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CWC Registration
Form
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Butler University Creative Writing Camp, in its 13th year, will
be held June 22-27, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. This week offers an
intensive and entertaining week of workshops to help young writers,
from grades 3-12, develop their talent and passion for the literary
arts. Students will converse and work with accomplished novelists,
poets, editors, and teachers. Students write and read stories,
plays, poems, personal narratives, science fiction, song lyrics,
and experimental pieces, experiencing the power of the literary
imagination while developing language skills. Daily workshops
include computer training and lessons in various Internet
resources, including the publication of an Ezine. Thursday includes
a trip to the art museum, and a day of connecting the inspirations
of visual art with words. The week culminates in a pizza party and
public reading in Holcomb Gardens - families are invited to attend.
The tuition is $200.00.
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Campers are divided into three groups, students in grades 3-5,
6-8, and 9-12, lead by a professional teacher and writer, and
supplemented by a host of talented younger writers/mentors drawn
from Butler's creative writing program, as well as other local
schools. The flexibility of groups and mentors allows us to be find
age-appropriate activities; yet much of the richness of the camp's
culture is seeing the youngest learn from the oldest - and vice
versa. We limit enrollment to 75, and the teacher/camper ratio is
low --- last year it was 5-1 -- campers have ample opportunities to
receive personal attention, guidance, and inspiration. The camp's
atmosphere is designed to be inspiring, cheerful and fun - which
often produces the best kind of learning. The daily schedule
includes breakout sessions where mentors and teachers offer a menu
of hour-long activities, as various as the world of writing itself.
Here students are able to select according to their interests and
maturity. Workshops include haiku walks, serial fiction, writing
the love letter, screenwriting, villanelles, science fiction,
performance poetry, skits, language based games, among many others.
Many students will work on a creative writing e-zine.
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New to the 2009 Creative Writing Camp is our enhanced program
for High School with a mid-week "Evening Coffee House &
Poetry Slam".
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Teachers and visiting writers have included Professor Susan
Neville, fiction writer and Director of Butler's Writers Studio;
Professor Hilene Flanzbaum, poet and Head of the Butler English
Department; Andy Levy, Director of the Writing Studio at Butler;
Professor Dan Barden, novelist and non-fiction writer; Assistant
Professor Chris Forhan, poet and author of modern &
contemporary poetry; Alessandra Lynch, poet and adjunct professor
at Butler University; Professor Donald Platt, poet, Dana Roeser,
poet, Dani Webber, poet, Lou Harry, editor and columnist, Brian
Dunn, poet and teacher; Mindy Dunn, poet and teacher; Laura Gellin,
Park Tudor English teacher, and many others.
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Campers bring lunches, or can purchase them in the C-Club in the
Atherton Union on the Butler campus, in the company of their
mentors. Lunch is an hour to give our young writers a chance to
throw Frisbees on the quad, read or write, or simply make friends
until our afternoon sessions begin.
Geoffrey Sharpless, Ph. D. has directed the camp for twelve
years. He is an English teacher at Park Tudor School, where he
teaches creative writing and Advanced Placement classes. Contact
Dr. Geoffrey Sharpless at gsharpless@comcast.net or
Barbara Dadkhah, CWC program coordinator at bdadkhah@butler.edu,
(317) 940-9293.