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Tayari's Blog: Summer Report: VONA

Posted by TayariJones on August 28, 2007 07:06 AM
Filed under Guest Bloggers

Two members of our blog community, LeConte Dill and Teri Elam, have a summer ritual-- taking part in the Voices of Our Nation summer writing Workshops. VONA is the only multi-genre workshop in the country exclusively for writers-of-color. This year’s faculty included Junot Diaz, ZZ Packer, Willie Perdomo, Chris Abani, David Mura, Elmaz Abinader and Suheir Hammad.

Below you'll find a conversation about thier experiences. But before, let me tell you a little bit about them.

LeConté Dill is a 29-year-old with roots in South Central Los Angeles, branches in Atlanta, and leaves now blossoming in the San Francisco Bay Area. A public health scholactivist by day, LeConté has been writing poetry and fiction since elementary school. Her work has been featured in ProperGanda magazine, CityFlight newsmagazine, and others.LeConté is passionate about the power of writing for healing, empowerment, and social justice. She credits her mom, sister, and Nanas for fueling her creative endeavors.

Teri Elam-Blanchard is an Atlanta resident whose poetry has been published most recently in the Cave Canem anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. She is also a poetographer whose photos have been featured in Chops, a book of poetry by Cherryl Floyd-Miller that has become part of the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Teri, an HRD Consultant and Corporate Coach, is currently working on her M.Ed. at UGA as well as her first collection of poems that VONA has helped bring to life, Southern Black Female.

Click here to read "VONA has Saved My Life"