SEPTEMBER 11 & 12, 2009

THE NASHVILLE PATH & PEN WRITERS’ CONFERENCE brings writers and would-be-writers together to explore writing as a spiritual practice. Held at Scarritt Bennett Center, the conference is a hands-on encounter with various forms of spiritually oriented writing, including, poetry, liturgy, inspirational writing, and journaling. Our goal is to write and to learn new skills to deepen our writing and its capacity for emotional and spiritual healing.

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WRITING?
Spiritual writing explores your sense of the sacred, your quest for meaning and purpose, your encounters with God or Absolute Reality, and your wrestling with faith, doubt, belief, and the ordinary wonder of your everyday life. Such writing may or may not be overtly religious, deal explicitly with religion, or be associated with any traditional faith or belief system.

WHAT IS WRITING AS A

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE?
Writing can tap the deepest recesses of your being, and reveal wisdom not otherwise available to you. Writing in this way is a spiritual practice. Spiritual writing includes journaling, spiritual autobiography, “Morning Pages,” interpretive translation of and commentary on sacred texts, and similar practices that use writing as a means to access the deeper layers of one’s heart, mind, and soul.

WHY A CONFERENCE?
Spiritual writing and the community of writers engaged in it merit and can benefit from the interaction that a conference provides. We believe that Nashville with its rich tradition of spiritual book and music publishing and its spiritually cosmopolitan flavor, is uniquely suited for this kind of gathering.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

3:00 – 5:30 pm Registration & Check-In - Laskey Building
* Room Check-In is at 3:00 pm

5:30 – 6:15 pm Dinner - Susie Gray Dining Hall

6:30 – 7:30 pm Gathering/Centering Time - Room: TBA

Welcome and Introduction of Faculty

Conference Announcements

FRIDAY EVENING OPENING: Playing with Words
presented by Kent Ira Groff
To restore the healthy child in us is to live with soul— awake with all the senses to life’s pain and play. In Maxim Gorky’s words, how can a writer “play with sorrow like a child’s toy” and “make a carnival of grief?”

Labyrinth Walk – (If light permits, we’ll end the day walking the labyrinth and exploring “where we are in life’s journey.”)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2009

(For those participants staying on campus that have meal tickets, breakfast will be in Susie Gray Dining Hall from 7:30 – 8:30 am)

8:00 – 9:00 am Registration continues Laskey Lobby

9:00 am – 12:00 Noon Morning Workshops

(Starting at 10:00 am, morning snacks will be available in the Owen Book Room located between the Clyde & Mary Hall room and Tillman Room.)

Workshop A:
Writing Abundance: 7 Essentials for Creative Flow 
presented by Charlotte Rains Dixon

Wouldn’t it be nice if you sat down at your computer and your fingers flew across the keyboard?  Wouldn’t it be great to have writing abundance in your life?  You can. This workshop will be chock full of the techniques that I have found help me to keep the words gushing.  We’ll cover the seven essentials for ensuring an endless flow of words in a supportive and fun atmosphere.

Workshop B:
Writing Your Way Home: Finding Grace and Growth through Your Fingertips
presented by Kent Ira Groff

Everyone writes: to-do lists, e-mails, blogs, newsletters, teaching preparations, reminders to a colleague or lover; notes to thank, sympathize, and congratulate. If you write for personal reflection or professional publication, you can write your way home to your true heart and the Heart at the center of the universe. Whether technical or narrative writing— figures or figures of speech— experience spiritual practices that create vivid images and ideas in the book of your life. Drawing on Thomas Merton, W.E.B. Du Bois, Annie Dillard, and “multiple intelligences,” explore writer’s block and depression as gestation and novelty. The presenter will use film clips, quiet spaces, and exercises from his book Writing Tides.

12:00 – 2:00 pm Lunch - Susie Gray Dining Hall

2:00 – 5:00 pm - Afternoon Workshops:

(For refreshments throughout the afternoon, visit the Owen Book Room located between the Clyde & Mary Hall room and Tillman Room.)

Workshop A:
A Writer’s Breakthrough in a Virtual World
presented by Dr. Sybril Bennett

So many writers talk about “writer’s block.” Well, given the number of books on the shelves and online, it is clear that a lot of people get through the blockage.  Come and learn how to manage the drought and the harvest. You’ll receive concrete strategies on how, when and even where to write.  Learn about the different ways you can not only get your story told but published as well. It’s a real LULU and it’s longer than a BLURB.  This is social media "speak" to let you know that any and everyone can now live their dream to become a published author. Believe me, if I can do it, you can too.  On top of that, I’ll share some ways that you can market your work using Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools. You are welcome to take this spiritual journey with me.

Workshop B:
Psalms of My Own: Writing the Wisdom of the Heart 
presented by Rami Shapiro

Great spiritual poetry such as that written by King David and Rumi speaks not only to us, but through us, triggering our own poetic outpourings. In this workshop we will learn how to write in response to the wisdom of the saints and sages, listening to the words of the past in such as way as to unleash our own wisdom in the present. Come prepared to write and to be surprised.

5:30 – 6:30 pm Dinner - Susie Gray Dining Hall

6:30 – 7:30 pm Closing Panel Discussion

We will conclude the conference with faculty and participants sharing any current projects, how their writing has changed, and where they are in their writing journey.

Special Note: For those with room reservations, check-out is at 10:30 am on Sunday, September 13th.

Important Tips for Your Stay at the Path & Pen Conference
• Please remember that Room Check-Out time is by 10:30 am each day.

• SBC Security can be accessed 24 hours a day at 615.340.7500 or 615.480.1819.

• To arrange flight shuttle service, call one day ahead of your departure date to In-Shuttle Transportation, Inc. at 615.255.3519 or email www.inshuttle.com.

• While at the Center, visit: the Outdoor Labyrinth located in the International Garden; a display of our Cultural Museum artifacts in the Laskey Lobby; our new Research Library located off the Laskey Lobby area.

• Take a self-guided walking tour of the campus using the guides available in your packets or at any information table.

• Snacks and soft drink machines are located in Gibson Hall, 1st & 2nd Floors of the Laskey Building.

• Wireless Internet access available in the Laskey Lobby.

• The hours for the front desk in the Laskey Building are 8:00 am –9:00 pm M-F (except Wednesdays close at 5:00); 7:30 am – 4:00 pm on Saturdays; and 8:00 am – 2:00 pm on Sundays.

WORKSHOPS & PRESENTERS

FRIDAY EVENING OPENING: Playing with Words
presented by Kent Ira Groff

WORKSHOP: 
Writing Your Way Home: Finding Grace and Growth through Your Fingertips
presented by Kent Ira Groff

KENT IRA GROFF, founding mentor of Oasis Ministries, Camp Hill, Pa., is a writer poet, a spiritual companion, and a retreat director living in Denver, Colorado. He describes his work as “one beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.” You can travel with Kent in Active Spirituality, Journeymen: A Spiritual Guide for Men and The Soul of Tomorrow’s Church. Share his passion to reach outside religious walls in What Would I Believe If I Didn’t Believe Anything?: A Handbook for Spiritual Orphans and to communicate with Writing Tides: Finding Grace and Growth through Writing, and with his poetry in Facing East, Praying West (January 2010). Groff graduated from Penn State University and Princeton Theological Seminary, Shalem Institute, and Chicago Theological Seminary with a doctorate in religion. With experience as a pastor, chaplain, and seminary professor, he loves to coach fellow journeyers on this out-of-balance planet into a deeper purpose through their fingertips.  Contact him at kentiragroff@comcast.net or 720-949-1598.

 

WORKSHOP: 
A Writer’s Breakthrough in a Virtual World
presented by Dr. Sybril Bennett

DR. SYBRIL BENNETT is a Vanderbilt educated, Harvard trained, two-time Emmy award winning multimedia journalist. She is currently an Associate Professor at Belmont University in Nashville, TN where she helped to establish the New Century Journalism Program.  Dr. Syb has twenty years of professional experience in the media. Prior to her appointment at Belmont, Dr. Syb was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor and talk show host at the CBS affiliate in Nashville. She was also an associate producer, news writer and weekend assignment editor at that station. In addition, Dr. Syb is the author of The Color-Full Alphabet Book, a Dr. Seuss like book with positive images of children of color with positive words on every page. The book is a tribute to the President of the United States. "B" is for believe.  "C" is for change.  "O" is for Obama.  "P" is for President. She is a sought after speaker, facilitator, workshop coordinator and multimedia strategist. She coaches individuals and organizations on implementing multimedia strategies using traditional as well as social media.

 

WORKSHOP: 
Writing Abundance:  7 Essentials for Creative Flow 
presented by Charlotte Rains Dixon

CHARLOTTE RAINS DIXON is free-lance journalist, copywriter, ghostwriter, and author who also teaches and coaches writers. She is the author of a dozen books, including The Complete Guide to Writing Successful Fundraising Letters, Oregon, and Oregon Coast, as well as many ghostwritten titles. Her fiction has appeared in The Trunk, Santa Fe Writer’s Project, Nameless Grace, and Somerset Studios. Her articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, the Oregonian, and Pology, to name a few. She is currently seeking an agent for her novel, Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior. As co-director of the Writer’s Loft, a mentor and a writing coach, she is passionate about helping writers to be the best they can be. Visit her blog at www.wordstrumpet.com.

 

WORKSHOP: 
Psalms of My Own: Writing the Wisdom of the Heart 
presented by Rami Shapiro

RAMI SHAPIRO is an award-winning
poet and essayist, whose liturgical writings are used in prayer services throughout North America. He has written over a dozen works of poetry, liturgy, short story and nonfiction. Rami is an ordained rabbi and holds a doctoral degree in religious studies. A congregational rabbi for 20 years, Rabbi Shapiro currently directs the One River Foundation, a not-for-profit educational center for interspiritual study and contemplative inquiry. His most recent books are Open Secrets, Hasidic Tales Annotated and Explained, The Hebrew Prophets Annotated and Explained, The Divine Feminine, Annotated and Explained, and The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness.

Rami hosts five blogs including a "book in progress" co-authored by Dr. Mike Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro:  www.mountandmountain.blogspot.com

Download registration form

For more info, contact Kim Johnson: 615.340.7450 or
kjohnson@scarrittbennett.org

 

The Nashville Path & Pen Writers Conference is co-sponsored by the Scarritt–Bennett Center and the One River Foundation.

Scarritt-Bennett Center is a conference, retreat, and education center committed to empowerment through cross-cultural understanding, education, creativity and spiritual renewal. The Center is located in the heart of Nashville, TN, on ten tree-filled acres. The ten buildings, constructed of crab orchard stone in collegiate gothic architectural style, give the grounds a peaceful, nurturing atmosphere. The compact setting means that it’s a short walk to well-equipped meeting rooms, delicious meals, and restful sleeping rooms.

The One River Foundation promotes peace, justice, and personal awakening through interspiritual study, dialogue and contemplative practice.