Successes in Writing and Publishing by Bear River Participants

Bear River Writers’ Conference has been in existence since 2001. In that time, some of our participants have scored some writing and publishing successes and have given Bear River at least some of the credit for their breakthroughs. We would like to highlight those here.

If you are a past participant of Bear River and you have a success story, please email your story to beariver@umich.edu and we will include it.

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Steve Gilzow - Double Hitter

Turns out Steve has batted two for two on his Bear River workshops.  A piece he wrote in Jerry Dennis's workshop in 2005 will be in Traverse Magazine this June. The article will include the well-known drifting canoe photo taken by Steve that made up the poster for Bear River 2006. In addition,  a piece Steve began in Bill Roorbach's workshop in 2007 about UM Survival Flight was published in the April Ann Arbor Observer.  Kudos, Steve.  And thanks for lending your beautiful photos to us.

Ellen Baker - Novel Published

Ellen Baker lives in Superior, Wisconsin, and attended the Bear River Writers' Conference in 2004 and 2005. She is the author of Keeping the House, the story of a young Wisconsin housewife in 1950 who becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and the family that lived there. Keeping the House went on to become a Midwest Connections pick by the Midwest Booksellers Association, a 2007 Booksense Notable book, and one of the Chicago Tribune's picks for the best books of 2007. Baker, who is now writing her second novel, says the Bear River experience was a pivotal one in her writing career. “Bear River’s environment was both relaxed and productive," says Baker. "You could hone your craft and at the same time really get to know other writers. It was a supportive learning environment that challenged me to put my work out there, which ultimately made it better.”

Lara Zielin - Young Adult Novel to be Published

Lara Zielin lives in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, and met Baker at the Bear River Writers' conference in 2004. The two began sharing their work and, outside of Bear River, organized mini writing retreats together twice each year. Zielin's young adult novel, Donut Days, was recently purchased by Putnam and will be published in spring 2009. "One of the great benefits of Bear River is connecting with other writers, sharing your work, and continuing to do so after the conference ends," says Zielin. "It's no coincidence that Ellen and I received book contracts within a year of one another. We walk that fine line between challenging and supporting each other, and we made writing a priority, even outside of Bear River."

Joan Donaldson - Full Scholarship and Writing Prize

In 2007, I studied the writing of essays in Thomas Lynch's workshop. Lynch pointed out that essayists must "connect the dots or build bridges between thoughts and metaphors". When I arrived home, I kept his comment in my mind as I revised an essay I had begun during the fall term of Spalding University's MFA program. I submitted that essay to the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writer's Conference sponsored by the University of North Texas and it won the Hearst Corporation's 2007 Nonfiction Prize for Literary Excellence and a handsome check. Thank you Bear River and especially Thomas Lynch! (Joan has had two children's books published since she first came to Bear River.)

Mardi Link - Two Books in the Works

I attended from 2004-2006, and had the opportunity to work with John Robert Lennon, Thomas Lynch and Richard McCann. The most precious blessing of Bear River is simply uninterrupted time spent in the company of other writers at all points on this quest to tell our stories and tell them well. The world tries to fool us all into believing that its 360 days are the real thing and that the 5 days we spend at Bear River is a tangent. Truly for me it has been the opposite; the time I spend writing, reading, and talking about the promise of language is more real than any other.

Since attending Bear River, agentless and just one more drip in the slush pile, I have sold my first book to The University of Michigan Press and I am currently in contract negotiations with the Press for a second book. When Evil Came to Good Hart, an historic true crime book about an unsolved 1968 murder in Good Hart, Michigan (Bear River's neighborhood) will be released this July.

Pia Taavila - A New Book of Poetry

Being at Bear River has been a key element in generating new work, in revising former work, in making connections with other writers, and in receiving critically-needed feedback from those whose love of craft equals my own. In those gorgeous surroundings, how can the spirit not fly? It was there that many of the poems in my current collection, Moon on the Meadow, were spawned or netted... there on the shores of Walloon Lake, where I had sailed and canoed as a child among the birch trees. I am grateful for the days spent there, and I look forward to many more moments in such company.

Mary Ellen Geist - Courage Pays Off

“'Tisn't life that matters! 'Tis the courage you bring to it.”I love this quote by the British novelist Hugh Walpole Sr. I am convinced that writing is about courage. I admire those who write quietly in the night for their own pleasure, and never let their work see the light of day. But most of us write because we feel we have something important to say, and in my view, it can’t be said well without someone else reading it or hearing it read. And yet, it is so hard to take that first step: to put your work “out there”, so to speak.

In Thomas Lynch’s workshop, he not only taught us to have the courage to read our work to each other and to hear each other’s words and hone our craft, he taught us that it’s OK to have a passionate desire to have our work published; that being published is an important and necessary element of what we do as writers. A book I had begun writing was already germinating when I attended Bear River in the summer of 2006, but I wrote what resulted in the first chapter of that book sitting in my sweet – smelling pine cabin overlooking the shores of Walloon Lake. Those days at Bear River were some of the most productive of the almost two years I spent writing the book.

I’ll tell you the truth: I didn’t sleep the majority of the time I was at Bear River. I was too excited! I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and listened to other people reading their work and talked about writing and I attended workshops and readings and then I talked and talked and talked and swam and talked some more by the bonfire and then I wrote some more until the sun came up. And then I wrote some more. I became close with other writers at the workshop, in particular with Mardi Link. We both got book contracts within the year of attending Bear River. We still call each other and see each other and share our successes, frustrations and fears.

Inspiration, and the courage to openly question what you are writing and thinking and dreaming, and quiet time to be alone with your words, with no phone to answer, and none of the usual constraints of daily life: this is what Bear River is for. I came back from Bear River renewed and refreshed. Those days were like ether to me; they propelled me forward to the end of the book. Even now, on days when I can’t get going, I conjure up an image of that time in my life, and it helps me print the first word on the page in front of me.

Measure of the Heart will be published by Springboard Press (an imprint of Hachette/Grand Central) in August. I have two other book proposals in the works. I encourage anyone who wants to lead the life of the writer to attend the Bear River Writer’s Conference.

Joy Gaines-Friedler - Much inspiration and community yield a book in 2008

In 2008 my first full-length book of poetry was published. I'm now teaching creative writing workshops and have won a number of awards. The incredible writers and teachers at Bear River are my agents of success: Tom Lynch, Laura Kasischke, Keith Taylor, Richard Tillinghast, Jerry Dennis, Marie Howe, Bob Hicok, (early-on) Donald Hall among others.

Time spent at Bear River has taught me the value of being part of a community of writers; of creative like-minded people. We feed-off the energy of one another and open up to possibilities of thought and creativity in a way we might not otherwise have the chance to do. I've met wonderful people at the conference, a number of whom have become dear friends.

Steve Gilzow - Double Hitter

Turns out Steve has batted two for two on his Bear River workshops. A piece he wrote in Jerry Dennis's workshop in 2005 will be in Traverse Magazine this June. The article will include the well-known drifting canoe photo taken by Steve that made up the poster for Bear River 2006. In addition, a piece Steve began in Bill Roorbach's workshop in 2007 about UM Survival Flight was published in the April Ann Arbor Observer. Kudos, Steve. And thanks for lending your beautiful photos to us.

MORE GREAT STORIES COMING SOON!