Dear Fishtrap Friends,
The news and announcements are piling up here at Fishtrap like too much wood for the shed or all those apples forced off the trees by Sunday night’s heavy rain. There were plenty of apples at the local cider pressing party last weekend, and when you get to the end of this newsletter, you'll see a few photos from that event. But for now it looks like our beautiful, warm October weather (see photo at right from my morning walk last week) is finally giving way to the season that our bones and the birds-in-flight over the Wallowas know is on its way. We had a dusting of snow in Joseph last night! Time to start thinking seriously about Winter Fishtrap, applying for our 2011-2012 Yearlong Workshop in Historical Fiction, or making your way to the Fishtrap house to hear Molly Gloss on November 6.
Without further ado, here are all those details, plus a whole lot more. We’ll do some looking ahead… and some grateful looking back. Upcoming local events are featured toward the bottom of the email—so, Wallowa and Union County friends especially, be sure to read all the way to the bottom so you don’t miss out.
Winter Fishtrap – Dates and Deadlines
Our Winter Fishtrap 2011 “Getting Small” program featuring Winona LaDuke, Charles Goodrich, Tammy Stobel, Amy Minato, and the duo of Kate Power and Steve Einhorn (with ukuleles) is set. The full brochure is out on the website and hitting the mail later this week. NOTE: Scholarship deadline is November 10; check out the application guidelines. Registration for this February 25-27, 2011 event opens November 15. We will once again run a bus from Portland, and writer Amy Minato is cooking up some special fun for the drive out. Plan to reduce your carbon footprint by riding—and writing—along!
2011-2012 Yearlong Writing Workshop with Karen Fisher
Karen Fisher, author of the gorgeous book A Sudden Country, who also taught a weeklong fiction workshop for us this past summer, will be leading a group of seven or eight writers for a year of focused work in our next Yearlong Workshop. The goal? To get a substantial start on a draft manuscript or to put the polish on one that’s been gathering dust in your drawer. Have you always wanted to research a topic or figure in history and then weave a novel from that particular warp? This could be your chance to do it with Fishtrap-style guidance and support. As one who benefited greatly from this approach as a student in John Daniel's Yearlong on Memoir, I strongly recommend it.
Full details and application guidelines will be available online by mid-November. The format will be similar to how we've structured the Yearlong Workshops for the past three years. You can read about Jane Vandenburgh's current workshop to get an idea.
Writers-in-Residence Sought for Grant and Harney Counties
We're still working with the local committees in beautiful, remote Grant and Harney Counties to select their writers-in-residence for early 2011. It’s not too late to apply. If you have some experience teaching, are a serious (and preferably published) writer with some flexibility in your schedule, please consider this rare opportunity to explore beautiful country, meet new friends, and support young writers in rural communities. Write to me at barbara@fishtrap.org.
2010 Fishtrap Anthology: $500 still needed in order to publish
The 2010 Fishtrap Anthology is coming together, thanks to all the great submissions from last Summer’s Fishtrap participants and faculty. But we can’t send it off to the printer until we raise the full $1000 in support needed each year to make it a reality. If you sent work in or have enjoyed being published in past Fishtrap Anthologies, please consider being an 2010 Anthology sponsor—Janis can help create a small display ad for your service or business, or as a way of honoring someone you admire. For $50, you get a quarter-page ad, a half-page is $100. Please do what you can to help us publish “Matter and Spirit.” Smaller donations are also welcome.
House Party Thanks… and Thinking About Some “Fishraps”
In the flurry of last spring and summer's transitions here at Fishtrap, we didn't do a very good job of thanking our hosts for the two Fishtrap house parties we organized, one in Olympia at the home of Melissa and Al Josephy, and one in Pasco at the home of Jenepher and Louis Field. These events helped us introduce newcomers to Fishtrap—invaluable outreach for us in places where we haven't had much visibility in the past. Hearty and belated "thanks" to Al, Melissa, Jenepher and Louis for opening your homes to us in support of good writing. Your warmth and generosity was much appreciated!
Having learned what people most enjoyed at those events, we are starting to envision a version of a house party we might call a "Fishrap"—not the stinky kind, but rather a gathering of friends with a live reading component in the spirit of the Fishtrap open mics that are so popular at our Summer and Winter Fishtrap events. Thanks to Kevin and Victoria Wheeler for cranking up the enthusiasm for this idea and for offering to host a trial Fishrap at their home in Milwaukie, Oregon. Still in the planning stages... watch upcoming newsletters for more.
And While We're Offering Thanks... Wordstock Thanks
A special shout out to Barbara Fankhauser, Gayle Seely, Ed Stover, Sue Knight, Michael Tevlin, Eve Slinker, Robin Schauffler, Christine Colasurdo, Judy Davis, and Elizabeth Oliver for helping staff our table at Wordstock a few weeks ago. We had fifty new people sign up for our mailing list and many more stop to visit with us. It was great fun, and we couldn't have done it without each one of these generous volunteers... Congratulations to Gordon Oliver and Richard Brown, winners of our Worstock drawing. Your Fishtrap hat (Gordon) and Fishtrap mug (Richard) are on their way in the mail. Thanks again for stopping by.
"Oregon Is Indian Country" Wrap-up
What a rewarding impact the Oregon Historical Society's traveling exhibit Oregon Is Indian Country had on the local community here.
Fishtrap was honored to be its host in Enterprise. Thanks to speakers Tom and Woesha Hampson, David Lewis, Eric Quaempts and Joe McCormack, the Josephy Library at Fishtrap also hosted three informative and inspiring evening lectures in connection with the exhibit. We had fifty people at each one! Beyond that, Rich Wandschneider (pictured at right at the exhibit) got each of the speakers into local schools and worked with local teachers to bring school kids out to the exhibit and to Fishtrap to learn the real story of their Indian neighbors here in Oregon. Our finale was 90 Enterprise 4th, 5th and 6th graders packed into the Fishtrap house last Thursday to hear Eric Quaempts speak to them about "First Foods in Indian Country." We're sure Alvin and Betty Josephy would have loved to see that. Thanks to Rich and to all the local teachers who responded so warmly to this opportunity.
Upcoming Local Fishtrap Events
Tuesday, November 2, 7 pm: All-genre writing group reconvenes at the Fishtrap House after a summer's hiatus. Everyone welcome! Call Mary Emerick at 541-263-1156 for more information (but not this week—she's down at the Fishtrap Imnaha Writer's Retreat through Saturday, Oct. 30).
Saturday, November 6, 7 pm: Author Molly Gloss (The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek) will be here as our guest speaker at the AAUW-sponsored lecture entitled "Alone in Her Room." As readers, we all know the feeling of falling wholly inside a novel, losing ourselves in a world that was imagined and made real by some writer sitting alone in her room. Molly will speak about that intersection where writers and readers meet on the page—the synergy that happens every time a reader opens a book and falls in. And of course every writer begins to be a writer by first being a reader, so she will also talk about the ways her own writing life and her work have been shaped by the books she has fallen into—especially books by women. At the Fishtrap Coffin House, free and open to the public (male public included!).
Sunday, November 7, 5-7 pm: Annual Fishtrap Spaghetti Feed at Lear's in Enterprise. Come out and enjoy a festive and delicious evening in support of the Fishtrap College program, offering college-level English classes to local high school and community college students. Wait staff will be made up of Fishtrap College students, and Fishtrap staff and board members dressed like Italian waiters. You've got to see this!
Saturday, November 20, 1:00 pm on: Clay artists Anne and Jim Shelly host a benefit sale for Fishtrap at their studio on Hurricane Creek. Get an early start on your holiday shopping, stay for a festive potluck and dance, and help Fishtrap at the same time. The Fishtrap mugs so popular at this past Summer Fishtrap will be available. More details in the next newsletter, or write to Kathy@fishtrap.org.
That's the news for now.
Stay dry and warm... and keep writing!
Barbara
Barbara Dills, Interim Executive Director
PS: And now the photos from the apple pressing party, a welcoming Wallowa County tradition, generously hosted by the Chris and Chuck Fraser family.That's a flatbed truck holding all the potluck goodies!
h off with a poet, a cowboy western novelist, two writers working on memoirs, and one jack-of-several-genres who's known for weaving in humor no matter what flows from his pen. I'd love to be a fly on the wall during their evening sessions around the fireplace, wouldn't you? (Get on the list for April now.)
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