Complete Workshop Philosophies &
Course Descriptions Forthcoming
Workshops
Elisa Gabbert
How to Be Interesting (to Ourselves and Each Other)
Part of the project of psychoanalysis is finding ways to “redescribe” our feelings and experiences so that we can live with them. In this light, we don’t need to solve all our problems (they may not be solvable), as long as we can make our problems interesting. Writing nonfiction can work in a similar way, giving us creative tools and processes to make the messy, painful, even boring stuff that fills our lives into thoughtful, artful texts: objects of beauty, fascination, and mystery that can be shared and interpreted. In this workshop, we’ll explore a range of strategies to make writing personal essays or memoir richer and more interesting both to ourselves and to readers, including decisions of form and structure, tone and mood, theme and motif, point of view, trust and authority, and incorporation of outside material or research.
We’ll begin each discussion by simply describing the work: What is it, and what is it trying to do? What is it about, on a literal level and on other, subtextual or extra-textual levels? What works or traditions is the piece in conversation or in lineage with? This will serve as our way in to think about the piece’s possibilities, and the author’s opportunities for revision.
I hope to build this class around attentive, careful readings of each other’s work, focused more on observation than evaluation (though of course we should also share enthusiasms and confusions). Come to each session prepared to talk about the assigned pieces at length, a good writing skill in its own right. I trust that this goes without saying, but regardless: Be respectful of your classmates, their differences in perspective and experience, and the vulnerable position of sharing unfinished work, especially nonfiction which is often personal in nature. Kindness and support are not in opposition to challenge and growth, or to healthy disagreement. Before sharing an opinion or impression, consider how personal bias might inform it, and whether you’re responding to the work on its own terms. When accepting critique, keep an open mind and professional spirit, knowing that not all feedback will be helpful, a natural consequence of being read.
Safia Elhillo
Course Description forthcoming
Stephen Amidon
Course Description forthcoming
Classes
Maggie Sheffer
Structure and Play in Fiction
While the concept of the unreliable narrator in fiction is commonly known,the unreliable speaker is a far less discussed concept. Utilizing this mode enables us to write towards akind of narrative slipperiness, allowing poems to occupy complex spaces of memory, creating alternate,winding pathways through the poem's narrative. In this class, we will be exploring the techniques thatenable this unreliability—from surrealism to self-erasure—to create poetic speakers who lie,misremember, redirect, and rewrite their stories, as well as the kinds of narrative this approach best serves.
John Cotter
Course Description forthcoming
Janan Alexandra
Course Description forthcoming