Oxford Writes Workshop Set for April 2

Photo courtesy Facebook / Oxford Writes

Publisher and author Neil White, author Julie Cantrell, and songwriter Jim Weatherly are headliners for the first Oxford Writes workshop on Saturday, April 2.

The workshop, to be held at the Orchard in Oxford at 295 Highway 7 North, is free for participants and is a part of the mission of Oxford Writes.

“Oxford Writes is a mentoring and development venture for aspiring or published writers to interact with others to improve their own skills by learning and sharing their works and ideas,” said Jeff Roberson, founder and director of Oxford Writes. “The most important aspect is that we want people of all levels of writing to be a part of this.”

The workshop is intended for anyone interested in writing, no matter the stage participants currently view their level of proficiency. It is for ages 18 and older. Activities begin with a mix and mingle session at 8:30 a.m., followed by opening remarks at 9 a.m. The sessions move on throughout the day with lunch provided.

There will be a session for participants on blogging, online writing, and social media, and another session on feature writing, magazine writing, and sports writing.

Cantrell will focus on fiction, White will speak about non-fiction, and Weatherly will have a question and answer session on songwriting.

For complete information go to OxfordWrites.com. Please register by Wednesday, March 30. The workshop is limited to 60.

Here are the main presenters for the day’s event.

Neil White signs the right of his book “In the Sanctuary of Outcasts” to producer Stratton Leopold in Oxford, Mississippi.

Neil White operates a publishing company, writes plays and essays, and teaches memoir writing. His memoir, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, is about the year he lived with the last victims of leprosy in the continental United States. Barnes & Noble honored White as one of the top three emerging nonfiction authors in America through their “Discover Great New Writers” program.​
 

Julie Cantrell, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, is the author of two children’s books as well as Into the Free, which received Christy Awards for Best Debut Novel and Book of the Year 2013 as well as the Mississippi Library Association’s Fiction Award.

Julie Cantrell

Cantrell’s sophomore novel, When Mountains Move, is the sequel. Since its release in 2013, it has been named a 2013 Best Read by LifeWay, and won the 2014 Carol Award for Historical Fiction. The Feathered Bone, Cantrell’s third novel, was released in January.​

Jim Weatherly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in 2014, the highest honor a songwriter can receive. Jim was an All-SEC quarterback at the University of Mississippi.

Jim Weatherly. Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Sports Archive

Jim’s most recognizable songs were recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips, including “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Jim was ASCAP’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 1974 and was later inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.

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