The Colrain Manuscript Intensive is a small, select, highly focused, 3-day conference designed for the evaluation and discussion of book-length manuscripts by poets, editors and publishers. The intensive is open only to either those who have attended a previous Colrain conference and/or those whose manuscript is close to publication (semi-finalist, finalist or publisher feedback), and/or those with previous book publication.
The intensive features in-depth pre-conference work and candid, realistic evaluation and feedback from decision-makers. In preparation, particpants will work on pre-conference assignments at home, and then, in the workshop, to review, arrange, and winnow their collections based on the pre-conference work. In addition to the manuscript preparation workshop and editor consultation, there will be editorial Q&A, and after-conference strategy session. The Intensive also includes a pre-conference manuscript reading and separate one-on-one consultation with Joan Houlihan.
Agenda
Friday: you will receive your Zoom* link via email and at 4 pm EST on Friday, January 15. Introductions among participants and faculty take place (bring your own wine!). We’ll talk about backgrounds in poetry, goals and expectations, along with an overview of the weekend.
NOTE: There will be many built-in breaks throughout the weekend, including for lunch and snacks etc.
Saturday: workshops begin at 11 am EST.
Individual manuscript review session with Joan Houlihan from 2-5.
Sunday: editorial session with Peter Covino begins at 11 am EST.
(Directions for manuscript format will be sent pre-conference.)
Monday: wrap-up session and publication strategies going forward.
*We will be using Zoom, an easy-to-use online application. No need to have it installed–it will open in your browser when you click the link you get from Colrain. More info in the pre-conference instructions.
Who
Work with renowned poet-editor-educators Peter Covino, Joan Houlihan and Ellen Doré Watson.
Peter Covino is one of the founding editors of Barrow Street Press,a not-for-profit press connected to the nationally known journal, Barrow Street. The press publishes poetry collections through its annual contest and through solicitations. Poet, translator, and editor Peter Covino is also associate professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author of the poetry collections, The Right Place to Jump (2012), recently featured on NPR, the Huffington Post and The Rumpus, winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence; and Cut Off the Ears of Winter (2005) both from W. Michigan University Press, New Issues. Additional prizes include the 2007 PEN American/ Osterweil Award for emerging poets and the Frank O’Hara Poetry Prize for his chapbook, Straight Boyfriend (2001). Recent poems appeared in such places as the American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, The Journal, Interim, LIT, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and The Penguin Anthology of Italian-American Writing, among others.
Joan Houlihan is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Shadow-feast (Four Way Books). Her poetry has been anthologized in The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of Iowa Press) and The Book of Irish-American Poetry-Eighteenth Century to Present (University of Notre Dame Press). She is a contributing critic for the Contemporary Poetry Review, associate editor for Tupelo Quarterly, and author of a series of essays on contemporary American poetry archived online at bostoncomment.com. She has taught at Columbia University and Smith College and currently teaches in the Lesley University Low-Residency MFA Program and at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Houlihan is founder and director of the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference.
Poet and translator Ellen Doré Watson is the former director of The Poetry Center at Smith College and is currently the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith. She also serves as poetry and translation editor of The Massachusetts Review. Her fifth full-length collection, pray me stay eager, is available from Alice James Books. Earlier books include Dogged Hearts (Tupelo Press, 2010), This Sharpening (also from Tupelo), and two from Alice James, We Live in Bodies and Ladder Music, winner of the New England/New York award. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Orion, and The New Yorker. Among her honors are a Rona Jaffe Writers Award, fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and to Yaddo, and a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship. Her best-known works of translation are The Alphabet in the Park and Ex-Voto, both by Brazilian Adélia Prado. Watson also teaches in the Drew University Low-Residency MFA in Poetry and Poetry in Translation and has for many years led a generative writing group in Northampton, MA.
How to Apply
Before you apply, please visit our Conference Criteria page to make certain this conference is right for you. Once you understand the nature and goals of the conference, please submit an application.
Conference Fee
Following successful application, the registration fee is $1,200.00. This includes a full manuscript read pre-conference and consultation with Joan Houlihan.
