May 18-20, 2023
Join us for three days of writing, reading, and connecting over words
This free, three-day event provides participants an opportunity to strengthen their writing, explore new methods and topics, and connect with others. The event features three large public programs and five breakout sessions led by Idaho writers. Breakouts are limited in size but open to all levels.
Presented in partnership with Boise-based Story Forward and supported by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council.
Anaïs Nin
We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection… to record the journey … to expand our world…
Schedule of Events
Thursday, May 18
6:00 p.m. | Reader’s Corner with Bob Kustra | Lecture Hall
Bob Kustra, BSU President Emeritus & the host of Reader’s Corner on Boise State Public Radio, discusses his interviews and their issues and ideas that matter today. Reader’s Corner is a weekly radio show and podcast that features lively conversations with leading writers, including many winners of top literary prizes and best-selling authors. Registration is recommended to save your seat.
Friday, May 19
12:00 – 2:00 p.m. | Registration & Check-In | Library Foyer
Breakout session participants will check in for individual sessions and receive materials.
2:00 – 5:00 p.m. | Breakout Sessions 1 & 2 | Various
Registration is required for breakouts, which are limited to 15 attendees each. All breakouts are free and open to all levels. Registration for all breakouts opens on April 3.
BREAKOUT 1 | Capturing the Unsung Power of Point of View in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry with Christian Winn
Have you ever wondered who should narrate your fiction and how? The best angle to deliver your poetry? Or what tack will truly capture the heart of your personal essays? This will be an exciting dive into the powerful and sometimes overlooked tool of POV decisions and maneuvers in all your creative writing.
BREAKOUT 2 | Untangling the Difficult Narrative: Using Form, Language, and Self-Care to Access Our Wounds with Rebecca Evans
Trauma writing can be more than catharsis. It can offer craft and writing skills, create awareness and conversation. Come learn about self care for the writer, entering and dismounting from your writing, considering your reader, the art of placement, pacing, and much more.
Saturday, May 20
10:30 – 11:30 a.m. | Writers Roundtable | Lecture Hall
The five “To Taste Life Twice” instructors will come together for a panel discussion and share more about their writing lives and practice. Join us to hear from these esteemed Idaho writers and to pose your own questions to them. Coffee and light pastries will be provided. No registration required.
1:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Breakout Sessions 3, 4 & 5 | Various
Registration is required for breakouts, which are limited to 15 attendees each. All breakouts are free and open to all levels. Registration for all breakouts opens on April 3.
BREAKOUT 3 | Putting the I in Idaho: Finding Yourself in a Complex and Beautiful Landscape with CMarie Fuhrman
In this generative workshop we will explore the genre of memoir that is informed by place, in our case, Idaho. Fuhrman will share memoir writing from Idaho writers alongside craft techniques and prompts that inspire you to look deep into the landscape—yours and Idaho’s—and find your story.
BREAKOUT 4 | Revision: Curation for Optimized Artistry with Alan Heathcock
How do we know what to keep and what to cut? How do we improve characterization, setting, our sentences, our dialog and plots, and add depth and relevance to what we write? This workshop will take attendees through a comprehensive interrogation of revision, using discussions and exercises to clarify the idea of “curation” as the basis for defining subjective standards of quality for each writer and each new project.
BREAKOUT 5 | Writing a Cinematic Scene with Kim Cross
A cinematic scene immerses readers in a story so utterly that it plays out in their minds like a movie. This workshop will reveal how to write compelling scenes by developing your writer’s eye for telling detail, your ear for great dialogue, and instinct for tension and drama. It will teach you how to write observed scenes and reconstructed scenes, how to choose the right scene to begin a story, and much more.
5:00 – 7:00 p.m. | Reading & Storytelling Event | Upstairs at Whiskey Jacques, 251 N Main St.
To close out the seminar, all attendees and the public are invited to hear readings from participants, instructors, and more special guests. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Open to all: seminar attendees, family and friends, and the general public!
About the Instructors
Christian Winn was Idaho’s 2016-2019 Writer in Residence, he is the founder of the Writers Write fiction workshop series, co-founder and Director of Storyfort, and producer of the Campfire Stories reading series and the Couch Surfer Artist Series. He is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and the Boise State University MFA program.
Rebecca Evans is a memoirist, poet, and essayist. She mentors high school teens in the juvenile system and co-hosts a radio program, Writer to Writer. She earned two MFAs, one in CNF, the other in Poetry. Her memoir-in-verse, TANGLED BY BLOOD, will be available in Spring, 2023 (Moon Tide Press).
McCall-based CMarie Fuhrman is Idaho’s current Writer in Residence, the author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems and co-editor of Native Voices. She has published poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals and is a regular columnist for the Inlander, Non-Fiction editor for High Desert Journal, and Director of the Elk River Writers Workshop. She is the Director of Poetry for Western Colorado University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program where she also teaches Nature Writing.
Author of What Stands in a Storm and The Stahl House, Kim Cross is a New York Times Best-Selling writer, journalist, and historian known for meticulously reported narrative nonfiction. Her stories have been recognized by the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sunday Longread, Longform, and Best American Sports Writing. Her fourth book, In Light of All Darkness, comes out this October (Grand Central/Hachette). She also teaches Feature Writing for Harvard Extension School.
Alan Heathcock is a Boise-based writer of short stories and novels, winner of a Whiting Award, the GLCA New Writers Award, a National Magazine Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Lannan Foundation, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
Email Martha Williams, Programs and Education Director, for more information.
