The Art of the Personal Essay: Make A Point. Change the World. November 30, 2018 By Event Details Date(s): Monday, Nov 11th, 2019-Sunday, Nov 17th, 2019 Venue: Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA Categories: Regional Workshop, Writing Workshop Tags: 2019 writing workshops, clergy, John Hudson, MA, regional workshop, Warren Conference Center in Ashland Sponsored by the Collegeville Institute in partnership with the Pastoral Excellence Program of the Massachusetts Conference, UCC Good non-fiction spiritual writing makes a point, tells a story, shares a memory, constructs an argument and always gives life to an idea. Personal essays require conciseness and clarity of thought: getting to the point to make yourpoint, with elegance and creativity. In these times of tweets and blog posts and readers with short attention spans, spiritual writing can’t afford to be dusty, dull, or irrelevant. God’s Word and the word must be crafted well to get the attention of a spiritually distracted world. Do you want to make your blog posts, opinion pieces, magazine/journal articles, newsletter essays and sermons more compelling and cogent? Ready to dig deep, discover who you are on the page and create a clear and compelling point of view in your writing? Spend a week delving into the craft and art of the personal essay. Give life to your unique writing voice. Join a creative community for a November autumn week in New England at a cozy and restful retreat center. We will learn through writing exercises, lectures, discussions, reading the best of essay writers, and sharing our work with each other. There will be time for rest, prayer, exercise and, of course, writing. Participants will also be asked to submit a piece in advance of the workshop. Reverend John Hudson Leading the workshop is the Reverend John Hudson, a longtime syndicated online and print newspaper opinion columnist, blogger, and Collegeville Institute alum and resident scholar. Hudson has served churches throughout New England for thirty years as a United Church of Christ pastor. His work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, USA Magazine and Bearings Online, Collegeville Institute’s digital magazine. The program is limited to 12 participants and will be held at the Warren Conference Center and Inn in Ashland, Massachusetts, 25 miles east of downtown Boston. Accommodations include private rooms with baths, and all meals and snacks. Transportation to and from the facility are the responsibility of participants. The full cost of the program is underwritten by the Pastoral Excellence Program of the Massachusetts Conference, UCC in partnership with the Collegeville Institute and the Lilly Endowment. Participants are expected to stay the full length of the workshop. Application Process: The application deadline for this workshop has now passed.
