Creative Writing Institute Is June 5-9; Philip F. Deaver is Keynote Speaker
MELBOURNE, FLA.—Beginning and advanced writers, take note: the Florida Institute of Technology Department of Humanities and Communication presents its Fifth Annual Creative Writing Institute, which will run June 5-9 on campus with all-new writer-presenters and the return of award-winning author Philip F. Deaver.
Deaver, this year’s keynote speaker, is the 13th winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, an annual prize presented by the University of Georgia Press. His free keynote address on June 5 at 6:15 p.m. kicks off the institute in the Denius Student Center’s Hartley Room on campus. A reception, registration, orientation and book fair precede his talk at 5:30 p.m.
A professor of English and writer in residence at Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla., Deaver is also the author of the short story collection Silent Retreats. His poems have four times been featured on the website The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor and have appeared in magazines such as The Reaper, Poetry Miscellany and the Florida Review. Deaver’s poems are collected in a volume titled How Men Pray.
Deaver, who has held fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, teaches fiction and poetry in the Spalding University brief-residency Master of Fine Arts program in Louisville, Ky. He has also edited a volume of baseball essays titled Scoring from Second: Writers on Baseball. His work, which has been recognized in Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize, can be found primarily in literary magazines and has appeared in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. His recent work was featured in the Southern Review and the Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre and New Madrid.
Featured writers and lecturers throughout the week will focus on several writing genres including: young adult fiction, creative nonfiction, beginning short story, writing for the movies, memoirs, graphic novels and poetry. Presenting authors include Gennifer Albin. Crewel, her debut novel, was hailed by the New York Times as full of “dark and twisted places readers will want to visit.” Also featured is nonfiction and travel writer Dustin Michael, professor of English at Savannah State University (SSU) in Georgia. His essays, poems, fiction and graphic memoirs have appeared in PANK, Sweet, Revolution House and Blink Magazine.
Other noted speakers include Michael Rizza, an award-winner for his novel Cartilage and Skin; Bill Boggs, author of four books and a professor of English at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania; Kim Miller, screenwriting and character creation specialist; Neesha Navare Michael, published essayist and SSU faculty member; Terry Cronin, local filmmaker and writer, and creator of the critically-acclaimed independent comic series Students of the Unusual; and Greg Byrd, whose poems have been published in Tampa Bay Review, Apalachee Review, Cortland Review, Florida Straits and At Penuel.
Other institute highlights include a variety of bonus events, which feature lunchtime and coffee hour lectures by several noted speakers, a publishing and a media panel, open mic night and an independent film showing.
The cost for a one-time lecture is $40, $120 for Writers in Residence three-day classes, $160 for Writers in Residence four-day classes, and $230 for Featured Writers four-day classes. Those who register for a second class receive a $50 discount on the final registration price and $20 off a third and subsequent class. All teachers receive an additional 50 percent off the final price. Florida Tech staff and faculty receive a 50 percent discount and must register via phone by calling (321) 674-7248. Bonus events are free.
Early registration is encouraged due to limited space. For details on classes, lectures and bonus events, or to register, visit http://411.fit.edu/cwi. For registration assistance, call (321) 674-8082, or (321) 674-7248; or email humevent@fit.edu. For more information, contact Marcia Denius at mdenius@fit.edu, or John Lavelle at jlavelle@fit.edu.
About The Creative Writing Institute
The Institute hosts a staff of published authors and professors who will provide a place for writers where they can feel at home and where they can find and express their own voices. The institute includes a variety of classes and one-time lectures for almost any interest and ability: fiction, novel-writing, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, science fiction, graphic novel, historical fiction, writing for the movies, memoirs, and writing for comic books. More information is available at http://411.fit.edu/cwi.
