The symposium is being sponsored by the NMI Council for the Humanities in cooperation with the Public School System.
Saturday’s meeting was the first of four scheduled group meetings during which participants will receive writing assignments and critically review the work of their fellow writers.
Aspiring writers from Tinian and Rota participated in Saturday’s meeting via video teleconferencing.
During the meeting, Kluge told the students that their most important task is to make the writing that matters to them matter to others.
He also covered key writing issues including selecting a narrative voice, establishing a sense of place, and developing plot, characters and dialog.
For their first assignment, participants were asked to select a place and describe it in a six page essay.
They are not only to describe what that place looks like, but also how it makes them feel.
Additional assignments relating to narrative voice, plot and dialog will be given in succeeding weeks.
Their finished pieces will be published online by the council at the conclusion of the symposium.
Kluge is writer-in-residence at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
He has authored a number of critically acclaimed books including “Edge of Paradise,” “Gone Tomorrow,” and “Eddie and the Cruisers.”
Kluge is also facilitating an ongoing book discussion series covering four classic American novels under council sponsorship.
This symposium, funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a part of the council’s continuing efforts to promote literacy.
It also supports the Public School System’s recently established writing excellence initiative.
Workshop aids NMI tourism
(MVA) — International tourism promotions were at the forefront of a workshop conducted recently in Saipan by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Pacific Islands U.S. Commercial Service.
The workshop titled “Connecting the CNMI with the World” was sponsored in part by the Marianas Visitors Bureau and PATA Micronesia and was conducted on Jan 15 at Hyatt Regency Saipan by Commercial Service Director John Holman.
The service promotes U.S. tourism as an export.
Twenty-two participants attended the workshop sessions on “Exporting 101: How to Connect with International Buyers” and “International Tourism Promotions: How to Promote Your Destination, Product or Service to International Visitors.”
“It is very important to provide training in exporting like the seminars taught by John Holman at the Hyatt on Jan. 15 in order to help businesses learn how to broaden their market,” said Network Director Casey Jeszenka of the Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center. “Exports strengthen individual companies, stimulate U.S. economic growth by bringing more money into the local economy, and help to create jobs.”
MVA established a relationship with the Pacific Islands U.S. Commercial Service last year and has since gained free international tourism promotions through the division’s outreach efforts, including $9,300 worth of recent coverage in publications in Taiwan.
The publications have daily circulation of over 250,000 high income consumers.
The workshop was also sponsored by Continental Airlines and the Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center.
Red flag at 1 Saipan site
(DEQ) — The Division of Environmental Quality says water samples collected from Bird Island Beach contained excessive concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria that exceeded the CNMI’s marine water quality standards.
DEQ has given this location a red flag and advises the public not to fish or swim within 300 feet of this location for the next 48 hours or until otherwise notified.
