Poetry: Writing From the Place of the Heart

Rendon’s poem, Resilience, is published in Living Nations/Living Worlds [Norton] and the poem “what’s an indian woman to do…” is in When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through [Norton]; both edited by U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. In this poetry session, Rendon will give a series of writing prompts for the creation of new work by participants who will then read their work to each other with the opportunity for feedback if they so choose.

Writing Memorable Characters & Places 

Rendon’s Cash Blackbear crime series features a young Anishinaabe woman who helps the local sheriff solve crimes between going to college and working as a farm laborer. This award-winning/nominated series features characters that compel you to cheer for them, characters who invite you into their often messy but nevertheless resilient, uplifting lives. As you read the series you feel the itch of wheat chaff and the soft breeze that comes up off the riverbank and cools one in the midday heat. This workshop will explore how to write memorable characters who inhabit a world you can experience with all your senses.

Writing Crime and Mystery in the Midwest 
Authors living and writing in the Midwest come from a culture often overlooked and misunderstood. It is as if the only reality is either the East Coast, the West Coast, or some fantasy land. As I write novels and short stories set in the Midwest, I am surprised and pleased by my readership who appreciates things like ‘windblown prairies, tuna hotdish at Ladies Aid, a farmer’s wave from a pickup truck’. In our rural and small-town lives, we carry people’s secrets close to the chest because we know that in a springtime flood or a winter snowstorm the woman who cheated on her husband or the man who ‘maybe’ killed his wife might be the person we will need to rely on in the moment of crisis. All of which makes for good crime and mystery writing.