The story of your life is itching to be written, awaiting your reflections on the path your life has taken and where it’s headed. Learn how to express and organize your thoughts during Belinda Anderson’s “Life Stories” three-week creative writing class beginning Tuesday, Sept. 28, via conference call through New River Community and Technical College.

This workshop offers techniques to help writers mine the rich veins of memory.

You can attend the class via an internet conference call connection, but you can also attend with your land line telephone – no high-speed internet is required. The class will be conducted through one-hour conference calls that will include lecture, with time for questions and participant sharing, and group e-mail follow-up as needed.

“ ‘Everyone is original, talented and has something to say.’ Brenda Ueland wrote that in 1938, and that’s the message I bring to adult writing workshops,” Anderson said.

Participants will learn how to translate their memories into written form using tools of the reporter’s trade and the narrative elements of fiction. The class is designed for both beginners and those already with a writing project underway.
The “Life Stories” class meets at 10 a.m. Tuesdays for three weeks.

Anderson was named a Master Artist by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. The author of four books also is on the first literary map of West Virginia, published by Fairmont State University.

The cost for the class is $75. The pre-registration deadline is Sept. 14.

For College information or to register visit www.newriver.edu/community or contact Gloria Kincaid (304-793-6101, gkincaid@newriver.edu).

The Fantastic Ekphrastic workshop with Belinda Anderson Returns at New River CTC

If you like art and enjoy playing with words, New River Community and Technical College has just the class for you: “Fantastic Ekphrastic,” a conference call class with author Belinda Anderson, beginning Oct. 26.

The word “ekphrastic” derives from the Greek exercise of describing art. “It sharpens your descriptive abilities, which improves all types of writing,” Anderson said. As the  workshop progresses, students will develop the ability to use any type of object, in addition to art, as an important element in creative writing.

The class is designed to help advance writers of all experience levels. Writers can experiment in the genres of fiction, nonfiction and poetry or focus on one mode.

The three-week class, which meets Tuesdays from 10 to 11 a.m., will be conducted through one-hour conference calls that include lecture, with time for questions and participant sharing, and group e-mail followup as needed. Students can join the class meetings with an internet conference call connection, or via land line telephone.

The college offers this convenience for those who lack high-speed internet service. Last year, when the conference call classes debuted, students attended from as far away as Montana as well as southern West Virginia. The participants in the “Fantastic Ekphrastic” course wrote in a variety of genres, some incorporating what they were learning in memoir projects they had started.

Tuition for the class is $75, and the registration deadline is Oct. 12. Participants will be emailed the conference call number and access codes after registering for the class.
 
“All you have to do is call a number, enter the access codes you’ll be given, and then you’ll be connected to the group. It’s that easy,” Anderson explained.
 
For college information or to register visit www.newriver.edu/community or contact Gloria Kincaid (304-793-6101, gkincaid@newriver.edu).