Invite Ron to Read, Talk, or Workshop!

Yes! I'd be happy to visit with you and your friends or your school or organization. Formal or informal, for large groups or small, I can read from one of my books or talk about the writing and publishing scene or conduct a workshop about some aspect of writing or reading.

I bring 21 years of experience as a professor of writing and literature and administrator of writing programs--experience that has put me in front of a broad array of listeners and participants, from Rotarians to middle schoolers.

Some topics for workshops or discussions:

• Writers and rejection: how do writers get published without losing heart?
• Agents, publishing and the bestseller syndrome: why American publishers are like toy manufacturers
• Has the computer killed the book?
• Writing the Memoir: How is Nonfiction Different From Fiction?
• Desktop publishing and self publishing: is this a revolution?
• The writer and the web: what writers need to know about technology today
• Creating characters that readers care about.
• What is the engine that makes a story run?
• Punctuation and usage that every writer can use.
• Making Better Dialogue in Your Stories

If you are a house rehabber, a do-it-yourselfer, a preservationist, and/or a fan of old houses, I offer an array of talks and workshops from the perspective of my work as a renovator. I am a licensed house inspector in Maryland and have written for such magazines as Victorian Homes and This Old House. For more about me and old houses, go to House Love.

• 10 tips: How to Stay Together When Your House is Torn Apart
• 5 keys to success in home renovation that apply to all undertakings in life.
• 7 things every home owner should know about his/her house.
• Should everybody try a little DIY?
• How can renovation save money and reduce your carbon footprint?
• Why are old houses good investments? 
• When might an old house not be worth the work?
• How can a couple cope with renovation in their home?
• What do you learn about love when you renovate with a prospective partner?

Let's talk about what you have in mind: email ron

Here's my academic bio: Ron Tanner earned his B.A. in English with Honors in Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and his Ph.D. in American Literature and Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was named a University Fellow, the university's highest honor.

He joined the faculty of Loyola University-Maryland in 1990 and served as the 3-term chair of Loyola University's Writing Department, leading the department through its growth first as a Writing and Media department and then a Communication Department, where he helped developed one of the most extensive undergraduate writing curriculums in nation. His administrative experience included program reviews,, strategic planning, and curricular assessment.

As a two-term president of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, which serves over 30,000 writers and 500 writing programs worldwide, he was instrumental in forging a new strategic plan to address twenty-first century concerns.

In 2008, Ron won a grant from the National Park Service to establish the Marshall Island Story Project to preserve the oral story culture of the Marshall Islands. Ron taught Marshallese college students how to build websites and then interview Marshallese elders to capture and translate their stories for publication on the Mistories website.

Ron has been an avid advocate of educational innovation, most recently promoting technology in writing classes. At Loyola University, he has been a leader in the development of new technology-rich coures, such as "Writing for the Web." When not teaching and writing, he runs Wordrocket.org, a small digital design and communication company that takes on multi-media projects of interest.

Here's my creative bio: Ron Tanner’s awards for writing include a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award, a Best of the Web Award, and many others. He has won fellowships from the Copernicus Society, Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Maryland Arts Council, to name a few, and his stories and essays have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including The Iowa Review, West Branch, and the Massachusetts Review.

His first collection of stories, A Bed of Nails, won both the G.S. Sharat Chandra award and the Towson Prize for Literature. His illustrated novel, Kiss Me Stranger, is just out from IG Publishing. He teaches writing at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland, and directs the Marshall Islands Story Project (mistories.org).

He and his wife, Jill, live in a former fraternity house that they saved from ruin and renovated to its former Victorian glory. The house was featured in This Old House magazine. Ron has written about this adventure in his latest book, From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story, forthcoming from Academy Chicago Publishing. See more at Houselove.org.

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