Posted on

INTERVIEW | Barbara Diehl, Baltimore Review Editor and Eckleburg Workshop Instructor

barbara284We are utterly ecstatic to have Barbara Diehl teach “Short Story I” through the Eckleburg Workshop Series. With a twenty-five-year publication history full of poetry and short stories, Diehl is well-versed in not just the techniques of the craft trade, but also in the wide variety of literature out there that can teach us how to become better writers as we become better readers. With a workshop that encourages improvement in writing not just from practicing the craft, but also from reading attentively and providing engaged feedback, poet and writer Diehl brings an invigorating mix of passion and professionalism to her workshops.

 

The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review: How did you become involved with the Eckleburg Workshops Series?

Barbara Diehl: I participated in the Magic Realism course as a student and very much enjoyed the experience. After completing a graduate program in writing and then taking some time off from writing, I needed some structure and “kick in the pants” motivation to write again. Not that I’m ever far from the writing world. I manage a literary journal. But I needed that “me” time. It did pay off. After some polishing, one of the pieces produced during the course found a home in a journal. Knowing how beneficial that “me” time can be, I was delighted when Rae asked me to lead “Short Story I.” That’s a territory I know well and love.

 

TJE: What workshop do you teach and how often do you teach it?

BD: I’m scheduled to teach “Short Story I,” and I hope to be able to teach it monthly. This workshop focuses on the scene—the heart (in my opinion) of the short story.

 

TJE: What attracts you to the genre of your workshop?

BD: I’m torn between the poet’s precision and concision and the novelist’s careful, slow unreeling of narrative. The short story is the perfect middle ground for me. I love a writing workspace of three or four pages to about 18; so much can be accomplished in a small space. And small spaces should appeal to many contemporary readers. At least they do to me. I like getting a lot of bang for my buck.

 

TJE: What is your approach to teaching and running a workshop?

BD: I don’t believe that we learn the complexities of good writing by being talked at—or reading “how to” advice in large chunks. Not that these aren’t helpful activities. (I own an awful lot of books on the writing craft.) We learn to write fiction by reading extensively in the genre we love most, reading for enjoyment and reading with an analytical eye; by spending as much time as possible actually writing and revising; and by getting feedback from other readers and writers.

 

TJE: What is your own writing background?

BD: I’ve been writing and publishing poems and short stories for about 25 years, and I was writing for many years before that. (A bookworm with a ridiculously overactive imagination since elementary school.) I’ve also been an active member of Baltimore’s literary community for many years, as well, including participation in and management of literary organizations. Writing may be a solitary activity, but writers should be good citizens of their writing communities. It’s a win-win.

I enjoy trying different types of writing; it’s good to stretch the writing muscles. Switching back and forth between poetry and fiction is good for me, as well as switching between realistic stories and stories with magical elements.

 

TJE: What three books/articles would you recommend to someone who is just starting to write in her workshop’s genre?

BD: Writers who want to write great short stories should read anthologies such as the Best American Short Stories series to get a good sense of the kind of fiction currently being published by literary journals. Writers can also develop a good sense of the kind of fiction they find most appealing (or not at all appealing) by reading a large number of contemporary authors. For someone just starting to write fiction, I suggest a book on craft that covers the basics such as Writing Fiction Step by Step by Josip Novakovich or the classic What If by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter. Both combine the basic elements of fiction writing with loads of exercises. A fairly comprehensive grammar and punctuation book is good to have, too. I’ve had Right Words Right Places by Scott Rice for a long time. I’d advise that new writers actually read a grammar book cover to cover, at least once. Boring, yes, but writers should take the nuts and bolts seriously if they want publishers to take their stories seriously.

 

TJE: What type of material, and how much of it will the participant produce by the end of the workshop?

BD: We will focus on writing story scenes—the story element (rather than exposition and description) most likely to engage readers’ attention, with lean and precise language. Scenes written over the four weeks of the workshop could be combined into a full story, used as starting points for several stories, or  be developed into complete, one-scene stories.

 

TJE: What is your favorite facet of the workshop?

BD: Reading the workshop participants’ scenes! (Selfish, right?) After that: Helping them fine-tune those scenes and considering ways that the scenes can be integrated into a full story. I’ve scoured many short stories looking for scenes and spent a lot of time considering exercises that we can take from them, so I’m eager to see what those exercises produce.

 

Barbara Westwood Diehl is founding editor of The Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry have been published in many journals including MacGuffin, Confrontation, Potomac Review (Best of the 50), American Poetry Journal, Measure, Little Patuxent Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, Word Riot, Bartleby Snopes, Penduline Press, Northwind. NANO Fiction, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Stories forthcoming in Luna Luna and Per Contra.

 

Posted on

INTERVIEW | Brenda Mann Hammack, Editor and Eckleburg Workshop Instructor

hammack pic284The Doctor TJ Ecklburg Review is thrilled to have Brenda Mann Hammack as part of our workshop series’ team of instructors. Hammack teaches workshops on fairy tales. She encourages cross-genre writing and by the end of her workshops, participants will have created three original short stories, and gone through one longer revision. Throughout the workshops, Hammack provides numerous materials and prompts so the participant can figure out what works best for her. Fun and informative, Hammack’s workshops provide a fresh perspective and innovating ways to approach writing fairy tales.

 

The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review: How did you become involved with the Eckleburg Workshops Series?

Brenda Mann Hammack: When preparing to teach a magical realist workshop at the Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative, I came across an article in which Rae Bryant observed that “[f]or staunch realism and prose traditionalists, magic realism might as well be poetry.”  Not long after, I saw an advertisement for one of her fiction classes at Eckleburg.   Since my own writing frequently operates in that in-between place where genres overlap, I decided to register for Rae’s workshop, expecting that her ideas about magical realist fiction might propel me into new directions as I contemplated the ways in which theories about fiction might carry over into poetry.

 

TJE: What workshop do you teach and how often do you teach it?

BMH: I am currently teaching a workshop on the writing of original and revisionist fairy tale at Eckleburg.   My focus is on fiction writing although cross-genre approaches are never discouraged.  My schedule for spring and summer 2015 has yet to be determined, but I will be leading the class again in December of 2014.

 

TJE: What attracts you to the genre of your workshop?

BMH: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, Catheryenne M. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales, Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child, Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child, A.S. Byatt’s The Djinn in the Nightengale’s Eye, Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox, Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, and Kate Bernheimer’s My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me are only some of the books that have contributed to my appreciation of resurrection charms that take the form of fiction.  Anne Sexton’s Transformations, Jeannine Hall Gailey’s She Returns to the Floating World, Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife, Helen Ivory’s Waiting for Bluebeard, and Jeanne Marie Beaumont’s The Poets Grimm keep me drawing me back to fairy tale poetry. Filmmakers Jan Svankmajer, Guillermo del Toro, Hayao Miyazaki, Michel Ocelot, Catherine Breillat, and Pablo Berger are among the international magicians who have conjured some of my favorite fairy tale films.

 

TJE: What is your approach to teaching and running a workshop?

BMH: My weekly lessons tend to be hyper-stocked with hyperlinks, though I don’t expect anyone to click to access every link to readings, film clips, and visual art any more than the owner of a magical supply shop would expect a patron to sample every item in rooms with floor-to-ceiling displays.  I provide numerous materials and prompts so that the writer can browse until s/he finds inspiration that activates his/her own writing craft. When I read each participant’s contribution for the week, I try to adapt my feedback to differing prose styles so I’m more midwife than bossy mage.

 

TJE: What is your own writing background?

BMH: I earned my Master’s in Creative Writing in both poetry and fiction from Hollins College (now University), then my Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with an emphasis in Victorian literature.  In my first book, Victorine and the Humbug: A Neo-Victorian Fantasy in Verse, the narrative moves between poetry and prose as its titular characters interact in an environment inhabited by taxidermied animals, fretful gargoyles, occult practitioners, and one near-sighted bibliophile.  In addition to writing and publishing in multiple genres, I also act as managing editor for Glint Literary Journal, which is sponsored by the Department of English at Fayetteville State University.

 

TJE: What three books/articles would you recommend to someone who is just starting to write in her workshop’s genre?

BMH: Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (2013) provides a lively introduction for any writer of fabulist fiction.  I would also recommend the SurLaLune Fairy Tale website as well as the Journal of Mythic Arts archive at Endicott Studio’s website.

 

TJE: What type of material, and how much of it will the participant produce by the end of the workshop?

BMH: Usually, participants create three original short stories and one longer revision, though I have seen some efforts that might be called flash fiction (or prose poetry), depending on perspective that is probably no more definitive than that Dickinsonian slant of light.  However, much depends on each writer’s other commitments and inspirations. Some weeks, a writer may only find time to write a segment of story; s/he may connect three segments into a 5,000 word mosaic in week four.

 

TJE: What is your favorite facet of the workshop?

BMH: Since my lessons provide so many different visual and textual prompts, I can never predict the approaches that participants will take in their weekly stories or their discussion board responses.  Although my myth-and-folktale receptors tend to remain on alert whenever I’m conscious, the online venue allows me the opportunity to interact with writers from different cultural backgrounds.  Not only do they allow me to read their works in process, they also introduce me to fairy tale sources that I had not encountered before.

 

Brenda Mann Hammack is an Associate Professor of English at Fayetteville State University where she teaches seminars in creative writing, children’s literature, and nineteenth-century British literature.  She is managing editor Glint Literary Journal and has taken on the responsibilities of web design for issue 6, expected to publish in September 2014.  Hammack’s on-line courses include Eckleburg Workshops’ “Fairy Tale Fiction” and the Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative’s “The True Fairy Tale Poem” and “Magical Realist Poetry.”  Her first book, Humbug: A Neo-Victorian Fantasy in Verse, was released by Misty Publications in 2013. Other recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Interfictions Online, Rhino, The Medulla Review, and Lissa Kiernan’s Glass Needles & Goose Quills:Elementary Lessons in Atomic Properties, Nuclear Families, and Radical Poetics.

Posted on

WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR SPOTLIGHT | Kristina Marie Darling

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAuthor of nearly twenty books, Eckleburg is thrilled to have Kristina Marie Darling teach our Crafting, Publishing, and Promoting Hybrid Work online workshop through the Eckleburg workshop series. Darling teaches the online 4-week workshop monthly, and, as she describes in the following interview, the workshop is a place where students will write new material and learn how to successfully submit pieces to publishers, as well as have the opportunity to be in a creative and supportive space. During the workshop, students will gain invaluable knowledge not just from Darling, but from each other as well.

 

The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review:How did you become involved with the Eckleburg Workshops Series?

Kristina Marie Darling:I became involved with the Eckleburg Workshop Series in July 2014. I heard about the workshops because I’m a huge fan of the magazine and the other faculty. Lisa Marie Basile and Rae Bryant are fabulous. As an educator, I was drawn to the Eckleburg Workshops because they offer the opportunity to teach more specialized writing and publishing classes. After all, serious writers have very specific needs and interests. Also, blending the creative and business aspects of writing is an important part of my teaching, and this is a priority for the Eckleburg Workshops as well. When I initially looked at the course offerings, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

 

TJE: What workshop do you teach and how often do you teach it?

KMD: I teach Crafting, Publishing, and Promoting Hybrid Work, which is a regular offering at the Eckleburg Workshops. The class is offered every month, and I hope you’ll check it out!

 

TJE: What attracts you to the genre of your workshop?

KMD: Hybrid writing is great because anything is possible within it. You can mix and match genres, pairing the techniques of poetry with those of fiction. But you can also draw from non-literary types of writing:  guidebooks, glossaries, advertisements, and endnotes….

 

TJE: What is your approach to teaching and running a workshop?

KMD: I’ll never tell you what your writing should be like. I don’t believe in the word “should” in a workshop. Rather, I try to show students what’s possible within their writing. How can a story be made richer, even more complex? How can the writer build on what’s already compelling and good about a text? There’s no one answer to these questions, since they depend on each individual writer and their goals.

 

TJE: What is your own writing background?

KMD: I’m the author of twenty collections of hybrid writing, which include Petrarchan and Vow, both available from BlazeVOX [books]. I’ve been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Ucross Foundation, and was recently selected as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. I’m also active as a book critic, with reviews appearing in Boston Review, Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, and Pleiades.

 

TJE: What three books/articles would you recommend to someone who is just starting to write in her workshop’s genre?

KMD: I’d recommend Jenny Boully’s The Body: An Essay, of course, since the book gracefully blends academic writing with memoir. It also shows that hybridity, and the mixing of forms, can be a powerful vehicle for social commentary. The book is largely a feminist critique of academic writing, and a call for social justice and inclusion within the academy.

Also, Kim Gek Lin Short’s The Bugging Watch and Other Exhibits shows how the forms of academic writing can be appropriated and used for something else entirely. The book offers fun, engaging flash fictions and footnotes about the secret lives of bugs. I love seeing these unexciting academic forms being made enjoyable and relevant again.

Lastly, Carol Guess’s Darling Endangered is just fabulous. She shows how the techniques of poetry can be brought to bear on prose and flash fiction. These micro-stories use sound and the sonic qualities of language to forge connections between plot elements.

 

TJE: What type of material, and how much of it will the participant produce by the end of the workshop?

KMD: Students can expect to write two new hybrid pieces, a query letter to a publisher, and a marketing plan for a book or chapbook. We also provide a list of journals and presses that have expressed an interest in reading submissions from our workshop.

 

TJE: What is your favorite facet of the workshop?

KMD: I love learning from my students, and seeing them learn from each other.

 

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of nearly twenty books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and Scorched Altar: Selected Poems and Stories 2007-2014 (BlazeVOX Books, forthcoming).  Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation.  She was recently selected as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.