Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Breakout Seminars A – 11:30 AM
- Rev. Dr. Frank A. Thomas
- “Dangerous Sermons and Dangerous Faith”
- Frank A. Thomas author, scholar and renowned preacher will offer insights from his new book How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon. The “dangerous sermon,” is one that refuses to reflect idolatrous, diabolical imaginings of our human future. Rather, it challenges clergy and laypersons by activating the four qualities of moral imagination: the embodied presence of the preacher, empathy as a bridge between past injustice and future possibilities, wisdom found in ancient texts, and hope conveyed through artistic, poetic language. With reference to historical addresses and sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy and Prathia Hall, Dr. Thomas will demonstrate how contemporary preachers can incorporate the moral imagination into their own dangerous sermons and laypersons to have a dangerous faith!
- “Dangerous Sermons and Dangerous Faith”
- Susan Salley – Associate Publisher, Abingdon Press
- “Writing with Purpose”
- Can you describe your message and audience in 60 seconds? Publishers need clarity and a razor sharp focus to understand and place your writing – who is the primary audience, why will they read your book, and what will change in their lives? If you are intentional and focused and you present, plan and write, the benefit for the reader will be in the spotlight in your writing as well as in the promotion from title to packaging to marketing.
- Can you describe your message and audience in 60 seconds? Publishers need clarity and a razor sharp focus to understand and place your writing – who is the primary audience, why will they read your book, and what will change in their lives? If you are intentional and focused and you present, plan and write, the benefit for the reader will be in the spotlight in your writing as well as in the promotion from title to packaging to marketing.
- “Writing with Purpose”
- Philip Gulley
- “Writing Your Soul: Dissidence and Democracy”
- The role of writing in serving as a culture’s conscience.
- The role of writing in serving as a culture’s conscience.
- “Writing Your Soul: Dissidence and Democracy”
- Jessica Mesman
- “Writing about Ritual, and Rituals that Help Us Write”
- “Some morning when the world is drained of wonder, someday when I’m only going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do…on that bankrupt morning I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be.” –Joan Didion
Didion isn’t writing about religious ritual but about the writerly ritual of keeping a daily notebook. And yet this sentence encapsulates for me the value of both. Yes, sometimes rituals feel empty, rote, or monotonous. But rituals can also be containers for deeper knowledge and sensory memory, one that we can enter at various times and remember previous selves now otherwise lost to us. This workshop will consider approaches and complications to writing about religious rituals, while also exploring the daily routines that can help us as writers.
- “Some morning when the world is drained of wonder, someday when I’m only going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do…on that bankrupt morning I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be.” –Joan Didion
- “Writing about Ritual, and Rituals that Help Us Write”
Breakout Seminars B – 2:15 PM
- Sophfronia Scott
- “The Miracle of Metaphor”
- In spiritual writing we’re often seeking to grasp and describe the ineffable while at the same time bringing the reader closer to experiences that are extremely personal. How do we do that? By using one of the most important keys in a writer’s toolbox: metaphor. We’ll explore this craft element through text examples and writing exercises.
- In spiritual writing we’re often seeking to grasp and describe the ineffable while at the same time bringing the reader closer to experiences that are extremely personal. How do we do that? By using one of the most important keys in a writer’s toolbox: metaphor. We’ll explore this craft element through text examples and writing exercises.
- “The Miracle of Metaphor”
- Tony Jones – Author and former Senior Acquisitions Editor, Fortress Press
- “Two Things Your Book NEEDS (And a Few More Things It Should Have)”
- Every non-fiction book needs two things. How does Tony Jones know that? Because he’s both an author and an acquisitions editor. He’s written books that have sold well, and others that haven’t. And he’s acquired and edited books that have sold well, and others that haven’t. This session will be a no-BS talk about how to write and sell books in today’s challenging publishing environment. Tony Jones has the rare experience of seeing the publishing world from both sides. He is the author of 14 books, with publishers including Zondervan, Paraclete, Jossey-Bass, and HarperOne; he’s also self-published a couple. He has edited series at NavPress and Abingdon. And he is senior acquisitions editor at Fortress Press, overseeing the Theology for the People imprint. So he’s been around, he knows the players in the publishing world, and he’s got some insights into what works and what doesn’t.
- “Two Things Your Book NEEDS (And a Few More Things It Should Have)”
- Nathan Day Wilson (columnist with The Indianapolis Star and pastor)
- “Train your Brain: increase creativity and productivity to beat the block.”
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If not you, maybe your friend experiences times when they can’t fit two words together. Something holds them back, something resists, something makes it difficult for those fabulous ideas in the head to become actual words on the page. Oh, the words – where are the words?
This breakout session is about helping your, um, friend understand that writers block is not monolithic, and neither is curing it. Using the latest in neuroscience, we will identify the causes of such block and describe strategies to overcome them. We will learn how to build a lifestyle that encourages creativity, discover what inspiration is and how to prepare for it, and instill habits to keep those fingers flying across the keyboard.
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- “Train your Brain: increase creativity and productivity to beat the block.”
- Brian Allain – Writing for Your Life
- “Why You Should Consider Self Publishing”
- In this presentation we will discuss how changes in the publishing industry mean that there has never been a better time to consider self publishing. We will review recent and current industry structure, the top 10 reasons to consider self publishing (all the way from tools to economics to platform to sources of assistance), and deal with the concern of legitimacy. We will also consider a couple of examples.
- “Why You Should Consider Self Publishing”
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Breakout Seminars C – 9:30 AM
- Rev. Dr. Frank A. Thomas
- “Dangerous Sermons and Dangerous Faith”
- Frank A. Thomas author, scholar and renowned preacher will offer insights from his new book How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon. The “dangerous sermon,” is one that refuses to reflect idolatrous, diabolical imaginings of our human future. Rather, it challenges clergy and laypersons by activating the four qualities of moral imagination: the embodied presence of the preacher, empathy as a bridge between past injustice and future possibilities, wisdom found in ancient texts, and hope conveyed through artistic, poetic language. With reference to historical addresses and sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy and Prathia Hall, Dr. Thomas will demonstrate how contemporary preachers can incorporate the moral imagination into their own dangerous sermons and laypersons to have a dangerous faith!
- “Dangerous Sermons and Dangerous Faith”
- Tony Jones – Author and former Senior Acquisitions Editor, Fortress Press
- “Two Things Your Book NEEDS (And a Few More Things It Should Have)”
- Every non-fiction book needs two things. How does Tony Jones know that? Because he’s both an author and an acquisitions editor. He’s written books that have sold well, and others that haven’t. And he’s acquired and edited books that have sold well, and others that haven’t. This session will be a no-BS talk about how to write and sell books in today’s challenging publishing environment. Tony Jones has the rare experience of seeing the publishing world from both sides. He is the author of 14 books, with publishers including Zondervan, Paraclete, Jossey-Bass, and HarperOne; he’s also self-published a couple. He has edited series at NavPress and Abingdon. And he is senior acquisitions editor at Fortress Press, overseeing the Theology for the People imprint. So he’s been around, he knows the players in the publishing world, and he’s got some insights into what works and what doesn’t.
- “Two Things Your Book NEEDS (And a Few More Things It Should Have)”
- Erin Healy
- “Your Novel in a Nutshell: How to Write Story Summaries”
- Transforming your full-length novel into an effective summary less than 1 percent of its length is no small feat. Whether you sell your story depends in large part on how well you master this fundamental task. In this session you’ll learn how to write five types of fiction summaries, which can be adapted to suit agents’, publishers’, and even readers’ requirements: the tagline, the elevator pitch, the blurb, the synopsis, and the chapter summary.
- Transforming your full-length novel into an effective summary less than 1 percent of its length is no small feat. Whether you sell your story depends in large part on how well you master this fundamental task. In this session you’ll learn how to write five types of fiction summaries, which can be adapted to suit agents’, publishers’, and even readers’ requirements: the tagline, the elevator pitch, the blurb, the synopsis, and the chapter summary.
- “Your Novel in a Nutshell: How to Write Story Summaries”
- Nathan Day Wilson (columnist with The Indianapolis Star and pastor)
- “Train your Brain: increase creativity and productivity to beat the block.”
-
If not you, maybe your friend experiences times when they can’t fit two words together. Something holds them back, something resists, something makes it difficult for those fabulous ideas in the head to become actual words on the page. Oh, the words – where are the words?
This breakout session is about helping your, um, friend understand that writers block is not monolithic, and neither is curing it. Using the latest in neuroscience, we will identify the causes of such block and describe strategies to overcome them. We will learn how to build a lifestyle that encourages creativity, discover what inspiration is and how to prepare for it, and instill habits to keep those fingers flying across the keyboard.
-
- “Train your Brain: increase creativity and productivity to beat the block.”
Breakout Seminars D – 10:45 AM
- Sophfronia Scott
- “The Miracle of Metaphor”
- In spiritual writing we’re often seeking to grasp and describe the ineffable while at the same time bringing the reader closer to experiences that are extremely personal. How do we do that? By using one of the most important keys in a writer’s toolbox: metaphor. We’ll explore this craft element through text examples and writing exercises.
- “The Miracle of Metaphor”
- Susan Salley – Associate Publisher, Abingdon Press
- “Writing with Purpose”
- Can you describe your message and audience in 60 seconds? Publishers need clarity and a razor sharp focus to understand and place your writing – who is the primary audience, why will they read your book, and what will change in their lives? If you are intentional and focused and you present, plan and write, the benefit for the reader will be in the spotlight in your writing as well as in the promotion from title to packaging to marketing.
- “Writing with Purpose”
- Jessica Mesman
- “Everything is ordinary. Everything is extraordinary.”
- In teaching the art of creative nonfiction we often talk about the importance of “significant detail,” of developing your ear to recognize that one quote that sings, that communicates everything you want a reader to know about your character, but in her own words, and of developing your eye to notice the one object in the room that might unlock the door to your narrative. As a writer, you must cultivate attention, to see the cosmic through the details of ordinary life. In this session we’ll explore the details of our everyday life with new eyes, to see how can enter them newly, to step through to the other shore.
- In teaching the art of creative nonfiction we often talk about the importance of “significant detail,” of developing your ear to recognize that one quote that sings, that communicates everything you want a reader to know about your character, but in her own words, and of developing your eye to notice the one object in the room that might unlock the door to your narrative. As a writer, you must cultivate attention, to see the cosmic through the details of ordinary life. In this session we’ll explore the details of our everyday life with new eyes, to see how can enter them newly, to step through to the other shore.
- “Everything is ordinary. Everything is extraordinary.”
- Mary Benard – Editorial Director, Skinner House Books and UUA Publications
- “Writing Your Spiritual Journey without Leaving Your Reader Behind”
- Spiritual journeys are deeply individualistic and interior. Writers need to dig deep into own experiences, emotions and thought process to bring meaningful spiritual insight to life in words, but it’s a challenge to keep readers connected as we look so far inside ourselves. This workshop will share tips on how to keep your reader engaged and thinking about how your story connects with theirs.
- “Writing Your Spiritual Journey without Leaving Your Reader Behind”
Breakout Seminars E – 2:30 PM
- Philip Gulley
- “Writing Your Soul: Dissidence and Democracy”
- The role of writing in serving as a culture’s conscience.
- “Writing Your Soul: Dissidence and Democracy”
- Erin Healy
- “Writer’s Block and Other Enemies”
- What obstacles stand between you and your finished manuscript? Whether you’re dealing with self-doubt, the demands of life, lack of skill, or self-sabotaging habits, it’s possible to see your efforts through to completion. In this interactive, guided discussion, we’ll cover issues that affect both novelists and non-fiction writers. Bring your biggest challenges and best ideas, and be prepared to gain and share solutions about how to overcome.
- What obstacles stand between you and your finished manuscript? Whether you’re dealing with self-doubt, the demands of life, lack of skill, or self-sabotaging habits, it’s possible to see your efforts through to completion. In this interactive, guided discussion, we’ll cover issues that affect both novelists and non-fiction writers. Bring your biggest challenges and best ideas, and be prepared to gain and share solutions about how to overcome.
- “Writer’s Block and Other Enemies”
- Brian Allain – Writing for Your Life
- “Why You Should Consider Self Publishing”
- In this presentation we will discuss how changes in the publishing industry mean that there has never been a better time to consider self publishing. We will review recent and current industry structure, the top 10 reasons to consider self publishing (all the way from tools to economics to platform to sources of assistance), and deal with the concern of legitimacy. We will also consider a couple of examples.
- “Why You Should Consider Self Publishing”
- Mary Benard – Editorial Director, Skinner House Books and UUA Publications
- “Writing Your Spiritual Journey without Leaving Your Reader Behind”
- Spiritual journeys are deeply individualistic and interior. Writers need to dig deep into own experiences, emotions and thought process to bring meaningful spiritual insight to life in words, but it’s a challenge to keep readers connected as we look so far inside ourselves. This workshop will share tips on how to keep your reader engaged and thinking about how your story connects with theirs.
- “Writing Your Spiritual Journey without Leaving Your Reader Behind”
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