HP Literary Festival
February 23, 2024
First, choose your class period
Then take a look at past presentations below
Note, however, that enrollment ended on Feb 22, 2024.
Building with Concrete: Replacing Abstract Language with Sensory Details in Poetry
In this generative, 45-minute workshop we'll work to transform concepts—such as anger, liberty, beauty, and greatness—into poems that feature tangible and sensory details. We will determine the texture, the smell, and the shape of these concepts in order to bring them to life on the page. After discussing one or more examples from poems written by contemporary poets, each participant will be invited to choose their own concept and to share ideas about the physical qualities they might assign to it. We will end the workshop by allowing a few minutes for everyone to begin working on their own “concrete concept” poems. A handout will be provided; participants are additionally asked to bring a pen or pencil and scratch paper.
SpeakerMag Gabbert
Dr. Mag Gabbert has a Ph.D. in English, with a focus on creative writing, from Texas Tech University, an MFA in creative writing from The University of California at Riverside, and a BA in English from Trinity University. Her debut full-length poetry collection, which was published in 2023, won the Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry from The Ohio State University and its affiliated literary magazine, The Journal. Dr. Gabbert is also the author of two chapbooks, and her poems and nonfiction essays can be found in many nationally and internationally recognized magazines and journals, including The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily, The Missouri Review, Poetry Daily, The Hopkins Review, and The Massachusetts Review. Her awards include a 92NY Discovery Award from the 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from The Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop, Idyllwild Arts, and Poetry at Round Top. She teaches at Southern Methodist University.
Excused School Sponsored Absence
This is to be used in place of a workshop if you have an excused school sponsored activity during this class period. You will need to provide the appropriate paperwork to your Attendance Officer to verify your absence.
Speaker*** Excused School Sponsored Absence
From a Brain Trickle to a Brainstorm
One of the questions authors get asked most is, “Where do you get your ideas?” And while everywhere is the most common answer, it’s not exactly helpful. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how to ethically steal ideas from our favorite books and movies, the world around us, and our own lives. Students will walk away with a worksheet of their own personal “rabbit holes” they wish to explore further in their writing, as well as strategies to turn those interests into fully realized characters, scenes, and plots.
SpeakerAshley Schumacher
Ashley Schumacher is the young adult author of Amelia Unabridged, Full Flight, and The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway and has a degree in creative writing from the University of North Texas. When she’s not reading or writing, she’s either singing Disney songs, finding new and exciting ways to pester her family, or trying to find her inside voice, which has been sadly missing since birth. She lives in a small town north of Dallas with her husband, son, and a few too many books. Ms. Schumacher’s books, Full Flight and Amelia Unabridged will be available for purchase on the evening of February 22 during the Keynote Speaker Event and on February 23 in the HPHS Library during workshop presentations.
Music Marketing for Storytellers: Promoting a Pop-Rock Band
Get ready to dive into the world of music marketing! In this workshop, you'll use your storytelling skills to become the marketing brains behind a real Dallas pop rock band. Learn the basics of promotion, create TikTok campaigns, plan live events, design merch, and more.
SpeakerLizzie Combs & Sarah Galaro
Sisters Sarah Galaro and Lizzie Combs are Dallas-based writers and marketers. Together, they have formed Tabletop Marketing. Sarah has over a decade of experience as a brand marketer and quarterback of national campaigns. Complementing her is Lizzie, combining experience as a strategist at a New York-based agency with a background in the arts. Tabletop offers full-stack marketing, crafting comprehensive solutions with a special emphasis on strategic planning and brand development. In addition to their work as marketers, Sarah and Lizzie are involved in the Dallas arts community. Sarah regularly contributes to Arthouse Dallas' creative writing and poetry workshops. Lizzie has had several original plays and monologues featured in local and national festivals.
Full Presentations
Editorial Cartoons & Illustration: Visual Storytelling With a Twist
In a wide range of forms, editorial cartoons and illustrations have provided an engaging alternative for commenting on the issues of the day for centuries. This workshop will provide students with a broad understanding of the world of editorial cartoons and illustration, including historical context and recent implications, rounded out by some hands-on cartooning. Areas covered: – A short history of the craft, illustrated by examples leading to where the field stands today. – The many challenges of being a cartoonist/illustrator in today’s ever-evolving media landscape. – How visual storytelling can drive businesses and other organizations – Attendees will be taught creative tools in an interactive cartooning session.
SpeakerKarl Wimer
Karl Wimer is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator, published in books, magazines, and newspapers across five continents. Karl’s been a syndicated cartoonist for WoodyPaige.com, Mile High Sports Magazine, Denver Business Journal, and Central European Business Weekly.
An American Association of Editorial Cartoonists member, Karl’s cartoons have won multiple 1st Place Awards (Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Press Association, and others). His work appears annually in the Best US Editorial Cartoons of the Year, in USAToday, NPR, Fox News, and in economics textbooks.
His background (BA History/Yale, MBA/Kellogg, Grad Degree/London School Economics), business experience (28 years as a successful marketing executive), sports bonafide (2-sport college athlete: football, All-America in lacrosse, successful coach at many levels), and international interest (several years living and working in places as varied as Prague and Bangkok), all find their way into his art.
How Far I'll Go: What the Disney Princesses Can Teach Us About Storytelling
Every Disney princess has one important thing in common: a dream. A wish. Some deep desire she can't shake. And the desire is the catalyst that propels her out of her comfort zone and sets the entire plot in motion. We can use this technique in nonfiction, too. We just have to know where to look for it.
SpeakerBen Montgomery
Ben Montgomery is author of the New York Times-bestselling 'Grandma Gatewood's Walk,' 'The Leper Spy,' 'The Man Who Walked Backward,' and 'A Shot in the Moonlight." He spent most of his 20 year newspaper career as an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. He founded the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com and helped launch the Auburn Chautauqua, a Southern writers collective. He has taught journalism at the University of Montana and the University of South Florida.
In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school.
Montgomery grew up in Oklahoma and studied journalism at Arkansas Tech University. He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 2006. He lives in Tampa.
How to Make Your Setting a Character
A setting is more than just a scene or location, it’s a launchpad for your characters to leap from the pages and come to life. And the right setting is a catalyst for conflict, which is an absolute must in any great work of fiction. This class will provide students with the tools to infuse physical, spiritual, and emotional challenges through a step-by-step approach to world-building. Writers will also learn how to utilize descriptive imagery, historical background, and personification, which will ultimately result in readers who are as captivated with the setting as they are with the characters.
SpeakerTaylor Moore
Taylor Moore is the author of Cold Trail, Ricochet, Firestorm, and Down Range, which was nominated for the Barry Award for Best First Novel, named a Strand Magazine Best Mystery of 2021, and selected for the Texas Library Association’s Lariat Reading List. He is a sixth-generation Texan who grew up on a farm and ranch northwest of Houston and is a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations and later consulted for the Department of Defense on military intelligence issues. He now lives in the Texas Panhandle with his wife and two children, where he is a full-time author and screenwriter.
Introduction to Songwriting
In this interactive workshop, Nashville singer/songwriter (and HP Alum) Benji Harris teaches the fundamentals of songwriting, performs live, and discusses different ways to make money writing songs.
SpeakerBenji Harris
HP Alumni Benji Harris is one of Nashville’s most talented and versatile mainstay musicians. His original trio ‘Scarletta’ has had a Top 30 hit on Country Radio, and a popular music video in high-rotation on CMT. He has played for country music stars on arena tours across the country, and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Benji has performed with SongDivision for numerous Fortune 500 clients and has a vast knowledge when it comes to communicating clients’ core values and purpose using music. With years in the music business and the meetings & events industry, Benji brings a high degree of passion, professionalism, and creativity to each and every client with whom he works.
Stories in sports: Going beyond the box score to cover the game
Whether we know it or not, stories and narratives are the main reason we care about sports. This workshop will go over how sports writers craft and create those stories, from high school games on Friday nights to even a Super Bowl. This workshop will go over how to report and execute those stories and why it matters to the games and those who play them.
SpeakerBen Baby
Ben Baby provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. In 2020, he also started covering boxing for ESPN. Prior to ESPN, he covered Texas A&M and college athletics for The Dallas Morning News. He has also worked at the San Antonio Express-News and started his career as a full-time journalist in 2011 at the Denton Record-Chronicle. He is from Grapevine and graduated from the University of North Texas.
Telling Your Story: How to Craft Distinctive Personal Essays for College Applications and Beyond
Writing a personal essay that will attract the attention of college admission officers isn’t as easy as it sounds. It involves telling your personal story in a way that’s engaging, surprising and memorable. That involves using a variety of literary techniques – metaphor, pacing, interior monologue, reconstructed dialogue, and other aesthetic strategies of fiction to enable your personal essay to resonate with your readers. Getschow will use a few selections from his published personal essays and from other writers to illustrate some literary devices and strategies that can be employed to transform otherwise ordinary prose into literature.
SpeakerGeorge Getschow
George Getschow, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, worked for The Wall Street Journal as a reporter, bureau chief, and Mexico correspondent for 16 years. He was a Pulitzer Prize jurist in 2017 for General Nonfiction and for feature writing in 2013 and 2014. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2012 for “distinctive literary achievement.” He’s won numerous awards for his essays, long-form narratives and investigative stories for magazines and newspapers in Texas and across the country. He’s the editor of Pastures of the Empty Page, a collection of essays by prominent writers, mostly from Texas, about Larry McMurtry’s life, legacy, and titanic influence on the literature of the West.
Visual Storytelling for Film and Television
Screenwriter Paula Goldberg introduces the basics of visual storytelling for film and television including idea generation, character, dialogue, structure, theme and screenplay format. This will be an interactive workshop exploring all the elements needed for creating visually compelling and goal driven stories.
SpeakerPaula Goldberg
Paula Goldberg is a screenwriter, educator and acting coach. She currently teaches screenwriting at UT Dallas and coaches actors in improv and scene study through her own creative studio, www.welltoldgoldstudio.com