Creative Writing Workshop - Summer Literary Seminars

by Louis on September 16th, 2008

Join Robert Coover, Francine Prose, Mary Di Michele, Montreal’s Vittorio Rossi for Creative Writing at our Summer Literary Seminars ITALY for two weeks starting 15 May 2009 in VASTO, on the Adriatic Coast of Abruzzo, 3 hrs from Rome & Naples, 45 minutes from Pescara Airport.

INFO:
www.sumlitsem.org

MORE DETAILS:

Behind SLS lies an exciting concept in literary seminars. Whereas in conventional writing retreats, writers isolate themselves from the world to find inspiration, SLS is built on the premise that one’s writing can and does often benefit considerably from the keen sense of displacement created by an immersion in a thoroughly foreign culture and street vernacular; that one’s removing oneself from the routine context of one’s life tends to provide for a strong creative jolt, and offer a wholly new perspective on one’s writing.

The seminars engage the participants in workshops in fiction, poetry, non-fiction, playwriting, translation, travel writing, lectures and readings with leading writers from around the world, as well as include exploratory excursions of the surrounding areas.

Workshops are being held:

Nairobi and Lamu Island, Kenya, Dec. 13-28, 2008
Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy, May 15-30, 2009
St. Petersburg, Russia , June 2009 - dates TBA
Lithuania, July 2009 – dates TBA

SLS Italy is the newest addition to the roster of programs, representing the broadening of the scope of SLS offerings, further implementing the idea of establishing a series of SLS programs in different parts of the world. These programs will all be premised on the belief of the commonality of writerly experience, thereby creating a larger and single literary space - to discover Italy, not as a tourist in a packaged tour, nor as a foreigner in a sea of other foreigners, but as a writer in a community of other writers immersed in literature, good food, wine, sun and sea in an idyllic corner of the Adriatic, Vasto, Abruzzo, a three-hour drive from Rome and Naples, or forty-five minutes south of Pescara Airport.

A similar program in Lithuania is in the works for July, 2009. Other programs are being considered beyond 2009.

SLS is affiliated with Montreal’s Concordia University, the venerable Herzen University in St. Petersburg, and, in Kenya, with the remarkable dynamic and innovative Kwani? Literary Trust & Journal.

Registrations are now being taken for Kenya and Italy: visit www.sumlitsem.org where three very different and distinctive worlds await you to discover and make your own.