March 4, 2010
Writer’s Block Literary Festival: Experience an epiphany
Writer’s block can strike anyone. Most have experienced its symptoms at one time or another — whether writing a research paper, a novel or even an e-mail.
The second Writer’s Block Literary Festival, March 5, aims to help students avoid writer’s block by finding and celebrating that moment of epiphany, when the words finally come.
English major Robin Jeffrey, one of the organizers, said, “Almost all of our events this year focus on that primary moment — that moment of inspiration, when the world opens up in your mind and the creative possibilities seem endless.”
The theme of epiphany is reflected throughout the evening’s events:
3:30 p.m.: Shake Like a Jelly or Write with a Spine: Flash Fiction for Creative Writers Trapped in the Shallows:
This interactive workshop opens with a variety of warm-up exercises. Participants will analyze why and how these activities work. It concludes with attendees writing a flash fiction piece, which is a short story of fewer than 250 words.
4:40 p.m.: Fairy Tale Improv Performance:
The Collective — an undergraduate improvisation troupe — will perform.
5:30 p.m.: Writer’s Workshop: A Story’s Beginning:
Bricolage, the literary journal on campus, will host this skill-based workshop. According to the Web site, it offers “fun writing exercises to … dispel the worst writer’s block and bring forth new epiphanies.”
7 p.m.: Haiku Targets: Myths and Realities:
Students will learn the essential techniques of haiku poetry and discover how those techniques can help improve their longer poetry.
8 p.m.: Poetry Reading by Dan Peters:
Dan Peters teaches at Yakima Valley Community College and has recently published his third poetry collection, Down the Road the Children Go. He will be reading from his collection of published poetry.
Sigma Tau Delta, the English honors society, organized the festival.
Jeffrey, who is a Sigma Tau Delta officer, said, “The fact that it is student organized is great. It’s important to have something for students and by students. I think that it lends a realism that some other events lack.”
She said that organizing the festival was also a good experience for the six planners from Sigma Tau Delta. They’ve put in a lot of time this quarter to make sure it’s ready.
The Writer’s Block Literary Festival is in Savery Hall, starting at 3:30 p.m. on March 5.
The events are open to all.
“The festival is important because it celebrates expression,” said Jeffrey. “It encourages people to reach out and connect with others in the humanities in ways that I feel we don’t often get in this technological age.”
