Delta Blues Symposium to feature
creative writing and poetry workshops

Jan. 21, 2005--In conjunction with the "Delta Blues Symposium XI: Imagining the Delta," Arkansas State University’s Department of English and Philosophy will sponsor two creative writing workshops for fiction writers and poets. These workshops will occur on Saturday, April 9, from 8:30-10:45 a.m.

The fiction workshop will be conducted by award winning writer, John Dufresne.  An MFA graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas, Dufresne has written a collection of short stories, The Way That Water Enters Stone, the novel Love Warps the Mind a Little, and two novels set in Monroe, Louisiana, Louisiana Power & Light and Deep in the Shade of Paradise.

He also has written a fiction writing manual, The Lie That Tells a Truth, and his next collection of short stories, Johnny Too Bad, will be published this spring. Dufresne teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University.

Jo McDougall will direct the poetry workshop.  Also a University of Arkansas MFA and a Delta native, McDougall won the prestigious Porter Prize, among others, and has also published five books of poetry: The Woman in the Next Booth, Towns Facing Railroads, From Darkening Porches, Dirt and her latest, Satisfied With Havoc.

For 11 years, McDougall was co-director of the Creative Writing Program at Pittsburg State University in Kansas and her poetry has been the subject of a short film, Emerson County Shaping Dream.

Participation in either workshop will be limited, and students must pre-enroll.  Submit a maximum of 10-15 double spaced pages of fiction or one or two poems.  Send name, address, phone number, e-mail address (if available), along with your manuscript (don’t send your only copy!) to:

Creative Writing Workshops/Delta Symposium Committee, Box 1890, Department of English & Philosophy, Arkansas State University, State University, AR 72467-1890.

The deadline for the workshop is February 28.  Notification of acceptance will be sent out in early March.

Friday, April 8, Dufresne and McDougall will read from their work at 7 p.m. in the Fowler Center on the ASU campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Delta Blues Symposium XI is sponsored by the ASU Department of English and Philosophy with assistance from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Lecture-Concert Series, the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program, the Department of Art, the Department of Music, the Department of Theatre, and the Office of Diversity Initiatives.

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