tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84094903702221368882024-02-18T17:55:18.425-08:00Lisa Ohlen HarrisLisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-59214664828277478182020-03-19T11:08:00.004-07:002020-03-19T11:08:46.374-07:00Coronavirus DiariesI'm now blogging at Coronavirus Diaries if you'd like to stop by.Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-11839758979660853132018-11-13T11:31:00.003-08:002018-11-13T11:31:41.698-08:00Winter Online ClassMy fall Object Lessons class was a lot of fun, and I've had requests to run it again this winter. If you're interested in learning more, let me know!
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-22667809252469180532018-08-13T13:24:00.002-07:002018-08-13T19:14:05.010-07:00New Online Class — Fall 2018
Object Lessons: Writing the Tangible
5-week online class
September 24 – October 28, 2018
Creative nonfiction brings together the concrete and the abstract, grounding relationships and emotion in the physical world and analyzing artifact in order to excavate memory and launch speculation. Through weekly readings, instruction, conversation, and prompts, this 5-week online Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-42684245773339130312016-03-04T11:17:00.002-08:002016-03-04T13:11:58.594-08:00Life Writing: An Introduction to Memoir
Four-week memoir class starting in McMinnville—register soon!
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-59969560630285125292016-03-03T11:42:00.001-08:002016-03-03T12:05:00.536-08:00Terroir Creative Writing FestivalOne November night in 2011, I drove three towns south on 99W to McMinnville, Oregon, to attend a committee meeting for a local writing festival. The meeting was nuts. So noisy and disorganized. Someone passed around wine glasses and a bottle of pinot noir, everyone talking over and under each other. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. This is ridiculous, I thought to myself. I am definitely not Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-68756103031505220532015-04-23T07:07:00.000-07:002015-04-23T07:07:12.819-07:00John D'Agata Says This About The Fifth Season
My second book meant my second chance at the Oregon Book Award—but the honor went not to me but to another fine writer, Justin Hocking, for his memoir, The Great Floodgates of the Underworld (congratulations, Justin!).
I have to be honest here. When Justin's name was announced instead of mine at the awards ceremony, I breathed a sigh of relief and all my nervous anticipation faded before Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-46954874757733215322015-03-11T14:23:00.002-07:002015-03-11T14:24:10.431-07:00McMinnville Reading and Open Mic
Join me at the Velvet Monkey tearoom on April 2 for a reading (by me) and open mic for prose writers (that means you)!
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-53183793811072677012015-01-29T06:19:00.002-08:002015-01-29T07:22:58.174-08:00Jill Kandel, author of So Many AfricasI "met" Jill Kandel in 2006 when she submitted a wonderful essay to Relief Journal, where I was the editor for creative nonfiction. We published that essay, and over the next few years I was not surprised to see Jill publish work in impressive journals, including The Missouri Review, Gettysburg Review, River Teeth, Image, Pinch, and Brevity. The road from writing essays to crafting a memoir is a Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-5413768680131021162015-01-18T09:08:00.002-08:002015-01-18T09:08:45.206-08:00Oregon Book Award FinalistI'm pleased to share that I'm a 2015 Oregon Book Award finalist for The Fifth Season! Winners in each category will be announced in April 2015. Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-22559695022808957212014-12-23T06:59:00.000-08:002015-01-18T09:09:08.441-08:00Advanced Memoir & Personal Essay Class
It's not too late to register for my ten-week Advanced Memoir & Personal Essay class, offered online via Creative Nonfiction Foundation. The course begins January 12 and is quickly filling, so don't wait to register!
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-sN4xtVMey64%Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-52282654987938224952014-12-13T14:43:00.001-08:002014-12-14T06:12:49.900-08:00Crash
You’d think I’d have
learned my lesson. The last time it happened, I had “a feeling” a few hours
beforehand and backed everything up to a thumb drive—except my photos. I lost four
years of my girls’ childhood. Not many months later, I woke early with the same
feeling and hopped out of bed to grab a thumb drive and hurry downstairs. Too
late, that second time. I lost all the remaining digitalLisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-62973577013068152542014-12-06T08:04:00.002-08:002014-12-07T08:21:43.026-08:00Mornings Unplugged
For
the long Thanksgiving weekend, my family and I drove to the Oregon Coast and
stayed at a cozy beach house with no Internet. The first time I stayed
there, about five years ago, I was truly shocked to arrive and find there was
no Internet connection, and I was mildly stressed during my entire stay. I now retreat
to the beach house at least once a year, prepared to unplug and relax. It’s
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-88139942403665342812014-11-22T09:03:00.001-08:002014-11-22T14:09:33.634-08:00NaNoWriMo: Day 22
50,381 words, but far from done. Now to actually do some shaping and purging and augmenting! Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-60227430925990417942014-11-16T07:25:00.001-08:002014-11-16T13:02:59.230-08:00NaNoWriMo: Day 16
Quite
frankly, I’m ready to be done with this NaNoWriMo business. I have 48,000
words, but so what? I spend from 20 minutes to two hours a day writing (the
two-hour days are rare). The excitement of meeting the challenge doesn’t appeal to me at
all anymore, but I know that without this push and the public exposure of this blog,
I would have given up by now. If I’d given up, I wouldn’t haveLisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-23103357074068164802014-11-10T16:06:00.001-08:002014-11-10T16:15:05.021-08:00NaNoWriMo: Day 10
On the morning of Day 7, I
received news that my dear writing mentor, Judith Kitchen, had died. That day,
I had to teach a software training session—no way I could cancel. I had an
afternoon appointment with a student writer, and I couldn’t cancel that either.
Shouldn’t life stand still when we need to grieve?
But I know better. I don’t
expect life to stand still, and I also don’t Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-32779324976135402452014-11-05T10:15:00.000-08:002014-11-05T17:03:56.966-08:00NaNoWriMo: Day 5
A word of advice
The NaNoWriMo website gets jammed in the evening when everyone
is posting a word count. I tend to write in the morning, and I go ahead and
enter my word count as I go, even if I plan to write more later in the day. You
can update your word count as many times a day as you’d like. If I do write in
the evening, I enter that word count the next day.
What I’m learning
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-85652494361237129262014-11-02T12:52:00.001-08:002014-11-02T12:57:10.699-08:00NaNoWriMo: Day 2
Yesterday:
Day 1
The
throat tickle I’ve had all week dripped and scratched itself deep yesterday.
Full-on cold symptoms. Awesome. But I figured if I didn’t get started on
November 1, I wouldn’t get started.
So
I sat down at my desk, opened my computer, and started cutting and pasting. I
started with blog posts from the time period I have in mind to write about. The
blog posts Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-66738228647798675642014-11-01T17:38:00.002-07:002014-11-01T17:38:44.190-07:00NaNoWriMo (a Nonfiction Cheater's Confession)
No,
I am not writing a novel. Truth be told, all I’m doing is using the challenge
(and word-count software) of NaNoWriMo as motivation to assemble a new
manuscript. I’m not writing from scratch, at least not yet, but I am pulling from
rough drafts, blog posts, and journal entries to see if I can put together something
cohesive. What a cheater’s path to 50,000 words, right? Cutting and pasting Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-23014608811985658622014-10-03T04:41:00.004-07:002014-10-03T05:00:16.451-07:00Ethics of the Book Review
Back in January I asked my friend Nancy to consider reviewing The Fifth Season. She declined, and we began a months-long conversation about the ethics of the book review.
I've read a number of reviews by friends or colleagues who I know have a relationship with the author they're reviewing. That's why I felt free to ask my friend Nancy to review my book. Is this really Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-4118392321692343522014-09-22T09:00:00.002-07:002014-10-03T04:54:34.906-07:00Break into Book Review Writing
In
my recent post on How to Pitch a Book Review, I said the first step is to
choose a book and the second step is to choose a publication to write for. Where
to start? Many book review publications assign reviews, which means they
already have a stable of reviewers. The book editor decides who will review
what, then shoots an email to a reviewer asking, “Hey, would you like to review
this Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-7994520758685413112014-09-19T09:36:00.002-07:002014-09-19T19:41:23.121-07:00How to Pitch a Book Review
I’ve written only three book reviews and have a fourth one
assigned but not yet written: I'm a beginner. But already I've found that review writing is some of the most enjoyable work I’ve
done, and I even get paid for it!
So
how did I start? I found a book I wanted to review, a publication I wanted to
write reviews for, and I wrote a pitch.
Find a book to review
After
looking throughLisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-40955778124250612812014-09-15T06:43:00.003-07:002014-09-15T07:24:30.705-07:00Portland Writers Workshop: Presenting Your Writing to Publishers and Artist Residencies
Look at this! Artsmith
Director Jill McCabe Johnson, along with book publicist John Sibley Williams, will be presenting a Portland workshop!
The Art
of the Pitch: Presenting Your Writing to Publishers and Artist Residencies
When: Sunday, November 30, 2014 @ 2-4pm
Where: Daedalus Books
2074 NW
Flanders Street, Portland, OR 97209
COST: $50 at
door/$40 in Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-26422399000624127582014-09-10T10:26:00.000-07:002017-06-16T07:20:05.373-07:00How to Apply to an Artist Residency
I asked Artsmith’s Executive
Director, Jill McCabe Johnson, what Artsmith looks for in residency applications. Jill doesn’t make the
selections for the Artsmith residency herself, by the way—a rotating panel of
poets, prose writers, and artists make those decisions each year. Jill’s sense
is that the writing sample (or portfolio) is by far the most important element
of the application packageLisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-17305230303463528702014-09-09T14:18:00.001-07:002014-09-10T19:12:04.986-07:00Artsmith Residency: January 4 - 11, 2015
As you re-establish your writing schedule this fall and start sending work out to editors (or to your critique group), make sure you’re also applying for
residencies and fellowships. My home state of Oregon offers cash writing fellowships to poets, writers, and publishers who are Oregon residents, and
many states have similar provision for the arts. Do you know what’s available
in your state? Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409490370222136888.post-12060711886200797272014-03-04T05:35:00.005-08:002014-03-04T05:40:01.158-08:00The Prose Writer Attempts Poetry
A few weeks ago I was part of a William Stafford anniversary reading at Linfield College. Here I am reading some excellent poetry by William Stafford, followed by my own attempt at free verse.
Lisa Ohlen Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568562922038710614noreply@blogger.com2