Hello everyone!!! I'm new at this whole blogging experience and thought I would give it a try tonight, the FINAL day of The 25th Lit Fest 2011. This was such an amazing experience and I will DEFINITELY be coming back for years to come. The Readings and Lectures were held by Rosellen Brown, Rita Dove, Debra Marquart, Padgett Powell and Tobias Wolff. Although I had not necessarily heard of ALL of these authors, I will now own at LEAST one of each of their works.

The van ride up here was very comical and Hayley Haugen did an amazing job at navigating it ;) Everyone was so excited to arrive and start our adventures. When we arrived, I took pictures of the hotel and its surroundings after we checked into our hotel, The Ohio University Inn. Just a little suggestion to those of you reading this post, STAY IN THIS HOTEL IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE. The beds are sooooooo comfortable. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, we then went to dinner and our first Lecture with Rita Dove at 7:30. Rita is from Ohio and is an extremely talented woman. She is not only a profound author, but also a singer. I found this very easy to relate to because my passion lies with reading, writing, and singing as well.

Her topic of the evening was Romancing the Stone. She discussed many different uses of romancing the stone and the most inspiring example was that of King Arthur and his accidental pulling of the sword out of the stone that no one could retrieve with many strong efforts and dedication. Many people wished to pull the sword out of the stone for their own selfish behalf and Arthur did it in order to help another person out. The retrieval of the sword symbolizes the idea that pride and greed keep the stone embedded whereas if the approach is selfless, and only to serve and succeed in that serving, you can access and romance the stone in giving you what you wish to receive.

The three main keys to being receptive are biologically, mentally, and spiritually. Biologically is recognizing who you are at your best and analyze how you live your life. IF you write best in the mornings, force yourself to do so. If you write best at night, then you must do so also at night. Rita told of a quote by Toni Morrison saying "write until the light reaches the page." In other words, write until you feel comfortable with what you've got. Mentally you must learn to be humble, selfish, modest and bodacious. You must however feel as though nothing else matters in life but what you are writing with at the time. You should completely disappear before the writing begins. Spiritually you should never favor the easy way of doing things. No one can fix YOU but YOU. Life- is impetus for life. Craft- What tools we use. Medium- Language. You should make a poem with words not ideas.

Her 7 statements are this:
1. No excuses. Minority, gender, age, none of these are excuses for bad writing. You should "write as though you are the last person on earth"(Rita Dove).
2. Use a notebook not a journal. A journal is a completely different process. The notebook is fragmentary.
3. Every roadblock is an opportunity to explore the neighborhood.
4. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. But if swing is all its got, might as well take it on the road. 50% of writing is performance. The poem on a page can always be taken to the stage, but the stage can almost never be taken to the poem on the page.
5. While writing, never think of the audience, they will find you.
6. Words are living meaningful things, they contain life like human beings and have a musical signature whose shapes fill the mouth.
7. Silence is the shadow of the word. Finding the right word is a proper fit of the silence around the word.

In the question and answer section of the lecture, an audience member asked, "Being young verses now, how did your motivation change? Was there ever a time when writing felt like a burden? You've accomplished so much but do you ever feel like once you're finished, you've started at the beginning again?" Rita responded saying "I always feel like I'm starting at the beginning. That same feeling of being stuck on 1st base with no hope, but that doesn't mean that the poem I write will necessarily come out bad. I feel that feeling of desperation often, but now I feel like I have overcome it. That feeling never changes though, I always get that exhilarating feeling when I work" (Dove).

After this lecture, which inspired me greatly, we heard some readings from Rosellen Brown. She is a very descriptive reader with beautiful imagery and a mysterious tone to her voice. The next day we got breakfast at McDonalds and then went to the 11:00 A.M lecture from Rosellen Brown. Her topic was based on "Scenes you will not see, people you will not meet: Offstage manners." She even states a quote from Paul Simon saying "What isn't there helps you hear what is." This entire lesson is based on not giving the reader too much information which allows them to have a creative imagination in the process. In her book "Before and After" her main character Jacob brutally murders his girlfriend. Unlike many Hollywood films that show the murder taking place and the aftermath of this crime, Rosellen never allows the girlfriend's murder to be described or the girlfriend to be an actual active character. She says "a story can achieve greatness through silence" (Brown).


After this lecture we went to grab a bite to eat for lunch at an amazing Chinese restaurant and then shopped around on court street. Later we went to dinner at Bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings), and back to the Baker Center that evening for more lectures and readings. Most people hear the word "lecture" and shudder assuming it will be boring and uneventful. However, all of the speakers were very entertaining and even humorous! The reading that night at 7:30 was from Debra Marquart, perhaps the author I connected the most with. Keep in mind during this entire experience I spoke to EVERY author at least once, even had conversations with them in the ladies room! They were all very humble and polite. Anyway back to my story, Debra was very influential to me because she grew up in a small town on a farm and experienced many of the same things as I did as a young child. She also played in a country western band, as do I. She read a few passages from her novel "The Horizontal World: Growing up Live in the Middle of Nowhere," which I thoroughly enjoyed. Later she read something she hasn't published yet called "The Other Woman" which related to the events she faced while touring in her country, rock, and metal bands.

Following Debra, another Author, Padgett Powell did his reading as well discussing his book "Interrogative Mood" which leaves many readers and listeners with questions and in deep thought. After these readings ended, we went back to the hotel and Brittany McFarland, Hayley Haugen and I went to McDonalds. We then came back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Friday morning we went out for a wonderful breakfast at Bob Evans before the morning lectures. Then at 11:00 Padgett Powell did his lecture based on the idea that no one can tell you what to write and the idea of a Craft without a Craft. He gave many words of wisdom and just to name a few: 1. the best stories come out of no where. 2. I can take a sentence apart and tell you why. 3. Learn to play your instruments then get sexy. 4. Some people run to more wisdom but I hold to the world. He discusses the idea that you should preach the story itself, not its content and the future becomes the present, the present becomes the past, and the past is just there.

Next, Debra Marquart did her lecture based on "The fragmentary Imagination: New, Ancient, and Experimental Forms of Nonfiction." She uses many quotes, one says "for fate dear friends is like a wet bank, it will always make you slip." There are now many types of non-fiction variations such as facebook, myspace, twitter, even what I am doing RIGHT now, blogging. There is no limit to the amount of creativity involved in writing, even in creative non-fiction ;) (inside joke for those of you who attended the lectures). After this was over we went to get lunch and shop on Court Street again. Then we went to the Kennedy Art Museum at the Ridges which used to be used as an insane asylum. While visiting the many different levels of the building we found many interesting paintings, pictures, and information. I actually saw one of my friends (Katy Barnett) in an exhibit by Lloyd E Moore in a book called Face to Face Photography. The entire exhibit was full of pictures from Ironton because Lloyd Moore, the photographer, was actually a lawyer in Ironton. We found it very exciting that a place we are from is included in a place this big! I took many pictures throughout this entire visit and WILL post them later as I figure out how to do so. Haha! Finally, we ate at a Mexican restaurant, then went to the FINAL readings for the evening featuring Rita Dove and Tobias Wolff. Both authors did a spectacular job and I cannot wait to read the books that I have of theirs!!!! :) Overall, this was a very intriguing, inspiring experience for me as well as everyone included in this trip to Athens for the 25th Annual Literary Festival. Thank you so much to Hayley Haugen for being there for us every step of the way, and inspiring us to write write write write write!!!!!!! Thank you to the Dean as well for allowing this trip to occur. I will be back next year, if funding is available, and look forward to yet another amazing experience with some phenomenal people. This is my blog.. goodnight everyone! God bless ;)

Pictures will be posted soon!

Sweet dreams.