Creative nonfiction students were so revved up at the summer residency that they vowed to gather sometime this winter--and they did. The First Annual Creative Nonfiction Winter Residency took place last weekend in Homer and was declared a great success by participants.

The residency included Pam Hays, Jessica Shepherd, Monica Stein-Olson, Ginger Hudson, Pam Simmons, and Jennifer Stone. Alumni Barb Williams joined the group for presentations by recent graduate Annie Van Dinther and mentors Nancy Lord and Erin Hollowell. Mentor Rich Chiappone prepared one of his first-class dinners for the group, who enjoyed the chance to talk with local writer Tom Kizzia. Rich gave his own presentation afterward. In a display of extraordinary dedication, the writers also sent each other manuscripts before the residency and workshopped them throughout the weekend. 

Writers in their 20s and 30s who are interested in connections between Jewishness and contemporary culture are invited to apply for a week of workshops, literary seminars, and conversations at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, from June 2-7. Participants provide their own transportation but receive a scholarship that covers the cost of the workshop, room, and board.

Only 20 writers are accepted to the workshop. The application deadline is Feb. 4. Applicants can be current or graduated MFA students.

The workshops include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Literary discussions center on classics of modern Jewish literature by such writers as Adrienne Rich and Sholem Aleichem. Past workshop faculty have included Eileen Pollack, Sam Lipsyte, Don Share, Lisa Olstein, and Rivka Galchen. Editors also have participated as visiting speakers.

See the Yiddish Book Center's website for more information and the application. 

The short course will be offered in Anchorage on Feb. 8, 9, and 10 for writers of all experience levels. Members pay $185, and non-members $205. The sessions are scheduled in four three-hour blocks. In preparation, participants are asked to read Gornick's short book and a couple of essays they'll receive beforehand. 
 
​Frank is a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a former State Writer Laureate, and the author of several books,  including two collections of short stories (one of which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction) and two essay collections, Bamboo Fly Rod Suite and Unpleasantries. He also also edited an anthology of northern writers and artists with Kes Woodward and collaborated with his wife, artist Margo Klass,  on a book featuring his mini-essays and her box constructions. 
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See 49 Writers for more details. Registration is capped at 12, so jump online here to claim your spot.

The Mineral School, an artists' residency held in an old elementary school near Mt. Rainier, Washington, seeks writers and visual artists from Alaska and the Northwest for five residency periods open in 2019. Three of their two-week residencies are open to writers of all genres, but screenwriters only are invited to apply for a May residency, and parents of children under 18 can apply for a one-week session in September. The organization also offers several sponsored fellowships open to writers with specific backgrounds and interests. Other residency positions cost between $425 and $550 for the two-week sessions.

Mineral School residencies are a writer's dream come true: a private room outfitted as a writing studio, meals served to them daily, full access to a snack fridge and coffee station (!), and a lovely setting 25 minutes from Mt. Rainier National Park. 

More information about application requirements, fellowship details, and residency dates are available here. Applications close midnight on Feb. 15.

Look for Matt Komatsu's moving essay "When We Played" to be included in the upcoming anthology Best of Brevity, drawn from 20 years of the nonfiction journal's relationship with Rose Metal Press. OK, fine, go ahead and read it now.

Fiction writer and playwright Katrina Byrd recently read three guides on how to plot and structure a story and summarizes each book's approach in a post for literary agent Jane Friedman's site. She also addresses the question "But Do Formulas Work for Literary Writers?" by suggesting that it's best to first recognize whether your work is more aligned with the literary or commercial culture of book writing and publishing. Before you leave the post, be sure to check out Friedman's extensive collection of writing resources. 

For his practicum, Cameron Murray is hosting a show, "The Tumid River," on KRUA Radio every Monday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 88.1 FM. His next show airs on January 7, but you can hear his first four shows on-demand here. His interviewees include our own Tiffany Rosamund Creed and Barry Donaldson, as well as writer Don Rearden, a graduate from CWLA and current UAA professor, and English Professor Toby Widdicombe. Email Cameron with ideas, guest inquiries, requests, or other comments at camurray4@alaska.edu.

Be sure to read Cameron's recent publications, which include two poems in the October issue of Foliate Oak Literary Magazine and a flash fiction piece in West Texas Literary Review's December issue. And one of his short stories appears in the "Last Call" issue, Vol. 26, of The Raven Chronicles. Congratulations!

If you're stuck while writing or revising that novel, story, or essay, here's novelist Jane Delury has a simple suggestion: Write a perfect sentence instead. 

And if you like receiving the occasional tip, word of advice, or pointer from other writers, sign up for Glimmer Train's regular bulletins here.

Third-year nonfiction writer Sarah Mouracade recently published a flash nonfiction piece in "Tiny Love Stories," an edition of the regular Modern Love column in The New York Times. This photograph depicts an important element in the story, but we'll let you enjoy the revelation. Scroll down the page to find Sarah's story, "An Unexpected Sign."

A multitude of congratulations to Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, class of 2018, whose young adult novel, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, is forthcoming in summer 2020. The publisher is Simon Pulse, an imprint of a little ol' book company named Simon & Schuster. And did we mention that her 2018 book, Tales from the House of Vasquez, won the Rattle Chapbook Prize?