By Bryce Haugen
Staff Writer
For 23 years, Kim Larson worked with numbers. Then, after an unexpected layoff, the former mortgage loan officer shifted her focus to words.
?I?ve got these thoughts and experiences of life, and now it?s just learning to craft how to say them,? the mother of two from Moorhead said. She started writing in journals two decades ago and refined her skill over the last few years taking creative writing courses at Concordia College.
On Saturday, she?ll be published for the first time. That?s when the first issue of an annual literary magazine is released during Lake Region Writers Network?s conference at M State in Fergus Falls.
The Lake Region Review includes work by 27 emerging and established writers of west-central Minnesota ? from Larson?s nonfiction to poetry and fiction by Minnesota State University Moorhead faculty members as well as distinguished alumnus Leif Enger, a best-selling novelist.
Enger, author of the critically-acclaimed 2001 book ?Peace Like a River,? will deliver the keynote speech at the conference, which is themed ?A Writer?s Sense of Place: Writing What You Know.? He will also lead two of several workshops at the daylong event.
Luke Anderson, LRWN chairman from Battle Lake, Minn., discovered a love for writing creative nonfiction and poetry after a long career in nonprofit management. Several years ago, inspired by participation in a local writer?s group, he used his talents to link other regional creative writers into a cohesive network.?
?Associating with other writers is important,? Anderson said. ?[Writing is] hard work, but I?ve also enjoyed it a great deal. It?s really enjoyable to write something and say ?this is something that really expresses me.??
People write literature for a variety of reason, but few aspire to get rich or famous from it, MSUM Professor Emeritus Mark Vinz said. ?It?s just something that happens to you.? Vinz, co-editor of the Lake Region Review, was the first director of MSUM?s Master?s of Fine Arts in creative writing program and taught at the school for nearly four decades.
Vinz, co-editor Athena Kildegaard and a staff of 10 volunteered dozens of hours to read a couple hundred submissions before choosing works for the 138-page debut issue.
Kildegaard, a lecturer at the University of Minnesota-Morris, said editors chose pieces that were ?fresh, creative, lively, interesting. We were looking for writing that has something new to say.?
?Most of the writers live in the region,? she added. ?We want to celebrate the writing that?s happening in this region.?
Even the cover art, ?Christina Lake: View from Seven Sisters,? by Stephen Henning, has regional ties. Henning, an American impressionist painter, lives in Otter Tail County near Inspiration Peak, which Nobel-Prize-winning Minnesota author Sinclair Lewis famously frequented.
Vinz is among 11 contributors associated with MSUM, including English professors Lin Enger (Leif?s brother), Yahya Frederickson and Kevin Zepper, and retired philosophy professor Arnie Johanson. From alumni, the magazine features poems by Cynthia Ekren and Heidi Kratzke, Gerri Stowman?s nonfiction and John Zdrazil?s fiction.?
The youngest author, Travis Moore, is an MSUM senior. Two of his unconventional poems ? one penned merely minutes before submission ? made it into the issue. He said that provides motivation for him to continue writing.
Without affirmation through publication, ?sooner or later, you get down and out and you might give up and you think you?re inadequate and you might quit,? he said. ?So it?s a good push.?
?Poetry?s my passion,? Moore said, ?and that?s what I care about more than anything else.?
But he acknowledges there isn?t a huge market for books of poetry. ?I just hope to survive and still be able to write. If that means working odd jobs, that?s all right.?
Larson, the Moorhead writer whose nonfiction piece about her grandmother made the cut, said she wants her next career to be in public speaking and writing faith-based literature. She?s already speaking to a few women?s groups and is working on publishing a Bible study book.
Unfortunately, connecting with other writers in the Fargo-Moorhead area has been difficult so far, she said.
?I would like to start a writing group here (in the F-M area),? Larson said. ?I know there are writers here, so I hope to do some networking at the conference.?
Admission to Saturday?s event is $65 at the door. Check out http://www.lakeregionwriters.net for further details.
The Lake Region Review, published with financial backing from Fergus Falls-based Otter Tail Power Company, will be available for $10 at Zandbroz in Fargo and other independent booksellers and gift shops throughout the area after Oct. 1. For an additional $3 shipping and handling fee, it can be ordered directly from the LRWN website.
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If You Go
WHAT: Lake Region Review?s 3rd Annual Writer?s Conference
WHEN: Oct. 1
COST: 65$ at door, $50 pre-registration/$40 for student pre-registration
WHERE: M State in Fergus Falls
Source: http://hpr1.com/arts/article/msum_writing_talent/
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