Utah Arts Festival 2022

Join the SLCC Community Writing Center and the Utah Arts Festival for four days packed with fun writing activities for all. From workshops for kids and adults to the Wasatch Iron Pen competition, there’s something for everyone!

Competition

Wasatch IronPen Literary Marathon And Ultra Marathon!

Writers of all experience levels can register for the marathon at the SLCC Community Writing Center (located at Library Square, Suite 8) or register online. Participants must register by Friday, June 24th, at 6:00 p.m. Registration for the IronPen is $10 for one genre (Fiction, Non-fiction, or Poetry) or $15 for the IronPen Ultra (all three genres).

After receiving the prompt on Friday, June 24th at 6:00 p.m., writers will have exactly 24 hours to write. Submissions are due Saturday, June 25th at 6:00 p.m. Register here or call 801-957-2192 for more details.

Winners will receive a cash prize, a gift card to the King’s English bookstore, a CWC gift bag. Honorable Mentions will receive a gift card to the King’s English bookstore, and a gift bag of CWC swag. Competition Winners and Honorable Mentions will be announced and invited to read from their IronPen works at 12:30 p.m. on June 26th at the Wordfest Stage.

On Friday, June 24, 2022 at 6:00 p.m., a prompt will be posted on the CWC’s Facebook (@CommunityWritingCenter) and Instagram (@slcc_cwc) feeds. Participants must meaningfully incorporate the prompt into their submission. After receiving the prompt, writers will have exactly 24 hours to write.

Submissions are due via Submittable by 6:00 p.m. on June 25, 2022 @6:00 p.m. NOTE: the Submittable link will go live at 6:00 p.m. on June 24, 2022.

All Day Activities

Have Your Say!: Gigantic Magnetic Poetry Walls

Everyone can be a poet, especially with gigantic magnetic words! Come share your words on the CWC’s magnetic poetry walls.

Write Fest Activities

Stop by the Community Writing Center any time to participate in a variety of fun writing activities. Create a pocket zine, write a postcard story, craft a “cycling in the city” story, create found poetry, create a poetic chain for our community poetry chain, write flash nature and “travel” essays or flash fiction, create a “paper flower” story for our story garden, write a letter to share in our Letter Box vending machine and/or receive a letter from a stranger, create photo silhouette and collage stories, make a paper crane as part of our goal to make one thousand paper cranes with community during the Arts Fest.

Call for Submissions

The Great Salt Lake Community Anthology Call for Submissions

The SLCC Community Writing Center is part of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative (GSLC), a Solutions Journalism collaborative of well more than a dozen Utah organizations working together to share stories about Great Salt Lake and ways to protect our city’s dying namesake. As part of our work for the GSLC, the CWC is proud to announce a call for submissions for the Great Salt Lake Community Anthology. The call will be shared after the IronPen Winners and Honorable Mentions have read from their works at the Wordfest stage between 12:30-2 p.m. on June 26^,2022.

Writers of all genres, photographers of all styles, and artists using all genres and mediums are encouraged to submit their written, visual, and performative stories about the Great Salt Lake. This call is open to any writer, photographer, and artist ages 15 and older. Submission must be submitted via Submittable no later than 11:59 p.m. on August 26, 2022.

A “Great Salt Lake Community Anthology” Reading Gala will be held in late September 2022. Contributors to the anthology will be given a print edition of the anthology and an opportunity to read from their work at the gala. More details will be shared at the beginning of August.

Events and Workshops held at the SLCC Community Writing Center.
Come early, as space is limited!

SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 23
12:30 -1:30 pm	Creating for Change: One Thousand Paper (Peace) Cranes Workshop Learn about Sadako Sasaki’s efforts to make the world a better place through making paper cranes. In this origami-as-storytelling and remembering-the-past workshop, you’ll make your own paper cranes and add to the collective tradition of creating paper cranes to foster peace, community building, and to re-member.
2:30 - 3:30 pm	Making Graphic Novels & Novellas: Beginner Workshop Learn the basics of how to combine words and images into a graphic novel or novella! In this intro-level workshop, artist Allison Hutto will help you collaborate on a story or start creating your own graphic novel or novella.
4:30 - 5:30 pm	Graphic Novel & Novella Techniques: Intermediate Workshop For graphic storytellers who already know the basics elements of graphic novels and novellas. This workshop covers specific techniques for creating graphic novels and novellas from inking and coloring styles to page layout and story structure. Artist Allison Hutto will also answer questions and give feedback on participants’ work.
6:30 - 7:30 pm	Creative Wellness Journaling Workshop CWC staff will guide you through creating a hand-built journal. This workshop will also introduce you to narrative and meditative writing practices to help you shape your own reflections on life’s many journeys.
Friday, June 24
12:30 -1:30 pm	Kids Workshop: Pop-up Books Craft a story and make it spring to life in three dimensions with your very own pop-up book. Parents are encouraged to participate with their children.
2:30 - 3:30 pm	Making Graphic Novels & Novellas: Beginner Workshop Learn the basics of how to combine words and images into a graphic novel or novella! In this intro-level workshop, artist Allison Hutto will help you collaborate on a story or start creating your own graphic novel or novella.
4:30 - 6:00 pm	Cómo acercarnos a la poesía Workshop Join poet and artist Manuel Aarón García Becerra from Artes de México en Utah in exploring approaches to poetic traditions in Spanish as well as work on writing your own Spanish poetry.
6:00 pm	Wasatch IronPen Literary Marathon and Ultramarathon Start! Get to the CWC for submission guidelines and the prompt to start writing your 24-hour literary masterpiece! If you can’t make it to the CWC, the prompt will be posted on Facebook (@CommunityWritingCenter) and Instagram (@slcc_cwc) at 6:00 p.m.
6:30 - 7:30 pm	IronPen Writing Workshop This workshop will introduce you to the IronPen Marathon and Ultramarathon Writing Contest. Learn tips for writing competitively and discuss elements of our three competition options: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry.
Saturday, June 25
12:30 -1:30 pm	Math X Poetry Workshop Take poetic inspiration from math theorems as you learn the awe-inducing ways that mathematics & poetry are intertwined. In this interdisciplinary workshop, you’ll discover how geometric shapes and math formulas can become the muses and structures for compelling, wild, and wonderful poetry. Join poet and Professor of Mathematics Joe Gallegos in learning about the connectedness of math and poetry. Then, you’ll play with mathematical ideas and poetic forms to create your own poetry.
2:30 - 3:30 pm	Graphic Novel & Novella Techniques: Intermediate Workshop For graphic storytellers who already know the basics elements of graphic novels and novellas. This workshop covers specific techniques for creating graphic novels and novellas from inking and coloring styles to page layout and story structure. Artist Allison Hutto will also answer questions and give feedback on participants’ work.
4:30 - 5:30 pm	Finding Identity & “Home”: Personal Narratives & Memoir Writing Workshop Join Wynter the Poet in exploring how place, culture, time, and community (or lack of community) shapes our sense of self as well as the meanings of “home” and family. This workshop will introduce you to the basic elements of personal narrative and memoir writing so that you can tell the stories of your becoming and finding “home” and family.
6:00 pm	Wasatch IronPen Literary Marathon and Ultramarathon ENDS! All submissions are due by 6:00 pm on Saturday, June 22. Participants must submit online via Submittable.
6:30 - 8:00 pm	Poesía contemporánea Workshop Join poet and artist Manuel Aarón García Becerra Artes de México en Utah in exploring approaches to contemporary currents in Spanish poetry as well as work on writing your own Spanish poetry.
8:00 - 9:00 pm	Open Mic Wynter the Poet & the CWC are calling all musicians, poets, spinner of tales, comedians, and lovers of the same. Join us at the Community Writing Center to share your words in any medium.
Sunday, June 26
12:30 -2:00 pm	Wasatch IronPen Winners Reading at Wordfest Stage and the Great Salt Lake Community Anthology Call for Submissions Winners of the IronPen Marathon and Ultramarathon Competition announced at the Wordfest Stage. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be invited to read from their IronPen works. The CWC will also announce our call for submissions to the Great Salt Lake Community Anthology.
2:30 - 3:30 pm	Food Writing Workshop: Much like other cultural hallmarks, food is often central to human connection. Creating and sharing recipes can be an important part of social gatherings, friend and family traditions, and daily routines. Many traditions around the world revolve around sharing meals with our families and our communities. From recipes to travel writing, join us in exploring different genres of and techniques for writing about food!
4:30 - 5:30 pm	Songwriting Workshop Learn about song structure, lyrical writing, the power of place in songs, the history of protest songs, overcoming writing blocks, and more in this workshop. Join us as we discuss the power of storytelling, place, and protest in songwriting and learn how to write our own song/protest song. Come with a song idea in mind or to find inspiration.
6:00 - 7:00 pm	Climate Fiction Workshop: Humans invent the genres of fiction they need in order to respond to our greatest fears, desires, anxieties, threats, and hopes. Climate Fiction from the Parable of the Sower to the Southern Reach Trilogy to Gold Flame Citrus is a contemporary genre of speculative fiction invented as a response to climate change. This workshop will delve into how the genre explores the reality of climate change and the planet's possible futures with or without a human presence. Together, we'll invent new words to describe the indescribable and to express solastalgia--an emerging form of longing for a place that no longer exists due to environmental change and the subsequent distress felt by that loss.
7:00 pm	One Thousand Paper Cranes Community Storytelling & Exhibit Launch Join the CWC as it launches its “One Thousand Paper Cranes Community Storytelling” Installation Artwork. This installation will have been developed and created throughout the Arts Fest by the community as a symbol of hope and peace. The inspiration for this installation came from Sadako Sasaki and her work to make the world a better place.

Community Writing Center