Creative Writing Days planned

Please join us on Monday, July 26, and Tuesday, July 27, for the Creative Writing Days of the Virginia Highlands Festival, featuring songwriting workshops by Grammy Award-winning star Jim Lauderdale and acclaimed local songwriter Mary Munsey. On Monday, Munsey’s sessions will look at songwriting as a method of storytelling and how we convey a moment, an event or our feelings through lyrics and music. On Tuesday, Jim Lauderdale’s session will explore selections from his extensive catalog, which includes recordings of his own as well as hits written for George Strait, Willie Nelson, the Dixie Chicks, and the list goes on and on. He will also guide attendees through their own writing process, focusing on techniques for writing for oneself as well as writing for the masses.
The workshop events will be held at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. each day in the lobby outside the Grand Hall, followed by introductions and brief readings by the guest writers, beginning at 9 a.m. The main events of each day will be morning and afternoon workshops with the writers at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. There will be opportunities for book sales and signings between workshop sessions, and representatives from local publishers will be on-hand. A sponsor for Creative Writing Day is the Poetry Society of Virginia.
The fee is $25 per day OR $40 for both days. Attendees may register in advance (see VHF website for registration forms/instructions), or they can register at the door on the day of the event. For detailed information on the day’s events, visit the Virginia Highlands Festival website at www.vahighlandsfestival.org/creative-writing-day
In addition to these events, Jim Lauderdale will offer a concert, along with opening act Mary Munsey, at the newly opened Heartwood cultural arts center in Abingdon (off Exit 14) on Tuesday, July 26, from 7 until 9 p.m. Admission for the concert is $10 at the door, or it is free with a paid admission to at least one day of the Creative Writing Days workshops.