Professional Writing Series
The Professional Writing Series is an annual event, which brings writers and editors from multiple backgrounds to campus to share their insight, experience, and artistic vision with the larger WSU Vancouver community. Over the last three years, the Professional Writing Series has included panel discussions and presentations on screenwriting, poetry, advertising and public relations, fiction, newspaper journalism, and writing for the electronic media. Speakers have included poet Nikki Giovanni; novelists Ursula Le Guin, Graham Salisbury, Molly Gloss, Virginia Euwer Woolf, and Susan Fletcher; screenwriters Mike Rich and Cynthia Whitcomb; and journalists from The Oregonian, The Columbian, and Willamette Week.
Topics and Speakers for Spring 2007
*All presentations begin a 7:00 PM. A book sale and signing will follow each event. For more information, contact Pamela Smith Hill at 360-546-9677 or hillpam@vancouver.wsu.edu.
February 1, 2007 (Vancouver Multimedia Center Auditorium, Room 6)
Susan Fletcher — “Journey to Old Iran: Writing Alphabet of Dreams,” a discussion of her recent travels through northwestern Iran to research ancient settings for her latest book, The Alphabet of Dreams, a critically acclaimed young adult novel.
An award-winning author of young adult fantasies and historical novels, Fletcher is the author of eight novels for young readers, including Shadow Spinner, The Dragon Chronicles Series, and Walk Across the Sea. She received the Willamette Writers’ Distinguished Writer Award in 2003. Her books have been awarded numerous honors from the American Library Association, the Western Writers of America, and Oregon Literary Arts, among many others.
February 27, 2007 (Engineering and Life Sciences Building, Room 19)
Jane Yolen — “Ten Things I No Longer Enjoy About Publishing But Am Willing to Endure.”
Yolen is the author of such award-winning titles as Owl Moon, Devil’s Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. She is a novelist, poet, teacher, and reviewer of children’s literature. Her books have won the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Jewish Book Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award
March 22, 2007 (Vancouver Multimedia Center Auditorium, Room 6)
Paul Casey (Technical Writer), Marie Naughton (Technical Writer), and Allan Brettman (Journalist) — “Beyond the Classroom: Faculty Perspectives on Professional Writing Careers.”
April 5, 2007 (Vancouver Multimedia Center Auditorium, Room 6)
Lee Montgomery — a discussion of her new memoir, The Things Between Us, a heartfelt, honest exploration of her father’s death from stomach cancer.
Montgomery is an author and managing editor of Tin House magazine.