Poet, essayist, and university professor Alison Hawthorne Deming will be the keynote presenter at the 13th annual Cochise Community Creative Writing Celebration in Sierra Vista in March.

The event, set for March 25-26, brings together published writers in several genres, such as poetry, novels, creative nonfiction, and publishing, to present hands-on workshops to aspiring writers from the community. This year’s event is dedicated to the memory of Diane Freund, celebration co-founder, writer, and teacher, who passed away last year.

The creative writing celebration also gives unpublished authors an opportunity to present and receive feedback on their work. Conference registrants can participate in a writing contest associated with the celebration. Submissions will be accepted in the areas of poetry, short story, and non-fiction. The deadline to submit entries to the contest, which is open to anyone who registers for the celebration, is Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Cash prizes will be awarded on the final day of the event.

Deming is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Rope (Penguin, 2009), and three books of nonfiction, including Writing the Sacred into the Real (Milkweed, 2001). Her first book, Science and other Poems, won the Walt Whitman Award of the American Academy of Poets. Her work has been widely published and anthologized, including in the Norton Book of Nature Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Among her awards are two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and the Bayer Award in Science Writing. She has just finished a new nonfiction book titled A Bestiary for the 21st Century. Her essays have appeared in Orion, The Georgia Review, Sierra, Gnosis, Water~Stone, Isotope, Ecotone, Western Humanities Review and other publications. She is poet-in-residence at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

In her keynote presentation Get Real! Why We Love Nonfiction Now, Deming will address a range of creative nonfiction from memoir to literary science writing, from essay to cultural commentary, and will look at how a writer creates a voice that feels real, honest, interesting, and authentic while addressing the pitfalls of pursuing that goal when the work, by definition, must be “creative.”

Deming also will present the breakout session The Creative Nonfiction Toolkit and will work with participants on techniques for weaving memory, imagination, and research into a seamless and compelling voice.

The writing celebration features three additional authors.

Jessica Tribble, associate publisher at Poisoned Pen Press, the second-largest publisher of hardcover mysteries in the U.S., shares what publishers want to see and what they’d prefer to avoid in But the Butler Did It! What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Do in Mystery Fiction.

Patrick Michael Finn, prize-winning author of A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovich and From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet: Stories, discusses techniques to create unforgettable characters and guides participants in character development exercises in Tools for Writing Dynamic Characters in Novels and Short Stories.

Dick Bakken presents Poetry on the Wing, multi-generational workshops in which participants learn about transforming factual experience into writing.
The creative writing celebration is co-sponsored by Cochise College, the University South Foundation, and Sierra Vista Parks & Leisure Services. Conference brochures will be available soon. To learn more about the event and the writing contest, visit the Cochise College Web site at www.cochise.edu, or contact Leslie Clark at clarkl@cochise.edu.

Open Readings Scheduled
Local creative writers of poetry and prose are invited to attend and sign up to present at two open readings that have been planned in advance of the 13th annual Cochise Community Creative Writing Celebration. Reading times and venues are:

  • Friday, Feb. 4, 7-9 p.m., The Landmark Café, 400 W. Fry Blvd., Sierra Vista
  • Friday, Feb. 11, 7-9 p.m., Ecoasis, 54 Brewery Ave., Bisbee

There will be a strict five-minute limit per reader, so those who plan to read need to practice at home and be sure the piece(s) they’d like to read adhere to this time limit. Those interested in reading should arrive at the beginning of the reading and sign up early to ensure there will be time for them to read.