Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Portfolio Overview

Portfolios are due on the last day of E306, April 28, 2011 and should reflect a comprehensive overview of the coursework.

Portfolios are not summaries; they should reflect assessment and analysis.


PORTFOLIO: Due April 28
There are two types of daily writing: one related to online reading and in-class workshops, and one related to Guest Speaker Presentations.
Your final portfolio should include, in order:
            Title Page;
            Table of Contents
            A one page reflective summary/analysis of the course
            All daily writing pertaining to coursework
            All daily writing pertaining to Guest Speaker's presentations (include your classmates' presentations)
 
SPEAKERS 
Tom Eblen, Herald-Leader columnist (cited role models Bobbie Ann Mason, Peter Taylor, Silas House)

Jonathan Miller (KY's secretary of finance at the time of his visit), founding website RecoveringPolitician
first discussion of building a platform: websites, blogs, social media

Mack McCormick, University Press of Kentucky (references Linda Scott DeRosier Creeker: A Woman's Journey (Women in Southern Culture) 

Tom Marksbury, screenwriter/novelist, UK instructor
(JD references www.scbwi.org; write4kids.com; www.pred-ed.com. Who is the Association/Tribe that applies to your chosen field of writing)

(day job: attorney; Naval officer; referenced Charles Flood; "createspace" at amazon)

Kakie Urch, UK Assoc. Professor New Media
(referenced James Baker Hall; Bobbie Ann Mason; Guy Mendes; Gurney Norman; Silas House -- recommended looking at the lives of Writers; recommended books: The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books; and  Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer)

activism; publishing; guerilla marketing. FIND YOUR TRIBE.

Christina Noll, University of Kentucky Alumni Association Magazine
brochures, catalogs, Search Engine Optimization

"Write even when you don't feel like it." "If you have an audience, you can sell a book." "People won't click unless you give them a reason." "1000 true fans."

discussion: Ken Kesey; Stegner Fellowships at Stanford; 68/69 NCAA tourney; his tribe: Jim Baker Hall, Wendell Berry, Gurney Norman (Bobbie Ann Mason also a Stegner fellow). Never a great payday, except for seling Natural Man 1983 (the other book that sold that year was Mosquito Coast)


Dr. Kevin Nelson, neurologist, University of Kentucky Medical Center, The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist's Search for the God Experience 
He is with Viking/Dutton/Penguin. Overseas rights to Simon and Schuster. Started with 50 page proposal. Practicing neurologist since 1984. 


 2011 is 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. Taught in Mozambique (students didn't have books; had to build library to obtain funding/donations of books). Peace Corps goals: 1. Provide aid to a developing country; 2. Learn another country's culture; 3. bring the experience back to the U.S. and tell about it.

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Accents Publishing 
started out as electrical engineer behind the Iron Curtain; moved to U.S.; left language behind; stopped writing for 11 years. MBA Virginia Tech. MFA came later. Advice: read out loud; engage as many parts of the brain as possible. Role model: Richard Taylor (former KY poet laureate). Find like-minded people. Be accountable to others. Read each other's work. The idea behind Accents: "word needs to travel." Accents radio show airs on Fridays on WRFL.

ASSIGNED READING 

Why it's important to read David Foster Wallace

NYT "Why do writers abandon novels?"  (featuring Michael Chabon)

NYT: Story is KING

Does an Author Need a Website? HuffPo. (What are the ways in which a website could be obsolete? Consider mobile technology. Additional platforms. What parts of this interview are old-school?)

Publish or Perish author Susan Orlean talks about how the process of getting a book published in her New Yorker blog

The Problem with Memoirs  (New York Times, January 28, 2011 "A moment of silence, please, for the lost art of shutting up." 

Kentucky Voices: Call to Civic -- and Civil Action by Kentucky Secretary of Finance and Administration, Jonathan Miller, guest speaker, January 25, 2011.

David Carr's NYT essay Publishing without Publishers

Author Michael Chabon blogs for a week for The Atlantic

RECOMMENDED READING 
How Book Publishing Has Changed Since 1984: Peter Osnos @:
How Google Is Evolving Into a Media Company by David Carr-
See Matt Cutts, UK Alum Google's Algorithm Tweaks Pushed Down "Two-Thirds" of Yahoo's Contrib Content
Borders' Bankruptcy Shakes the Publishing Industry 17 Feb
10 ½ Tips for Being a More Effective Author Online:
Stephen King Knows a Few Things About the Movie Adaptation of The Stand
Does your school use Twitter in a cool way? Stanford tops the list of most influential colleges according to 

EXERCISES
Obituary Writing
Classmate Interviews 






1 comment:

  1. Prof. Reeves,

    Since we are writing up portfolio entries for each of our classmates' presentation, what would you like for us to do about the people who are presenting on the last day of class (the same day the portfolio is due)?

    ReplyDelete