Meet the Faculty
 Debra Kang Dean has published three collections of poetry: Back to Back (NCWN, 1997), which won the Harperprints Poetry Chapbook Competition, judged by Ruth Stone; News of Home (BOA, 1998), co-winner of the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Margaret Morton Award, and Precipitates (BOA, 2003). Her work has appeared in many journals anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 1999.
 Brooks Haxton has published five collections of poems with Alfred A. Knopf including Dominion and Traveling Company, and two book-length narrative poems, The Lay of EleanorandIrene and Dead Reckoning. As a translator, he has published two collections from the ancient Greek, Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus and Dances for Flute andThunder, and a bicentennial selection of poems by Victor Hugo, all from Viking-Penguin. His many awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Steven Huff’s second collection of poems is More Daring Escapes (Red Hen Press, 2003). A new collection of short stories, A Pig in Paris, is due out this year from Big Pencil Press. His chapbook, Proof, was Editor’s Choice in the 2004 Two Rivers Review Chapbook Competition. A Pushcart Winner in fiction, he teaches creative writing at RIT and in the Solstice M.F.A. program at Pine Manor College, and is director of adult education at Writers & Books.
 Philip Memmer directs the Downtown Writer’s Center, and is the author of two collections of poems, Threat of Pleasure (2008) and Sweetheart, Baby, Darling (2004), both from Word Press, as well as three chapbooks of poems. His work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and in several anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day.
Jennifer Pashleyis the author of States, a new collection of stories from Lewis-Clark Press (2007). Her work has appeared in Mississippi Review, Dogwood, Two Rivers Review, Los Angeles Review, Salt Hill, Stone Canoe and Swink. She lives in Syracuse, where she co-directs the DWC PRO Certificate Program in Fiction. |
Retreat Schedule
subject to change
Friday, August 15
4:00-5:30 p.m. Registration, cocktails
5:30-6:00 p.m. Announcements, introductions
6:00-7:00 p.m. Dinner
7:00-8:00 p.m. Readings by Memmer and Huff
Saturday, August 16
8:30-9:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:30-11:45 a.m. Critique Workshop 1
11:45-12:30 p.m. Lunch
12:30-2:45 p.m. Critique Workshop 2
2:45-3:00 p.m. Break
3:00-5:00 p.m. Individual Conferences
5:00-6:30 p.m. Cocktails/student open readings
6:30-7:30 p.m. Dinner
7:30-8:30 p.m. Readings by Pashley and Dean
8:30-10:00 p.m. Dessert and frivolity
Sunday, August 17
8:30-9:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:30-11:45 a.m. Critique Workshop 3
11:45-12:30 p.m. Lunch
12:30-2:45 p.m. Critique Workshop 4
2:45-4:15 p.m. Individual Conferences
4:15-5:30 p.m. Reading by Brooks Haxton
What to Bring
Please bring ten copies each of two stories or four poems, depending on your genre, for use in the Workshops. Please also bring a notebook and pens or pencils.
Please Note:
We regret that we cannot accommodate guests or pets. Please turn off cell phones during workshops and readings. |
Online Registrtion
Tuition
Until June 30 : $195 for DWC or W&B members, $215 for non-members;
July 1-August 4: $220 for members, $235 for non-members
After August 4: $250, no member discounts.
YMCA Members- Fiction Registration
YMCA Members- Poetry Registration
W&B members/General Public Fiction Registration
W&B members/General Public poetry Registration
or download a registration form to mail in.
All participants must submit via email one story, one novel chapter, or two poems with this form. This work will be reviewed in the individual conference session at the retreat, and may not be replaced after registration.
Submissions should be sent as attatchemnts, in either pdf, doc, rtf, or txt format.
In addition, please specify in the body of your email the writer with whom you wish to have an individual conference. For Poetry: Debra Kang Dean or Phil Memmeror. For Fiction: Jen Pashley or Steven Huff. Submissions that do not specify a writer will be assumed to have no preference.
Please include in the subject of your email your FULL NAME and the words AUGUST OCCASION.
Send submissions to augustoccasion@wab.org
All participants are guaranteed a conference with a faculty member in their genre, but specific requests will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Refunds are available until August 8, minus a $25 processing fee. YMCA members may not take this program as their free summer course. |
About August Occasion
We are happy to announce the second annual August Occasion, this time co-sponsored by The Downtown Writer’s Center of Syracuse and Writers & Books of Rochester. This writers’ weekend will feature intense small-group workshops, individual conferences with retreat faculty, student and faculty readings, and plenty of food, drink, and convivium, all at the beautiful Gell Center, near Canandaigua Lake.
Scholarships
We will grant two Occasion Fellowships. Fellows pay only $125 to attend in return for assistance with meal preparation and clean-up. For complete information, please contact DWC director Phil Memmer at 315-474-6851 x328, or at phil@ymcaarts.org.
About the Gell Center
The Gell Center of the Finger Lakes is a writing retreat and conference center owned and operated by Writers & Books of Rochester, NY. It is located on a 23-acre wooded plot in the Bristol Hills, just 50 minutes from Rochester and 90 minutes from Syracuse. For more information, including photos, visit www.wab.org/gell. All August Occasion participants will receive driving directions prior to the retreat.
Lodging
Participants will have a choice of local lodging (area bed & breakfasts; lists will be provided), or the Gell’s new tent platforms, which include tents, power outlets and lighting. The Gell lodge is equipped with shower facilities. |
