2013 PPWC Bios - Kathryn Eastburn

Kathryn Eastburn

Kathryn Eastburn was one of our wonderful speakers this past Saturday at the Write Your Heart Out event. She used to be a journalist, and was the co-founder and editor of the Colorado Springs Independent, as well as a staff writer, for thirteen years until 2006. Her work with the Independent earned her many awards, including two PASS awards; multiple awards from NEWA, such as Best Feature Writing and Best Education Writing; and she received an honorary award from American Women in Radio and Television for outstanding achievement in media.

Her articles were not limited to the Independent; she was published in the Denver Post, Saveur and Texas Highways, as well as many others.

These days, Kathryn has turned more to teaching and writing literary non-fiction and memoir. She teaches at Colorado College and Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and has a weekly personal column, "The Middle Distance," at KRCC-FM 91.5, Colorado Springs, at 1 PM every Saturday. The show is podcast every Friday.

Her two non-fiction books are Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns and Murder and A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground. She also had a piece featured in Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing.

Kathryn will be teaching a workshop in Colorado Springs for the Lighthouse Writers Workshop starting March 21, 2013, 6:30 to 8:30 PM. It will be located at the Tim Gill Center for Public-Media, 315 E. Costilla St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Seating is limited, so you must RSVP. 

Description of the event from the Lighthouse Writers Workshop website:

8 Week: Reckoning with Memoir

Reckoning with memoir, we must ask and resolve a number of difficult questions. In this class we will consider: How do we tell our true-life stories without intruding unnecessarily in the lives of others? How do we write about those we love, including the difficult ones, with honesty and respect? How do we determine which aspects of our lives to explore in memoir? How do we establish our reliability as narrator of our own lives? How deep are we willing to go? We'll explore these and other reckonings through shared readings, discussion of exemplary works, in-class writing exercises, and focused peer and instructor critiques of student work.

The workshop is $285 for members, $315 for non-members.

You can find Kathryn at her website: www.kathryneastburn.com and at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in April!

About the Writer:  Shannon Lawrence is a mom of two, a freelance writer and aspiring novelist.  She lives in Colorado Springs and is inspired by the beauty of Pikes Peak and the Rockies.  After years of letting her writing fall by the wayside, she has recently thrown herself back into it.  Her main focus is fantasy and horror and she has just finished a Young Adult Fantasy novel.  She has a flash fiction piece featured in the anthology Sunday Snaps: The Stories, due out in late February 2013.  She has also discovered a love of photography and enjoys photographing the breathtaking Colorado scenery and wildlife, as well as her children.  She blogs about reading, writing and photography at www.thewarriormuse.com.