The theme of this year’s conference is “Storytelling, Place and Community,” something that Van Camp is well versed in. As a member of the Native American Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation storytelling has been a part of his family’s tradition for as long as he can remember.
“When I was a boy and we would have people over our parents never told us to go away. Instead they said ‘we have company, come listen to the tales of how the world really works.’ It was an honor to be a part of these adult conversations,” Van Camp said.
Van Camp hails from Fort Smith in Canada’s Northwest Territory, a tiny outpost at the end of the country’s Highway 5, north of the 60th parallel and, according to Van Camp, “the prettiest spot on Earth.”
This particular location nurtured Van Camp’s gift as a storyteller. “We have an incredibly vibrant population that loves music, art and writing. I think people who come (to Fort Smith) are really astounded,” he said.
Van Camp currently teaches creative writing with an aboriginal focus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has authored several books, including The Lesser Blessed and Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns, which will be given to every new-born baby in British Columbia in 2008 as part of the province’s Books for Babies initiative.
“To be trusted with a lullaby for all of these new babies is an amazing thing,” added Van Camp.
Workshops from Metaphors to Wikipedia
Through two days of workshops hosted by HSU English faculty members and teachers from local K-12 schools, conference participants will explore the ways in which geographical location and community combine to influence a writer’s work. The event’s coordinator, HSU English Professor Nikola Hobbel, who is working with the Redwood Writing Project, noted that the conference offers something for everybody. “Every educator has something to share. The English professors lean things from the kindergarten teachers and vice versa,” Hobbel said.
English Professor Jim Dodge leads The Body of Metaphor workshop, which investigates the ineluctable connection between imagination and place, as seen in the construction of metaphors, similes and images.
Department of English Chair Susan Bennett hosts What Can I Expect Monday?—Stories from First-Year Teachers with a panel of first-year English instructors who will share their experiences and field questions from attendees.
Virtuous Maids and Damnable Witches: Constructing Images of Women in Seventeenth-century New England is the title of English Professor Kathleen Doty’s workshop, where participants will explore two texts by Cotton Mather, 1692’s Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, a women’s conduct book, and Wonders of the Invisible World, a book on witches from 1693.
McKinleyville High School English Teacher Anne Sahlberg hosts Sharing Memoirs to Strengthen Classroom Communities, which looks at ways to get students to take academic risks, namely by encouraging them to write on a subject about which they are the experts: their own lives.
Other workshops include Sahlberg’s session on how teachers can influence educational policies and McKinleyville High School’s Marsha Mielke’s session titled What’s so Wicked about Wikipedia, which looks at ways teachers allow the free, Web-based encyclopedia into their classrooms.
In addition to the workshops and Van Camp’s address, local author Suza Lambert Bowser will read from her short story Double-wide in Naugahyde in the conference’s short fiction panel.
Registration is available online or by calling the Redwood Writing Project at 707-826-5109. Cost of attendance is $75 general, $35 for teacher apprentices and $10 students. For more information, visit the Redwood Writing Project’s Web site.