CONFERENCE ARCHIVES

2016

The fifth annual River Teeth Nonfiction Conference featured the panels and presentations of Jill Christman, Hope Edelman, Steven Harvey, Kate Hopper, Tom Larson, Dan Lehman, Joe Mackall, Patrick Madden, Dinty W. Moore, Elena Passarello, Robert Root, Michael Steinberg, Ana Maria Spagna.

• Dinty W. Moore, Reading/Keynote Address
• Robert Root, “Backstory: When, Where, Why, Whether”
• Joe Mackall, Dan Lehman and Dinty W. Moore, “The Turning Point: What Separates Contenders from Pretenders in Submissions to Brevity, River Teeth, and the River Teeth Book Prize”
  
• Tom Larson, “Load, Level, Lessen: How Writers Emphasize (load), Subordinate (lessen), and Balance (level) Elements of Style, Grammar, Word Choice, Cohesion/Coherence, Narrative, Statement, Theme, and More“
• Kate Hopper and Ana Maria Spagna, “The Craft of Empathy”
• Elena Passarello, Reading
• Steve Harvey and Jill Christman, “The Art of Research”
• Elena Passarello, “The Dumb Place: The Importance of Uncertainty in Creative Practice”
• Kate Hopper, “Crafting the Nonfiction Book Proposal”
• Pat Madden, Hope Edelman, Michael Steinberg, and Ana Maria Spagna, “Hindrance or Helper: How Repetition Can Stop or Start Your Writing”
  

2015

The fourth annual River Teeth Nonfiction Conference featured the panels and presentations of Jill Christman, Steven Church, Steven Harvey, Kate Hopper, Sonya Huber, Joe Mackall, Leila Philip, Ana Maria Spagna, Cheryl Strayed, Ginny Taylor, Jerald Walker, and Sarah M. Wells.

Video recordings from the fourth conference:

• Jerald Walker, Keynote Address
• Steven Harvey and Ana Maria Spagna, The Essay in Parts“
• Jill Christman and Sarah M. Wells, “Negotiating the Plasmapause: Patterned Images, Delayed Revelation, and Sheer Awesomeness in Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth“
• Ginny Taylor, “Writing About Difficult Things: A Self-Care Approach“
• Joe Mackall, “Tips for Recreating Scenes“
• Kate Hopper and Sonya Huber, “Keeping the Train on Track: Balancing Narrative Urgency and Reflection in Memoir“
• Cheryl Strayed, “Reading“
• Leila Philip, “Mary McCarthy: Breaking the Fourth Wall in Creative Nonfiction“
• Cheryl Strayed and Joe Mackall, “A Conversation with Cheryl Strayed“
• Sarah M. Wells and Steven Church, “The Inside Scoop on Literary Publishing“
• Steven Church, “Writing with Handcuffs: Using Self-Imposed Constraints, Forms, and Assignments in Personal Essays to Discover New Meanings and Harness the Wandering Mind“

2014

The third annual River Teeth Nonfiction Conference featured the panels and presentations of Jill Christman, Valerie Due, Jill Gerard, Philip Gerard, Walt Harrington, Steven Harvey, Kate Hopper, Sonya Huber, Dan Lehman, Joe Mackall, Brenda Miller, Ana Maria Spagna, and Sarah M. Wells.

Video recordings from the third conference:

• Philip Gerard, Keynote Address
• Jill Christman, Steven Harvey, and Sonya Huber, “Going Long: Challenges and Opportunities of Moving from the Essay to the Memoir”
• Ana Maria Spagna, “The Telling Part: Reflection in Memoir” 
• Dan Lehman, “Naming in Nonfiction”
• Walt Harrington, Alison Copenbarger Vance, Megan Graham, and Robert Holly, “Starting from Scratch: Beginners Doing Literary Journalism”
• Brenda Miller, Reading
• Kate Hopper, “It’s Tense: The Fine Points of Using Past and Present in Memoir”
• Sarah M. Wells, “Getting Connected: Literary Citizenship and Networking Before the First Book”
• Valerie Due, “A Thousand Fibers: Making Connections As a Writer After the First Book”
• Brenda Miller, “From Seed to Full Fruit: How to Revise Writing Exercises into Essays”
• Philip Gerard and Amelia Earhart, Beginnings

2013

The second annual River Teeth Nonfiction Conference featured the panels and presentations of Jill Christman, Valerie Due, Hope Edelman, Steven Harvey, Michelle Herman, Kate Hopper, Sonya Huber, Joe Mackall, Brian Mockenhaupt, Tom Montgomery Fate, Robert Root, Michael Steinberg, Earl Swift, and Sarah M. Wells.

Audio recordings from the second conference (all links are .mp3 audio files):

• Steven Harvey and Kate Hopper, “The Art of Mulling”
• Hope Edelman and Sonya Huber, “Search and Research: A Discovery Process”
• Michelle Herman, “The Stealth Memoir: Writing Your Life Between the Lines”
• Tom Montgomery Fate and Robert Root, “Knowing Where You Are, Knowing Where You’ve Been: Writing About Place”
• Brian Mockenhaupt and Earl Swift, “Almost Like You Were There: The Necessity of Reporting to Scene Building, Reconstruction, and Remembrance”
• Rebecca McClanahan Reading
• Jill Christman, Joe Mackall, and Michael Steinberg, “Crafting the Memoir: Carving Questions, Shaping Story, and Juggling the Shifting Roles of Memory, Imagination, and Time”
• Valerie Due and Sarah M. Wells, “Hello, My Name Is ___________, and I’m a Writer”: Navigating the Business of Marketing and Promotion
• Rebecca McClanahan, “ART-I-FACT: The Triumvirate of Family History Memoir (with Suggestions for Achieving a Balance of Power”
• Scott Russell Sanders, “Personal Stories and Great Realities”

2012

The Inaugural River Teeth Nonfiction Conference featured the panels and presentations of Robert Atwan, Jill Christman, Bob Cowser Jr., Valerie Due, Hope Edelman, Walt Harrington, Michelle Herman, Kate Hopper, Sonya Huber, Dan Lehman, Joe Mackall, Dinty W. Moore, Ana Maria Spagna, Ellen Stein Burbach, Diane Suchetka, and Sarah M. Wells.

From the first conference:

• Robert Atwan, Keynote Address
• Michelle Herman and Dinty W. Moore, “The Long and Short of the Essay”
• Jill Christman, Kate Hopper, Sonya Huber, and Sarah M. Wells, “Balancing Act: Motherhood and Writing”
• Bob Cowser, Jr., Sonya Huber, and Ana Maria Spagna, “The Public Side of Memoir”
• Walt Harrington, Dan Lehman, Ellen Stein Burbach, and Diane Suchetka, “At the Heart of the Story: What Literary Journalism Can Teach Nonfiction Writers”
• Hope Edelman, “Bruce Springsteen and the Story of Us”
• Joe Mackall and Ana Maria Spagna, “Strategies for Structure in a Book-Length Manuscript”
• Valerie Due and Sarah M. Wells, “Spreading the Word: Marketing and ePublishing”
• Hope Edelman, “Following the Breadcrumb Trail: How to Plot a Memoir from the Raw Material of Life”
• A Conversation with Robert Atwan: 25 Years of Best American Essays