Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Review, the University of Georgia’s nationally renowned journal of arts and letters, will sponsor “The Comedy of Survival,” the inaugural literary event at the newly opened Bowers House Writers Retreat and Center for Lifelong Learning in Canon on Saturday, Oct. 23, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
South Carolina fiction writer George Singleton and Georgia poet Alice Friman will give readings, conduct workshops, and participate in a panel discussion of the program topic with Georgia Review editor Stephen Corey.
Check-in and informal tours of the beautiful 90-year-old, 4,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom Bowers House will take place 10 – 11 a.m., with Singleton and Friman reading from their own work between 11 a.m. and noon. Lunch (included in the registration fee) will be from noon to 1 p.m.
Workshops in fiction (Singleton) and poetry (Friman) will take place from 1-2:15 p.m., with the discussion focusing on the art of weaving humor into all kinds of material-even the most serious and difficult. Participants are invited to bring for discussion multiple copies of a short poem or the opening page of a story in which they are trying to employ humor.
Following a break, Singleton, Friman, and Corey will conduct their panel-with audience participation-from 2:45 – 4 p.m. The day will conclude with a reception from 4-5 p.m.
George Singleton, a Georgia Review discovery some twenty years ago, has since published four collections of short stories, two novels, and an irreverent how-to book titled Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers. His other titles include The Half-Mammals of Dixie, Why Dogs Chase Cars, Drowning in Gruel, and Work Shirts for Madmen. A recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Singleton has had work published and reprinted in many magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s, and in anthologies such as New Stories from the South and Surreal South. He lives in Easley, S.C., and teaches at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Greenville.
Alice Friman’s eight poetry collections include The Book of the Rotten Daughter, Zoo, and Inverted Fire; her ninth, Vinculum, is forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press in 2011. Professor Emerita at the University of Indianapolis, Friman has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies, and the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. A frequent contributor to The Georgia Review, Friman is currently poet-in-residence at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville.
Because space is limited and a level of individual attention to all participants is planned, advance registration is requested and strongly recommended. The advance price is $75 for the general public and $65 for students, seniors and those with a Bowers House membership.The deadline for receipt of advance registration payments is Monday, Oct. 18.The registration fees on the day of the program will be $90 and $80. Checks should be made payable to the Bowers house and mailed to the Bowers House, P.O. Box 74, Canon, Ga. 30520.
The Bowers House is located just off Georgia highway 17 at 100 Depot Street in downtown Canon-thirty miles north of Athens, four miles north of Royston, and five miles from the Lavonia exit (#58) off I-85. Easily accessible from Atlanta, Greenville/Spartanburg, and Charlotte, the Bowers House offers rooms for working writers at modest weekly rates as well as spacious common areas for readings and other literary gatherings.
For more information, contact the Bowers House Program Director Beth Stormont at beth.stormont@gmail.com or 706/245-6086,or the Bowers House owner Laura Foreman at laura.foreman@gmail.com, or see www.thebowershousewriters.com.