CREATIVE WRITING
Generously supported by Joe Usibelli and Peggy Shumaker
Creative Writing registrants may talk with their guest artists during the Chancellor’s Reception in the Great Hall following “Meet the Artists” at 4:00pm on Sunday afternoon, July 13. Or, simply attend the first class on Monday at 9:00am. Please Note: Registration for FSAF Creative Writing is $395.
If you wish to take this class plus others, the maximum registration fee – regardless of how many classes you select – is only $550. See the registration form for discounts. Questions about registration? Contact
. QUESTIONS about the creative writing class? Contact Peggy Shumaker, (907)350-9894, peggyzoe@sprynet.com or Don Gray, (907)457-5737, (907)322-3408, cell, dcgray@mosquitonet.com
Creative Writing $395
New this year! Nature Writing and Writing for Young Readers--with Debbie Miller
Instructors: Shumaker, Director; Clark, Crouse, Kloefkorn, Miller
9:00am-4:30pm, with a break for lunch, M-F, Both Weeks
This class is open to people with all levels of writing skills. Students will write every day under the guidance of the Festival staff. Each day will offer directed writing activities and close readings of literature from a writer’s perspective. We will discuss poetry and prose, and students may write either or both.
The class will focus on generating new writing. Students will practice several stages of the writing process: beginning, drafting and revising. At the end of the Festival, each writer will have a folder containing enough rough material to keep busy for months, as well as some polished pieces.
These sessions will be especially good for teachers who must motivate others – and themselves – to write. The classes will also be valuable for writers who want fresh ideas and ways to focus their writing.
Students who cannot attend all day should make special arrangements with Peggy Shumaker: peggyzoe@gmail.com
Bring pen and paper, a sense of adventure, and a sense of humor!
Peggy Shumaker • Fairbanks, AK
Just Breathe Normally, a book of Peggy Shumaker’s lyrical nonfiction, was published last fall by University of Nebraska Press. Blaze, a collaboration, showcases paintings by Kesler Woodward and poems by Shumaker. Her work won an NEA Fellowship in Poetry. Professor Emerita from UAF, she teaches in the low-residency MFA Rainier Writing Workshop. Shumaker is the Founding Director of the Festival’s Creative Writing class.
Jeanne Clark • Chico, CA
Jeanne E. Clark is Associate Professor of English at California State University, Chico. Her book of poems Ohio Blue Tips won the Akron Poetry Prize and was published by the University of Akron Press. Her poems have been published recently or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and A Cadence of Hooves: A Celebration of Horses. She lives and writes in an almond orchard with a pack of Border Collies as muses.
David Crouse • Fairbanks, AK
David Crouse is an award-winning fiction writer and teacher. His short story collection Copy Cats was awarded the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and was subsequently nominated for the Pen-Faulkner. The Man Back There, David’s second book, was awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction in 2007. The collection is a nuanced portrayal of nine men living on the margins of society. His comic book writing has been anthologized in The Darkhorse Book of the Dead..
Bill Kloefkorn • Lincoln, NE
Bill Kloefkorn was honored recently for his 25 years of service as Nebraska’s State Poet.
His new memoir Breathing in the Fullness of Time is the fourth in a series, one each for earth, air, water, and fire. His book Restoring the Burnt Child has been chosen as the One Book-One Nebraska selection by the Nebraska Center for the Book. Bill is professor emeritus at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He and his wife Eloise live in Lincoln, NE.
Debbie Miller • Fairbanks, AK
Debbie Miller’s Midnight Wilderness, her first book for adults, reflects fourteen years of explorations in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Debbie has written many award-winning books for children, illustrated by wildlife artists Jon and Daniel Van Zyle. Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights received the Burroughs Nature Book for Young Readers Award. Debbie traveled across the frozen Arctic Ocean to research A Polar Bear Journey. Her books have been recognized as Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association.
