Creative Cross-pollinations theme for 2010
with visiting instructors Frank Soos & Margo Klass,
Nancy Cook, Jonathan Gray & Maria Shell
July 17-24, 2010
About the Workshop
Why collaborate? Why cross-pollinate? In nature, cross-pollination occurs when pollen is delivered to a flower from a different plant. More broadly defined, cross-pollination is the influence or inspiration between or among diverse elements. Most plants reproduce by cross-pollination, which increases the genetic diversity of a population, but too often writers deem their work a solitary task. At the WMWW, we have witnessed the potential of writers working in intimate community, sharing ideas like pollen and producing stronger work because of it. This year's workshop simply ups the ante, presenting a diversity of approaches to fertilize writers’ fruit. What can writers learn from visual artists? We might consider quilting or bookmaking as metaphor. Structure is central to a quilter's or bookmaker's process, and structure informs our perception of nature. Structure is also central to the craft of writing. Like quiltmakers, we piece ourselves, we piece our histories, and we certainly piece our essays, stories, poems—sometimes from given patterns, sometimes working organically, but always seeking to assemble our words with grace and impact. Throughout the week we will celebrate the spirit of Beginner’s Mind: recognizing that something wonderful happens in the brain when we make it try something new—whether it be walking on a glacier for the first time, performing in a community word jam, or trying to bind a book with found natural materials.
About the Workshop Staff
Fairbanks writer and visual artist team Frank Soos and Margo Klass began their collaboration in 2002 by juxtaposing Margo’s mixed media box constructions with Frank’s miniature essays. Their intent is to create a conversational push and pull between visual art and words. Frank Soos has published two works of fiction: Early Yet, and Unified Field Theory, the 1997 winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and a book of essays, Bamboo Fly Rod Suite: Reflections on Fishing and the Geography of Grace. His short essay responses to Margo’s work represent a new and unexpected direction in his work, resulting in his most recent book, the collaborative Double Moon: Constructions/ Conversations. Frank taught creative writing for 18 years at University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he is now Professor Emeritus. With a PhD from Bryn Mawr College, Margo Klass taught art in the Washington, D.C. area for more than 20 years before devoting full attention to her own artwork. Her mixed media constructions draw upon her training in art 
history, interest in medieval altarpieces, and responsiveness to the natural environment. She was Artist-in-Residence in Denali National Park in 2007. Exhibitions include the Dadian Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Bunnell Street Gallery in Homer, Alaska; Alaska Pacific University; and Fairbanks Arts Association. Her work is included in the collections of the Anchorage Museum and the University of Alaska Museum of the North. She is a 2008 recipient of a Rasmuson Individual Artist fellowship. Learn more at www.margoklass.com and here.
Nancy Cook, Workshop Director, has led field programs for the Wrangell Mountains Center since 1991. A former National Park Service interpretive ranger, she received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and her BS in Environmental Science from the Evergreen State College. Her poems and prose appear in the Riverteeth Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Anchorage Daily News, Mountain Gazette, and Going Alone (Seal Press 2004). She has taught writing at Prince William Sound Community College and University of Alaska Fairbanks, and is currently a full time faculty member at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. The mother of one daughter, she continues to spend summers at her cabin near McCarthy.
Jonathan Gray, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University Carbondale where he teaches and researches rhetoric and performance studies. His professional work addresses performance and other artistic practices as tools for fosteringecological awareness. His essays have appeared in The Drama Review (TDR), Text and Performance Quarterly, Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, and Call to Earth. He is also a solo performer, currently touring two original shows nationwide: Trail Mix: A Sojourn on the Muddy Divide Between Nature and Culture and Cross/Walking.
Quiltmaker Maria Shell earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction before becoming a full time visual artist. Her art quilts and threadwork have earned national and international recognition, with recent work featured in several prestigious gallery shows (Fiber Directions 2009 and Form, Not Function) as well as the travelling shows Explorations in Quilting and Fiber Force 2009. She is one of 35 artists selected to represent Studio Art Quilts Associates 20th anniversary show SAQA@ 20: Art and Excellence 2009. Awarded a Rasmuson Emerging Artist fellowship in 2009, several national and international art quilt magazines have featured her work, as will the forthcoming books 500 Art Quilts and Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama. More
Food For Thought
Meals & Accommodations
The Wrangell Mountains Center facility includes a meeting hall, dining room, library and other quiet
rooms for writing, as well as a garden and cooperatively run kitchen. Tasty meals (mostly vegetarian)
are included in the price of the workshop. In keeping with the Center's commitment to cooperative
living and sustainable systems, writers are expected to contribute to daily chores surrounding preparation
and clean-up of meals and garden upkeep. A cook is on staff to oversee the kitchen. Camping is
available for free at a private site a five minute walk away. Participants also have the option to rent a
bed at the historic Commissioner's Cabin in downtown McCarthy. Please contact us early to ensure
availability. Other lodging options include the full service McCarthy Lodge and Lancaster's Backpacker Hotel, located just down the street. Participants should plan to arrive in McCarthy for a 6:00 pm dinner on July 17th. The
workshop ends with breakfast on July 24th.
To register
Mail in this form or the similar form in the workshop brochure along with your registration fee. Don't delay; enrollment is limited to 14 people.
photo by Jeremy Pataky
Several participants in the 2009 Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop and Wrangell Mountains Center staff explore the Root Glacier while other participants explore the nearby Kennicott National Historic Landmark or work on their writing projects back in town.
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photo by Jon Campbell
2009 Visiting Writer Scott Russell Sanders reads a passage from his book A Conservationist Manifesto during the annual Word Jam, an open-to-the-public literary and performance art open mic held in conjunction with the Wrangell Mountains Writing Workshop.