Words with friends

TU’s annual Nimrod Conference brings together lovers of language

“One of the things that we’re most proud of in regard to the conference is that it offers a warm, welcoming, and thought-provoking way for writers to connect with the larger writing community. Writing is so often a solitary craft, but coming together with other writers—both our published workshop leaders and our conference participants—allows writers to expand their skills in ways that they otherwise might never have thought of. And, frankly, it’s a lot of fun to meet people who love books and writing as much as you do.”

— Eilis O’Neal, editor in chief, Nimrod Journal

Books are very much alive, and, despite the strikingly powerful energy of film, TV and the net, books remain a big, abiding force in our society.

If you value ideas, provocation and good writing, consider joining the University of Tulsa’s Nimrod Journal crew for their annual conference for writers and readers.

Book power

It’s a bit of a paradox, but the most striking recent reminder of the transcendent lure of great books and compelling writers, for me, came not from a book but from a film—an absolutely stunning new documentary on HBO from legendary director Martin Scorsese and his compadre David Tedeschi. “The Fifty-Year Argument” is an electrifying chronicle of American writing culture viewed through the prism of the now 50-year-old New York Review of Books (NYRB), a publishing venture devoted to fabulous books, and the ideas, the currents, the passions, the roiling issues that have charged our times.  

When I was a young adult, NYRB was a continuous “school between stables,” something almost magical for me, on why people such as novelists Norman Mailer, Mary McCarthy and James Baldwin; writers and intellectuals such as Susan Sontag, George Kennan and Bishop Desmond Tutu; and scientists Freeman Dyson, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin were such riveting figures in our world during the ’60s, ’70s and thereafter. The women’s movement; radical ideas in design, architecture and planning; the early and later facets of the civil rights movement; Vietnam; Malcolm X; John Coltrane; Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon; lucid tendencies in the art world; wild thinking trajectories like postmodernism; deconstruction and its excesses; reimagining classical art and music; revolutionary changes in science and medicine—all were put on the table, unpacked, autopsied and painted in neon by a small army of writers at NYRB. 

If you’re interested in books, ideas and arguments, you absolutely have to see this grand, 93-minute piece.

Meeting of minds

But if you want a heavy, local dose of the neural sparks associated with provocative writing and compelling authors, show up on Saturday, Oct. 25, for the latest rendition of the Nimrod Conference for Readers and Writers at the University of Tulsa. The conference is managed, as usual, by Eilis O’Neal, the journal chief and an award winning young adult/fantasy writer. As usual, the legendary Dr. Fran Ringold will contribute to the event; she was editor-in-chief of Nimrod for more than 40 years. Having completed two terms as Oklahoman’s Poet Laureate. Ringold’s books include The Trouble With Voices: Poetry and Every Other One.

This year’s conference is headlined by an enormous talent, international writer Chris Abani of Nigeria. Abani is a winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award, an uber-competitive prize given to a superb first-time fiction or short story writer. Abani, who has lived in the U.S. since around 2001, is best known for his prolific fiction past. He has written five novels and several poetry volumes over the past 10 years, including GraceLand and the fantastic The Secret History of Las Vegas. I’ve read the latter; it’s a strange brew of mystery, sci-fi and police procedural packed with lurid musings on the contrast between American culture, Las Vegas style and the social and cultural landscape of South Africa.

Here is an excerpt:

    “Sunil knocked on Brewster’s door and entered without waiting. An older, often offensive, and unpleasant man, Brewster had founded the institute thirty years before. His early work had been in the area of group dynamics, a term that was a catchall for all kinds of work and that made Sunil in particular deeply worried. When it came to Brewster, everything sounded like a euphemism for something darker. There were five other projects housed there, all sponsored by the Department of Defense—Psychological Research; Weapons and Applied Tactics; Information Extraction and Analysis; Robotics and Organic Intelligence; and Planetary Resource Management.”

Local flavor

The Nimrod conference, now in its 36th year, is famous for the wide range of local writers who participate in the event’s carefully crafted workshop sessions—including panels on improving one’s writing, techniques for fiction work—giving voice to characters and a host of other topics. This year’s local cadre includes Nimrod chief O’Neal; Henry Cribbs, who has served as fiction editor for the Black Warrior Review and the Chicago Literary Review and teaches English at Union High School; Nimrod poetry editor Cynthia Gustavson, a psychotherapist and poet; and Nimrod editor Britton Gildersleeve, who has lectured on the use of poetry in healing at Phillips Theological School in Tulsa and the Univeristy of Oklahoma School of Medicine.

Coda 

The annual Nimrod Conference is a direct indication of Tulsa’s continuing role in the essential worlds of writing and writers—and you can still sign up by visiting TheTulsaVoice.com/nimrod.

Nimrod Conference for Readers and Writers 2014

Saturday, Oct. 25, starting at 9:30 a.m.

Allen Chapman Activity Center, University of Tulsa

Schedule, registration and more info at TheTulsaVoice.com/nimrod

Ray’s picks

Here’s a sample of the offerings slated for Saturday, Oct. 25, the first formal day of the conference:

What I Wish I’d Known: 5 Writers’ Best Advice // ​Mary-Alice Daniel, W. S. Di Piero, Britton Gildersleeve, Shobha Rao, Roxana Robinson. 10 a.m.

Editing and Publishing: Q&A // Chris Abani, Geffrey Davis, Cynthia Gustavson, Malinda Lo, Jill Logan, Eilis O’Neal, A. J. Tierney. 10 a.m.

Hands-on One-on-One Editing Workshops // Meet one on one with a Nimrod editor who will help you revise your work.  Submit 2-3 pages of poetry or 4-5 pages of fiction.  Materials must be received by October 17th. Each one-on-one editing session is 15 minutes long. 10:45 a.m.

Paths to Publications: Agents, Small Presses, and Self-Publishing // A. J. Tierney —The paths to publication are more diverse than ever. Learn how to find and obtain a literary agent, work with a small press, or put your work out yourself—and which path is right for you. 10:45 a.m.