Summer 2010 Classes Announced
I. Fiction: Elements of The Craft
Instructor: Neal Chandler, PhD
Saturdays, July 31- September 4, 2010
10:00am - 1:00pm @ Trinity Commons
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
Cost: $185 for LIT Members; $225 for Nonmembers
No literary impulse comes more easily than story telling, so why is it that what seems so electric over lattes or in your head can lie so lamely on the page? In a workshop regimen of practice and experiment, we will review the techniques that tend to shape effective narrative fiction and bring it to life: the use of setting, the revelation of character, management of time and of point-of-view, of dialogue and of scene vs. exposition. We will pay particular attention to plotting both for short and long form narrative. Finally, we’ll devote some attention to “calculus” level issues of style and voice and experimental resistance to traditional techniques. Students will be asked to write or rewrite or even imitate with very specific techniques and models in mind. It should be great fun if you like to attack your fun with rolled up sleeves.
Neal Chandler is retired from the Creative Writing Program (and NEOMFA) at Cleveland State University, where he administrated the program and taught Fiction Writing. Currently, he is at work on (at last count) three new projects.
II. Poetry: Elements of Technique
Instructor: Lou Suarez,
Mondays, July 12- August 16, 2010
6:30 - 8:30pm Gypsy Bean Coffee
6425 Detroit Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44102
Cost: $155 for LIT Members; $185 for Nonmembers
Through a carefully crafted sequence of exercises, and with a focus on both theory and practice, students will explore such poetic elements as imagery and metaphor, music and voice, and line and stanza arrangement. They will examine essays on poetics as well as participate in workshop discussions, consisting of thoughtful and nurturing consideration of the writing they produce in response to the assigned exercises. Poets at all levels of experience and expertise are welcome and stand to benefit.
Lou Suarez is the author of two book-length collections of poetry—Ask and Traveler, both published by Mid-List Press (Minneapolis) – as well as three poetry chapbooks. A long-time former member of the board of trustees of The LIT (Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland), Lou is professor emeritus at Lorain County Community College and lives in Sheffield Lake, Ohio.
Ongoing Workshops for The LIT
I. Public Fiction Workshop
Third Thursday of Every Month
6:30-9:00pm @ Trinity Commons
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
Cost: $90
Fall Session Begins September 23, 2010
Each month of the session, the group will meet for two-and-a-half hours, with the majority of that time spent discussing participant work--stories, partial novellas or novels-in-progress--in a workshop setting. We'll also spend some time reading and talking through examples of professional writing, and always with an eye for craft, how we might become more familiar with and more adept at using the tools of fiction writing. Over the course of the year, we’ll be building on what we’re learning, pushing exercises into scenes, scenes into full-length stories and chapters of novels, and then discussing these pieces as a group. Participants can hope to leave the experience with an increased appreciation for and knowledge about what it means to write fiction, considerable material for individual projects, and a real sense of being part of an encouraging and supportive writing community.
Paula McLain has published two collections of poetry, a memoir about growing up in foster care (Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, 2003) and the novel Ticket to Ride, published by Ecco/HarperCollins. A second novel, which fictionalizes a portion of Ernest Hemingway’s life will be published by Ballantine in 2011.
Public Fiction @ The LIT is presented with the generous support of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. 
II. Public Poetry Workshop
Third Friday of Every Month
7-9pm @ Mac’s Backs
1820 Coventry Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
Cost: Suggested Donation of
$5/session with current LIT Membership ($35/year)
Ongoing Signup and Registration Available
For over thirty-five years, The LIT Public Poetry Workshop has offered Cleveland-area poets the
monthly opportunity to bring in a poem and receive useful suggestions for its improvement and to
offer the same kind of help to peers in writing. We attract a diverse group of serious, friendly
poets, ranging from teenagers and young adults to poets with decades of experience. Come
once or come every month: All are welcome!
Robert E. McDonough, one of the LIT”s founders, has been named one of the forty impor-
tant Cleveland poets since the Second World War in Cleveland Poetry Scenes. His poems have
appeared in his book, No Other World (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1988), his
chapbook, Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2009), and numerous anthologies and little
magazines.