2011 Writing Workshop

Manuel Martinez is a writer and professor of American and Chicano literature at Ohio State University in Columbus.  His most recent novel, Day of the Dead, came out in the fall of 2009. His second novel, Drift, “crackles with the authenticity of lived experience,” according to The Washington Post Book World, and was selected by the American Library Association as one of the 100 Best Books of the Year in 2004. His first novel, Crossing, is based on the true story of immigrants smuggled from Mexico to the US in a locked railroad car, and was chosen as one of ten outstanding books by PEN American Center in New York.

Martinez grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and holds a PhD in English from Stanford University, as well as a Masters in Creative Writing from Ohio State.  “My work is dedicated to bringing the voices of the rarely heard out into the public sphere,” he explains. “My stories come from my past, the west side barrio of my youth, the tales my abuelitos and abuelitas told about their migrant lives, the music my father played, the faith of my mother. They’re stories of flawed and damaged people looking to do more than survive.”

The 2011 Engl 312, Writing Workshop (formerly known as the Poetry Workshop) is taught each year by a guest writer.  Offered in an intensive workshop format, this year’s course will run from Friday evening, January 14, through Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr., day, January 17.  Dr. Martinez will read from his work at a public lecture, Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in Newcomer 19.

Students enrolled in the class should reserve most of the time from that weekend for several large group sessions, small group editing work, and individual conferencing. Workshop enrollment is capped at 15, so students will have an opportunity to work closely with Dr. Martinez, and benefit from his personal instruction and feedback.  The Writing Workshop can be taken more than once, so that students can learn from multiple professional writers during their Goshen College program.

Sign up for this one-credit hour course in the spring semester. Students enrolling in the class should have taken at least one college-level creative writing class or receive department permission.  See Prof. Ann Hostetler (anneh@goshen.edu, 574-535-7469), director of the English Writing major, for more information.