How to Make Luck: Writing in Praise of the Ordinary with Lauren Camp (Registration Closed) 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
With so many things to worry over, we need to keep finding joy and celebrating gratitude. This feel-good workshop will help you write in praise of small beauties, large events, or anything in between. Learn how to move beyond the obvious like and love into the deeper and more magnificent why. We will map at least one wonderfully ordinary element of our lives, lifting the subject up and enriching it with the finest elements of craft and wild attention.
How Craft Functions in Writing about Addiction with Eleanor Kedney (In-person. Capacity: 15) 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Every subject has been written about. It’s the craft that makes the piece moving to a reader and stand out from other writing on the same subject. Take for example the subject of addiction. Why is Charlie Smith’s poem “Heroin” so unforgettable?
In our one hour together, we will look closely at the narrative techniques Charlie Smith used to write “Heroin.” If possible, please read the poem prior to the workshop (Heroin and Other Poems, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10110, www.norton.com). I will also read selected passages from T.C. Jones’ prose piece “Shooting Up” to further illustrate an effective use of a first-person narrator (The Fourth River 16, Spring 2019, Words Without Walls 10th Anniversary print issue, www.thefourthriver.com).
Please bring a poem or story you’ve written. Time permitting, you will examine how Smith’s technique may be applied to your work. The session will be open to discussion and questions. The workshop is designed to get writers thinking about their process and the craft elements currently in their toolkit. Writers will leave with a strategy that may be used to both revise and write new work. Registration extended! Register Here
Collecting, Collaging, Writing with Susan Briante (Registration Closed) 1:45pm – 2:45pm
How do poems get written? Where does that flash inspiration come from? In this one-hour workshop, we will consider how to make poetry from the language and images of our contemporary life. We will look at the examples and practices of contemporary poets who use outside texts, documents and images in their writing in order to consider how a practice of collecting and collaging can be part of our creative process. We’ll also work to create our own archive of inspiration.
Please come to class with scissors, paper, and clear tape (or glue stick) as well as at least three “documents” (images, texts, maps, newspaper articles, previous published poems, essays, stories, excerpts, photographs, scribbled notes, drawings, letters, spreadsheets). Your texts can be related and organized around a research interest or simply a collection of texts and/or images that catch your eye. You may also want to have with you an old magazine or other text you might be willing to cut up during class.