We had several updates at Happy Hour this month, and, as promised, here they are…

Dialogue and the Memoir with Laura Kalpakian (online)

Can you possibly remember precisely what was said in the past? Does it matter? The memoir isn’t a vehicle for the author to testify in court. The memoir evokes the elusive past and animates the people in it. Dialogue in the memoir should convey the richness and ripple of these voices. Dialogue is artificial. Voice is authentic. How to use the artificial to convey the authentic? This class explores the answers, the content and portrayal of dialogue to help writers reveal character, develop tension and deepen their stories. 

Date:  (Online Class) May 15, 2022

Register: Click here to register!

Building an Arc Into Your Poem with J.L. Wright (virtual classroom)

Dates: April 24, 2022, 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: Zoom Classroom 1
Registration Fee: $29.00 
Register: Click here to register!

Precision of Poetry with J.L. Wright (virtual classroom)

Dates: May 1, 2022, 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: Zoom Classroom 1
Registration Fee: $29.00 
Register: Click here to register!

Our call to submission went out with a reference to the William Carlos Williams’ poem Spring and All. Here is the poem in its entirety:

Spring and All
by William Carlos Williams
From the book Spring and All, published in 1923.

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—
Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches—
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken

For complete guidelines, click here.