And here’s my last in my series of posts on writing workshops.
Background: Tin House Summer Writers Workshop is the brain child of Tin House Magazine editors.
Distinguishing Features: Tin House is a relatively new conference that recently exploded in size. It has many of the same features as Squaw, such as daily workshops and the opportunity to meet individually with an agent or editor. That said, the faculty seemed much friendlier and willing to hang out than Squaw (sorry Squaw!). For example, Antonya Nelson sat with our table the first day. She just sat and talked with us. And we didn’t have to worship her in the Harvard Great Man model of teaching.
Location: Reed College, Portland, Oregon. Very moist. Very green. Very collegiate.
Meals: All in the cafeteria and, god forgive me, it was blissful to be fed by others. The cafeteria always seemed to have several vegetarian options too. Grease was present though since it was a cafeteria.
Time: A week in July
Lodging: I stayed in possibly the ugliest, noisiest dorm imaginable (other than a dorm at UCSB that my friend Heather was the unfortunate head resident of in 1991; that was worse because it was filthy). This was slightly better in that it was clean, but it was ugly and noisy. Did I mention how ugly and noisy it was? Not everyone’s dorm was this ugly and noisy.
Size: There were 12 in the workshop group and overall maybe 100?
Leader: Jim Shepard led the workshop. He was so beloved by the end of the workshop he’s lucky he’s not covered in bronze.
The Workshop: No fixed format other than daily meetings as far as I could tell.
Preparation: We read each other’s manuscripts ahead of time via emailed docs. I read most faculty member’s books too.
Benefits: I learned a ton about writing in Jim Shepard’s writing and workshop and felt my writing was understood, which is saying a lot.
Unfortunate Incidents and other details: I should have skipped the agent and editor panels, because honestly those are the same questions and answers everywhere and I find it a bit condescending (spell our names right! proofread! write something fresh!) and it makes me cranky to hear this, but that may just be my bitter evil twin typing. I’ve been to a lot of agent and editor panels and other writers seem to find them helpful, so it’s probably my own problem.
Overall Feel: Like some of my favorite days at Wes, but less lonely and ptsd-addled.