Creative writers of all genres from Middle Tennessee and beyond are invited to attend MTSU Write’s annual Creative Writing Conference on October 22-23. The events on Friday October 22 will be virtual and on Saturday October 23 will be in person on the MTSU campus. Writers of all skill levels are encouraged to attend.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Writing to Heal’ and will include workshops and presentations exploring what it means to heal – ourselves, our relationship to the environment and to others, as well as our own writing practices – especially in light of isolation and loss MTSU Write director Amie Whittemore has recruited a range of nationally recognized writers, many of whom are from the Nashville area.

The conference’s opening address on Saturday will be delivered by Tiana Clark, a former Nashville resident and alumnus of MTSU Write, known nationally for her writing in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, Oxford American, and many other publications. A 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, Clark is the author of the collection of poetry I can’t talk about trees without the blood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018) and Balance (Bull City Press, 2016, two award-winning poetry books. A graduate of TSU (BA) and Vanderbilt (MFA), Clark is currently Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College.

Friday’s virtual programming will include:

A public reading by MTSU Write alumni Angela Joynes and Julie Starr and mentors Jeff Hardin and Kory Wells, a former Murfreesboro poet laureate, followed by a choice of sessions:

• Saying Yes: The Healing Art of Collaboration with Carol Guess and Rochelle Hurt
• Writing in a Void: Using the Imagination to Enter and Exit Memory (Gaps) with Jung Hae Chae
• Writing in the Dark: Building Shards, Shards, and Fractures of Worlds with Brendan Basham

Saturday in-person programming will include:

A choice of morning sessions:

• Festina Lente: short writing in evocative prose with Fred Arroyo
• Writing More Than Human: Mindfulness and Creative Healing in Nature with Melissa Jean
• When life becomes “different”: writing through mourning with Donovan McAbee

Afternoon sessions of your choice:

• Kiss Length Injury With Joshua Moore
• Moments Count: How to Use Lessons from the Pandemic to Pace Our Stories with Katie A. Nelson
• Decolonizing Mourning Through Theopoetics: Healing Our Spiritual Self with Meg Wade

Saturday’s event includes lunch, Clark’s opening speech, an optional Murfreesboro mural, and an arts walk and evening reception.

Registration and more details

Participants can register for one or both days of the conference. Registration is free for current MTSU Write students and MTSU students.

For more information and to register, see mtsu.edu/write/conference.php.

About MTSU Write

MTSU Write is an in-home mentoring program offered by the English Department of MTSU. Through a one-on-one mentoring model, he helps new and experienced writers across the country achieve their goals in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting and dramaturgy. Learn more at mtsu.edu/write/.