"stories happen when civil discourse breaks down"

day ? weds. july 13 (at least i know what day it is...) same routine in the early am and at breakfast i'm joined by dorothy allison & d.a. powell simply because we eat at the same time, like quiet in the morning & not through any particular charisma on my part, believe me...still, makes for great morning conversation. today's offutt workshop notes: "cultural references lock things in to a time & place"; in the beginning of your story, "make it clear who the protagonist is"...here we also received our first instance of the offutt blackboard illustration of novel vs. short story & the idea that it's important in the short story form to "start near the end"...other notes, "the strength of the novel is the strength of the antagonist", and perhaps the quote of the day, "many people start with poetry & the blessed among us stay there"...perhaps mr. offutt has never been required to write a sestina (as painful an exercise as banging one's head against the literal brick wall)...onwards...2pm "the great figure: figurative language in poetry" with my new favorite, d.a. powell. "in this seminar, we'll look at some of the myriad devices beyond metaphor and simile that complicate and sustain the relationship between poem & reader"...if you can make sense of my notes on this seminar, i'll buy you a beer...however, it was uplifting, much needed brain exercise and some of the decipherable quotes include: "from simile to the inarticulate"; "what happens to meaning when it's interupted"; "sentences justify wars, they strangle our forests"; wallace stevens: "to kneel under the weight of the real, dwelling in the doubt/to go out with the sun like a laugh/it's tough trying to breath for the world"...the only problem with a seminar taught by d.a. powell is that i got so caught up in his VOICE, his ability to read poetry, recite eliot et al, that i took lousy notes...NEXT...Charles D'Ambrosio and "Writing Dialogue: Fundamentals of Speech in Fiction" wherein he refers to Berwitz's book (title?) and varied other sources some notes: "let 'no' be implied - no is a passive response..."; "stories happen when civil discourse breaks down"...every character exists inside a rhythm [ref. cormac m & cities of the plain]...Eudora Welty, "reveal what he said, what he thought he said, what he left unsaid...". 4:30 cocktail hour and 5:30 Elissa Schappell reading - not only does she dress fabulously but she writes fabulously. Brenda Shaughnessy was next (poetry editor at Tin House) and read, "A Poet's Poem", "I'm Over the Moon", "3 summers mark only 2 years", "the color of snow" [my favorite out of these] and "a brown age"...more limp lettuce & tofu, a PB&J, and 8pm reading with Whitney Otto, who read selections from her column in the Oregonian & a piece called "If you knew jesus like i knew jesus" and Ron Carlson who read: a recommendation letter (hilarious!), a 'style guide', and a new piece of fiction - all illustrating his comic genius. on to beer, student readings and a good chunk of time sitting outside in a dark corner FINALLY catching up on some writing - most of which oddly enough came out in rhyme and is therefore completely unusable but at least i felt better...