WRITING IS THE BEST THERAPY - COME JOIN US

I WRITE; THEREFORE, I AM

A Creative Writing Workshop

This workshop is designed for the beginning writer as well as the more experienced author.  We will begin each session with a series of exercises to open up our minds and cajole memories or ideas that can serve us as springboards for essays or stories.  Free writing with prompts, making lists, using photos or pictures, how to find an original subject, organizing an essay or short story, how to create or depict a character, using dialogue, how to start and how to end an essay or story, and many other techniques and subjects will be discussed and practiced during our sessions. 

Reading and learning from published writers is another important component of our workshops.  We learn to read like a writer; in other words, to learn how to write from others who do it well.  Critiques of participants’ works are an essential element of our workshops.  However, you are not obligated to bring your writing to be workshopped.  It is totally up to you.  Homework is also provided as well to stimulate creation and keep you writing during the off-week.  This is also not mandatory.  All genres are accepted. 

Join us for an exciting, instruction-filled, practical workshop to develop your creative life or to continue your artistic life in an encouraging, positive atmosphere.

Frequency: every other Monday – 7-9 pm / starting March 3

Duration: 6 sessions

Cost: $20/hour

Register by February 21st by email and receive a $40 discount (one free class).  

Send your check to the location indicated below by February 21st.  

Location: 1867 N. Bissell – plenty of free parking or one block from the Brown Line or three blocks from the Red Line

For more information: email me at bgartler@yahoo.com.

I WRITE; THEREFORE, I AM

I WRITE; THEREFORE, I AM

A Creative Writing Workshop

Beatriz Badikian-Gartler, Ph.D.

    This workshop is designed for the beginning writer as well as the more experienced author.  We will begin each session with a series of exercises to open up our minds and cajole memories or ideas that can serve us as springboards for essays or stories.  Free writing with prompts, making lists, using photos or pictures, how to find an original subject, organizing an essay or short story, how to create or depict a character, using dialogue, how to start and how to end an essay or story, and many other techniques and subjects will be discussed and practiced during our sessions. 

    Reading and learning from published writers is another important component of our workshops.  We learn to read like a writer; in other words, to learn how to write from others who do it well.  Critiques of participants’ works are an essential element of our workshops.  However, you are not obligated to bring your writing to be workshopped.  It is totally up to you.  Homework is also provided as well to stimulate creation and keep you writing during the off-week.  This is also not mandatory.  All genres are accepted. 

    Join us for an exciting, instruction-filled, practical workshop to develop your creative life or to continue your artistic life in an encouraging, positive atmosphere.

Frequency: every other Monday – 7-9 pm / starting September 9

Duration: 8 sessions

Cost: $20/hour

Location: 1867 N. Bissell – plenty of free parking or one block from the Brown Line or three blocks from the Red Line

Maximum enrollment: 8

For more information: email me at bgartler@yahoo.com

To take a look at my work go to my website: www.bbgartler.com  or check out my blog: www.gartlerwritingstudio.blogspot.com.

To reserve a spot send a deposit of $100.00 or the entire amount to my home address, Chicago, 60614.

            TAKE A CHANCE AND FIRE UP YOUR CREATIVITY!  JOIN US THIS SEPTEMBER.

WRITE IN ITHACA, GREECE

      The Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop On The Greek Isle Of Ithaca

                                                                  August 1 - 7, 2013

Ithaca is a writer’s haven.  It remains unspoiled by the modern world. Even in the height of summer you can find a secluded beach or a rustic corner to contemplate your thoughts. On Ithaca you'll discover the island’s rich culture and the reason why it holds such a special place in the hearts of those who have visited its shores

The new Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop invites participants to their very own private odyssey on the island of Ithaca—a retreat about riveting one's writing through an intimate Homeric journey.

To learn more about the writing retreat, please visit www.hwrw.blogspot.com.

Retreat Attendees will receive:

Expert instruction on all topics of publishing

A comprehensive critique and market recommendations for your work.

Accommodation at Nostos Hotel with buffet breakfast, two dinners and excursions

Gift hampers on arrival, filled with traditional Greek goods

Our instructors this year are, Katharine Sands, a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, and Beatriz Badikian-Gartler, a popular performer in the Chicago area who often lectures on women's issues, art, and literature. In 2000 Badikian was selected as one of the One-Hundred Women Who Make a Difference in Chicago by Today's Woman magazine.

Fee: 1,550 Euro per person, all-inclusive. Enjoy special Excursions, including a guided walk to Homer's School, dinners, cocktails by the sea, village sightseeing, traditional dance and festivals. The clear blue seas and lush green valleys and mountains are home to one of the friendliest communities in Greece and the new Homeric Writing Retreat!

Contact:

Retreat Director: Jessica Bell

jessica.carmen.bell@gmail.com

Come to San Miguel this February!

Concurrent Workshop, Session #1: Thursday, February 14  9:00 – 10:30 AM

CRAFTING STORIES FROM REAL LIFE: Literary Nonfiction

Literary or creative nonfiction is the fastest growing literary genre.   The telling of facts in a creative manner entertains readers, surprises them, and teaches them something about real life in the process.

Creative nonfiction walks a fine line between fiction and truth with style and confidence.  Create stories that read like fiction but are based on real life.

In this workshop you will learn how to write a gripping opening sentence, how to use dialogue and bring characters alive, how to incorporate research to add depth to your writing, and the essential techniques of successful and interesting creative nonfiction writing.

We will also look at examples of creative nonfiction from an array of authors and study them to learn about voice, style, and structure as we produce our own essays by the end of the session.

Beatriz Badikian-Gartler’s publications includeMapmaker Revisited: New and Selected Poems; Old Gloves: A 20^th Century Saga; travel essays in The New York Times, The Winfield Post, New Directions in Travel Writing, and others. She has also published short stories, film reviews, poems, and personal memoir essays in journals and anthologies in the United States and abroad.

Badikian-Gartler holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been teaching for the last 25 years at various institutions of higher learning, such as, Northwestern University, Loyola University, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, University of Wisconsin, Newberry Library, and others.

Her writing has won several awards, including a nomination for a Pushcart Prize in 1993, a Time Inc. fellowship, and grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Office of Fine Arts.  She is a popular performer in the Chicago area and lectures often on women’s issues, art, and literature.

In 2000 Badikian-Gartler was selected as one of the “One-Hundred Women Who Make a Difference in Chicago” by Today’s Woman magazine.  She is also an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar.

REPORT FROM PARADISE: The Clearing at Elison Bay - Day Two

The bell rings at 7 a.m. to wake us up; then it rings at 7:30 calling us for breakfast.  Oatmeal is always served first; then an egg cup or biscuits or pancakes.  Fifteen minutes before twelve the first bell rings for dinner and then the second bell at noon.  Two bells call us for supper as well at six.  Meals are early and delicious.  Before each meal the host reads the thought of the day.  It can be a poem or an excerpt from Jens Jensen's writings.  Kind of saying grace but not.  I like that.  I think I'll do at home.  Maybe...

This morning I felt like Oliver Twist: sitting at a long table, spooning oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.  Meals are family style.  We pass the food to the left from each end of the table.  There is a faint British feel to the place and the customs.  But Jensen was Danish.  We sit at a different spot every time so we can meet everyone.  Spouses are not supposed to sit together.  Mix and mingle.  After dinner (which is actually lunch but they call it dinner) we take the class photo. 

Today is the first day of class.  I am exhausted.  Three hours in the morning, two and a half in the afternoon: talking and talking.  Teaching saps my energies.  But I love it!  There are five women in the class; all have experience with writing.  Their ages vary greatly.  Some of my exercises surprises them, irritates them, but eventually they come to see the value in them.  I hope that by the end of the week I have taught them something. 

After supper we sit in the prairie facing the lake and read for a while; later we drive to Sister Bay to connect to the internet parked next to the Bowl restaurant.  Across the street, at Husby's restaurant, a singer performs live.  It is loud and it annoys David.  We must go.  More tomorrow...

REPORT FROM PARADISE: The Clearing at Elison Bay - Day One

After six hours of driving we arrive at The Clearing Folk School - Jens Jensen's creation - in Elison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.  A zig zag road leads us to the lodge where we check in.  Log cabins over flagstone paths in between woods populated by maples and birches, trilliums, viburnums.  From the window in our room I can glimpse the bay.  Perfect weather has welcomed David and me to this earthly paradise where I will teach a writing class for a week.

There are between twenty and twenty-five people staying here for four different classes: watercolor, stained glass, landscape design, writing.  We settle in, we take a nap.  Supper is at 6 pm.  We eat family style: tortellini with basil and tomatoes,  tuna salad on an English muffin with avocado and tomato and cheese, watermelon and pineapple slices, banana cake for desert. 

After supper we watch a slide show about Jensen and The Clearing, introduce ourselves, and break off for individual class meetings.  I have five students.  Good group.

I think I'm going to like it here.  Quiet, trees, birds, lake, and now - at 10 pm - a full moon in front of me while I write these notes sitting outside an ice cream parlor in Sister Bay where I've come to borrow the wifi from a restaurant across the street.  No internet on campus.  No cell phones allowed.  We are on a retreat from daily cares and sounds.   Or are we?  Some of us always figure a way to thwart the rules.  But then...