Workshop for wordsmiths

SANDPOINT — Much has been said, over the centuries, about the power of the pen. Strong writing can turn the tide of human events, carry world leaders into office and sway public sentiment.

According to an award-winning poet who now calls Bonner County home, the act of writing can also improve your life, exercise your brain and land you in the midst of fascinating people.

Starting on April 15, and continuing for five Wednesday evenings at the Heartwood Center in Sandpoint, National Endowment for the Arts recipient and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award winner Jim Mitsui will fling wide open the doors of the writer’s life as he teaches his Creative Writing Workshop.

Whether fiction, non-fiction, autobiography or poetry, Mitsui’s sessions promise to take the craft to higher levels as the instructor leads the class through writing exercises, shares techniques, generates new ideas and — most importantly — creates a space where feedback is the path to better work.

Mitsui has nothing against writers’ groups that double as mutual admiration societies. It’s just that, as a published author who taught high school for 37 years before going on to teach creative writing and literature classes for Arizona State University and Southern New Hampshire University, he knows that writing benefits more from critique than its does from congratulation.

“The way I learned is that the quickest and best way to improve your writing is to get feedback,” said Mitsui, whose workshop participants bring samples of their work to pass out at each class. “I have my students read their work aloud and then sit back and listen — they need to hear what people have to say.

“That’s the big jump,” he continued. “You need to be willing to take criticism and not be offended.”

Mitsui often uses poetry as the medium of choice for passing along writing tips, primarily because it lets him cut to the chase more quickly than other forms.

“It’s more compressed,” he said. “I’m not trying to convert people into being poets, but the principles you learn in poetry can be used in any type of writing.”

It’s also an area of writing in which Mitsui is well versed, having published five books of poems and been named as a Poet-in-the-Schools by both the Arizona and Washington state arts commissions.

Brevity, however, can go too far, according to the author, who is no fan of what social media and instant messaging are doing to the written word.

“In this day and age of Facebook and Twitter, writing is getting lost,” Mitsui said. “Everything gets shortened and condensed, but, along the way, you lose so much emotion and feeling.

“I think there are still kids today who appreciate and enjoy writing,” he added. “The sad thing in a lot of schools is, with all the standardized testing, they start to throw out elective classes. And one of those is creative writing.”

Mitsui knows whereof he speaks, based on a teaching career that has spanned elementary students to high school and college classes to retirement communities. In every case, his tools include free-writing, poetry and journaling as means to a literary end. Keeping a journal, the writer shared, can be the plot where the seed of inspiration takes root.

“Writers use a journal like an artist uses a sketchbook,” he said. “It’s a tool for expanding ideas.”

Writing is meant to be shared, but getting the words down is a solo turn. For that reason, Mitsui’s workshop students gain a deeper appreciation for their solitary art by meeting others who ply the same creative course.

“A lot of writers work in isolation,” he said. “One way to expand your world is to meet other people who are interested in writing and share your work with them. I think it leads to a fuller life — it’s a whole, new world of learning.”

With works published in more than 120 literary magazines, anthologies and textbooks, Mitsui’s own words have found a home in print. Getting published, though, doesn’t have to be the goal for his workshop participants.

“Sometimes, the benefits might just be personal,” he said. “There is self-satisfaction in the act of creation, whether it’s a love letter, a nice card or even a well-written email.”

At just $40 in advance for the entire five-week course, or $10 per session, Mitsui’s workshop is anything but a get-rich-quick scheme for the writer.

“There aren’t many rich poets,” he quipped.

Workshop sessions will be held on Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. at the Heartwood Center, located at 615 Oak St., in Sandpoint. The first workshop session will be held on April 15, and the course will be limited to a maximum of 12 students. To register or for more information, call 623-512-3605 or email the instructor at: jim3wells@aol.com.