(Irene Cooper, Ellen Santasiero, and Michael Cooper founded The Forge Writing Program in 2021 | Photo courtesy of The Forge Writing Program)
Newly graduated writers of The Forge Creative Writing Program will present original work ranging from literary fiction and murder mystery to science fiction and memoir on Saturday, October 22 at 3pm at the downtown Bend library.
The Forge Writing Program is an online creative writing program based in Bend. The program, now accepting applications for January 2023, is designed for people who want the rigor and community of a graduate creative writing program, but are looking for an accelerated pace and lower cost.
“In our 40 combined years of teaching, we’ve encountered many writers who want to take themselves seriously and really live the writer’s life, but they don’t necessarily want or need an academic credential, or the high cost of a master’s program,” said Michael Cooper, who founded the program with fellow writers and teachers Irene Cooper and Ellen Santasiero. “We’re thrilled by the work done by this first class,” added Cooper. “We invite the community to come out to and hear their compelling stories.”
Through bi-weekly workshops, individual mentorships, and feedback from instructors and peers, the program guides small cohorts of writers to generate writing, acquire and improve craft skills, and revise a body of work in fiction or creative nonfiction.
The public reading is the final component of the course. Registration for The Forge Writing Program for 2023 is open. To register, go to theforgewriting.com/contact.
About the Instructors
Ellen Santasiero’s work appears in The Sun, Northwest Review, Marlboro Review, The Stay Project, Oregon Humanities, High Desert Journal, and in Going Green, an anthology from the University of Oklahoma Press. She taught literature and writing at Oregon State University-Cascades from 2007-2021, and memoir writing at The Bend Writers Workshop in 2019-20. With Irene Cooper she co-edited PLACED: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon, Vol. 1, and she is the editor of Just Say “Yes” to Life: Stories of Surviving After Stroke. Ellen lives on the edge of Adirondack Park in upstate New York. ellensantasiero.com
Irene Cooper is the author of the psychological thriller FOUND (2022), COMMITTAL, poet-friendly spy-fy about family (2020), the poetry collection spare change (2021), finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award, and, with Ellen Santasiero, co-edited Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon. Writings appear in Denver Quarterly, The Feminist Wire, The Rumpus, streetcake, Witness, Beloit, & elsewhere. Irene supports AIC-directed writing at a regional prison, teaches in community, and lives with her people and Maggie in Oregon. Learn more at irenecooperwrites.com
Mike Cooper holds an MFA from Oregon State University Cascades in Bend where he lives with his family. Mike is a writer of fiction and an editorial coach. His short stories have been finalists in Glimmer Train, The Lascaux Review, Cutthroat, and Driftwood Press. He is president of the Central Oregon Writers Guild and teaches writing at Central Oregon Community College and Oregon State University-Cascades, as well as creative writing workshops through Blank Pages Workshops, Deschutes Public Library, and COCC Community Learning.