ONE WEEK INTENSIVE POETRY AND FICTION PROGRAM
SIENA, ITALY 
August 3-9 2008

ISLA, The Siena School for Liberal Arts, invites poets and writers to join its second annual Writing Workshop. Intensive, intimate fiction and poetry workshops led by renowned contemporary writers will be held in a beautiful villa in central Tuscany. In addition to the workshops, the week will be filled with readings and lectures by visiting writers and tours of Siena.

The Summer Writing Workshop is in collaboration with Verso, the Siena School's literary, culture and arts magazine. At the end of the week, students will be invited to submit their work for publication.

Why attend a summer writing workshop? And why this one in Siena, Italy?

Because you can work intensively on your own fiction or poetry, aided by a teacher and a lively dialogue with other serious writers. In the Siena School Workshop, you'll be studying with two acclaimed American authors who are seasoned teachers of creative writing and have deep professional ties to Italian literature and culture.

But that's not all: you'll get to step outside your usual geographic, creative, and cultural context. You'll be immersed in an Italian city renowned for its cultural richness as well as physical beauty. You will get to know this city through the eyes of writers and thinkers, Italians and Italian scholars, and be given a unique introduction to its history, traditions and customs. We also know how precious your individual time is, so you will be given the time to write and explore Siena's streets on your own…The week will be intense, surprising, and fun in equal measure.

Fiction Teacher 
 
Martha Cooley's first novel, The Archivist, was published in 1998 by Little, Brown, and has appeared in translation in ten languages, including Italian. It was a national bestseller and New York Times Notable title. Her second novel, Thirty-Three Swoons (also by Little, Brown), was published in the U.S. and Italy in 2005. Ms. Cooley's short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Washington Square, Agni, and elsewhere. She has taught in the MA programs in writing at Boston University and Manhattanville College, is a member of the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars, and teaches in the English Department at Adelphi University.

Poetry Teacher

Judith Baumel is a poet, critic and translator. She directs the Creative Writing Program at Adelphi University, where she is an associate professor of English. Ms. Baumel also lectures on modern and contemporary American poetry at Oxford University, UK. A former director of the Poetry Society of America, she has published poetry, translations, and essays in Poetry, The Yale Review, the New York Times, and The New Yorker. Her books of poetry are The Weight of Numbers (Wesleyan University Press, 1988), for which she won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Now (University of Miami Press, 1996).

Readings

Readings and discussions will be held each evening of the workshop (before dinner), and participants will be able to meet and talk with the authors/speakers. Last year's speakers included:

Frances Lansing is a sculptress and painter. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Most recently, a retrospective of her work was shown at the Gallerio Credito Siciliano. For the last thirty years she has resided in Tuscany. 

Monica Sarsini is a writer and artist. A collection of her stories, Eruptions, was published in English in 1999, and other stories have appeared in the anthology 'After the War: Short Fiction by Postwar Italian Women' (2004) and the Literary Review's Italian Issue (2005). Sarsini teaches writing in Florence. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous galleries in Italy and Europe.   

Jeff Shapiro's first novel, Renato's Luck (HarperCollins, New York, 2000), has been translated into German, French, and Dutch, with movie rights optioned by Miramax Films. Secrets of Sant'Angelo, his second novel, was published by Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin USA) in 2005. Mr. Shapiro teaches creative writing at the Siena School for Liberal Arts and is on the editorial staff of Verso magazine. A resident of Italy since 1991, he has also worked as journalist for the British edition of Cosmopolitan and for the U.S.-based magazine International.

Pasquale Quiviger was awarded the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction for her first novel, Le cercle parfait. She received an MA in philosophy from Université de Montréal and Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg (France), then went to Rome in 1998 to study printmaking. She paints, writes, and teaches visual arts in Italy, where she lives, and she has exhibited in both Canada and Italy. Her collection of short stories, Ni sol ni ciel, was published in 2001; Below Zero, a collection of her drawings and writing, has recently been published by Sartor Print.

Both Ms. Baumel and Ms. Cooley will also give readings during the week. (2008 authors and artists will soon be announced on the workshop's website).

Literary, Arts, and Cultural Events

Three guided tours of Siena will be conducted, focusing on the Palio and Siena's contrade, the Duomo, and other significant churches and palazzos.

A literary roundtable will feature Italian and American writers in a wide-ranging conversation (in English) about diverse literary and cultural topics and concerns.

How to Apply

We do not judge applicants by age or publishing experience, but by their demonstrated interest in literature. We're looking for serious writers and readers with an open mind to travel and learn.

At the bottom of the site, you will find the PDF file of the application form for our program. The postmark deadline is April 1, 2008, but we encourage people to apply early to be guaranteed a place in the program. Each section - poetry and fiction - is limited to 10 people, that way the workshops remain intimate in nature.

If you have other questions about applying, please contact: verso@sienaschool.com

Verso

Students are invited to submit work to Verso, the bilingual literary and arts journal published by the Siena School for Liberal Arts. The editors of Verso will participate in workshop events throughout the week.

Tuition

The tuition for the workshop is $1000.00, of which a non-refundable deposit of $150 must be made within two weeks of acceptance notification. This sum can be paid by wire transfer, check or Paypal. The balance of the tuition may be paid with cash or check upon arrival in Siena.

Tuition covers the following:

Four 3-hour intensive workshops 
A formal individual conference with the teacher 
All events, tours, and readings 
Opening and Closing Dinners

Airfare and lodging are not included. The Siena School for Liberal Arts will assist workshop participants in finding accommodations. (We do this routinely for our undergraduate students and have considerable experience in helping locate suitable lodgings.) We strongly suggest making arrangements to stay within the city, as that is where the school is located; public transportation outside the city is limited. For those wishing to stay in the countryside, a car is a must.

Below is the website link for the department of tourism in Siena, which provides hotel listings. Please feel free to contact us for further information about accommodations.

Apt Siena: http://www.terresiena.it/

We recommend the following hotels:

Hotel Chiusarelli, Villa Liberty, Hotel Villa Elda, Piccola Etruria

Fiction/Poetry to be Workshopped

Accepted applicants will be asked to send a workshop submission before arriving in Siena: that is, whatever prose or poetry will be critiqued in the workshop. This submission should be limited to 25 pages of fiction or 3-5 poems (depending on length). Further information will be given upon acceptance into the program.