Claflin University will present a series of community writing workshop programs from November 2022 – September 2023. The first program, ” An Introduction to Writing Memoir,” will take place on Thursday, November 3, 2022. The programs are designed to serve the communities of Orangeburg, Bamberg, and Calhoun counties. SC Humanities supported this program with a Fast Track Literary Grant.
“An Introduction to Writing Memoir” will be led by Dr. Nick Robinson. Dr. Robinson grew up in Junior Village, a notorious orphanage that was the oldest and largest institution of its kind in America. A ninth-grade dropout, he earned a GED and graduated from the University of D.C. A graduate of the creative writing programs at Florida Atlantic University (2009 MFA) and the University of Missouri (Ridgel Nonfiction Fellow, 2016 PhD), Dr. Robinson’s work, recognized by 23 literary journals over the past thirty-six months, has been published in Memoir Magazine, Southeast Review, New Ohio Review, Iron Horse Literary Review and elsewhere. His memoir chapter, “Junior Village,” won the 2020 Ned Stuckey-French Nonfiction Prize, judged by 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winner in nonfiction, Gilbert King.
The one-hour workshop will start at 2:30 p.m. and will be held at the Grace Thomas Kennedy Auditorium, Claflin University (400 Magnolia St. Orangeburg, South Carolina 29115).
The other proposed workshop topics include: “Creative Writing: The Classroom and Beyond” (January 2023), “The Graphic Novel: Theory and Practice” (March 2023), “Writing as a Passion” (April 2023), and “Creative Writing as a Craft” (September 2023). Detailed information about these events will be added when it is available.
The Fast Track Literary Grant program is supported with funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission. The South Carolina Arts Commission is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and collaborates in its work with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and South Arts.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c) 3 organization is governed by a volunteer 20-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.
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