2012 Florida Tech Creative Writing Institute Highlight Is Keynote by Award Winner Lynne Barrett
MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Florida Institute of Technology Department of Humanities and Communication presents its Fourth Annual Creative Writing Institute, which will run May 13-17 on campus. This year’s keynote speaker is fiction writer Lynne Barrett who recently took the Gold Prize in the 2011 Florida Book Awards. She won first place in the General Fiction category for her book, Magpies.
Barrett’s free presentation, “The Thread of a Story,” kicks off the institute on May 13 at 2:15 p.m. in the Gleason Performing Arts Center on campus. A reception, registration, orientation and book fair, start at noon that day.
Barrett, award-winning author of three short story collections, is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Florida International University and editor of The Florida Book Review. Her short story collections are The Land of Go, The Secret Names of Women and the recently published Magpies. Her honors include the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery story from the Mystery Writers of America; the Moondance International Film Festival Award for best short story; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. Barrett is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and received her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
In addition to the free keynote address, other events throughout the week are free and open to the public. These include featured writers speaking each day at lunch and dinner about their works; a publishing panel presented by the featured writers on May 14 at 4 p.m.; the performance of a work by playwright-instructor Troy Jones on May 15 at 5 p.m.; a media panel discussion on May 16 at 4 p.m., followed by an independent film screening by Terry Cronin at 8:45 p.m.; and finally, an “Open Mic” poetry session on May 17 at 8:45 p.m. These events will be held in the Hartley Room of the Denius Student Center.
Classes and lectures throughout the week will cover literary journalism, Internet publishing, the short story, the novel, science fiction, beginning fiction, flash fiction, memoir writing and other genres, such as poetry, playwriting, songwriting, thriller and mystery writing, comics and film.
Of special note, author of the ethical vampire series and last year’s keynote speaker, Susan Hubbard, will teach a novel-writing class and 2010 institute keynote speaker John Dufresne will teach a course in flash-fiction—never before offered at the institute.
For more information, contact Margaret Moore at moorem@fit.edu or call (321) 674-7248. For details on classes, lectures and many bonus events, or to register, visit http://411.fit.edu/cwi.
