New England book mini-tour
October 13, 2014 § Leave a comment
Thrilled to be embarking on an autumn mini book tour, during which I’ll be speaking, reading, and signing at several of New England’s great independent bookstores and libraries. Here’s the schedule of events. Come on out, I’d love to see you and sign your personal copy of Will Poole’s Island!
Bank Square Books
53 West Main Street
Mystic, Connecticut
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2014, 11:00 AM & 2:00 PM
The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough (11AM)
12 Depot Square, Peterborough, NH
&
The Toadstool Bookshop in Keene (2PM)At the Colony Mill Marketplace in Keene, NH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2014, 4:00 PM
World Eye Bookshop156 Main Street, Greenfield, MA SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014, 2:00 pm
Duxbury Free Library77 Alden Street, Duxbury, Massachusetts
Brattleboro Literary Festival
September 23, 2014 § Leave a comment
What an honor to be included among the stellar group of authors participating in this year’s Brattleboro Literary Festival (October 2- 5, 2014) which for thirteen years has been one of the most dynamic and well attended celebrations of books and readers in New England. And what a blast to hang out with old friends, meet new ones, hear talented and interesting people discuss their work and read from it, all the events well attended, and the streets of good old Brattleboro teeming with readers and writers of every stripe. Thanks to the organizers and volunteers, my friends and fellow writers, and everyone who came out to celebrate the power and beauty of the written word!
I had the privilege of introducing two very special women, critically acclaimed emerging writers Alden Jones and Eleanor Henderson
What a pleasure and an honor to read and discuss books alongside the talented Don Bredes, a fellow Vermont writer
Signing books with Don and the luminous Dede Cummings, publicist, agent, and publisher of Green Writers Press
Giving a little pre-reading context for Will Poole’s Island
So great to see the streets and venues of Brattleboro filled with writers and readers. Reports of the death of the book have been very much exaggerated!
Fall writing courses at GrubStreet
September 5, 2014 § 1 Comment
Hey everyone, I’m pleased to announce a new series of day-long workshops on the writing craft that I’ll be conducting at Grub Street in Boston. If you’re not familiar with this organization and you live anywhere in a 100 mile radius, you really ought to check it out. My experiences with Grub Street have been overwhelmingly positive. It’s a magnet for blazingly creative people following all kinds of interesting paths in writing, and their classes are top-notch in terms of providing inspiration and the ongoing work every writer must do in honing the craft.
Click on the titles to read full descriptions and logistical info. I’d love to see you in Boston!
September 26, 2014: Opening the Historical Novel
October 31, 2014 (Halloween!): Harnessing the Dark Side: Suspense, Resonance, and the Archetypal Shadow in Fiction
November 1, 2014: Reaching for the Sublime: Image Systems in Fiction
December 5, 2014: Cracking your Sentences Wide Open
New historical fiction article up at The Grub Daily
July 14, 2014 § Leave a comment
My two part writing craft article, “Narrative as Time Machine: Five Tools for World Building in Historical Fiction” is now up at The Grub Daily.
The article grew out of a talk I gave at Grub Street’s fantastic Muse and the Marketplace conference in May, 2014, and analyzes key excerpts from great historical fiction novels such as The Age of Innocence, The English Patient, Cold Mountain, The King Must Die, and more. If this sounds interesting to you, click here. Hope you enjoy it!
Writing in Ireland Program
July 6, 2014 § Leave a comment
This week I am once again privileged to joining a group of young American writers on Putney Student Travel’s Writing in Ireland program. We’ll be spending time in Dublin and on the stunning, mystical isle of Inishbofin off the Connemara coast. Very excited!
As anyone who’s been following this blog knows, in my day job I travel a great deal — mostly to Spanish-speaking countries with wonderful organizations like National Geographic Expeditions and the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center — but I have to say this is a special trip, one of my favorites. There’s nothing like working and adventuring with a group of passionate young writers who are up for anything and enjoy spending all day and night geeking out about literature and craft.
We’ll do field exercises to generate new work, have some feedback sessions leading to revision, and of course mount a final reading, which will take place this year on July 12th, 2014, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m., at the Irish Writer’s Centre, located at 19 Parnell Square, Dublin.
If you’re interested to see what we’re up to and what an international travel program for young writers looks like, take a look at the program blog.
Historical Fiction talk at Grub Street’s Muse and the Marketplace 2014
May 1, 2014 § 2 Comments
Very excited to be heading down to Boston tomorrow morning for Grub Street’s annual Muse & The Marketplace conference. I don’t attend many writing conferences, but I’ve been lucky enough to have participated in this one for the last two years and it’s very, very good. Grub Street is somehow able to attract such a smart and friendly crowd of writers, agents, editors, and various others associated with this business of putting words on paper to enrich and enliven our world.
Also exciting: this year will be my first as a presenter, or “Special Guest,” in the official parlance. I’ll be giving a talk called “Narrative as Time Machine: The Art of World-Building in Historical Fiction.” The talk will feature excerpts from some of my favorite works of historical fiction, including Edith Wharton’s classic The Age of Innocence, Mary Renault’s The King Must Die, James Welch’s Fool’s Crow, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Very much looking forward to it!
While there, I’ll have a chance to run a couple of works-in-progress by a few agents and editors, and, perhaps most exciting of all, I’ll be bringing along (and giving away) several advance readers’ copies of my new novel, Will Poole’s Island, which has an official release date of August 15, 2014, and which, ahem, can now be pre-ordered on Amazon. Wish me luck!
Back into the time capsule
March 27, 2014 § Leave a comment
Excited to be heading back to Cuba with National Geographic Expeditions from March 30 to April 7! I’ve done this particular itinerary a good number of times now, and there are almost always surprises — most of them pleasant, all of them fascinating.
Then again, it’s impossible to be in Cuba on any given day and NOT have a fascinating experience of one kind or another. This is particularly true because the island is undergoing such a rapid period of change; every time I return there are changes, most of them subtle, some of them not. Don’t worry, I’m taking notes!
If anyone is looking for an opportunity to experience for yourself what I’m talking about, here’s an upcoming program I particularly recommend.
Heartsong post featured at Grub Daily
April 8, 2013 § Leave a comment
A craft analysis I wrote several years ago on James Welch’s great novel The Heartsong of Charging Elk is featured at Grub Street Daily, a blog for writers produced by the wonderful people at Grub Street, a popular Boston-based organization for writers. Check it out here!
Cuba, Cuba, Spain and Ireland
April 4, 2013 § 1 Comment
Very excited for several upcoming trips! First up is another National Geographic program to Cuba, April 18 – 24, in which I’ll be introducing a group of mostly first-time visitors to one of my favorite places on the planet and giving lectures on Cuban colonial history, 20th century Cuban history, and Hemingway’s years in Cuba.
Next up, from May 12 – 24, I’ll be returning to the Pearl of the Antilles with a small group of honors students from Keene State College. I’ve been co-teaching a class there with political scientist Prof Chuck Weed on the history of US – Cuba relations this semester, and it will be great fun to show everyone around and let them experience for themselves the vibrant and enigmatic realities of contemporary Cuba. And we’re planning some great hiking and snorkeling!
From June 2 – 10, sponsored by the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, the talented contemporary artist Eric Aho and I will be accompanying a small group of travelers to Madrid, Úbeda, Córdoba, Granada, and points between for a fascinating art-based journey in Spain. We’ll be learning a lot about the Spanish context, taking in some of the world’s greatest art from a creator’s perspective, and everyone will have the opportunity to produce some of their own art as well. Very excited to get back to Spain after a long absence! There’s still some (limited) space on this trip, so you if have these dates free and want to explore Spain in a fun and absolutely unique way, drop me a line.
From June 29 – July 12, I’ll be working with three other writers and a group of 24-30 young writers (14-18 yrs old) in Dublin, Ireland. Couldn’t be more thrilled by the prospect of another field-based writing workshop – it’s been awhile. There’s still room on this program too, so if you happen to fall into the above age range, follow the instructions on the link to apply. Don’t wait, because this one is filling up fast.
If you’re interested in Cuba and looking for a fun, informal (i.e., non-touristy), and relatively affordable way to get there, check out this fascinating art-based people-to-people program I’ll be leading in early November 2013.
Cuban National Choir comes to New England
October 31, 2012 § Leave a comment
It was a great honor and pleasure to guide and interpret for the National Choir of Cuba (Coro de Entrevoces) on their concert tour of New England, Nov 1- 6, 2012. This is a very special, world-class group of vocal musicians. I got to know them on my most recent trip to Cuba last July. The Coro performed at South Church in Portsmouth., NH, on October 30th at 7:00pm, the Harwich Junior Theatre Thursday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. (508-432-2002 x4) and at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater Friday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. (508-349-9428). They performed two shows in Boston, at Gasson Hall, Boston College, and the Berklee College of Music. Here’s a clip from the Gasson Hall show for your enjoyment. Take a moment to watch it – I guarantee you’ll be impressed.
Tim Weed 