IU offers writing classes

The IU Writer's Conference has provided classes and workshops for beginning and experienced writers since 1940. \nThe week of June 22 to 27 marks the 63rd year of the IUWC and the second writing conference under the direction of Amy Locklin. Locklin said she is excited about the writer's conference this year because the teachers attending are diverse.\n"The group of authors are different from each other in ethnicity, gender, writing styles and location," Locklin said. "We're trying to appeal to a broader range of people."\nLocklin also is working on making the IUWC serve a bigger purpose. \n"In the past, (the IUWC workshops) were supplementary," Locklin said. "We want to focus on allowing work to develop."\nThis year's conference is bigger, offering five classes, and more diverse. People from all over the United States, two from Africa and one person from Lima, Peru, will gather in Bloomington to hear constructive criticism about their writing. \nThe classes and workshops offered, taught by experienced writers, are a good place to develop one's work, and there are different topics to choose from. The workshops are more general, teaching poetry, creative non-fiction and fiction, and the classes have more specific topics, which include Writing the Ten-Minute Play, Point-of-View Across Genres, Everyday Poetry: Daily Life in Poetry and Poetry in our Daily Lives, Setting as a Central Character, and "Inventing the Truth": Discussions about the Creation of Creative Nonfiction. \nLocklin picked the teachers of classes and workshops based on their experience and how different their writings are from the others.' Each author writes "very different stories in very different ways," she said.\nOne of the teachers is A. Loudermilk, who teaches creative writing classes at IU under his real name, Thomas Jones. His poetry and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Mississippi Review, Cider Press Review and The Journal of Consumer Culture. Loudermilk said his workshop will look at public and private poetry, and how one can find poetry in everyday life.\n"Teaching for just half a semester, it's hard to experiment," he said. "Instructors are responsible to teach a specific skill set. (This summer it will be) exciting to focus on something so specific." \nAnother author joining Loudermilk this summer is Achy Obejas. She graduated from IU with a degree in journalism and has written the books "Memory Mambo," "Days of Awe" and a collection of short stories called "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" She has written for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune and teaches at the University of Chicago. She will be one of three teaching a fiction class at the IUWC. \n"Journalism is public and urgent; fiction is more personal and reflective," Obejas said. "(I teach others to write better fiction) by careful critique, lots of revision, lots of specific readings and encouragement." \nLocklin, whose stories have received honors from the Associated Writing Program and the Academy of American Poets and teaches writing classes at IU, will be teaching the Point of View Across Genres class. \n"I want students to understand that point of view genres influence work of their own," she said. "They can make a fresh approach to writing."\nAlthough there technically aren't mistakes in creative writing, Loudermilk said things can be done to hinder one's improvement.\n"One can be 'trapped by his own mastery,'" he said, "when he doesn't take risks." \nFailing to experiment or tell stories in new ways also stops improvement, Locklin said.\n"Developing a style without considering all the possibilities (is a mistake in writing)," she said. \nThere are scholarships offered to those who submit manuscripts. A panel of anonymous judges award the scholarships to the people with original works showing masterful form, newness of vision and flair. The top two scholarship winners in fiction will be nominated for the Best New American Voices competition. Winners will be published in their 2004 anthology. Scholarship applications were due May 1, but others can register for the conference up until the day of classes. Students can also receive graduate and undergraduate credit for participating in the conference.\nLocklin's expectations of the IUWC are high, particularly because a diverse range of people will be in attendance and teaching classes. She said she hopes everyone who attends gets more than just supplementary criticism.\n"I hope students exit (the IUWC) with a greater sense of possibility," Locklin said. "(They could find) a more complex sense of possibility, and a satiated feeling, knowing they have such a range of options"