Wildacres Day 7

Wildacres Day 7

Saturday, July 6, 2013, was the end of the writers’ retreat at Wildacres, and the beginning of the writers’ workshop.

 

At 5:30 there was a “mixer” on the patio outside the canteen, although we all had to move inside when it began to rain again. It was an opportunity to meet the new writers who arrived that day. Last week there were about 50 writers and 50 others who were attending workshops for potters and storytellers. On Saturday the potters and storytellers left the mountain and 50 more writers arrived. I am glad I was here for both weeks. I had the first week to get comfortable with 50 other writers, and now more people have arrived.

 

After dinner, we had an orientation. Besides the rules and regulations (don’t hike alone, don’t pester the instructors, no smoking), the workshop director, Judi Hill, told a lot of jokes. There are little green dots on the nametags of some of the attendees, including mine. We were told the green dots identified first-time participants, but Judi said it identified people with STD’s. That got a good laugh.

Then we had a little while to gather in our workshop classes. I have signed up for a creative nonfiction workshop with a teacher names Jessica Handler. So in the evening Jessica and 10 students all met in the canteen and got organized. We have all submitted 10-page samples. And we all have copies of them, in a packet that is 100-pages long. Two students volunteered to be the subjects of our first critique session, Sunday. Then we will go over two samples each session.

 

There was also a late-night party at 10 p.m., but I went to bed early because another student, Marci, from Boone, N.C., suggested meditating in the canteen at 7 a.m. I also re-read the samples we will be discussing in the first workshop.