Sunday, September 26, 2010

Chattahoochee Valley Writers’ Conference

Yesterday I had a great time at the Chatt Writers Conference in Columbus, GA. Originally a friend of mine was going to come for the weekend and be one of the presenters. That didn't pan out. Then one of the poets who was scheduled to be a featured reader and presenter had to turn around and go home due to his family being in an auto accident. This changed the whole plan for me. Overnight I went from being a basic attendee to being a featured poetry reader and workshop presenter, having been asked to fill in. The reading went extremely well, felt very high energy. The workshop was well received; a few folks even stood up and applauded--like my head needed to be any more swollen. My workshop title was this: "How to Get Started, How to Keep Going: Poetry Prompts, Exercises, and Springboards For Those Times When Your Muse Takes a Vacation." On top of all this, my friend Ron put me up to doing spontaneous poems for folks between the sessions. I agreed to do them for donations to Chatt Writers. Ron provided me with an antique Royal typewriter upon which I composed poems on demand. I did around a dozen of these spontaneous poems and collected about $65 for Chatt Writers. Not a bad take for poetry!

1 comment:

Wynne Huddleston said...

It was an awesome workshop--helpful and fun! I heard nothing but praise, plus we walked away with new poems and ideas. Thanks!