ESU to host Tallgrass Writing Workshop

Emporia State University will host the 18th annual Tallgrass Writing Workshop June 14-15.

Sanctioned by the Western Writers of America, the workshop is aimed at writers of all backgrounds, experience and interest, including hobbyists, professional writers and writing teachers.

Workshop faculty are published writers and experienced teachers who are knowledgeable about requirements for publication. They will discuss fiction and non-fiction characteristics, literary style and technique, and strategies and opportunities for publication.

Workshop Faculty include:

• Don Coldsmith,

  who has written more than 40 books, 150 magazine articles, and 1600 newspaper columns over the last 30 years. The bulk of his fiction is in a series, the "Spanish Bit Saga" about the Indians of the Great Plains, beginning with the earliest European contact. There are now more than 6 million copies of his books in print, as well as British, German, French, and Swedish editions. His two newest books are "The Long Journey Home" and "Raven Mocker."

• Jim Hoy,

  director of the Center for Great Plains Studies and member of the ESU Department of English since 1970. Dr. Hoy writes non-fiction and has published nine books and over 100 articles and is co-author of "Plains Folk," a weekly newspaper column on the history and folklife of the Great Plains. He is a past president of the Kansas State Historical Society and trustee of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. His latest book is "Vaqueros, Cowboys, and Buckaroos," published by the University of Texas Press.

• Sandy Whiting,

  a member of the Western Writers of American and winner of the WWA Spur Award for her first short story "Charity." She has published several fiction stories as well as non-fiction articles for various Western-themed publications. She is currently working on a full-length novel based on "Charity."

• Max and Carol Yoho.

  Max received Kansas Authors Club's 2002 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Award for best book by a club member. With a strong bent for humor, he has worked with would-be writers from primary to adult levels. With his wife, Carol, he established Dancing Goat Press and successfully self-published his own novels, "The Revival" and "Tales from Comanche County." The most recent release is "Still Horsin' Around," a collection of Don Coldsmith's newspaper columns.

• Mike Blakely

  , a native of the coastal plains of Texas who graduated from the University of Texas-Austin with a degree in journalism. After college, he concentrated on writing free-lance magazine, newspaper articles, and songs. He published his first novel, "The Glory Trail," when he was 29. He has written 14 books of historical fiction set in the American West. He also continues writing music. He has served as president of the Western Writers of America and serves on the board of the Ozark Creative Writers. His novel, Summer of Pearls, won the WWA Spur Award in 2001.

The workshop fee is $60. Participants may register for non-credit or credit, with an additional charge of $100 for undergraduate credit and $132 for graduate credit. Participants are responsible for their own housing.

The workshops begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday June 14 and runs through Sunday afternoon. An informal reception Saturday evening will give participants a chance to become better acquainted with the authors.
For more information, contact the Center for Great Plains Study at johnsonj@emporia.edu, or 620-341-5574.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>