As always, this year’s Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat will open with a Plenary Panel featuring essay presentations and discussion on a theme chosen by consensus the previous year. For this CWC 20th anniversary year, the topic chosen was “What We Take With Us.” We’re looking forward to hearing Carolyn Bardos’s, Wanda Pothier-Hill’s, and Gail South’s words on this evocative subject and to having Michelle Embree moderate the discussion. Also in keeping with years past, there will be quiet times for writing, as well as times to choose to gather together as writers: Works-in-Progress sessions that provide opportunities for informal readings and feedback, “Impromptu Hours,” that allow participants to share a variety of writing prompts, “Stations of the Word” to bring the first morning’s writing to the outdoors, and workshops led by conference attendees cover a broad range of topics, from elements of craft to the writer’s relationship to society and social issues. The nationally-dispersed CWC Board of Stewards and CLOCKHOUSE staff will also able to hold their regular annual in-person meetings during this time, and there will be the now-customary Preview Reading and Celebration of the new CLOCKHOUSE volume. As always, evenings will be filled formal readings—and often, with informal gatherings and writings games as well.
This is a special year, though, and there will be additional events to mark CWC’s 20th anniversary. Plans are in the works to formally thank many of those who’ve nurtured CWC, beginning with its 1997 inception and bringing the community through its 20th year. There will be a special panel focusing on CWC’s history. There will be a Strawberry Celebration in the Upper Garden. And there will be a workshop, led by CWC&R co-coordinator Lucy Turner, to create a group commemorative writing in honor of our 20 years together.
The 2017 Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat will take place from July 3 through July 7 on Goddard College’s Plainfield, Vermont, campus. If you’re an alum of Goddard’s MFAW program–from either Plainfield or Port Townsend–please consider joining us! Registration forms are available here.
