Writing Scholarship Offered

Writer Pam Bernard of Walpole, NH is offering the first of a series of scholarships to attend one full 8-week session of her poetry workshop / writers’ conclave.  The scholarship is designed to encourage a local writer in financial need to pursue a deeper engagement with writing, reading, and critiquing poetry. 

Ms Bernard, an award winning poet, visual artist, editor, and professor of writing, earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University in History of Art, and her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson Graduate Program for Writers.  She has two published volumes of poetry and a third to be published in spring 2010.  Among her many awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and two Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships. Ms Bernard has conducted workshops in writing as well as a private editing service for poets for over a decade.  She teaches writing and poetry at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. 

“This weekly gathering means to provide a close community of writers,” Bernard said recently at her Walpole home, “going forward together towards their writing goals.  These will be small group sessions, seven or eight writers maximum, gathered around my big table, which is in an open, inviting space, with a fireplace for cold months, a lovely porch and deck in warm.” 

“I provide a nurturing, productive atmosphere where we gain a better understanding of how to draft, shape, and finish poems, where each participant will be encouraged to share work, and receive careful, particularlized attention.  Central to the concept of a community is to build trust, and provide a safe place to discuss ideas and thoughts, where everyone’s work is given thoughtful, rigorous feedback.”

This workshop / writers’ conclave differs from other workshops in that Bernard offers writers more than an expert critique in a group setting.  Each week she opens with a discussion of craft, centered around a contemporary poem.  Then she provides prompts for brief free writing exercises, to generate material for new poems.  The weekly session then ends with a thoughtful group discussion of the poems brought by each writer. 

“My deepest intention,” Bernard says, “is to have writers leave each session encouraged and inspired with concrete ideas for revision and for new poems.”

Writers interested in joining the workshop or applying for the scholarship should contact Ms Bernard at pam@pambernard.com or call 603-756-4177.  Also please visit her web site at www.psmbernard.com for more information and application instructions. 

Photos available in print or digital format.

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