About

In this workshop you will examine how humor writers use incidents from their lives to turn the painful, the absurd, the odd, the embarrassing, the disconcertingly memorable…. into humor. Then, to follow James Thurber’s adage “Humor is chaos remembered in tranquility” we will sift through our lives to find those stories, anecdotes and incidents to guild with humor. We will, examining other humor-writers’ works, look at structure (essay or story) as a means to convey humor. 

Bob Balmer's first humorous essay was published in the Oregonian in 1992.  His work has appeared in The Smithsonian, The Oregonian, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Weekly, Golf Illustrated, ZYZZYVA, 

Oregon Coast Magazine, Golf Weekly, The Eugene Weekly, The Guide and Willamette Week.  It has aired on the radio shows The Savvy Traveler and MarketPlace as well as on Oregon Public Radio and Television.  

He has an MFA in creative writing from Portland State University, and he attended the Iowa Summer Writing Workshop and the Tin House Summer Writing Workshop at Reed College.  He recently returned from taking Improv and sketch writing classes at Second City Comedy in Chicago.  He has led humor writing workshops at Write in the Harbor, Portland Storytellers Guild, The Oregon Writers Colony, Sitka Center for the Arts and Ecology, The Write on the Sound Conference, The Hoffman Center for the Arts, Mary's Woods Retirement Center, The Oregon Council Teachers of English student writing Festival

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