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Writers' Roundtable Discussion

September 22, 7-8:30 PM September's 'Fourth Thursday' Roundtable: Using Effective Dialogue This month, we will be looking at hands-on techniques for crafting dialogue that co

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Writers' Roundtable Discussion

Writers' Roundtable Discussion

September 22, 7-8:30 PM September's 'Fourth Thursday' Roundtable: Using Effective Dialogue This month, we will be looking at hands-on techniques for crafting dialogue that co

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September 22, 7-8:30 PM

September's 'Fourth Thursday' Roundtable: Using Effective Dialogue

This month, we will be looking at hands-on techniques for crafting dialogue that conveys a character’s overall personality in evocative ways. Our ‘dialogue coaches’ are poet and memoirist Sheila Bender, journalist and creative non-fiction author Molly Hollenbach and playwright Mara Lathrop. All three are published authors, writing teachers and members of the same writing group in Port Townsend. They will present three different perspectives on dialogue including writing exercises, and focus the Q&A on your questions and challenges with writing believable, activated dialogue. 

Sheila Bender founded WritingItReal.com in 2002 and has been helping writers make their writing dreams come true through instructional articles, online workshops and telephone consults for the last 14 years. Before she was proficient with the Internet, Sheila published with Writer’s Digest Books, Warner Books, McGraw Hill, and Imago Press, among several other presses. Now, she is venturing into self-publishing new instructional books and re-issuing some of her earlier books. She finds writing inspiration in examining her relationships with others and watching the waters of Discovery Bay, where she lives in Western Washington and continues to write memoir and poetry. After losing her 25-year-old son in a snowboarding accident, she survived the pain by writing poetry. Her memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief is a narrative about how poetry was the spiritual practice that helped her learn to live fully again. 

Molly Hollenbach is a freelance writer with an MFA in writing and PhD in cultural anthropology. She writes creative nonfiction, memoir, and environmental journalism. Her most recent publication is an essay about the ancient rock at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, “Rock Bhakti: Dreaming the Vishnu Schist,” in On Foot: Grand Canyon Backpacking Stories, Vishnu Temple Press, 2014. She has taught English and creative writing at Peninsula College, Port Angeles, WA, and cultural anthropology at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA.

Mara Lathrop has received productions of her full length plays in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, Rome and elsewhere including The Urn of Drew, Hell on Wheels, The Eighteenth Mitzvah, Dreams of Baby, The Lily & Lou Show, Is Story of Poor Sea Village Girl, Tales from the Saltmines, The Six Basic Rules and The Garden of Monsters. Publishers include Smith & Kraus, Taunton Books and Indie Theatre Now. Her plays have been developed at the National Playwrights Conference, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, the Director's Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre West. Literary awards and honors include Mill Mountain Theatre New Play Contest, Richard Hugo House New Play Prize, and McLaren Comedy Playwriting Competition and Fellowships in Playwriting from the Washington State Arts Commission and Artist Trust.

Each month, we invite authors, industry professionals and other writers to a discussion where we'll share tips, give help and inspiration.


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