Attracts Nationally Known Faculty To Teach Short Prose 

The Cobscook Community Learning Center will launch a writers’ conference this summer called Iota: The Conference of Short Prose, on August 22–25. The event will be an enriching educational experience for local writers or those from elsewhere. “Iota is a word that means a very small quantity,” explains Penny Guisinger, CCLC staff and coordinator of the conference. “There has been a lot of interest recently in forms of writing that focus on brevity. Poetry, certainly, has always had this focus, and short prose pieces are being more broadly recognized as a specific art form. We wanted to create a conference that focused on something different from all the other conferences across the country.”

Iota has attracted a nationally known trio of writers and educators to serve as faculty. This team will lead workshops in three genres (nonfiction, fiction, and prose poetry and hybrid forms), as well as offer several team-taught sessions to encourage cross-genre experimentation.

Sven Birkerts, who will teach nonfiction and essay writing, is the author of nine books, has been editor of AGNI since July 2002, and has reviewed regularly for The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic,  Esquire, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. He has taught writing at Harvard University, Emerson College, Amherst College, and Mt. Holyoke College, and is director of the graduate Bennington Writing Seminars.

Arielle Greenberg, who will teach prose poetry and hybrid forms, is the author of the poetry collections My Kafka Century and Given, and the chapbooks Shake Her and Farther Down: Songs from the Allergy Trials. She is also co-author, with Rachel Zucker, of the hybrid genre nonfiction book Home/Birth: A Poemic. Her poems have been included the 2004 and 2005 editions of Best American Poetry, and several anthologies specific to prose poems. In addition to her work on hybrid-genres, Arielle writes a regular column on contemporary poetics for the American Poetry Review. She serves on the MFA faculty at the University of Tampa.

Lewis Robinson, who will teach short fiction, is the author of the novel Water Dogs and the short story collection Officer Friendly. Lewis graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2001, has received a Whiting Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is currently at work on a novel.

“We’re just so thrilled to welcome Sven, Arielle, and Lewis to this region and to offer their skills and wisdom up to the community,” says Guisinger. “When we contacted them and asked them to teach, and they heard about this beautiful location, all three of them recognized this as a wonderful opportunity for themselves as writers to experience something new. They jumped at the chance to be a part of it.”

Iota will be housed, for its first year, at Roosevelt Campobello International Park. In future years, once the CCLC completes Heartwood Lodge (a dormitory and learning space), much of the conference will be moved to the center’s campus in Trescott. This year’s conference schedule includes field trips to the Lubec area, visits to local businesses, and hikes on the U.S. side. “We want participants to feel really grounded in this place,” explains Guisinger. “The experience is about writing, of course, but it’s also about being immersed in this beautiful location, and drawing inspiration from it.”

The cost for participation in the conference (including lodging, workshops, and food ) is $650, and there is an early bird discount of $25 off for registrations received before May 1. The commuter price, for those who do not need overnight lodging, is $440 for workshops, lunches, and dinners, or $375 for just workshops and lunches. Application and registration to the conference are due by July 22, and slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

The CCLC has made two full scholarships available for participation in Iota. One will be awarded to a Washington County resident (through the center’s general scholarship fund) and the other will be awarded to a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe (through the Jimmy Soctomah Memorial Scholarship fund). Scholarship applications are due by May 1.

For more information, including scholarship materials, visit: www.cclc.me/iota or call 207/733-2233.