Claim Your Story 2014, October 4 2014

 

 

Melissa Hart is the author of the memoirs Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family (Globe Pequote/Lyons 2014) and Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009). She’s a columnist for The Writer Magazine, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Orion, High Country News, Hemispheres, and numerous other publications. She teaches at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon. You find Melissa here.

Midge Raymond’s short-story collection, Forgetting English, received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, and many other publications. Her work has received several Pushcart Prize nominations and received an Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship.

Midge taught communication writing at Boston University for six years, and she has taught creative writing at Boston’s Grub Street Writers and Seattle’s Richard Hugo House. While living in Southern California, she held writing workshops and seminars at San Diego Writers, Ink, where she also served as vice president of the board of directors.

Midge lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press.

Jessica Page Morrell understands both sides of the editorial desk–as an editor and author. She writes with depth, wit and clarity on topics related to writing and creativity along with other topics and is the author of Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected; Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction; The Writer’s I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life; Voices from the Street; Between the Lines: Master The Subtle Elements Of Fiction Writing; and Writing Out the Storm. Her forthcoming books are White Heat: From Zero to Novel in 90 days and No Ordinary Days. Her work also appears in anthologies and The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines. Morrell founded and coordinates three writing conferences Summer in Words, Making it in Changing Times, and Claim Your Story. She works as a developmental editor, has been a columnist since 1998, and is a popular speaker at writers’ conferences throughout North America. You can find Jessica’s online home here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claim Your Story, October 2013

Keynote speaker: Lidia Yuknavitch

Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of The Chronology of Water: A Memoir, Dora: A Head Case, and three works of short fiction: Her Other Mouths, Liberty’s Excess, and Real to Reel, as well as a book of literary criticism, Allegories of Violence. Her work has appeared in Ms., The Iowa Review, Exquisite Corpse, Another Chicago Magazine, Fiction International, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. Her book Real to Reel was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and she is the recipient of awards and  fellowships from Poets and Writers and Literary Arts, Inc. The Chronology of Water won the Oregon Book Award Reader’s Choice 2012 and the PNBA Award 2012. Her work appears in the anthologies Life As We Show It, Forms At War, Wreckage of Reason. She teaches writing, literature, film, and women’s studies in Oregon.

Alissa Lukara

Widely published, Alissa Lukara is the author of the powerful memoir, Riding Grace: A Triumph of the Soul (Silver Light Publications), developmental editor and internationally-acclaimed writing mentor. She offers online writing workshops and blogs on writing at Transformational Writers.com. She created Life Challenges, a website that helped millions in 110 countries transform adversity. A former PR executive, she also helps writers build a following.

Alissa is currently writing a novel, entitled Secrets of the Trees, which combines the spiritual and personal transformation of Eat Pray Love, the magical realism of The Secret Life of Bees, and the glimpse at other world realities of The Lovely Bones. She is also completing a nonfiction book on the transformational journey of writing.

Alissa makes her home in Ashland, Oregon with her life partner, Jonah Blue, also a writer, and their cat, Charlie.

Jessica Morrell

Jessica Page Morrell understands both sides of the editorial desk–as an editor and author. She writes with depth, wit and clarity on topics related to writing and creativity along with other topics and is the author is the author of Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected; Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction; The Writer’s I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life; Voices from the Street; Between the Lines: Master The Subtle Elements Of Fiction Writing; and Writing Out the Storm. Her forthcoming book No Ordinary Days will be published in November, 2013. Her work also appears in anthologies and The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines. Morrell founded and coordinates three writing conferences Summer in Words, Making it in Changing Times, and Claim Your Story. She works as a developmental editor, has been a columnist since 1998, and is a popular speaker at writers’ conferences throughout North America. Morrell lives in Portland, Oregon where she is surrounded by writers and watches the sky in all its moods and permutations