The International Women’s Fiction Festival in Italy
I just got back from a vacation with some college buddies (a “man-cation”—my first) up in Put-in-Bay, which is an island on lake Erie not terribly far from Toledo or Detroit. I’m still trying to break out of vacation mode and start firing on all cylinders. But speaking of traveling, the more exciting news is that I will be headed to teach at a writers conference in Italy! How cool!
I just got back from a vacation with some college buddies (a "man-cation"—my first) up in Put-in-Bay, which is an island on lake Erie not terribly far from Toledo or Detroit. I'm still trying to break out of vacation mode and start firing on all cylinders. But speaking of traveling, the more exciting news is that I will be headed to teach at a writers conference in Italy! How cool!
The conference is the International Women's Fiction Festival, held in Matera, Italy. Matera is in the middle of the country and is a very old and historic location. The conference itself is an amazing event. It gathers professionals and writers from all over the globe. When I speak on panels, I'll likely be up there with other editors from Germany, Italy, France and England, and we may all even have those cool UN headphones for translations. I'm dying to get in a heated discussion with someone and demand Adlai-Stevenson-style that they "Don't wait for the translation—answer me now!"
Other cool stuff about the conference:
- The theme this year is "Books Without Borders."
- Different sessions in the conference will talk about multicultural writing, as well as how to slowly build a worldwide readership.
- "Memoir Writing as Therapy" will be taught. If maybe you just need to get away from it all and relax (perhaps there has just been a death in family, etc.), a session like this can do wonders.
- The whole conference program, naturally, is available online. You won't see my name anywhere yet, though, because I was originally lined up as a presenter for next year's conference. They had a cancellation for this year, and I'm filling in.
If, say, you have spare time, a desire to write, and a penchant for adventure, think about going to Italy and being part of such an amazing event. Writers in attendance will be immersed in an array of perspectives about writing and publishing in the world, and you can tack on a vacation at the beginning or the end to enjoy the wonderful country. Perhaps your spouse has always talked about 1) writing a novel/memoir, and 2) going to Italy. Well here is your chance to provide the ultimate anniversary gift!
And to answer your question, yes my last name of Sambuchino is very Italian, and no, I have never visited the homeland. But I will arrive in a blaze of glory, and I'm fully expecting like six full-blooded Sicilian mafioso guys to greet me off the plane, do that kiss-on-both-cheeks thing, and make me a button man in the Sambuchino Family over there I never knew existed. Godfather style.
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
