 — 10:00 — Jack’s lecture “Diva Tips: Making Your Drama More Dramatic”
10:15 — 11:15 — Meg’s exercise “It’s All About You, You, You: Writing a Second-                                        person Story”
11:30 –   2:00 — Lunch in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room and free                                                           time
2:00 –  3:00 — Sheila’s Lecture “Keeping the Spirit Alive — How to find to                                                     write, write, write all year.” Contest entries do!
3:15 –   4:30  – Manuscript workshops
5:30 –   6:30  – Dinner in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
7:00 –   8:30  – Participant readings

Sunday April 28
7:30 –   8:30  –Breakfast in the Scarritt-Bennett Center dining room
and Discussion on Keeping the Spirit, Contest Awards, Group Photo
8:30 — 9:30  –  Goodbyes in the garden

Note: You might want to book yourself into the Retreat Center for a night or two before or after the conference to take advantage of Nashville’s many music venues. Both Friday and Saturday from 11:30 to 2 you’ll have time to write and walk the area. Night owls will enjoy late night music at nearby venues. Participants will schedule their 15-minute consults with the instructors, often during meals on Friday and Saturday.