Portland, Oregon, Hosts Writer's Workshop Featuring Annie Proulx

Starting today and running through this Friday, there will be a series of seminars and readings from renowned authors right here in Portland, Oregon. Presented by Portland's own Tin House Magazine, the event features the likes of Annie Proulx -- author of the Shipping news and the short story Brokeback Mountain -- as well as several other merited authors to impart advice to young readers and writers.

On Monday, the event, which is held on Reed College in SE Portland, features The Artful Edit panel with Judy Clain, Sarah Burns, And Abigail Thomas. Moderator Susan Bell wrote the book now enjoyed by readers across the nation. (Get a copy here.)

Next, at 4 p.m, moderator Lee Montgomery, Tin House's magazine and editorial director for their books division, hosts From Not To Hot. This seminar covers the arduous process of getting a book from a manuscript to publication (one question they adress: Do published authors go to "great and creepy lengths" to get their work out there?). Find out how to get your stuff up to snuff in this engaging seminar discussion.

On Tuesday, Tin House features Editing Ourselves. Because as we all know, pilishing up a piece is often the most difficult task in the writing process. This seminar is follwed by Show vs. Tell with Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures. Random House calls Aimee "playful, inventive, and full of surprises," and what a better candidate to show creatives how to get out of their anayltical shell and into the light of showing versus telling?

The following day at Reed College, reflect on Who Gets To Write About What with Michelle Wildgen, then ruminate on your findings as the Mastery of the Unpoken Word when Jim Shepard talks about how to write about the ephemeral experiences of love, death, and thought.

Thursday and Friday it's all about poetry. A Conversation with poet D.A. Powell commences at 3pm on Thursday, which leads into a reading you don't want to miss: Annie Proulx at 8pm.

Portland's own wonder Charles D'Ambrosio will be the featured guest at 2pm on Saturday, hosting Getting to the heart of the Matter (and making itWorse). Although D'Ambrosio was raised in Seattle, he now calls Portland his home. His first book of short stories was selected as New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his last work, Dead Fish Museum, was featured in The New Yorker magazine. Not too shabby from a fella who haild from the soggy shores of the Pacific NorthWest!

All seminars are open to the public and subject to a $15 fee at the door of Reed College's Vollum Lecture Hall.