Writers’ Workshop offers spring seminar, summer scholarships

As both your trusty Literary Life columnist and as the director of the Antioch Writers’ Workshop at University of Dayton, I’m excited to share two bits of news about the latter. The news also features many local individuals and institutions.

One is about the workshop’s spring one-day seminar, and the other is about six scholarship programs for the summer program.

March 25 Spring Seminar: “How to Get the MOST out of YOUR Writing Life”

The seminar, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., will focus on helping writers refresh their inspiration to write, find their writing “tribe,” building their platform and find publishing outlets. The program is for all levels of writers.

The event will be at the University of Dayton. Parking is free and accessible to the building in which the program will be held; detailed instructions to the building and parking will be sent upon registration.

The morning kicks off with featured speaker Cathy Day, author of the memoir “Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love” (Free Press) and the novel “The Circus in Winter” (Harcourt). Her novel was adapted for and produced on stage. She teaches creative writing at Ball State University. Cathy teaches and speaks frequently about creative writing, motivation, literary citizenship, social media for writers and more.

Afternoon sessions feature local writers Becky Morean, Fred Marion, Grace Curtis, Ryan Ireland, Amelia Robinson, Ashley Bethard, Kate Geiselman, and yours truly, Sharon Short.

Learn more at www.antiochwritersworkshop.com/spring-2017-seminar.html.

Register at www.tinyurl.com/AWWSpring2017

AWW Summer Program Scholarships

The workshop itself offers three scholarship opportunities, each offering both first place (covering full registration and tuition) and second place awards (covering half of registration and tuition), for its Annual Summer Program. The deadline is April 15 to apply for these scholarships.

The scholarships are:

• Betty Crumrine Scholarship — awarded to a single parent who is committed to writing and who could not otherwise attend the workshop. Open to writers of fiction, nonfiction or poetry.

• Judson Jerome Poetry Scholarship — The scholarship is named after Judson Jerome, co-founder of AWW, and awarded to poets. Open to writers of poetry.

• Bill Baker Scholarship — The scholarship is named after Bill Baker, co-founder of AWW, and awarded to a writer who is nominated by someone who can testify to his or her qualifications both as writer and community member.

For information on submission requirements and the scholarships themselves, visit www.antiochwritersworkshop.com; then click on Programs tab/Summer 2017 Workshop/Scholarships.

The workshop also partners with three local organizations to award AWW Summer Workshop Tuition:

• Sinclair Community College Creative Writing Contest (March 31 Deadline): Learn more at https://www.sinclair.edu/academics/divisions/lcs/eng/writing-contest/

• Mock Turtle Zine, scholarships for poetry writers (May 19 Deadline): https://mockturtlezine.com/submissions/

• Heavy Feather Review, for fiction and nonfiction writers (April 15 Deadline): https://heavyfeatherreview.com/aww/

Upcoming Literary Events

Sunday, March 19, 2-3 p.m., Books & Co. at The Greene — Antioch Writers' Workshop at University of Dayton presents a free mini-seminar on writing dialogue, geared toward both fiction and nonfiction writers. The program will be led by novelist Martha Moody. Learn more about her at www.marthamoody.net. Learn more about the workshop's programs at www.antiochwritersworkshop.com.

Wednesday, March 22, 7 p.m., Centerville High School, 500 E. Franklin St., Centerville — Michele Borba, Ed.D will discuss her book "Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World." The event is free; seats are first-come, first-serve. Books & Co. will have Dr. Borba's book for sale at the event.

Thursday, March 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Oakwood Starbucks, 2424 Far Hills Ave., Dayton — Word's Worth Writing Center (www.wordsworthdayton.com) offers "Craft a la Carte: Character" with author and creative writing instructor Katrina Kittle. This class will examine crucial keys to character, help writers create a character, or give more depth to a character already in a work-in-progress. See the website to register.

MORE LITERARY LIFE: Dayton poet scores with debut collection.

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