Newsletter 2007 Jan

UPPER PENINSULA WRITING PROJECT

January 2007

Saturday Sessions • January 20 • February 10 • March—none • April 14 • May 19 (meet the new fellows!)

Contact Us: We’d love to hear from you! www.upwp.org or pdiedrich@mapsn et.org

Writing Fun! Jonathon Rand— author of Michigan Chillers & American Chillers will be at Falling Rock Café in Munising Saturday, Jan. 10, 2007. Book signing and/or Writing workshop with him. at (906) 387 3008 or email fallingrockcafe @charterinternet.net

UPWP News—Post & Share On the web at

www.upwp.org

Volume 2, Number

Saturday Session Changed to January 20! Still discussing the book Entertaining an Elephant Usually the Saturday Sessions are held the second Saturday of the month but in January the dat is changed because of a conflict with another UPWP event. (See below) The Saturday Sessions are open to any TC whether you come on a regular basis or have never joined us. Even if you can’t make this one, mark your calendar and set aside some time for this great opportunity to write, vent, share, and get support. Dates for upcoming sessions are listed on the left.

Reminder 2007 Summer Institute Schedule—No Retreat & Three 5-day weeks. After much discussion, debate, and deliberating the Summer Institute schedule will be slightly different this year. The institute will meet Saturday May 19th; June 18 – 22; June 25 – 29; no classes the week of July 2 – 6; and meet July 9 – 13. We are moving to have three weeks of five days/per week and no retreat with one week to complete personal/professional writing before th final week. Please note this when recruiting new fellows. You will be getting copies of the fly in January, early February, as usual. For those of you “Retreat Regulars,” we’d like to know if you’re interested in having a day in August to get together.

Summer Brochure Out Soon The 2007 Summer Institute information will be sent out soon. Other programs such as the Advance Institute(s) and Mini-Grant opportunities will be included. Be watching your “snai mail” in early February and checking the website www.upwp.org Congratulations to… In the adult category, Heather Hollands was the winner for the "One Book One Community: The New American Dream" essay contest. Two Gwinn students, Meredith Buck (one of Amy Laitinen’s students) took first place in the 7-12 category while Jason Mottes (a sophomore in Heather's class) took 3rd place. There will be a public reading of the winning essays on January 18. The winning essays are published in the January edition of the Marquette Monthly (which you can find on-line at: http://www.mmnow.com/z_current_a/b/c/lookout.html#newame

“After completing your Advanced Writing Project (Publishing with Pizazz), Nancy Schneider and I presented our Multi-genre research project at NMU's conference in October. We recently applied to present our project at the MRA's conference in March, and we have been accepted!” Wendy Beacco

What’s Going On—Check for updated information at www.upwp.org Professional books for free? We are still looking for TCs to write professional book reviews for Michigan Reading Association’s The Michigan Reading Journal. Suzanne, along with Joe Lub and Sue Szczepanski from NMU, are the editors. If you see a newly published book you’re interested in reading, contact Suzanne! Your only requirement is to write a short 400-500 word review. Website Hi-lite:

www.writingfix.c om WritingFix is sponsored by the Northern Nevada Writing Project—A great source for teachers of writing, students of writing or anyone wishing to become a better writer! Check it out today!

Book TitlesSuggested by Connie Heinlein

(all recently available in paperback): Gilead by Marilyn Robinson Last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, this is the story of an aged preacher as he writes a letter to his young son. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham Three stories in one unified by place (New York City) and Walt Whitman, it is historical fiction, present-day criminal suspense, and futuristic love story.

January 12-13, 2007 a group of UPWP TCs are attending a retreat in Marquette to begin writing pieces for a book on using children’s literature and authors as mentors for writing instruction. The project began in June 2006 with an Advanced Institute at the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Research Collection of Children’s Literature. Each TC chose an author to research and has been reflecting on how that research is changing her writing instruction. The project will continue throughout 2007 with the goal of a book manuscript drafted for submission in 2008.

From Mark Smith— I was saddened to learn of the recent death of Donald Murray, 82, a former professor of English at University of New Hampshire. Throughout his long career as a teacher of writing, he published many articles and books about writing and teaching writing that I found consistently sound, practical, engaging and personable. I still recommend A Writer Teaches Writing to teachers who want a solid, thorough and usable introduction to how to teach writing. Also, I’ve saved copies of many of his articles about teaching writing, especially revision, which I’m happ to share with others. He was one of about 5 really important writers-researchers-teachers who initiated the writing is a process movement. Also, he spent more than 20 years of his life as writer for The Boston Globe, so he didn’t just write about writing—he WAS a writer. For more about Murray go to: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/31/columnist_donald_murray_dies_at_82/ And, if you have news, books, ideas, etc. to share, email it to Paula Diedrich at [email protected]. We’ll be try our best to get it in the next newsletter!