. . . Winter 2003

U-M sponsors writers workshop In 'Hemingway country'

View from a cabin at Bear River, from this year's poster for the Bear River Writers' Conference. Photo by Ed Wargin © 2002

The University's involvement in creative writing deepened this year when it sponsored its first workshop for creative writers, the Bear River Writers' Conference on Walloon Lake near Petoskey, Michigan.

The Bear River workshop began one autumn afternoon in 2000 when the poet and English Prof. Richard Tillinghast was fly-fishing near Walloon Lake with James McCullough, who teaches at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey. Chatting as anglers do, they found that each had envisioned the area the site of Ernest Hemingway's fishing cabinas an ideal spot for a writers workshop rivaling the best other states can boast.

By spring 2001, the pair had reeled in their dream, renting rustic Camp Daggett's 106 acres of forest, wetlands, meadows and shoreline for a four-day writers workshop they co-directed. The camp sits right across the lake from Hemingway's handsome cabin.

Bear River has proved so successful that this year, its third, the University decided to sponsor the workshop. Both the provost's and the dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts' offices supplied funding.

Tillinghast, who continues as director after McCullough resigned to complete a book, says, "This year's special guest will be Donald Hall, one of the great names in American poetry. Don has close ties here. He taught at Michigan for many years before returning to his home state, New Hampshire, to write full time. He'll give a reading and a talk and also just hang out. He'll be an exciting around the camp."

Other 2003 faculty include, among others, National Book Award nominees Thomas Lynch and Charles Baxter; poet/essayist Keith Taylor of U-M's creative wiritng program, nature writer Jerry Dennis, fiction writer Laura Kasischke and children's writer Kathy-jo Wargin.

"With the new initiative we have taken in sponsoring Bear River," said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, "we are now reaching out to writers at all levels of experience and expertise who have either already graduated or who may not be in a position to take advantage of the programs we offer on our campus. Based on the participation of writers with Michigan connections as well as internationally known authors, Bear River is well on its way to becoming the premier literary gathering in the Great Lakes region."

Tuition for the May 29 ­ June 2 workshop is $600 ($500 for those who camp or lodge off-site), with a 10 percent discount for pre-April sign-ups. For more information, contact: Bear River Writers' Conference, U-M Dept. of English Language and Literature, 3187 Angell Hall, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003. You may also register at the Web site: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/bearriver.