2018 ITTY-BITTY CITY STORIES
Flash Non-Fiction Writing Workshop
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2018 MANDEL PUBLIC LIBRARY
Every city has a million stories to tell—come write yours! For this creative workshop, bring with you a photo or a memory of an adventure—happy or sad, poignant or funny—that you’ve had in West Palm Beach or any other city. In three fast-paced hours, you’ll turn that memory into a piece of flash non-fiction, creating a small gem of a story. At the workshop’s end, you’ll have the opportunity to take part in an author reading, onstage at the Mandel Public Library, where you can share your story with the city of West Palm!
What you'll need
Bring a photo or have a memory in mind so that you can move right into the crafting of your itty-bitty story. Paper, pens, and pencils will be provided, but if you prefer to write on your own laptop or tablet, feel free to bring it with you.
The workshop is limited to 15 participants.
Writing Workshop
CORA BRESCIANO
Workshop Instructor
Cora is the co-founder and co-executive director of Blue Planet Writers’ Room, a non-profit organization that uses creative story exchanges to connect students to their peers in other countries. Cora has taught College Writing at Florida Atlantic University and creative writing at the high school, middle, and elementary school levels. Through Blue Planet, she develops creative writing curriculum and leads professional development workshops for language arts teachers. She presents on her work both locally and internationally, and she has led numerous international writing projects among students on five continents.
Cora holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a BS in Education, and she is currently completing her coursework for a PhD in Comparative Studies, focusing on the intersection of literature and global studies. Her short story “The Mermaid” was honored with FAU’s Frank and Courtney Brogan Fiction Award. Her blog, Glorious Curious, can be found at gloriouscurious.wordpress.com.
Sunday, Jan 27
Mandel Public Library
Stories on Stage
Get inspired by three guest authors
1:00 pm
Writing Workshop
Create a short, nonfiction story with the help of our expert teachers
2:00 pm
Itty-Bitty on stage
Workshop participants share their stories
4:00 pm
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Stories on Stage
Get inspired by three guest authors
pop culture writer
poet
author
LESLIE GRAY STREETER
Leslie Gray Streeter is an award-winning columnist and pop culture critic for the Palm Beach Post, where she has worked since October 2002. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she is a proud product of that city’s public school system, and graduated from Baltimore City College High School in 1989.
In 1993, she graduated from the College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, after which she began her professional journalism career. That has included stints at the Miami Times, a black community weekly in Miami, Florida, the York Dispatch/Sunday News in York, Pa., and finally the Post, where she’s done everything from concert reviewing, movie criticism, celebrity interviews and a chronicle of being an extra on “Law and Order” (You could only see the tip of her Afro.) She has also just completed her first book, an upcoming memoir tentatively called “Black Widow.”
Leslie is the proud mother of Brooks Robinson Streeter-Zervitz, the proud daughter of the very cool Tina Streeter, and was the wife of Scott Zervitz, the coolest of them all. She is a slow run/walker, an obsessive “Dateline” fan and a believer that when things seem bleakest, a light comes on in the corner.
MICHAEL J. PAGÁN
Born and raised in Miami, FL, Michael J Pagán spent four years (1999-2003) in the United States Navy before (hastily) running back to college during the spring of 2004. He currently resides in Lake Worth, FL, with his wife and daughter where he continues to work on his poetry, short fiction, nonfiction and a collaborative novel. He is a co-founder of 100 Miles & Running – A Collective & also maintains a blog of all his published work: The Elevator Room Company: http://thelevatoroomcompany.blogspot.com/ . You can also follow him and his work across his Twitter, Facebook & Instagram accounts.
A graduate of Florida Atlantic University's Creative Writing M.F.A. program, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Apogee Journal, The Chattahoochee Review, Hunger Mountain, The Rumpus, DIAGRAM, Spork Press, Coachella Review, BlazeVOX, Menacing Hedge, Revolver, Hobart, Mad Hatters’ Review, Juked, The California Journal of Poetics, Rock and Sling, and Spiral Orb among others. He is also a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize.
VICTORIA FEDDEN
Victoria Fedden is a writer and a mom from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her memoir This is Not My Beautiful Life was published June 2016 by Picador USA. She teaches writing at Palm Beach State College, and Nova Southeastern University, works at a yoga studio, and occasionally blogs on her website at www.victoriafedden.com. Her essays and articles have appeared in Real Simple, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Huffington Post, Redbook, Elephant Journal, Scary Mommy, Babble and The South Florida Sun Sentinel, plus various other publications. Please visit her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/victoriacfedden for updates.