Lit Youngstown’s classes run once per week for six weeks. Locations are listed in the class description (all venues are wheelchair accessible). Courses cost $25 for six sessions, payable on the first night. Classes have enrollment caps, so register early to reserve your spot. To register, send your name and contact information to LitYoungstown@gmail.com.
Have an idea for a class you’d like to take or teach? Have questions about our Spring 2015 classes? Email us at LitYoungstown@gmail.com.
Prose Poetry Workshop
All experience levels welcome. Open to adults and teens. Maximum enrollment, 12. Thursdays March 12, 19 & 26, April 2, 16, & 23, 6:15-7:45 p.m., the Café at Wittenauer’s, 122 S. Main St., Poland.
Course Description: Nin Andrews and Karen Schubert will lead a workshop about the prose poem, a form of poetry that is quite simply, poetry without line breaks. While traditional poems are written in verse, prose poems, like pure prose, are composed of sentences and paragraphs. But unlike prose, prose poems seek to incorporate the music and magic of poetry. Much of the pleasure of prose poetry is derived from its ability to mock and mimic other forms of writing. Some prose poems, for example, are tiny novellas. Others are like little parables, myths, or fairy tales. Or they might look like alumni news letters or questionnaires. Come try your hand at this fun and whimsical form.
Instructor Profile: Nin Andrews is the author of five chapbooks and six full-length poetry collections including her most recent, Why God Is A Woman (April, 2015). Her work has been in many literary reviews and anthologies including The Best of the Prose Poem, Great American Prose Poems, and An Introduction to the Prose Poem.
Karen Schubert’s most recent chapbook I Left My Wings on a Chair (Kent State Press, 2014) is a collection of prose poems, and she has prose poetry in many publications including Artful Dodge, The Prose-Poem Project, Water~Stone Review, The Fourth River and Knockout Literary Magazine. A graduate of Youngstown State University, she taught creative writing at several colleges, the English Festival at YSU, and Mill Creek Park.
Prose Writers’ Roundtable
Experienced writers, please. Please bring a laptop so we can go paperless. Maximum enrollment, 10. Mondays, March 23 & 30, April 6, 13, 20 & 27, 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the conference room of the Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Avenue, Youngstown.
Course Description: Each week we will read our work aloud and offer critique to each other. Short and long form fiction (short stories, novellas, novels), non-fiction (essays, articles) and creative non-fiction (memoirs) are welcome.
Instructor Profile: Christine Davidson is an educator, writer, talent coach and voiceover artist. She has worked as a reporter/anchor for radio, television and cable news organizations. She is one of the founding journalists of CNN Headline News. She edited Mill Creek Park Remembered and her work appears in the Fallen City Writers Anthology and Remembering Youngstown.
Songwriting Workshop
All experience levels welcome. Open to adults and teens. Maximum enrollment: 15. Mondays, March 16, 23 & 30, April 6, 13 & 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St., Youngstown.
Course Description: Each week a different topic will be discussed, followed by an hour of lyric reading and/or song playing. A piano and guitar will be available for the students willing to play their songs for the class. Although it is not required, students are encouraged to bring lyrics to share with the class as well as any recorded material. A CD player and auxiliary input will be provided. The weekly topics will help students explore the many possible methods of writing a song. Peer evaluations will assist in the process of refining their songs. The overall goal of the class is to write songs we are happy to call our own. Coffee and snacks will be provided. Each student will receive a free copy of the three albums written and recorded by Jon Locketti.
Instructor Profile: Jon Locketti has been a dedicated songwriter for over fourteen years. He has written over 100 songs and played original music in bands such as The Mill Creek Trio, First in Space, The Youngstown Tramps, Dog OK and The Trust Mission. Currently, he writes, records and performs as Jonny Locomotive and the Engineers with bassist, Eric Tharp and drummer, Ed Pokrivnak.
What’s Your Story?
All experience levels welcome. Open to adults and teens. Maximum enrollment, 10. Tuesdays, March 10, 17, 24, & 31 and April 7 & 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St., Youngstown.
Course Description: Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story. –F Scott Fitzgerald This class invites participants to take a story from their own experience and deepen it into a powerful, potentially healing tale ready to be told orally. We’ll explore why it matters that we tell our stories; oral vs written format; linking story and theme; and connecting to audience. We’ll have fun as we practice telling our stories to each other. Participants will be invited (but not required) to audition for Lit Youngstown’s inaugural Storytelling Night, to be held this summer.
Instructor Profile: Liz Hill is a writer and spiritual director who has facilitated group sessions for writers and seekers at all levels of experience. She is the co-author of several novels for young adults and a non-fiction book on the spiritual practice of Singing Meditation. Her one-act play was featured in Youngstown Playhouse’s 2014 New Voices Festival. To learn more, see http://www.lizhill.net.