Forum scheduled to help enhance creative writing

After ringing in the New Year, literary enthusiasts will gather at the university to share their poems, prose and artwork. The annual Writer's Festival will kick off Jan. 3.

The three-day event includes workshops and readings. The keynote speakers are writers Myra McLarey, Michael Lyhthgoe and Scott Cairns.

Dr. D. Audell Shelburne, director of the festival and editor of UMHB’s Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature, said contact with well written material helps improve a writer’s skills.

“The way to tell the difference between what's good and what's great is by reading and hearing it. So being exposed to it and being exposed to the people who are going through the process of creating it gives you a touch tone to come back and shoot for something bigger, shoot for something better.”

He said part of what they are trying to cultivate in the festival is a venue where writers can lerarn at any level.

“We just want a forum where there is a receptive audience, a friendly audience to read to, a group of people who are informed and know something about what we are trying to accomplish through poetry, fiction, nonfiction and then to provide good feedback so we can continue to improve. I think we have succeeded in that.”

Readings will also be provided by UMHB professors Cleatus Rattan and Brady Peterson.

Shelburne said, “If you are able to hear the range of voices … you get an idea for what is possible. That is the starting pointing, knowing what really can be done and knowing how great it can be. That gives you a springboard to do your own.”

Helen Kwiatkowski, associate professor of art at UMHB and Kathleen Hart, instructor of English at Kilgore College, will provide workshops that marry art with words.

In Kwiakowski’s class the group will make hardcover journals. All materials will be supplied, but seating is limited.

She has participated in several past festivals.

“I became involved with the Writers Festival when Donna Walker-Nixon was still here.She was in the art department and saw the little books I was making for my design class and really liked (them). She said that it would make a wonderful component to the Writer's Festival to do these books,” she said.

The event has been a positive experience for her.

“I've come to look forward to participating in the festival. It's been a great experience for me. I have made some very good friends and colleagues from other places.” Attending the poetry and prose classes has been beneficial to Kwiatkowski’s creativity as well. “I usually try to go to one workshop and all the readings. It is good for me to be out of my element,” she said. “I have always loved that marriage of word and image. It is so natural in a way because when people are looking at art, they find words. When you are reading words, you find images. I like that connection even in my own work. I almost always have words along with my images, and I have started to actually have them in my finished works, paintings.”

This is Hart's first year at the festival. She met Shelburne at another forum at Baylor University.

In her workshop, attendees will create multimedia art projects known as assemblages using art and words. Participants should bring a notebook to use as a journal.

“The collage poetry technique just came to me …,” she said. “In other words, I did not make a conscious effort to use this technique. The process is very similar to the collage technique which visual artist Joseph Cornell made use of in his famous box constructions. I consider him to be my mentor.”

Hart likes the basic idea of the Writer’s Festival.

“It is difficult to find other writers and publications who approach poetry from the perspective of faith," she said. "I'm grateful to Dr. Shelburne and UMHB for allowing me and other writers to explore faith via writing.”

The registration fee for full participation in the festival is $100, which includes keynote addresses. A one-day registration is $40, and individual event tickets are $10. The workshops and readings are free to UMHB students, faculty and staff. Seating is limited in the master classes, and advance tickets are on sale.

More Information is located at http://library. umhb.edu/shelburne/writers festival.html.