2012 Professional Writers Series - Cai Emmons, “Weaving the Well-Woven Story”

Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up. Marcel Proust and James Joyce wrote while lying in their respective beds. Ben Franklin sat in the bathtub when he was writing. Some writers write solely on legal pads, some only use No. 2 pencils, many in the electronic age still swim across the page with their fountain pens. Do these idiosyncrasies really help forge a literary career? Come meet five articulate and distinguished Northwest writers from a variety of genres, who will share their views on the creative process. Discover what makes a memoir a memoir, what makes fiction fiction, and what gives meaning to the personal essay. Take part in weekly writing prompts and exercises. And perhaps, walk away from this special series with a new sense of purpose and direction, not to mention an expanded reading list that should spark your imaginative powers for days to come.

Cai Emmons’s debut novel, “His Mother's Son,” won the Ken Kesey Award for the Novel in 2003 and has been translated into French, Italian and German. Her second novel, “The Stylist,” was published by Harper Collins. Booklist said of this work, "With family relations twisted as a French braid and language as vivid as a platinum dye job, Emmons' potent novel features magnetic characters and complex and compelling secrets." Also a noted playwright, editor, director and screenwriter, she is a graduate of Yale University, received an MFA in cinema from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon where she now teaches. Her short works have appeared in Arts and Letters, Narrative Magazine, The New York Post, and Portland Monthly and elsewhere.

Prospective English students: Join us for a reception featuring a panel discussion and Q&A before each event in the Writing Center, Library room 203 from 6:15 - 7 p.m.