9th Annual Pleasanton
Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival Overview

This is an exciting two-day celebration of poetry, prose and visual arts, filled with inspiring and informative events and people.

The event will take place on Saturday & Sunday, April 17 & 18, 2010 at the contemporary and expansive campus of the Pleasanton Senior Center, near historic downtown Pleasanton on the outskirts of the Livermore Valley wine country. (Directions to the Festival site are on page 2 of the Festival Brochure PDF.) Registration and Poetry & Prose Contest submissions are now being accepted for this two-day event hosted by PCAC and the City of Pleasanton.

Contest entry deadline: Postmarked by March 15, 2010
Early registration deadline for Festival (discount): Postmarked by March 15, 2010
Last date to register for Festival: Postmarked by April 9, 2009

Speakers, Workshops & Events

Bob Jenkins

Keynote Speaker:
Bob Jenkins, An Artist in the World

Since taking the stage as a teenager, Bob Jenkins has enjoyed metamorphic careers in a wide-ranging array of fine arts. He has been a short story author, scene painter, actor, director, playwright, vocalist, guitarist, percussionist,dancer, sound and lighting designer, essayist, blogger, and storyteller. During his professional life he has also applied the principles of artistry to his other interests as teacher, college dean, university department chairman, real estate investor, carpenter, gardener, runner, husband, father, and friend. For many years he has considered the questions: "How do you know when you are successful as an artist? Is your success measured by the money you make? The length of the applause at curtain call? What newspaper critics say about your work? The approval of other artists? Your own sense of Self?" The answers may surprise you.

Visit Bob Jenkins's blog at http://drbobj.blogspot.com.

For all the information about the Festival workshops, events, schedule, speakers, contests and registration, download the Festival Brochure PDF.)

Workshops

This year the workshop leaders will include Susan Browne, Rebecca Foust, Gerald Haslam, Bob Jenkins, Lynne Knight, Alison Luterman, Michael McNevin, Tim Meyers, Ann Parker, Sam Pierstorff, Lee Rossi and Susan Wooldridge. Click here to read more about them. 

Susan Wooldridge — Teen/Adult Prose
Chapter as a Rented Room: Shaping Your Narrative Nonfiction

"My business is circumference," wrote Emily Dickinson, who may as well have been writing about prose. After creating a form or "container" for our words, (perhaps a room at the Knight's Inn), we'll do a "depth sounding" to discover our truest territory and begin tapping our soul's knowing to create a wild (or gentle) beginning for our narrative nonfiction. Be prepared to laugh and cry!

Gerald Haslam — Adult/Teen Prose Fiction
Short Story & Novel: Use Setting to Create Character

The Sioux and novelist Frederick Manfred once proclaimed, "It's place that writes your books." Setting, whether grand, like Siouxland, or minimalist, like an apartment, helps determine how readers interpret your fiction. The power of observation and the ability to perceive how settings impact readers are vital tools for fiction writers. These help create a sense of place as it actually is (Sunnyvale, for instance), not how it is supposed to be (the California stereotype, for instance). Everything concrete happens to real people in real places.

Michael McNevin — Adult /Teen Songwriting Lyrics
Mining Your Past

Memories and daily life are ripe with the nuggets of a good song. Hear some of Michael's songs, and explore the songwriting process. Like fiction and poetry, lyrics incorporate dialogue, point of view, character development, place, suspense, metaphor, detail clustering. Learn how chorus, verse and hooks impact the listener. Q & A encouraged. No musical experience necessary.

Lynne Knight — Adult Poetry
The Sounds Poems Make

What's the emotional content of zzzzz? Why does the heart slow at the sound of oooooo (as in you)? What message is being sent when the rhythm is too staccato? Why does the "k" sound carry menace? We will study the ways poets use sound to make their work sing, shout, dance, stumble, rage, yearn and celebrate. Participants will write two poems on opposing emotions (e.g., love and rage) to explore the claim that sound is inseparably part of the meaning of a poem.

Alison Luterman — Youth Poetry (Ages 5-12)
A Letter to the Moon

We've all written notes and letters and emails to people, but in this workshop we're going to write letters to big (and little) things that cannot write us back. Emily Dickinson said about her poetry, "This is my letter to the world/that never wrote to me." We're going to write letters to the ocean, or the moon, or the sun; spring, summer, autumn, or winter; a letter to the roller coaster at the amusement park — the biggest tallest one that scares you — or a letter to the small ladybug that landed on your shoulder when you were walking to school. We'll play some poetry games and have fun writing and reading our work aloud.

Susan Wooldridge — Teen/Adult Poetry
Controlled Abandon

Together we'll gather (and steal) words from books of poems, create a group "wordpool," and begin to write about who we are, where we come from and where we're going. In a safe, free setting, surrounded with words, poems will emerge that surprise and delight us. (Sharing work is optional).

Gerald Haslam — Adult/Teen Fiction
Short Story & Novel: Dialogue & Dialect

Creating characters whose speeches give readers the impression of actual language can help achieve "the willing suspension of disbelief." Writers should understand that everyone — thus every character — speaks some variant of a dialect, so by emulating actual language habits, character recognition may be strengthened. Listen especially for phonological, morphological and syntactic variations, then determine how to indicate them with a silent medium — script. Beware of too much "visual dialect," but remember that even the choice of names can offer readers clues to a writer's intent.

Bob Jenkins — Adult Storytelling
Out of Body

Creating and testing the raw "stuff" of story. Does the story really work? You just don't know until you bring it into play. Still in your head? Nothing but vapor. Get active! Get on your feet! Move the story into the real world! Vocal, physical, spatial, connected and spontaneous workshop events lead to dynamic and unpredictable stories.

Rebecca Foust — Adult Poetry Mini-Course
On the Chapbook

A well-made poetry chapbook is in and of itself a poem. What, besides page count, distinguishes a chapbook from a full length book and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this form? We will examine different varieties of chapbooks and talk about how to make your own: getting poems ready and organized, book conception, poem sequencing, publication (including contests) and post-publication issues. Come with book proposals, outlines, poem sequences or individual poems.

Ann Parker — Adult Prose Mini-Course
Putting the Pieces Together: The Six Elements of Fiction

In this interactive workshop, we will examine the six basic elements of any fictional endeavor — action, dialogue, physical description of setting, physical description of character, internal thinking and internal physical sensations — and how to weave them together. There will be plenty of hands-on exercises and opportunities to create scenes and share them with other participants.

Ann Parker — Adult Prose Mini-Course
The First Page: How to Write a Killer Opening

Now that we have the tools for writing any scene, we'll focus on the most critical scene of a novel: the opening. These first pages set the tone and expectations for the reader. In addition, most agents and publishers won't read past the first chapter if it doesn't capture their interest. Using the six elements of fiction and more, we'll work at drafting and rewriting openings that deliver.

Sam Pierstorff — Adult/Teen Prose
Learn Prose from a Poet: Making Scenes Come Alive

Whether you're writing young adult, romance, memoirs or literary fiction, agents and editors drool over the same thing: great language. In this workshop, we will tackle writing scenes through the five senses and learn to write more vividly and more imagistically without adding to our word count or wasting time on useless adjectives. We will role play, write, and workshop, so come learn to write prose with a poet's eye!

Tim Myers — Adult /Teen Poetry
Seeing into Poetry: Finding the Strengths in Your Work and Building on Them

A sculptor begins by removing irrelevant material; a poet must do the same. The trick is finding what's already strong in your drafts and developing it. We'll follow a step-by-step process to do this, with help from teacher and peers. Emphasis on learning to be self-improving rather than self-critical, and on sharing with an appreciative audience.

Sam Pierstorff — Teen/Young Adult Poetry, Performance & Slam
Forms Shworms: Try This Instead!

Forget the sonnet, the sestina, the villanelle. This workshop will introduce two "new" poetic "forms" that will make your next submission stand out from the slush pile, and you don't even have to rhyme or repeat! We will look at contemporary examples, write (or begin to write) our own unique poems, and then workshop as a group to create highly publishable poems that you can submit or slam at your next open mic.

Tim Myers — Adult/Teen Trans-Realist Fiction
Writing SF, Fantasy, Folktales, Magic Realism

Participants will work "from the ground up" to create vivid writing, with help along the way from teacher and peers. Emphasis will be on fun, sharing, awakening individual inspiration, incisive feedback and helping each other create memorable work.

Lee Rossi — Adult/Teen Prose
Digging in the Dirt: A Prose and Memoir Workshop

Everybody knows about the Gosselins and Lindsay Lohan. As The Truman Show demonstrated, we can't get enough of "reel life," as long as it's filled with the excitement and complication of art. Yet every family has its own buried treasure: secrets, crimes, embarrassments and passions which the family wants to hide but that others want to hear. Uncover your own treasure and turn it into reading gold.

Susan Browne — Adult Poetry
The Shimmer of Surprise

For inspiration, we will look at model poems and discuss elements of craft, focusing on the use of metaphor, or as it is often called, "the shimmer." Aristotle in his book, Poetics, said, "The greatest thing by far is to have command of metaphor." Then we will write our own poems, experimenting with two different exercises. We will share our writing and discuss the process of revision, assisting each other in bringing in the surprise of shimmer.

For more information about the workshop leaders, schedules and fees, download the Festival Brochure PDF.)

Poetry and Prose Contests

There will be more than $1,200 given in awards. Following are the nine categories of contests:

• Adult Poetry/Short, Ages 20 and above
• Adult Poetry/Long, Ages 20 and above
• Adult Non-Fiction Prose, Ages 20 and above
• Adult Fiction Prose, Ages 20 and above
• Teen Poetry, Ages 13-19
• Teen Prose, Ages 13-19
• Youth Poetry, Ages 11-12
• Youth Poetry, Ages 8-10
• Youth Poetry, Ages 5-7

NOTE: You must be registered to enter the contests. Click here to download a PDF of the Registration Form.

For contest rules and fees, download the Festival Brochure PDF.)

Also . . .

PAL Fine Arts Exhibit: This will be presented by the Pleasanton Art League (PAL) and other regional artists.

Reception and Book Signing

Literary Row: Meet, talk and mingle with more than two dozen talented local and national authors.

Saturday Luncheon: Music will be provided by Jim Steinke on classical guitar, mandolin and mandocello.

Saturday Evening Banquet & Awards Ceremony: This will include the presentation of poetry and prose awards with reading of prize-winning poems. There will be door prizes, and music will be provided by Dominique Piana, classical harpist.

Click here to download a PDF of the Registration Form.
Click here to download a PDF of the Festival Brochure.

NOTE: PDFs require Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download for free here.

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