Photos from our 2005 Summer Workshop - thanks to all participants!

Writing Family and Community Stories

A One-Day Writing Workshop
June 4, 2005, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Location:
University Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University at the corner of Normal and Henderson in Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Fee: HWG Members $60, Nonmembers $65
Manuscript critique fee: $20 per submission, only one submission per person
Seating is limited

Brochure and Registration Form (Adobe pdf)

Schedule of Events

• 8:00 -9:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast
• 9:00-9:15 Welcome-Tim Morgan, HWG President
• 9:15-10:15 Thomas Eaton: Chieftans, Charlatans, and Champions-
  Home town America and the stories that lie beneath.
• 10:15-10:30 Break
• 10:30-11:45 Chieftans, Charlatans, and Champions, cont.
• 11:45-1:00 Lunch
• 1:00-3:30 Critique sessions with Thomas Eaton
• 1:00-2:00 Pat Fisher: Reaching for Your Roots-genealogy research
• 1:00-2:00 Linda Allen: Putting Your Stories on Stage
• 2:00-2:15 Break
• 2:15-3:15 Carol Fisher: Dishing Up Family History-family cookbooks
• 2:15-3:15 Stewart, Fisher, & Hubbard: Writing & Publishing Q & A
• 3:15-3:30 Break
• 3:30-4:00 Wrap Up

Workshop Presenters

Thomas Eaton, keynote speaker, serves as a full time faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University, teaching literature and creative writing. He is one of only seven national winners of the 2001 William Faulkner Short Story Competition and a four-time literary award winner from Southeast's Journey magazine. He is currently working on a novel and has been published by several magazines. Eaton will explore the realm of writing about the family and communities we live in and will show us how to tell the stories of the communities where we grew up. In his words, "Let's celebrate the pain and beauty of small town America and discover the deepest moments that made us who we are today."

Linda Allen, a member of HWG and president of Southern Illinois Writers Guild, has written numerous plays celebrating family, church and community history. Two of her plays have been published by Contemporary Drama. She will share with us techniques for presenting these stories as drama appealing to both older and younger generations.

Pat Fisher is an avid family history researcher and member of Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, and Colonial Dames. She will provide tips on how to locate family "characters" and their stories around which both fiction and nonfiction can be written.

Carol Fisher, past president of HWG, is currently working on a book with McFarland & Company, Inc. Her book with them tracks the history of the American cookbook. Fisher will share various ways to document family history and foodways through family written cookbook projects.

Jeanie Stewart, John Fisher, and Charlotte Hubbard, each multi-published HWG members, will lead a Q & A panel. They will field questions concerning writing, marketing, and publishing your story ideas.