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I'm very, very glad I went and I had a wonderful time - but I don't think I'd do it again, the same way.
1. Hostels. I was afraid the hostel would be an unfortunate choice because I sleep lightly, but I wanted to try. It wasn't as bad as I feared - but it still messed with my sleep and I was tired a lot. Not doing that again.
2. Staying in Seaside. I did this because it was where the hostel was. However, if I had stayed in Cannon Beach, a lot of this would have been more convenient. The drive was not bad or very long, but it did inform a lot of the time I spent. (On the other hand, Seaside is easier to navigate and has better stores, so....)
3. Haystack. I loved the workshop but the Haystack format is not the best in my eyes. From 9-12 each day you do the WS, then some of the days (three for us) you have an optional afternoon lecture from 1:30 to 2:30 that is by the teacher of one of that week's workshops, for the whole group, about the topic of their WS, then some days (again, three for us) there is an evening reading from 7-8 pm by one of the instructors/groups of instructors. And one night (not after a reading in our case, which I assume is normal) there is an 8 pm bonfire.
First, this is annoying when you stay in another town because you have to decide whether to back-and-forth. It's annoying if you want to do touristy things because your day is chopped into pieces. But it's most annoying because it leaves long stretches of time that Could Have Been workshop time but aren't anything, becuase of the shape of the spaces it leaves being so awkward. For many workshops I suspect this is important - if one is writing a short story, or creating a painting, or what-have-you in the afternoon, one needs most of the afternoon. But it would have been nice if the afternoon lectures had been from 4-5 pm or maybe even 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
This would have let people who wanted to do art work or tourist stuff do so in the early afternoon, after lunch. It would have let the groups that didn't need as much "down" time (like ours!!) do an afternoon session from 1:30-3:30 or even 1:30-4:00 and that would have let us workshop so many more of the poems people brought. We only managed to get to 3 of the 5 that each person brought, plus the exercises, and we only gave really focussed attention to one or sometimes two of those per person.
I don't really care for being at the beach, either. It's expensive, it's crowded, and while Cannon Beach is very "artsy" with lots of galleries, I fail to see the advantage of that to art workshops and especially to writing workshops. I know people love the beach and it made it a part-vacation for them also but other than the weather being much better than in Portland, it was not greatly better than any other place to my eyes, and it is more crowded/busy/fuss-filled and slightly more expensive.
4. Marvin Bell. I would go to another workshop of his in a heartbeat. I suspect I'd hear a lot of the same stuff again, but I also suspect I'd hear some new things - he tends to say whatever's on his mind or brought up by the poems and the group discussion, so that leads to some variance.
1. Hostels. I was afraid the hostel would be an unfortunate choice because I sleep lightly, but I wanted to try. It wasn't as bad as I feared - but it still messed with my sleep and I was tired a lot. Not doing that again.
2. Staying in Seaside. I did this because it was where the hostel was. However, if I had stayed in Cannon Beach, a lot of this would have been more convenient. The drive was not bad or very long, but it did inform a lot of the time I spent. (On the other hand, Seaside is easier to navigate and has better stores, so....)
3. Haystack. I loved the workshop but the Haystack format is not the best in my eyes. From 9-12 each day you do the WS, then some of the days (three for us) you have an optional afternoon lecture from 1:30 to 2:30 that is by the teacher of one of that week's workshops, for the whole group, about the topic of their WS, then some days (again, three for us) there is an evening reading from 7-8 pm by one of the instructors/groups of instructors. And one night (not after a reading in our case, which I assume is normal) there is an 8 pm bonfire.
First, this is annoying when you stay in another town because you have to decide whether to back-and-forth. It's annoying if you want to do touristy things because your day is chopped into pieces. But it's most annoying because it leaves long stretches of time that Could Have Been workshop time but aren't anything, becuase of the shape of the spaces it leaves being so awkward. For many workshops I suspect this is important - if one is writing a short story, or creating a painting, or what-have-you in the afternoon, one needs most of the afternoon. But it would have been nice if the afternoon lectures had been from 4-5 pm or maybe even 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
This would have let people who wanted to do art work or tourist stuff do so in the early afternoon, after lunch. It would have let the groups that didn't need as much "down" time (like ours!!) do an afternoon session from 1:30-3:30 or even 1:30-4:00 and that would have let us workshop so many more of the poems people brought. We only managed to get to 3 of the 5 that each person brought, plus the exercises, and we only gave really focussed attention to one or sometimes two of those per person.
I don't really care for being at the beach, either. It's expensive, it's crowded, and while Cannon Beach is very "artsy" with lots of galleries, I fail to see the advantage of that to art workshops and especially to writing workshops. I know people love the beach and it made it a part-vacation for them also but other than the weather being much better than in Portland, it was not greatly better than any other place to my eyes, and it is more crowded/busy/fuss-filled and slightly more expensive.
4. Marvin Bell. I would go to another workshop of his in a heartbeat. I suspect I'd hear a lot of the same stuff again, but I also suspect I'd hear some new things - he tends to say whatever's on his mind or brought up by the poems and the group discussion, so that leads to some variance.
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