Welcome to my website! Let's catch up.

LMU

 

My colleague Denton Loving and I have been very busy this semester. As co-directors of The Mountain Heritage Literary Festival we discovered we work really well together. Denton also contributes to the Appalachian Reading Series and a number of other writing related efforts at LMU.  We decided we worked so well together, with the design skills and artful eye of Liz Murphy Thomas, we launched a new LMU literary journal with an national audience in mind. 

drafthorse focuses on work or the absence of work. Take a look.

 

WHAT ABOUT SUMMER 2012?

Mountain Heritage Literary Festival

    

This year's keynote presenters are poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Maurice Manning and Grammy-winning singer-songerwriter Matraca Berg. Master class teachers include Joseph Bathanti, Michael Chitwood, Jim Minick, and Lisa Soland. The Jesse Stuart lecture will be given by George Ella Lyon. The featured visual artist will be Alice Hale Adams. And Barbara Bates Smith will be here to debut her play based on the Ron Rash short story "Lincolnites." These wonderful artists will be in good company with other talented folks showcased in the concurrent sessions.  And back by popular demand, Tasha Thomas and Dawn Mitchell with be with us from the Spartanburg Writers Project to teach our pre-conference teacher workshop on Friday morning. And for those of you looking to compound your conference experience with a few days of solitude and writing time, join us for the inaugural Cumberland Gap-Table Rock Writers Studio. For more information and to register, visit the MHLF website.

Here are some good shots from the 2011 MHLF. Notice that everyone's smiling.

 

On the road

Check out my schedule to see when and where I'll be this spring and summer and into the fall, either reading or teaching or helping William sell his sculptures!

WRITING

Somewhere amid all these doings, I’ve managed to write some poems and stories and work on my next novel.  What are you writing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

DANCING WITH THE GORILLA

Because I'm both a writer and a writing teacher, there are features on this website for both readers and fans of Sufficient Grace and What Travels With Us and also features for writers and aspiring writers. I hope most of what's here appeals to everyone. I had taken a hiatus from my blog: Dancing with the Gorilla: Lyric Pontifications on the Kinetics of Reading, Writing, and Revising. But I'm easing back into regular blog posts, or should I say dance steps. Check out weekly posts on reading, writing, and arithmetic. This year I'm trying to read a book a week, write regularly, and learn to use numbers to my advantage. All the while, I'm still pontificating on reading, writing, and revision.  

There's something in Dancing with the Gorilla for anyone interested in books or stories, or anyone curious about how some stories get written. I'm a big believer that really good books are the best writing teachers. The best way to become a good reader is to appreciate what other writers have accomplished on the page. Many of my adult writing students have told me if they never publish

a book, they are better readers and read better books after taking a writing workshop. That's largely what this blog is about, no pun intended: to appreciate good reading and good writing.

I hope you take a peek at Dancing with the Gorilla and keep coming back, and I hope you find other interesting and useful surprises among the site's resources. Join me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and SheWrites, where I’m limping and lurching into the use of 21st century technology!

With warm regards,

Darnell