Making Waves Writers' Retreat
The 2022 Making Waves Writers’ Retreat, sponsored by the not-for-profit Ludington Writers’ group, is a two-day poetry workshop beginning Friday, September 30th and ending Saturday, October 1st. This year’s workshop will be held at the Birkett family cabin in Stony Lake, Michigan. Registration is $185 and will cover lunch on Friday, breakfast on Saturday and refreshments at a live reading and reception that evening. The workshop will be run by esteemed Michigan poet Phillip Sterling.
The workshop facilities are being provided thanks to an in-kind donation from Birkett Estates. For individuals traveling from out of town and wishing to stay nearby, our group recommends searching VRBO.com for local rental properties, or staying in one of the hotels in Silver Lake, Pentwater, or Hart. We recommend finding and booking a room as soon as possible as some of these facilities may close early for the season.
Registrations will close on Friday, September 23rd or after 15 registrations have been received. If you have any questions about accessibility, or need additional accommodations, please email event organizers Jeanie Mortensen and Nicole Birkett at makingwavesreview@gmail.com.
DETAILS
Workshop Location
The Birkett Family Cabin
8502 W. Stony Lake Rd., New Era, MI 49446
(across from Stony Lake Cutlery and between the 25 mph signs)
Workshop Theme:
“The Art of Nature: Vision and Revision in a Poem (Or, “If you seek a pleasant poem, look around you.”)
During our retreat, we will discuss and practice three different types of poems (nature, ekphrastic, prose), examine each in terms of lyricism and structure (rhyme and line), and consider what changes might be made to make a poem “finished.” While we will generate new poems with prompts, participants are also encouraged to bring poems they are currently working on.
Phillip Sterling’s poetry, short fiction, and
essays have appeared in many literary journals and magazines over the years, among them The Paris Review, The Georgia Review, The Writers Chronicle, Permafrost, Passages North, The Comstock Review, Poet Lore, Dunes Review, and Walloon Writers Review. His books include two collections of short fiction, In Which Brief Stories Are Told (Wayne State U Press) and Amateur Husbandry (Mayapple Press), two full-length collections of poetry, And Then Snow (Main Street Rag) and Mutual Shores (New Issues), and five chapbook-length series of poems, the most recent of which, Short on Days, was released from Main Street Rag in June 2020 (after months of quarantine). In addition, he has compiled and edited two anthologies: Imported Breads: Literature of Cultural Exchange (Mammoth Books 2003) and Isle Royale from the AIR: Poems, Stories, and Songs from 25 Years of Artists-in-Residence (Caffeinated Press 2017). Among his awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, two Senior Fulbright Lectureships (Belgium and Poland), and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. Sterling has served as Artist-in-Residence for both Isle Royale National Park and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A Professor Emeritus at Ferris State University since 2013, he is the current editor of the Newsletter for the Poetry Society of Michigan and an associate editor for Third Wednesday Magazine. Sterling lives with his wife Jane Wheeler on a small plot of land in Lowell Township, where they maintain a collection of animals, insects, gardens, and woods.