Panning the Pandemic for Literary Gold by Guest Writer Genevieve Beltran

[Post Photo: Genevieve Beltran (right) and Lauren Francis-Sharma, Assistant Director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference]

Last spring, I learned that for the first time in five years, I would not be attending one of the various Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences as my annual literary pilgrimage. In 2015 and 2016, I was blessed to attend Bread Loaf Sicily. The conference’s stunning setting—in the ancient mountaintop village of Erice, Italy—only added to the magic found in the daily workshops and craft lectures. I attended Middlebury College’s original Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 2017 and 2019, as well as Bread Loaf Environmental in 2018. Those particular conferences, just like the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, are usually held in Vermont at the school’s Bread Loaf campus. A place awash in bucolic beauty.

Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference 2018

And history. What writer wouldn’t want to make a pilgrimage to a place whose past includes Robert Frost, Shirley Jackson, and Toni Morrison? At the various Bread Loaf conferences, I’ve been blessed to learn from Lynn Freed, Helen Schulman, Christopher Castellani, Luis Alberto Urea, and Maud Casey. Readings, lectures, and craft classes from the likes of Jericho Brown, Alexander Chee, Charles Baxter, Esperanza Hope Snyder, Lauren Francis-Sharma, Jennifer Grotz, and John Elder helped replenish my soul. To give me strength to return to my daily life. A world that does not always understand why, after so many years, I still am scribbling away. Pouring my thoughts onto the page. Spending hours in front of my laptop. Each stroke on the keyboard an attempt to capture what it is I want to say. In a way that will have meaning, for myself, for my reader, for my soul.

When Middlebury College decided to cancel its various conferences last year, I understood the decision. The virus was running rampant. No vaccine was in sight. Yet I held out hope that in 2021, a return to normalcy might be possible. In the meantime, I decided to take advantage of the many virtual opportunities open to writers in the face of the pandemic. Creating my own do-it-yourself Bread Loaf, I looked for authors giving online workshops whom I had either met at Bread Loaf in previous years or who would have taught at Bread Loaf in 2020 if the in-person conference had been able to proceed as originally planned.

With that in mind, I’ve taken Garth Greenwell’s style in fiction workshop through The Shipman Agency, Matthew Lansburgh’s fiction workshop on hooking your reader through Catapult, and as of this writing, I am in the middle of an eight-week class, taught by De’Shawn Charles Winslow through the Center for Fiction, whose focus is on writing dialogue in fiction. With each, class the format has been similar. The first part of our weekly session focuses on a particular aspect of craft. The latter on workshopping a participant’s writing in a nurturing manner that highlights what is working well in the piece, as well as noting areas to consider for revision. Along with a personal consultation with the instructor after one’s writing has been workshopped. These experiences have been tremendously rewarding. Garth, Matthew, and De’Shawn have gotten me to view my writing with fresh eyes. To dig deeper into my book’s possibilities. To stretch myself as a writer.

As much as I cherish an in-person experience, I’ve found there are advantages to the online model. The costs, for example, are considerably less. While I’ve had to pay for the classes, I don’t have to worry about scraping up the funds for airfare or the additional costs of food and lodging associated with attending a traditional conference. Writers are able to participate in class from the comfort of their homes. Focus is also central to the online experience. Unlike an in-person event, there is no time to dawdle. Every minute in the class has to count, because that is the only time participants will have with each other.

While I miss socializing with other writers at conferences outside of our workshop time, the nature of the online class means the work itself is what matters. Not that networking has been eliminated completely! Even after a class ends, participants in an online class may want to keep in touch with each other as well as their instructor, thus widening their sense of community.

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference 2017

As for the Bread Loaf community, I recently learned that Middlebury College decided to cancel its plans for in-person conferences this year. A wise choice, given that millions are still awaiting their turn to be vaccinated. A virtual opportunity, however, exists with the 2021 Bread Loaf Workshop Series offered in place of the Bread Loaf Environmental, Bread Loaf Translators, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences. Bread Loaf Sicily is on hold until it is possible to return to an in-person conference in Italy.

Writers tor the online workshop series can apply to be accepted to a workshop in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and for the first time, screenwriting. Their workshop meetings are also supplemented by craft lectures, as well as the opportunity to meet with agents and editors. A devotee of all things Bread Loaf, I’ll be applying this year in the areas of fiction and nonfiction in the hope that yet again, my writing samples will be deemed worthy. That this humble pilgrim may be blessed to benefit, once more, from all that Bread Loaf has to offer in my continuing quest to pan for literary gold during a pandemic.

Check back soon for upcoming posts by authors Hanna Brady, Christy Lenzi, and more!