Our Life Stories Conference 2012

Saturday, April 28, 2012

8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Cosumnes River College

8401 Center Parkway, Sacramento, CA

Conference Fee - $35.00 (Includes lunch, workshops, and materials)

Registration Deadline: April 22, 2012. Space is limited.

W o r k s h o p D e s c r i p t i o n s

Painting with Words: Creating  atmosphere in settings

Kerstin Feindart

“The pictorial and the verbal are similar in that they both take place in two dimensions on paper or canvas,” states author John Updike. To draw readers in and to let them feel what we felt, we can paint with words. This workshop focuses on hands-on exercises that highlight techniques to create atmosphere. In addition, discussions of short sample pieces and exercises completed in the workshop will help writers create the mood of a place and time and bring the past to life...


The unfolding moment: on writing scene

Valerie Fioravanti

Writing in scene gives fiction and memoir its visceral power, that sense that the reader is witnessing characters’ lives unfold in real time. We’ll discuss strategies for capturing characters in action on the page and practice with some in-class writing exercises.


The power of metaphor

Kathryn Holwein

The workshop will focus on the functioning of metaphor. Though it is the staple of poetry, it has the same power in fiction, non-fiction, letters, sermons, oratory, journalism, and even reportage. We will examine strong versus weak metaphors and play around with our own sentences, energizing them with this poetic mode of logic.

Your Life as a List of Ten

Susan Kelly-DeWitt

If you had to come up with ten things that tell something important and true about yourself, what would they be? What if three of the true things on your list had to be entirely made up—invented!—not fact at all, but still "true"? Whether we're writing poetry or fiction, we use our own experience as raw material; liberating ourselves and our narratives from "what actually happened" can be a challenge. This workshop will explore ways to balance fact and invention, to tell our life stories truly yet creatively.


Who said that? Voice and point of view in fiction

Kakwasi Somadhi

This workshop focuses on the terms ‘voice’ and ‘point of view’ in fictionand creative nonfiction. We will explore what craft experts say and read passages from selected stories looking for the narrator’s sound and perspective. Bring a story or chapter from a book of your own to work on.


Memoir structure that generates intrigue and tension

David Weinshilboum

We all have stories to tell. However, few of us have life- altering experiences like Maya Angelou, who overcame sexual abuse as a youngster, or Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Still, we can learn storytelling techniques from these unforgettable memoirs. This workshop examines story structures that generate tension and intrigue, and provides time for participants to practice the art of tension.

Publishing panel

Maryellen Burns, Wesley Jones, Emmanuel Sigauke

Through this panel session, we will learn about opportunities to publish online and in print. Our knowledgeable panelists have served as editors and promoters as well as authors. They will be sharing resources for publishing locally and internationally. Whether novices or experts, attendees will leave with helpful tips and resources.



W r i t e r s ' C o n f e r e n c e F a c u l t y


Keynote Speaker

Jennifer Basye Sander creates books that sell. In her twenty plus years in the publishing business her ideas have generated more than forty million dollars in retail sales. A long-time book packager and a former Random house senior editor, she has personally developed and launched more than 75 titles. The book she co-authored with agent Sheree Bykofsky, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published, is now in its fifth revised edition. A New York Times bestselling author herself, Jennifer continues to work with writing and publishing clients to develop their ideas.


Workshop Presenters

Todd Walton’s novel Inside Moves, was made into a major motion picture in 1980. He has published seven works of fiction including Forgotten Impulses and Ruby & Spear. His non-fiction books are The Writer’s Path, a collection of original writing exercises, and Open Body: Creating Your Own Yoga. His books Buddha In A Teacup (2009) and Under the Table Books (2010), each won the Bay Area Independent Publishers Award for best book in those years, and each won National Indie Excellence Awards for Best Fiction in those years. Todd is also a pianist, playwright, essayist, and artist. His web site is underthetablebooks.com

Maryellen Burns spent her early years in the book trade promoting writers, publishers, libraries and book festivals. Now, as director of ArtWorks@, she connects museums, libraries, schools, and creative individuals to the resources they need. She is also a free- lance researcher, writer, project manager and editor, plus teaches workshops on creativity, art, writing and family & community history.


Born and raised in Austria, Kerstin Feindert has lived in four different countries before settling in Sacramento. Since her family is dispersed around the globe, stories – created and collected by her grandmothers and her – help her treasure her own experiences, memorialize past family members, and learn more about her family and its different cultural backgrounds. Kerstin is currently teaching writing at Cosumnes River College.


Valerie Fioravanti writes fiction, essays, and prose poems. Her linked story collection, Garbage Night at the Opera, won the 2011 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and is forthcoming from BkMk Press in Fall 2012. She teaches creative writing for the UCLA Writers Program online. She is the founder and host of the Stories on Stage reading series in Sacramento. For more information, visit
http: //valeriefioravanti.com.


Kathryn Hohlwein is a retired Professor in English and the Humanities from CSUS, where she taught Creative Writing, Modern Poetry, and Homer. She has, since retirement, created a non-profit organization called The Readers of Homer, Inc., which produces all-day or all-night audience participation readings of Homer’s Illiad or Odyessy. She has read in Greece and Egypt.

Wesley Jones is a Sacramento resident and has been writing short stories since 2003. He’s a strong advocate for senior citizens telling their own stories through writing. Wesley facilitates and participates in senior writing groups. He developed and served as the Chairperson of “Our Life Stories.” Wesley has been published in the Cosumnes River Journal and the Holy Names University Annual Report. In 2009, he self published his first book, Stories From My Soul. At his age, Wesley considers himself a “certified” senior citizen. In his writing, he draws on his vast wealth of life experiences and memories of the past.


Susan Kelly-DeWitt is the author of The Fortunate Islands (Marick Press), eight small press collections, and the electronic chapbook The Limbo Suite. Her awards include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in poetry, an Excellence In Teaching Award from UC Davis Extension and several Pushcart Prize nominations; her work has appeared on Writer's Almanac, Verse Daily in many anthologies, and most recently The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. She is currently a contributing editor of Poetry Flash and a blogger for Coal Hill Review. www.susankelly-dewitt.com

Emmanuel Sigauke grew up in Zimbabwe where he started writing at the age of thirteen. He teaches composition, literature and creative writing at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, is a board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, where he hosts poetry readings, is the book review editor of the organization’s bi-monthly newsletter, and is also the co-editor of the annual series African Roar: An Eclectic Collection of African Authors. He is the founding editor of Munyori Literary Journal. Sigauke has also taught fiction workshops for the UC Davis Extension and in the Hart Senior Center Annual Writing Conference. His fiction has been published in online and print journals.



Kakwasi Somadhi is a freelance writer  and teacher with a lifelong passion for literature and creative writing. She holds a BA and MA in English and a newly earned MFA in creative writing. She's written a novel, Coming Forth by Day and is hard at work on a story collection, Sun Tzu in the Hood, as well as a memoir about grace and grief, Spirits Rapping through the Vines. Somadhi resides in Elk Grove and teaches at Sacramento City College where she is the evening/weekend tutor coordinator.

After working with creative nonfiction guru Elmaz Abinader at Mills College from 1995 to 1997, David Weinshilboum honed his writing skills as a journalist for regional publications including the Davis Enterprise, the Sacramento Business Journal and UC Davis Magazine. Since 2003, David has been an English professor at Cosumnes River College. He enjoys writing an online column found on ipinion.us. David’s creative work has been published in The Walrus and The Suisun Valley Review. He lives in Davis with his wife and two sons.