A New Name for a New Era
The Attic Institute
"The times call for a new paradigm for how a writer engages the world and develops his or her voice. They call for a new model to gain the depth needed not only to write well but also to think well, imagine well, create well, even to live well."
~ David Biespiel
On December 22, 2010, David Biespiel announced a new direction for the Attic.
Read David's announcement
Read the Oregonian coverage
Read the Reading Local coverage
Experience the finest poetry
Join two Attic Institute faculty at back-to-back readings in January.
DAVID BIESPIEL and WENDY WILLIS
Mountain Writers Series at The Press Club: Wednesday, January 18, 7pm
Verse in Person at the Northwest Branch of the Multnomah County Library: Wednesday January 25, 7pm.
Attic Institute Adjunct Fellows Named Oregon Book Award Finalists
Congratulations to all the finalists for the Oregon Book Awards, including:
Jennifer Lauck
Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute
Finalist in Creative Nonfiction
Register for Jennifer's upcoming workshops
Vanessa Veselka
Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute
Finalist in Fiction
Award-winning NPR journalist and OPB host Emily Harris joins the Attic Institute as an Adjunct Fellow
We're delighted to announce that Peabody Award winning journalist Emily Harris has joined the Attic Institute as an Adjunct Fellow in the Individual Consult Group. Emily will work with writers one-on-one in a one-of-a-kind Talk to Write interview session to help you clarify what you really want to write and identify your driving motivation. Seasoned NPR reporter and OPB host Emily Harris has interviewed thousands of people from all walks of life, from world leaders to war refugees, from internationally renowned artists to political leaders, and from parents, voters, thinkers, athletes, entrepreneurs to, yes, writers.
In the Wake of Protest: One Woman's Attempt to Unionize Amazon
Read Adjunct Fellow Vanessa Veselka's latest article for the Atlantic.
"Inspired by the WTO protests, Vanesa Veselka, Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute, took a job in an Amazon warehouse to try and unionize the workers there."
JUST ADDED: Literary Therapy: Conference Your Writing with Attic Institute President David Biespiel
"The beauty of conferencing is you're able to be in a one-on-one conversation about your writing for a sustained period, even if it's just an hour, so that you can generate a unique rush of momentum that often helps push your writing immeditately to the next level."
A truly fantastic response to Liz Rusch's 'Writing a Book Proposal' workshop
"Liz's class was extemely useful and inspiring."
Register for the next class:
Learn more about:
Liz Rusch, Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute
The class gives good insight into the process and forms of writing a book proposal. It’s useful not only in practical terms (of writing the proposal) but it’s also a useful blueprint to help you discover what your book will be about.
—Joseph Ahearne
Liz’s reference information was clear and helpful. I will be referring back to the handouts for a long time to come.
—Christy Peterson
Liz’s class was extremely useful and inspiring. She very clearly and expertly laid out the various parts of the book proposal and got us all started writing each section so that many of us came out of class with finished proposal drafts. Liz’s responses to our writing were extremely insightful and helpful.
—Stacey Vallas
A new interview with David Biespiel
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"The literary voice is the embodiment of individual dignity."
~ David Biespiel, President of the Attic Institute
David takes questions about the purpose of the Attic Institute, the role of writers in contemporary American society, and the presence of social and political issues in American poetry. Interviewed by Keven Craft, editor of Poetry Northwest.
Kate, Coco, and Georgia: Karen Karbo's kick ass women in the Huffington Post
Letting Go Of Being Nice
By Karen Karbo
Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute
Four years ago, during a talk I was giving on Katharine Hepburn, to celebrate the publication of my book How to Hepburn, a woman raised her hand and asked, "But I heard Hepburn wasn't a very nice person, especially as she got older." Two years later, at my reading from The Gospel According to Coco Chanel after all the questions about Chanel's greatest contribution to fashion, and whether or not she was really a Nazi spy, someone asked "but, wasn't Chanel sort of a bitch?" I just published the third in my kick ass women trilogy -- How Georgia Became O'Keeffe -- and it's only a matter of time before someone wants to know whether it's true that O'Keeffe's nickname was the A-hole of Abiquiu.
The questions are always asked by women. Even though there are men in the audience, men don't seem to care much whether these legendary 20th century women were still, in the face of their staggering achievements, nice. Men are ahead of the game: they know that being thought of as a "nice guy" is tantamount to being thought of as a pushover, a non-entity. Nice guys, as we all know, finish last.
