Where Poetry Can Come From and Where It Can Go, Bill Wright

This workshop has two parts. First, we will talk about and practice the generation of poems. Participants will discuss where their poems come from, whether from experience, inspiration, occasion, exercises, or collaboration. We will then practice generating poems in the round using the ideas of play and titles. Second, we will talk about and practice collecting poems together for public presentation, whether in public readings or traditional publication. Workshop participants will gather poems together with an eye toward the larger argument or experience of the collection. We will also identify locations for publication, self-publishing, and public readings for individual workshop participants and for the group. Feel free to bring drafts, plans, and questions.

 

This is Really Happening, Craig Childs 

Today we will be writing in the present, actively engaging with scene, putting down words like they are made of fire. In this workshop we will be paying attention to the immediate narrative, the one happening right in front of us. Come prepared to scribble and write.

 

Writing As Play, Claire Boyles

Writing can be serious business—hard work of the mind and the heart—and many writers feel a sense of urgency to get their words out of their heads and onto the page. Sometimes, though, all that serious effort can keep us from accessing our most creative, bright, and original ideas. Whatever genre you work in, whatever role writing has in your life, the writing games in this workshop will activate your imagination, inspire new approaches to process, and highlight the joy of creating and sharing work in community.

 

Meet Me at the Corner of Memoir and Verse, Kiersten Bridger

Hot take: Poets write the best memoirs. While truth may be stranger than fiction, poets know how to link facts with style, reflection and panache. The poetic toolkit is perfect for sussing out extended metaphor, controlling rhythm, and tapping into the emotional core of a reader. Together we’ll dive into some fine examples. We’ll follow with close reading, discussion, and a generative writing prompt. Looking forward to seeing you all!

 

Joy is the River to Run: How to Write Stories That Carry Us to Higher Ground, Amy Irvine

Stories--the creation and transmission of them--is as essential to our beings as water. The proof: across the world, throughout history, great stories--along with great acts of humanity and hope--have emerged from the darkest of times. The trick is to find the story that not only uplifts the reader but also buoys the writer. We'll share and be inspired by examples of joy as resistance in all genres of writing. Using generative prompts and practices, we'll learn to cultivate our own unique sense of delight and wonder on the page, and in our own writing process. We will learn to stay afloat by generating what, in the words of Audre Lorde, "gives us the energy for change." We'll learn to challenge our own assumptions about where a story is headed. We'll begin to imagine, “How might this end well?”

 

The Alchemy of Character: How to Bring Imaginary People to Life, Laura Resau

One of the greatest joys of reading is connecting with characters who feel alive. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore ways to captivate readers by making our fictional characters leap off the page. We’ll do short, fun, character-focused writing activities, touching on imagery and multi-sensory details, conscious desires and unconscious needs, voice and dialogue, strengths and vulnerabilities, agency and choice, interiority and backstory, and more. We’ll also discuss how to artfully interweave character with setting and themes, while tying internal arcs to external plot. You’ll gain new tools for creating complex, nuanced, and memorable characters that your readers will love to root for (or against!) We’ll share our discoveries in groups, and you’ll leave the workshop feeling energized and inspired to breathe new life into your characters.

 

Rhythm, Poetry and Wild Animal Wisdom with Wendy Videlock 

How does a raven tilt his head just before flight? How does a deer pause, listening with her whole body? What does a quail have to teach us?  Which animals speak to you and capture your unique imagination?  In this workshop you’ll discover three (random) wild animals that can serve as a guide in your writing practice. These animals will show you what you didn’t know about rhythm, about yourself and about language.  These animal guides will enter your consciousness and animate your poems. We will explore how animals move without excess gesture—and how poems, too, thrive on economy. A line should spring like a fox—alert, exact, and purposeful. We will explore how metaphor excites our senses and arises from the soft animal body. Wendy emphasizes craft alongside wonder. By the end of this workshop, participants will leave with drafts in hand and with a sense of poetry is an ancient practice arising from rhythm, attentiveness and the natural world.  

 

Micro-Memoir, Emily Sinclair

Micro-memoir: Looks like the love child of a poem and a short story. Feels like a spring breeze, sounds like a jazz riff. Leaves behind an odor of cinnamon and dreams. It asks who you are but answers a different question. It tells the story of a moment, what was found, what was lost, and what never was. And then it gallops off, leaves you staring at the hills, wanting more.

In this 90 minute class, we’ll explore working in very short forms, with special attention to engaging the mystery of what arises when we write. Writers will leave our class with a sense of delight and possibility. I’ll bring some readings; you bring your favorite writing technology and a sense of curiosity.

 

Wandering & Wondering: Perception & Place in Fiction, Shelley Read

How can you most authentically collect and express essential details of place, and how can this practice anchor your fiction in new ways? This workshop examines place as a rich tapestry of historical, cultural, personal, and sensory particulars that can deeply enhance your stories. Join bestselling author Shelley Read as she shares all she's learned about the power of place-based writing, why it's much more than mere setting, and why readers crave it.