Five days of FREE readings and writing workshops by Michigan writers
MONDAY
JULY 24
6-8:30pm
FICTION WRITERS’ WORKSHOP*
Desiree Cooper
7-8:30pm
PUBLIC LECTURE: HOW TO INSPIRE YOUNG READERS
AND WRITERS
Penny Kittle
TUESDAY
JULY 25
1-4pm
NON-FICTION WRITERS’ WORKSHOP*
Jerry Dennis
7-8:30pm
READINGS AND BOOK SIGNING
Desiree Cooper & Jerry Dennis
WEDNESDAY
JULY 26
1-4pm
POETRY WRITERS’ WORKSHOP*
Jack Ridl
7-8:30pm
READINGS AND BOOK SIGNING
Jack Ridl & Brittney Cavallaro
THURSDAY
JULY 27
1-4pm
YOUNG ADULT WRITERS’ WORKSHOP*
Gary Schmidt
7-8:30pm
READINGS AND BOOK SIGNING
Gary Schmidt & H.M. Bouwman
FRIDAY
JULY 28
9-9:30am
READING AND BOOK SIGNING
Shutta Crum
10am-12:30pm
WRITING FOR CHILDREN WRITERS' WORKSHOP*
Shutta Crum
*CANCELLED
1-2:30pm
READINGS AND BOOK SIGNING
John Mauk & Anne-Marie Oomen
To showcase the talents of Michigan writers and to support the creative writing of people in our community, the Michigan Authors’ Workshop Series will bring nine writers to Midland, MI, July 24-28th, 2023. These writers will provide free readings to the public in the evening, and they will teach various writing groups for middle school and adult writers during the day. This year’s series will feature fiction writers Desiree Cooper, Brittany Cavallaro, poet Jack Ridl, non-fiction author Jerry Dennis, and children’s/YA authors Shutta Crum, Gary Schmidt, and H.M. Bouwman.
The lecture and all readings are free and open to the public; no need to register in advance. All writing workshops are free as well, and open to the first 20 registrants.
* Registration required
Sponsored by:
Penny Kittle teaches freshman composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Prior to this, she was a teacher and literacy coach in public schools for 34 years. Penny often travels across the U.S. and Canada, speaking to teachers about empowering students through independence in literacy. Her publications include 180 days (with Kelly Gallagher), Write Beside Them, Book Love, and Inside Writing. For more, see: www.pennykittle.net
Desiree Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist. She is the author of an award-winning, flash fiction collection, Know the Mother. Cooper’s fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in Flash Fiction America 2023, Callaloo, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, River Teeth, and received an honorable mention in The Best American Essays 2019. Her first children’s book, Nothing Special, was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the ten best children's books of 2022. For more, see: www.descooper.com
Jerry Dennis's many books—including The Living Great Lakes, The Windward Shore, and, most recently, Up North in Michigan: A Portrait of Place in Four Seasons—have been widely translated and have won numerous awards. His essays, stories, and poems have appeared in more than a hundred magazines and journals across the U.S. and abroad. He lives near Traverse City in northwest lower Michigan. For more, see: www.jerrydennis.net
Jack Ridl’s newest book is Saint Peter and the Goldfinch (Wayne State U. Press) who also published his Practicing to Walk Like a Heron recipient of the ForeWords Review Gold Medal for the year's Best Collection in the U.S.. The Society of Midland Authors named Broken Symmetry (WSU Press) that year’s finest collection, and his Losing Season (CavanKerry Press) was featured on NPR. Then Poet Laureate Billy Collins selected his Against Elegies for the Chapbook Award from The Center for Book Arts (NYC). Jack was named by the Carnegie Foundation: Michigan’s Professor of the Year. More than 100 of his students are nationally published, several of whom have won first book awards. His weekly, Thursday video can be found on YouTube. For more, see: www.ridl.wordpress.com
Gary Schmidt's recent middle-grade novels include Orbiting Jupiter (2015); Pay Attention, Carter Jones (2019); Just Like That (2021); and The Labors of Hercules Beal (2023). This coming year sees the publication of A Little Bit Super (2024), stories co-edited with Leah Henderson; and A Day at the Beach (2024), thirty short stories written with Ron Koertge. He lives on an almost 200-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan, where he splits wood, plants gardens, and writes.
Shutta Crum is the author of several middle-grade novels and picture books, along with poems and magazine articles. Her children’s book, THUNDER-BOOMER! was an ALA and a Smithsonian Magazine “Notable Book” of the year; her books have made Bank Street College of Education Book List as well as various state award lists. In 2005, she was invited to read at the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. For more, see: www.shutta.com
Brittany Cavallaro is the New York Times best-selling author of A Study in Charlotte and the Charlotte Holmes series, the historical fantasy duology Muse, and other books for young adults from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books. A poet and writing teacher, she lives in Traverse City, Michigan. For more, see: www.brittanycavallaro.com
H.M. Bouwman is the author of middle-grade fantasy and historical fantasy novels, including A Crack in the Sea, and most recently, Gossamer Summer. Heather grew up in and attended college in Michigan, and she now lives with her family in Minnesota, where she is a Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas. The feline in Gossamer Summer is her actual, terrible, wonderful cat. For more, see: www.hmbouwman.com
Monday, July 24 7-8:30pm
How to Inspire Young Readers and Writers
Penny Kittle
GRACE A. DOW LIBRARY AUDITORIUM
FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS
This public lecture will provide expert tips on ways to engage young people in reading and writing, inside and outside of the classroom.
No registration necessary.
Monday, July 24 6-8:30pm
The Kindest Cut:
Ruthless Editing 101
Desiree Cooper
WHITING FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING
FOR ADULTS
When you’ve toiled to get words on paper, how do you find the courage to cut them? Editing is integral to writing, and good writers welcome the invention, spontaneity and creativity that editing can inspire. Together we’ll learn specific ways to sculpt and shape your work into sparkling prose—and it won’t hurt at all!
Tuesday, July 25 1-4pm
Getting the Land Right: Evoking Place in
Non-Fiction, Fiction,
and Poetry
Jerry Dennis
WHITING FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING
FOR ADULTS
What do we mean by the “sense” of a place? Is it quantifiable? A feeling? An abstraction? Which of our senses—touch, sight, smell, taste, hearing—can best detect the “flavor” of a place? And how can we capture that flavor in words? We’ll explore these and other questions and discuss works of literature in which exterior and interior landscapes are more than just background. (Feel free to bring favorite excerpts to share with the group.) And we’ll take time to write about places important in our own lives—places that might generate new stories, essays, memoirs, and poems.
Wednesday, July 26 6-8:30pm
Here’s What Matters
Jack Ridl
WHITING FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING
FOR ADULTS
We’re going to spend the day exploring, through any form of writing you prefer, what has profoundly mattered to your own life, be it funny, traumatic, serious, sorrowful, joyous. Using suggestions offered by Jack, we will first talk with one another about those moments you have chosen. Then you will have time to explore that choice in writing, after which we’ll have a delightful “debriefing” about what showed up as you wrote. I hope that the day will be personally meaningful to you.
Thursday, July 27 1-4pm
Characters from
the Inside Out
Gary Schmidt
WHITING FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING
FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
This afternoon, we’ll work at creating characters for a short story or novel by focusing on how movement, action, and physical appearance can announce to our readers who our characters are and what our characters are all about deep down. To do this, we’ll begin with what our characters look like, and move toward what our characters truly want and need--what it is that drives them forward in our stories. Prepare to imagine, to take some literary chances, and to handle some very old artifacts
Friday, July 28 10am-12:30pm
Writing for the Toughest Audience: Children
Shutta Crum
GADML COMMUNITY ROOM
FOR ADULTS
How do you write for children? What is required to grab—and keep—a young person’s attention in a well-written book? Award-winning poet and children’s book author, Shutta Crum, will share her experience working with agents, editors, and children themselves to provide participants with tips and techniques to write for the “toughest audience.”
Tuesday, July 25 7-8:30pm
Wednesday, July 26 7-8:30pm
Jack Ridl and
Brittney Cavallaro
GRACE A. DOW LIBRARY ORCHARD ROOM
FOR TEENS & ADULTS
Thursday, July 27 7-8:30pm
Friday, July 28 9-9:30am
***CANCELED***
Friday, July 28 1-2:30pm
John Mauk and Anne-Marie Oomen
WHITING FOREST EDUCATION BUILDING
FOR ADULTS
Email: askgadml@gmail.com
Phone: (989) 837-3430
Penny Kittle's lecture and all readings are free and open to the public; no need to register in advance. All writing workshops are free as well, and open to the first 20 registrants.