Memoir & NonFiction
ZOOM: chincoteague Bay Breakout Room
9:15 AM
Lynne Streeter Childress is a playwright, actor, teaching artist, singer, director, and the founding artistic director of Building Better People Productions, a theater company for young audiences based in Annapolis, MD, that does works based on themes of kindness and respect. Her show, "We Got It!: A Show About Empathy," has toured schools around the DC/MD/VA area. Lynne's 26-year career in professional theater as a performer, educator, and administrator has taken her to places like the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Lynne lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and son. Website: http://bbpproductions.com 10:30 AM This session seeks to provide ways to approach writing about historical events and figures in a way that allows the modern reader to see themselves in the place and time of the events. The session will also provide tips on writing about history in a way that the individuals are humanized rather than presented as a list of facts or stereotypical displays of habits, rhetoric, or actions. The session hopes to answer the question: how do I tell history differently while still be true? Kerri Moseley-Hobbs -- As CEO and executive director of More Than A Fraction Foundation, Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs continues an almost 20-year career in education, currently serving in roles on both sides of education: administration and research/program development. This includes experiential learning, educational presentation and exposure, and historical research. Along with her extensive work with prestigious projects, she is a research author of a creative nonfiction book, More Than a Fraction: Based on a true story 11:45 AM
Lizzy Solovey is the creator of a three-part writing workshop series called "Unleash the Writer Within" and has taught four years of high school English. She holds an M.A. in the Teaching of English from Columbia University's Teachers College and participated in Kenyon College's Writing Workshop for Teachers. Lizzy believes not only that everyone is a creative writer, but also that everyone can use creative writing as a way to heal. | 2:15 PM
Randon Billings Noble is an essayist. Her collection Be with Me Always was published by the University of Nebraska Press in March 2019 and her anthology A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays is forthcoming from Nebraska in 2021. Other work has appeared in the "Modern Love" column of The New York Times, The Rumpus, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere. Currently she is working on her next book, a lyric meditation on shadows, and teaching in the West Virginia Wesleyan Low-Residency MFA Program. She is also the founding editor of the online literary magazine After the Art. You can read more at her website, www.randonbillingsnoble.com. 3: 30 PM
Michael Mitchell is a music journalist who writes for a wide variety of online music magazines, including Post-Punk.com, Torched, Stereo Embers, ReGen, God is in the TV, and Spill. He can be found rocking in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is happily married with two adult children (who also love to rock). In lieu of cash, he is always willing to work for concert tickets, backstage passes, albums, CD's, cassettes, or 8-tracks. SESSION SUMMARIES by TRACK Beginning Fiction - Advanced Fiction
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Playwriting: It Has A Message 
Plays are an awesome tool to spread positive messages but it's easy for your message to become a preachy mess to which no one wants to listen. In this session, playwright Lynne Streeter Childress will give you tips on how to tell a clear, honest, and compelling story through your scripts that both informs and entertains.
, and is one of the leading voices in the history of Africans in America and African Americans of the Appalachian region. Prior to her career, Dr. Moseley-Hobbs worked as a junior writer at The Baltimore Times Newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, where she was first published when she was 12 years old. Dr. Moseley-Hobbs holds a doctorate in education and three degrees from the University of Maryland: a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, a master's degree in interdisciplinary management, and a master's degree in business administration (MBA). She is a fifth-generation descendant of John Fraction, the subject of her first creative nonfiction book, More Than A Fraction. Website: 
Mapping Memories asks writers to return to their childhoods by first drawing a map of their childhood neighborhood and then indicating several spots on the map which elicit strong memories. Next, in small groups, writers take their peers on a brief oral "tour" of their childhood neighborhood, sharing two-three stories as they go. Finally, writers begin crafting one story on the page, centering their story around the specific place their memory occurs (the backyard, the neighboring woods, etc.). 
Join essayist Randon Billings Noble in exploring the segmented essay (also known as the collage or mosaic essay). Segmented essays are divided into sections that might be numbered or titled or simply separated with a space break. These breaks allow the reader to pause, think, consider, and digest each segment before moving on to the next. Each segment may contain something new, but all still belong cogently to the whole. In this session, we'll look at examples of segmented essays that show creative uses of this form. We'll also do a series of writing exercises (focused on place) that will lead to a segmented essay of your own. Participants will leave with a new understanding of the segmented essay as well as new work.
This session will zero in on how to write a music review (whether about an album, single, or live concert) that not only inspires but implores the reader to listen more closely. How do you use language strong enough to create both a lasting impression and a curious passion within the reader? Join this music-filled session designed to teach you how to inspire people to love what you love in the music itself, learn how to build intrigue enough to persuade others to seek out an artist or a band and become a huge fan.
