Commonwealth Speakers:Literature and Writing


Lori Jakiela gives prompts to beginning and advanced writers in Writing in Place and Writing From Your Own Experience.

The wide-ranging presentations in this category offer a literary journey—from the impact of novels on Southern women, to Yiddish poetry, to writing from the Alleghenies. You will also find thoughts on reviewing from a book critic and opportunities to write poems and stories.

Writing in Place
Place—the streets, pathways and bridges; the spots on the map writers and their characters call home—is an essential part of storytelling. Lori Jakiela, an award-winning memoirist and poet whose work is grounded in the landscape of both Western Pennsylvania and New York City, will discuss how writers at all levels can access the luminous details of place to shape and tell the stories of their lives. Includes an informal writing workshop with writing prompts designed to help both beginning and advanced writers locate their literary place and understand what it means to "write what you know."

Lori Jakiela, Trafford
Writer. Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh - Greensburg

Reading Pennsylvania Poets on Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is blessed with a disproportionately large and gifted group of poets who for over 200 years have written brilliantly about our landscape and our diverse customs and cultures. Through the eyes of these poets, a reader can arrive in Pennsylvania as an immigrant, descend into a coal mine, ride in an Amish buggy, plug through a day in the factory and work in the fields. These poems spell out the vulnerabilities of childhood, rejoice and agonize over love, reveal the dilemmas of parenting and ask questions about what it means to be a good neighbor. To read the work of Pennsylvania poets is to learn the secret and passionate history of the state. Hand-outs with poems will be read aloud and discussed.

Jeanne Murray Walker, Merion
Poet. Professor of English, University of Delaware

Yiddish Poetry in America
The world of Yiddish poetry in America is quite diverse and more complex than people often expect. Made up of three major movements—the Sweatshop Poets, the "Young" (Di Yunge) Generation and the Introspectivists—each group reflects changing ideas about poetry and what it means to be Jewish in early 20th century America. Warren Hoffman will share a selection of poems from each of the movements including work by David Edelstadt, Morris Rosenfeld, Celia Dropkin, David Halpern and Aaron Leyeles. Handouts of the poetry will be provided and participants will listen to musical versions of some of the poems. All of the poetry will be presented in English, but additional Yiddish versions will be on offer for some of the work.

Warren Hoffman, Philadelphia
Literary Manager & Dramaturg, Philadelphia Theatre Company

The Book
How will the convergence of art and technology affect our reading and writing culture? In contemporary culture, we get most of our stories from books. This was not always the case and, with developments in technology, this may not be the case for future generations. Using artifacts, reproductions and digital projection, Christine Goldbeck will discuss the history of the story and the printed book. We will talk about how the book as we know it evolved, whether print is threatened and why illustrated novels are gaining popularity.

Christine Goldbeck, Shenandoah
Publisher & Editor, The Mine Country

The Crisis in Book Reviewing
Everywhere in America, mainstream publications are abandoning the age-old literary genre of the book review. The Los Angeles Times collapsed its prestigious book review section into its Opinion section. The Chicago Tribune moved book reviews to its little-read Saturday paper to save on newsprint. Magazines such as Time and Newsweek that once reviewed books weekly no longer do so. And yet more books than ever—some 150,000 annually—are published in the United States. What will it mean for our culture if journalists spend more time and space analyzing American Idol than new books? Drawing on his rich experience as the long-time literary critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Carlin Romano will recount how things have come to this and explore the cultural ramifications, intellectual and otherwise.

Carlin Romano, Philadelphia
Literary Critic, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Shakespeare's World, Women and Significant Others
Simply staged, this one-woman show will be part lecture and part theatrical production. Actor Laura Howell will delve into the culture that produced Shakespeare, his biographical background, his use and development of language and his incomparable understanding of the human condition. To illustrate his genius, Howell will perform a few of his sonnets, as well as scenes and monologues which touch on 15 different characters from 9 of Shakespeare's plays.

Laura Korach Howell, Lancaster
Actor/Director. Instructor/Theatre Director, Lancaster Country Day School

Missing Pages: The Neglected Literature of the Alleghenies
Regions across America boast literary canons inspired by their people's history, culture and landscape. While Appalachian literature has been claimed by writers from the southern mountains—literature from the heart of America's Keystone State, inspired by its mountains, waterways, personal plights and natural resources, remains unrecognized and uncollected. Author PJ Piccirillo will offer an explanation for this lapse in historical, social and geographic terms, as well as a case for a canon of Allegheny literature. To support his case, Piccirillo will share his work and the work of other Allegheny poets, novelists, essayists and journalists like Rachel Carson, Michael Chabon and Jennifer Haigh. Participants will be encouraged to share their favorites as well. Discussion may contribute to the planning of an Allegheny writers' conference. Currently, no conference dedicated to the literature of the Alleghenies exists.

PJ Piccirillo, Brockport
2006 Appalachian Writers Association Award Winner for Short Fiction

My Own Backyard or Yours! Poetry to Create a Sense of Place
Clothes lines, garden tomatoes and neighbors shooting the breeze across the fence—these elements can be found in many Pennsylvania backyards. What makes your neighborhood special and unique? Learn how one steel town neighborhood undertook a poetry and art project based on observation and exploration of the urban landscape—the good, bad and downright colorful! Be led in creative writing exercises that get you writing poetry about your own childhood home. Be inspired by the rich material of porch culture, meals in the old kitchen and the uneven sidewalks of your early years. Hear examples of neighborhood poetry and learn how to use all of your senses to evoke rich memories through crafted writing. Anyone can write poetry with easy prompts that help you to express yourself and preserve important visual memories. Learn how geography affects upbringing and how your original backyard still may be influencing your ways of thinking and relating. The presentation includes a PowerPoint display and documentary video.

Sandee Gertz Umbach, Washington
Poet & Instructor. Founder & Executive Director, Washington Community Arts & Cultural Center

The Novel as Teacher: 18th Century Southern Women Learn to Write
Lacking the educational opportunities enjoyed by men, 18th century southern women learned in other ways, particularly through the reading of thrilling and tragic seduction tales. By the end of the century, these novels prompted them to produce their own literature. Drawing from their letters and journals, historian Catherine Kerrison will tell of young women readers who found novels both entertaining and educational; matrons who found themselves reflected in the novels' dilemmas of love, family and Christian duty; and older women who looked back wistfully to the passions of their girlhoods. Although novels appealed to southern women for the same reasons they appealed to women in the north, Kerrison explains how living in an agricultural slave society influenced southern understandings of their reading. This story still resonates today, as women continue to struggle to claim their authorial voices.

Catherine Kerrison, Berwyn
Associate Professor of History, Villanova University

Writing a Poem
Poet Jeanne Murray Walker will read her own poems, talk about how they grew out of experience and offer several improvisational journaling exercises, drawing on the concrete and particular experience of participants. Participants will read what they've written and then talk about how to shape what they have written into poems. Walker will talk briefly about the two main kinds of poetry as patterns to channel personal experience—the lyric and the narrative. Participants will finish the workshop with a variety of ways to move their journal writing into poetic form.

Jeanne Murray Walker, Merion
Poet. Professor of English, University of Delaware

Also See...