Writer Workshops
These free writing workshops will take place in the Nick Rahall Room of the Greenbrier Valley Visitors Center.
Memior
Diane Tarantini and Renee Nicholson
Aug 2
5:00 pm
Visitor's Center
“Memoir”—Diane Tarantini and Renee Nicholson will lead this journey into writing about one’s past through the method of memoir. How do memoirs differ from autobiography? What are the common tools used in the process? How can using the techniques common to fiction benefit the telling of one’s own story?
Renée K. Nicholson, is the author of Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness, co-editor of the award-winning anthology Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives of Illness, Disability, and Medicine, the poetry collection Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center, and the forthcoming poetry collection, Postscripts. She is also collaborating with visual artist Sally Jane Brown on an art and poetry book, What We Do In The Hollows. Renée was a past Emerging Writer-in-Residence at Penn State-Altoona, the recipient of the 2018 Susan S. Landis Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the West Virginia Division of History, Culture, and the Arts, and winner for the Prize for Prose from The Nassau Review. Renée served as the Director of the Humanities Center at WVU from 2020-2024, is currently a member of the WVU Press Board, and is a creative partner in the narrative medicine project, Healthcare is Human.
Diane Tarantini is the author of the newly released Everyone Was Silent: A memoir and also the children's book, The Brave Knight, which was distributed to each of the 7,000+ foster kids in the Mountain State. Her next project is another children's book, a collaboration with a well-known tattoo artist. Tarantini currently writes for outlets such as the West Virginia Gazette Mail, Metro Magazine, and West Virginia Living Magazine. Her blog posts can be found at dianetarantini.com. In addition, Tarantini is a body safety educator in public schools around the state. She currently resides in a 1910 Sears kit house in Morgantown with her husband Tony and their two co-reigning felines, Bonnie Agnes and Boots Louise.
“Some Assembly Required”
Sherell Runnion Wigal
Aug 3
9:30 am
Visitor's Center
“Some Assembly Required” -- In the words of Terry Tempest Williams, from her book, When Women Were Birds, “We all have our secrets. I hold mine. To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, openly and honestly, is also power.” (Quote used with permission from Terry Tempest Williams.) Discussions will center around Tools of the Trade: 1) Word collection; 2) Reading poems; 3) Writing Poems; 4) Editing your poems; and 5) the hesitation of using poetic license in our own work (being true to the story verses being true to the poem). Through brief discussions and hand-outs, followed by timed, hands-on writing exercises, participants will begin to create their own poems and will be given the opportunity to share their drafts within the safety of this writing workshop.
Sherrell Runnion Wigal is a West Virginia poet who comes from many generations of people living and working the land in Appalachia. With carefully chosen words, Sherrell encourages readers to move beyond their expectations. Her poems challenge and inspire. Her writing appears in many publications throughout the country, including, Streetlight Magazine (Virginia), Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel (Kentucky), and Women of Appalachia Speak (Ohio). Sherrell is also a member of the Porch Poets, who will be giving a reading on Friday, August 2, at 6 p.m., also at the Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors' Bureau.
CREATING COZY MYSTERIES
Heather Day Gilbert
Aug 3
11:00 am
Visitor's Center
Creating Killer Cozy Mysteries -- Should you write cozy mysteries? In this session, we'll discuss what cozies are and how to develop a series that will please this hungry readership. Heather will also discuss aspects of how she came to set one of her own cozy mystery series in Lewisburg itself.
Summers County native Heather Day Gilbert is an RWA Daphne Award-winning author and 2-time ECPA Christy Award finalist. Her bestselling Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series is set in Lewisburg, WV and has hit numerous Amazon #1 Bestseller lists. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren't afraid to protect those they love. Find out more at heatherdaygilbert.com.