Thursday, January 20, 2011

Lynda Barry @ Cusp Conference 2009

Today I received an invitation to the Univeristy of Iowa Summer Writing Festival and the Hollyhock catalog of offerings. I've also been thinking recently about writing conferences and workshops and retreats. What do I want? What do I need? No - back to what I want. Do I attend others' events or do I work with people I know and respect and we put together something of our own?

I'm still thinking about the options and more appear several times a week now. It's an exciting time and sometimes it borders on being overwhelming because - the rest of my life doesn't stop. I'm finding, again, that putting time and energy into writing creates more writing, more opportunities, more inspiration. And it's exciting. And I don't (can't?) have an overall picture yet because at this point in time I have to rely on something else for income so that I can have a home and sustenance and transportation; the rest of my life doesn't stop. Which is good. And as long as I pay attention, I create and creating creates more creations!

So - I don't have an answer. But in looking at these options that arrive, the brochures, the flyers, the teasers in forms of postcard, I go online and look for more information.

And so it was I stumbled across these two videos of Lynda Barry talking at the conference in the title of this post. Great stuff. It needs to be passed on.

And I'll go think some more and keep you posted.

I know I will return with the kayaking/writing workshops - I'm going to talk with my collaborator and I'd like to change the title to Poetry and Prose Paddle (it was just Poetry Paddle). And I have ideas for more workshops - which gets me back to the concept of time and energy and, yes energy in in the form of money. Yes.

Enjoy!






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