The reason the Bear River Writers’ Conference exists is to encourage new writing. It only makes sense that we do what we can to help some of that work find an audience. Here we’ve created a space for people who have been a part of the conference to share their writing with their colleagues and with any other reader who may stumble across it. We hope people enjoy the work and find it helpful with their own projects. Enter and have some fun!! ~Keith Taylor, Director
We are delighted to bring you Issue 4 of the Bear River Review. We use this on-line format as a way of getting the work around to readers as near as Ann Arbor, Michigan and as far as Swaziland. For those of you new to this site, the review is for writing that resulted from attendance at the Bear River Writers’ Conference. The writers began their work there—workshopped it there—were inspired there. And their writing inspires us. We thank you, our writers, for making Issue 4 possible and thank you, our readers, for entering this issue. Issues 1, 2, and 3 are also excellent and available for you to peruse. Welcome to the BRR. Enjoy! ~Chris Lord, Editor
Mardi Link– Featured Writer for Issue 4 of the Bear River Review
Mardi Link attended Bear River Writers’ Conference from 2004-2007, enjoying workshops with John Robert Lennon, Thomas Lynch, and Richard McCann. The two essays in Issue 4 are from Bootstrapping, her memoir-in-progress. Mardi’s first book, When Evil Came to Good Hart, will be published in July by The University of Michigan Press. The book is a factual investigation into the unsolved 1968 murder of a Detroit-area family who were killed while vacationing in their summer cottage in the tiny town of Good Hart, just north of Camp Michigania. A second title in the same genre, 100 Witnesses in Isadore, will be published by The University of Michigan Press in April 2009. Mardi has a degree in journalism from Michigan State University, is the former editor of Small Press and ForeWord magazines, and Antioch Writers Workshop’s 2007 Betty Crumrine Scholar in Creative Nonfiction. She lives on a small farm in Traverse City with her three sons. We love Mardi’s writing and know you will too. Here’s what she had to say about her writing:
“After years of starting projects and dropping them, ignoring my writing for months at a time, and feeling crushed at the least little criticism, I finally decided to stop waiting to be a writer and just be one. My experience at Bear River encouraged me to stop waiting for the perfect book idea, the perfect pitch to an agent, the winning lottery ticket that would pay for the perfect writer’s studio in the woods and the perfect new computer. It worked. I don’t have time for those kind of fantasies anymore?I’m too busy writing! Years ago I worked at a daily newspaper in a loud and chaotic newsroom and it was great training for my work today. My little “office” is jammed into a corner of our living room, between the picture window and the front door. I write amidst teenagers bringing their friends over, my dogs barking at the mail carrier, and the constantly ringing telephone. In the winter, it’s cold there next to the window, and I’ve cut the fingers off all my gloves! I’m not waiting, anymore.”
Note: The work on this site is used with the permission of the authors, who retain all copyright to their own material.
