Punta Gorda -- a writer's center as well

There's something about small quaint towns that draws artists of all kinds. Add to that retirees who have longed to wax more creative, and you have an epicenter of imaginative outpourings.  

So in addition to centers for visual artists, there are also those for performance and for the written arts.   The Peace River Center for Writers now at  Edison College is the later.  Founded in 2002, the center now has a full range of offerings for writers and aspiring writers including workshops, readings, festivals, and other events. 

For instance, coming up is  their “Celebrate Authors” festival being held  in conjunction with National Poetry Month at Edison College on April 4, 2009 8:30 to 5.    Besides free afternoon public readings, the program will feature morning workshops with poetry authors and editors.  The workshops are $15 for members of Edison State College’s Life Long Learning Institute,  members of the Peace River Center for Writers, and other Florida writers' groups and associations ($30 for non-members of these groups).  

 
The workshop leaders include:

Rick Campbell, director of Florida’s Anhinga Press and whose published poetry collections are “The Traveler’s Companion” (Black Bay Books and “Setting the World in Order” (Texas Tech). Cambell  teaches at Florida A&M University and will lead a workshop on “Getting a Good Read: How to Keep an Editor Reading Your Book of Poems.” 

 Lisa Zimmerman published “The Light at the Edge of Everything” (Anhinga Press), and “How the Garden Looks from Here’ (Snake Nation Press).  She teaches creative writing at the University of Northern Colorado and will lead a workshop on “Sure-Fire Ways to Leap over Writer’s Block.” 

Dr. Jane Anderson Jones co-edited "Florida in Poetry: A History of the Imagination" (Pineapple Press). Anderson is a professor at Manatee Community College. She will lead a workshop  on “A Historic Overview of Florida Poetry.” 

John Pelot, a native Floridian, holds an  MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina. Now an Edison professor, he was awarded this year’s NISOD Excellence in Teaching. He will lead a workshop on “Finding Meaning Through Imagery.”  

Free afternoon activities includes a forum discussion 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on “Florida Contemporary Poetry” with Carol Mahler, founding director of the Peace River Center for Writers, serving as moderator, and readings by the featured writers:   Zimmerman  from 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.; Campbell: 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.;  Mahler:  4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.   For more information, or to register for the “Celebrate Authors Program,” call the Peace River Center for Writers at 941-637-3514 or e-mail prcw@edison.edu.