Stonecoast Writers' Conference
Details
July 21-27, 2013
Imagine: seven days to live inside the book you want to write; seven days to work and rework your poems; seven days surrounded by people who grapple with sentences, who fall in love with words; seven days to soak in the salt air, to contemplate the waters of Casco Bay.
At the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference students work closely with a distinguished faculty composed of award-winning writers. Our daily talks and evening readings will expand and challenge your understanding of literature. We offer workshops in four genres: poetry, short fiction, novel, and nonfiction/memoir. And, for the first time, this summer we will be offering a mixed-genre bootcamp for those of you who don’t want your writing to be limited to a form.
Whether you have only recently started to commit your ideas to paper, or if you are polishing a manuscript before submitting it for a contest, the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference has something to offer you.
We offer two workshop models:
- Student accepted into the Traditional Morning Workshops (Poetry, Short Fiction, Novel, Memoir, and our new Creative Writing Bootcamp) will start each day with a three-hour workshop with their instructor. Following lunch, students attend afternoon programming with a eclectic slate of writers, booksellers, and agents present on topics such as close editing, voice in fiction, the indelible image, and writing humor.
- Advanced writing students, who are already well along with a project, are encouraged to apply to our two Intensive Afternoon Workshops (Memoir and Short Fiction). Students accepted into these classes have lunch at the Stone House and then meet upstairs for a two-hour class session. After the sessions, students are encouraged to stay for the afternoon readings. Mornings are left free, so that students can focus on their writing projects.
If you’re not sure which workshop is right for you, contact Justin Tussing, Faculty Director of the Stonecoast Writers Conference, at 207-228-8393.
For questions regarding the application process or program content:
Justin Tussing, Director
Stonecoast Writers’ Conference
c/o Department of English
University of Southern Maine
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Telephone: 207.228.8393
For questions regarding billing:
Student Services
Professional & Continuing Education
University of Southern Maine
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Telephone: 207.780.5900
Application
We are now accepting applications for the 2013 Conference. Apply Today
The Stonecoast Writers’ Conference is open to students of all experience levels. However, admission is selective.
Applicants must submit a writing sample, a completed application form, a brief cover letter outlining your writing background and conference goals, and a $200 deposit. This $200 deposit holds your spot in the conference. In the event you are not accepted into the conference, or if there are no spaces available in your preferred workshop, your deposit will be refunded in full. If accepted into the program, this deposit is deducted from your total program tuition and in no longer refundable. After being accepted, if you decide to withdraw from the conference for any reason, the $200 deposit is non-refundable. For details on how to apply, download the application form. Once you’ve submitted your application, you should receive a decision from us within two weeks.
When applying to the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference, students must select a particular course of study. Students choose workshops according to the genre they are working in, because of a desire to study with a particular instructor, or because they are seeking a specific challenge.
Workshops
In each workshop, regardless of genre, the primary “texts” are the writing samples submitted by you and your peers. Each summer, our instructors adapt their classes to suit the students. Most instructors divide class time between craft talk, workshopping student work, and writing exercises. By customizing their classes according to the needs of its members, our instructors ensure that every student has a personalized workshop.
If you are unsure which workshop best meets your needs, please call Justin Tussing at 207-228-8393.
This summer the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference is offering traditional workshops in short fiction, poetry, memoir, and the novel. These traditional workshops are available for academic credit and for non-credit/continuing education units. We are also offering two afternoon intensive workshops. Intensive Afternoon Workshops offer continuing education units only and may not be taken for academic credit.
Traditional Workshops:
- Memoir Writing with Susan Conley
Writing about personal experience in a way that is both compelling and truthful is a glorious challenge. It’s little wonder that no genre has experienced more growth in the last twenty years.
- Poetry Writing with Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Whether you’ve been breaking lines since you were in short pants, or if you’ve come to poetry more recently, the cool, green light of the Wolfe Den Patio offers an oasis for contemplation and composition.
- Novel Writing Workshop with Lily King
It doesn’t matter if you’ve just finished the first draft of a novel or had the first inkling that a novel is lurking in your laptop, Lily offers the feedback and encouragement necessary for you to see your project through to “The End.”
- Short Fiction Workshop with Salvatore Scibona
This course is designed for students who have completed a few stories and are looking to push themselves. Salvatore is a consummate (and obsessive) craftsman; this course will help you see your work—and the potential of your work—in a new light. - NEW! Creative Writing Bootcamp with Dianne Benedict Regardless of genre, good writing is precise, honest, and surprising. If you want a supportive environment where you feel free to take risks and push yourself, look no further.
Intensive Afternoon Workshops:
- Susan Conley’s Intensive Memoir Workshop is for students who want to have their mornings free to write. Most students will have done significant work in the genre and will be working on developing or completing writing projects.
- Salvatore Scibona’s Intensive Short Fiction Workshop is designed for our most masochistic fiction writers. Craft talk will range from the practical to the theoretical.
Schedule
The below schedule is subject to change. A finalized schedule will be provided closer to program start time.
Sunday, July 21st
Location: Stone House, Freeport, ME
- Opening Event – 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Monday, July 22nd – Friday, July 26th
Location: Stone House, Freeport, ME
- Traditional Workshops – 9:00am to 12:00
- Lunch – 12:00 to 1:00
- Mid-day Programming* – 1:00 to 3:00
- Afternoon Intensive Workshops – 1:00 to 3:00pm
- Evening Readings – 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Saturday, July 27th
Location: Stone House, Freeport, ME
- Traditional Workshops – 9:00am to 12:00
- Closing Ceremonies - 12:00 to 1:00
*Each day, traditional workshop participants have a choice of events to attend; in this way, each student personalizes his or her experience at the conference. Recent Mid-Day Programming included:
- Literary Agent Visits
- Debut Writers Panel
- How Dialogue Works
- Professional Writing
- Writing Nature Poetry
- Ten Rules for Freelancing
- Using Humor in Your Writing
- The Modern Writer: Social Media
- Reading Before an Audience
- The Role of the Indie Bookshop
- Point of View and You
- Bookbinding Workshop
- Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance
- Writing About Personal Experience
- Revision is Writing
Special Evening Events:
- Evening Readings at the Stone House – Evening readings will include faculty and guest speakers.
- Night on the Town – enjoy an organized night on the town with your fellow program participants.
- Friday Night Banquet at the Stone House – End the program with an evening of student readings and a banquet.
Tuition & Fees
Deposit:
All applications must be accompanied by a $200 deposit. This $200 deposit holds your spot in the conference. In the event you are not accepted into the conference, or if there are no spaces available in your preferred workshop, your deposit will be refunded in full. If accepted into the program, this deposit is deducted from your total program tuition and in no longer refundable. After being accepted, if you decide to withdraw from the conference for any reason, the $200 deposit is non-refundable.
Tuition:
Students select tuition options within their application form. Tuition does not include housing.
- Traditional Workshops:
Students who are accepted into one of the traditional workshops have the choice of registering for three (3) undergraduate academic credits or as a non-credit/CEU course. A confirmation and invoice will be sent via e-mail (to the email account listed on the application) once registration is processed.
The cost of the traditional workshops covers participation in morning traditional workshops, mid-day programming activities, evening readings, and fees, course handouts, daily lunch, coffee all day every day, a final banquet on Friday evening at the Stone House, commencement, and closing ceremonies. - Academic Credit – Traditional Workshop $1122
- Non-Credit - Traditional Workshop $899
- Intensive Workshops:
Intensive Workshops can only be taken for continuing education units (CEUs) and cannot be taken for academic credit. These afternoon courses run Monday-Friday, 1:30-3:30pm. Since space in limited, preference is given to Stonecoast Alumni. Cost of the intensive workshops covers participation in afternoon intensive workshops and evening readings, and includes tuition and fees, course handouts, daily lunch, coffee all day every day, and a final banquet on Friday. - Non-Credit Intensive Workshop $599
Refund & Cancellation Policy:
If you are not accepted into the conference your $200 deposit will be refunded in full. However, upon acceptance in the program, should you decide to withdraw from this conference for any reason, the $200 deposit fee is non-refundable.
In order to receive a full tuition, notice of cancellation must be received in writing on or before June 21, 2013.
Faculty
- Dianne Benedict, Fiction Writing
Author of Shiny Objects, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, Dianne is a professor at the University of Southern Maine. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment For the Arts and the Maine Arts Commission. Her stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and Best American Short Stories.
- Susan Conley, Memoir
Author of The Foremost Good Fortune, a "Top Ten" pick by O Magazine and a "Book of the Week" with Slate Magazine. A cofounder of Portland's The Telling Room, Susan has an MFA from San Diego State University. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, and Ploughshares, among other places. Her first novel is forthcoming from Knopf. For more information, visit her website.
- Lily King, Novel
King's novel, The Pleasing Hour won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second book, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Father of the Rain, her third novel, won the 2010 New England Book Award for Fiction. For more information, visit her website.
- Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Poetry
Fay-LeBlanc’s first poetry collection, Death of the Ventriloquist , won the Vassar Miller Prize. “The tension that permeates his poetry—what is seen and unseen, said and eavesdropped, true and trickery—culminates in a debut that rings out long after Fay-LeBlanc’s lips stop moving” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).This will be his first summer leading a workshop at the Stone House. For more information, visit his website.
- Salvatore Scibona, Short Fiction
Scibona's first novel, The End, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He won a Young Lion Fiction Award and a Whiting Writers' Award. In 2010, the New Yorker named Scibona one of their "20 Under 40." For more information, visit his website.
- Justin Tussing, Conference Director
Justin is the author of the novel The Best People in the World. A member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine, Justin is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Previously he has held administrative positions at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, The Iowa Young Writers Studio, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He is currently at work on a novel about medicine, rock and roll, and parents.
Location
The coast of Maine is both metaphor and substance.
Here the absolute meets the plastic, the known meets the unknown. Water and land are locked in a marriage of inconvenience. The jagged rocks are worn smooth; the sinuous waves are shattered.
Each July the Stonecoast Writers’ Conference meets at the Stone House, a waterfront estate designed by John Calvin Stevens. The Colonial Revival style building is located near the tip of Wolfe’s Neck on Casco Bay. The property is surrounded by extensive rhododendron gardens and pastureland. Most classrooms have water views. Located approximately five miles outside of the center of bustling Freeport, the Stone House was donated to the University of Southern Maine by Mrs. Eleanor Houston Smith.
“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."
Herman Melville-Moby Dick
Housing
Housing is not included in program tuition.
Local Hotels:
There are a wide variety of hotels in the Freeport/Brunswick area. For more information about hotels in the area, go to http://www.visitmaine.com/
A Word About Freeport:
Freeport is located on the shores of beautiful Casco Bay. Well known for its outlet shopping, the town is rich in history and recreational opportunities. Home to LL Bean, Freeport is a great place to visit; Yankee Magazine selected Freeport as the Best Shopping Town in New England. The small town has myriad opportunities for shopping, recreating, and outdoor enjoyment, too. A wide variety of accommodations are available to suit all tastes. There are restaurants, pubs and coffee shops all within an easy walk of the downtown area.
Contact
For questions regarding workshops, the application process, or program content:
Justin Tussing, Director
Stonecoast Writers’ Conference
c/o Department of English
University of Southern Maine
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Telephone: 207.228.8393
For questions regarding billing:
Student Services
Professional & Continuing Education
University of Southern Maine
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, ME 04104-9300
Telephone: 207.780.5900
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