Category: Writers on Writing
Writing Advice from YA Authors
Check out and register for this event in which authors will discuss writing tips, tricks, and strategies for YA contemporaries. The setup is designed to be conversational, with plenty of time for participants to ask questions and engage with the authors.
Here is the link to register. All participants receive an exclusive $10 voucher for books and will have the opportunity to enter to win ARCs/finished copies of the authors’ 2021 releases.
Congratulations to Professor Megan Heffernan!
DePaul’s English Department extends a warm congratulations to our very own Megan Heffernan on the publication of her book Making the Miscellany: Poetry, Print, and the History of the Book in Early Modern England.
Today marks one month since the book was released! Check it out here.
Next month, Megan will be joining authors Laura Kolbys and Claire M. L. Bourne for a virtual celebration on May 14th at 10:00 a.m. Register here. This event is before the English Spring Conference, which will be recognizing student writing.
Congratulations!
Visiting Writer Series: An Evening with Hanif Abdurraqib
On Thursday February 13th, join Hanif Abdurraqib in conversations with Dr. Francesca Royster and Nina Wilson in Student Center 314. Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio and will be signing books. Mark the event on your calendars!
Read more about Abdurraqib on his website and on his Twitter.
EVENT DATE AND TIME:
February 13th
6-7pm Conversation
7-7:30 Book Signing
EVENT LOCATION:
DePaul Student Center, LPC Campus
Rm. 314
Event Review: Poets Chris Green and Richard Jones Reading
Poets in Season: a reading with Chris Green and Richard Jones
By Michael Garza
Contributor to The Underground
On Monday evening, staff and students gathered for a poetry reading. Readings can run the gamut of atmosphere, from the bombast of a juke joint to the still of temple ceremony. Yet, on the fourth floor of the Arts & Letters Hall, tucked in a kind of penthouse suite overlooking complete darkness, the buzz shifted between a lounge reading and lecture. Professor Richard Jones and Chris Green came to share poems, and that was enough to pack the place.
Professor Richard Jones, who planned to share poems from Stranger on Earth, his 2018 full-length collection, instead took on the challenge he gives his students, and shared poems fresh off the press. “I discovered only last year that potatoes come in different colors.” said Professor Jones, and in one poem an angel visits to ask how the purple potatoes taste. Jones joked about being near-blind without glasses, but showed no lack of lucidity in words. In another piece entitled “The Proposal”, he tells a companion “as long as you don’t mind eating rabbit for the rest of your life, you’ll be happy”, a suggestion he miraculously charges with appeal.
Jones was a warm and insightful lead-off hitter for Professor Chris Green, Director of Writing & Publishing Internships at DePaul, who’s newest poetry collection Everywhere West just dropped in July of 2019. Professor Green read selections from Everywhere, and alluded to a “video poem” based off the titular piece that would be shown later in the evening. Green opened with a poem about his visit to Robert Frost’s grave where he ran into Michael O’Keefe, the actor from Caddyshack and Roseanne fame. The absurdity of life is given microphone and family in Green’s poetry. “One is never more dead than in Vermont in January” says Green, and his knowledge of Chicago winters reinforces this point. In a favorite of mine called “The Prodigal Daughter”, the young lady “writes my name on a piece of paper, crosses it out, and hands it back to me.” This fiery spirit keeps billowing, as Green writes “you are so serious about the predicament of nature you keep a field journal at five.”
Before the video plays, Jones and Green perform a shared reading of “Conversations with a Dog”, a dialogue anyone would kill to have. Lines like “If there is anger in me it is squirrels” and “you starved yourself for a week and, like a saint, your eyes went cloudy” curled the room tighter around some metaphysical fireplace they were building.
The lights dimmed and Chris Green played the video poem “Everywhere West“, a time-lapse recording of his friend Mark Neumann’s cross-country drive with that title poem as soundtrack. Traveling along this common artery of the American landscape was a moving experience, and a welcome innovation for the presentation of poetry in broader culture.
At DePaul, the gifts are spread generously, among the student body and teachers alike.
Visiting Writers Series: Poets Richard Jones and Chris Green
Join two of our very own DePaul English professors, Richard Jones and Chris Green, on Monday, November 4 at 6pm in Arts & Letters 414 for a reading and conversation!
Read more about Richard Jones’s poetry collection Strangers on Earth here and here.
Read more about Chris Green’s poetry collection Everywhere West here and here.
Screenwriters Share Industry Secrets
Screenwriters share industry secrets at DePaul’s Page One writing confab
CHICAGO – Screenwriters for Steven Spielberg, “Scandal” and “South Park” are among the speakers at DePaul University’s Page One Entertainment Writing Conference May 3 from noon to 6:30 p.m.
Hosted by DePaul’s School of Cinema and Interactive Media in the College of Computing and Digital Media, the daylong forum is designed to highlight the works of leading writers and offer insight into the many aspects of entertainment writing from breaking into the business, to the business of writing the Hollywood blockbuster. The workshops aim to help students, local artists and writers become better at their craft to further cultivate the film and television community in Chicago and Illinois.
“This is the third time we have held this event and each year it continues to grow in size and scope. We are thrilled to be able to offer the greater Chicago community a chance to learn from these incredible filmmakers and industry professionals,” said Kristyn Jo Benedyk, chair of the screenwriting program at DePaul who launched the Page One conference three years ago.
The event is free and open to the public. All sessions will take place in the College of Computing and Digital Media Theatre in the lower level of the Richard M. and Maggie C. Daley Building, 14 E. Jackson Blvd.
Conference workshops include:
“Writing the Franchise, Genre Writing and Writing with a Partner” Noon-1 p.m. The writing duo of Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg who wrote “Sorority Row” and the “Piranha 3D” franchise.
“The Business of Writing: The People Who Represent and Hire Writers” 1:15-2:15 p.m. CDM alumna Daniel Willis, previously with Walt Disney Pictures and currently on staff at “Grey’s Anatomy;” Lenny Beckerman, veteran manager of writers and directors, has worked on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Babel;” and Sara Rastogi, story editor at Scott Free Productions, discoverer and developer of new writers and projects.
“Multiple Hats: Writers Who Produce, Direct, Act and More” 2:30-3:30 p.m. Actor-turned-comedy writer Theresa Mulligan Rosenthal, a Second City alumna, has written for “South Park” and “How I Met Your Mother;” and actor-writer Guinevere Turner, of “Chasing Amy” and “Treasure Island,” who wrote and acted in “The L Word.”
“Breaking In: Landing That First Writing Job” 3:45-4:45 p.m. Severiano Canales, former assistant to Shonda Rhimes, the Executive Producer/Creator of “Private Practice” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” Canales is now a regular staff writer on her latest hit series, “Scandal.” Aisha Muharrar, previously a staff writer for “Sit Down, Shut Up;” and writer-actor David Dastmalchian, recipient of the Special Jury Prize for Courage in Storytelling at Austin’s SXSW Film Festival for “Animals,” his feature film screenwriting debut. Dastmalchian, a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University, appeared most recently in “Prisoners.”
“Writing The Hollywood Blockbuster” 5:30-6:30 p.m. Jeff Nathanson has written numerous films for Steven Spielberg including “Catch Me If You Can” and “The Terminal,” and is working on the latest installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. Steve Conrad has such written blockbuster films as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Pursuit of Happyness” and “The Weather Man,” is writing and directing the John Belushi biopic. Together, these screenwriters’ movies have grossed billions of dollars at the box office.
For more information about DePaul’s Page One Entertainment Writers Conference, visit their Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/1nzMQHd. Contact: Kristyn Jo Benedyk kjb@cim.depaul.edu 630-408-5898
Author Discussion & Book Signing Comes to DePaul
Cherrie Moraga and Andrea Smith return to DePaul for a conversation about their work, women’s spirituality, and social activism. The reading/conversation will be followed by a book signing; copies of both authors’ books will be available for sale.
Thursday, May 22nd 5:30 pm reception – 6:00 pm program – Cortelyou Commons DePaul University
The Underground 