Pearl Diving Column
August 2019
by Ingrid Bruck
A Summer Writing Conference: OR How to Keep Magic in Your Writing
I attended a week-long writing summer conference hosted by International Women’s Writing Guild, for women writers of all ages. IWWG Summer Conference was held in Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. This year we met from July 12-19, 2019.
I highly recommend attending a week long writing conference like this one. It’s terrific for learning the writer’s craft, networking and developing a writing community.
People travel from all over the world to attend IWWG. This conference may (or not) be for you. A different writer conference might suit you better: 1- if you’re a male writer, 2- if you prefer a different class format, 3- if you don’t share IWWG’s values, or 4- if you’re not from the Northeast USA and want a writing conference closer to home.
For those interested in hearing what made IWWG conference so special, continue reading.
The IWWG has been holding summer conferences for 42 years. I've been going for fifteen and keep coming back for the writing magic. This is my tribe, my primary face-to-face writer support community. I found my first writing teachers there. Guild summer conferences never disappoint. I always bring home new writing skills, always leave inspired.
The summer conference may be the biggest annual event but the holds regional conferences in the US year round. Membership includes an active global village for online writer connection and support anywhere in the world. The organization offers in-depth writer webinars for distance learning. I’ve taken three-- post modern narrative, pitching your memoir; beyond the writing margins-- and plan to take more.
One unique aspect of IWWG classes is that teachers come as teachers AND learners. Teachers attend each other's classes with students; teachers write and read what they write along with students. Students come at all levels of writing skill mastery. No writing portfolio required— the only criteria is a love for writing and a desire to learn. The guild’s philosophy is that if you write, call yourself a writer.
At IWWG, I like the rub of novice and professional, of nuts and bolts on woo-woo, the dynamics of cross pollination when you mix writers of all different levels, abilities and backgrounds. The writing guild gives every writer positive feedback. It’s all about positive reinforcement, the truism that the more you write, the better you get. Students write in class. Some students read what they write. When you read, others listen for a writer’s best words and repeat back only her words. No comment. No critique. Guild teacher, Dorothy Randall Gray, calls this giving ’word seeds' to the writer. Feedback and support comes to the writer in her own words. This kind of positivity gives a writer a draft to build on, edit and polish. It works for me. Each summer, I bring home ‘poem seeds’ to harvest.
From Saturday through Thursday, five daily class sessions start at 8:30am and end at 5:30pm. Opening and closing ceremonies convene and end the conference. Evenings include open mike readings; social time follows until 11pm. Most participants stay in dorm rooms on campus and eat in the college cafeteria. A Quiet Room is available for those who opt to write instead of taking a class session. Evenings include open mike readings of what we wrote in classes. Writers with books sell them at two book fairs. Optional Salons are offered on Monday evening. On Wednesday evening before open mike, new play scripts are staged and performed by Play Lab students. Day ends at Red Door Lounge with the opportunity to visit and network over wine and cheese.
I could have skipped from teacher to teacher as I often do but this year I didn’t. I kept one class session open, selected four teachers and went to the same ones each day. I took six-days of class with Susan Tiberghian (memoir), June Gould (poetry), Myra Shapiro (poetry) and Eunice Scarfe (post-modern best practices).
That’s my IWWG writing conference report in a nutshell. I’m holding open the week after 4th of July in 2020, just in case anyone decides to join me next summer.
Some links to Finding Writing Conferences:
IWWG: IWWG Conference 2019 - The International Women's Writing Guild
New Pages: https://www.newpages.com/writers-resources/writing-conferences-events
Poets&Writers Magazine: Conferences and Residencies Database
https://www.betweentheseshoresbooks.com/archives
Date Published: August 1, 2019