Category Archives: Fall 2020 Workshops

AFTERBURN A Workshop on the Art of Flash Revision Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa | November 15 to December 12, 2020

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Dandelion on fire with title After Burn Kathryn KulpaAFTERBURN
A Workshop on the Art of Flash Revision
Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa

3 weeks
November 15 to December 12, 2020
$175
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]

Register Now

Flash fiction may be born in a lightning flash of inspiration, but crafting works of perfect brevity requires time and patience: sometimes cutting, sometimes adding, and sometimes starting all over again. In very short stories, every word must work, and revision is as much a part of writing flash as it is of writing longer prose. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll practice the art of revision. Flash fiction writer and editor Kathryn Kulpa will share first drafts, revisions, and published versions of her own work and that of other flash and short fiction writers. Students will learn different revision strategies and how to apply them to their own work. We will create new flash together and work on taking it through several revisions, and students will also have the chance to bring existing stories to the workshop to revise with a goal of publication.

Kathryn Kulpa workshop leader photoKathryn Kulpa was a winner of the Vella Chapbook Contest for her flash chapbook Girls on Film (Paper Nautilus) and has had work selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction 2020 (Pelekinesis Press).  Her flash fiction is published or forthcoming in Jellyfish Review, Monkeybicycle, Smokelong Quarterly, and Wigleaf, and she serves as flash editor for Cleaver Magazine. Kathryn has been a visiting writer at Wheaton College and has led writing workshops at the University of Rhode Island, Stonecoast Writers Conference at the University of Southern Maine, Writefest in Houston, Texas, and at public libraries throughout Rhode Island.

 

 

Typewriter writing Cleaver Workshop and cleaver logo

TELLING TRUE STORIES, a Workshop in Creative Nonfiction, by Sydney Tammarine | December 7, 2020- January 9, 2021 SOLD OUT

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cover image telling true stories a lightbulb on a dark backgroundTELLING TRUE STORIES
A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction
Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine

5 weeks
December 7, 2020- January 9, 2021
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]
SOLD OUT

Register Now

Writer Dinty W. Moore says that creative nonfiction equals curiosity plus truth. CNF comes in a variety of forms: from expansive memoir to intimate personal essay to the lightbulb “eureka!” of flash. But in any form, the CNF writer is a guiding voice in the dark: a storyteller seeking truth, thinking alongside the reader toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.

In this class, we’ll practice the essay in its most dynamic form: a verb that means “to test; to practice; to taste; to try to do, accomplish, or make (anything difficult).” Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example essays and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback.

This workshop has weekly readings and writing assignments to inspire you—and deadlines to motivate you—but the work can be done at your own pace and on your own time. There are no required meetings, although we’ll hold optional Zoom write-ins and discussions for those who are interested. We welcome both new and experienced writers looking for motivation, structure, and enthusiastic feedback on their work.

Sydney TammarineSydney Tammarine’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, LIT, Pithead Chapel, The Missing Slate, and other journals. She is the co-translator of a book of poems, The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and teaches writing at Virginia Military Institute. She has led workshops at The Ohio State University, Hollins University, Otterbein University, and at high schools, including as Writer-in-Residence at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School. She serves as flash and creative nonfiction editor for Cleaver.

SYLLABUS

Topic One: Writing the Tough Stuff

In our first week together, we’ll explore: Why does the most powerful writing often come from loss, grief, or trauma? What value do the “tough stories” of our lives have to others? Why is nonfiction uniquely posed to connect us to others, and what value do the “tough stories” of our lives have to them? We’ll also practice strategies for writing our toughest material in an environment that’s safe and encouraging.

Topic Two: Finding Your Truth

Novelist Tim O’Brien often talks about the role of truth in his fiction: “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why a story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” In CNF, we have an obligation to truth that is greater than just getting the facts right. How do we write the story-truth, the happening-truth, as best we know it? Can any piece of writing be objectively true? We’ll talk about strategies for writing in the face of these questions, and also for finding what we think we can’t remember.

Topic Three: Hell is (Writing About) Other People

Writer Anne Lamott said, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” But that doesn’t always feel so easy, does it? This week, we’ll practice making characters in nonfiction—including yourself—feel real on the page, and discuss the ethics of writing about other people.

Topic Four: Finding Poetry in Prose

The Seneca Review describes the lyric essay as “[l]oyal to that original sense of essay as a test or a quest, an attempt at making sense,” but with prose that “might move by association, leaping from one path of thought to another by way of imagery or connotation, advancing by juxtaposition or sidewinding poetic logic.” This week, we’ll try out such poetic logic, experimenting with moves that can bring the music of poetry to our prose.

THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE DRAWER: Honing Critical Distance in First-Person Narratives, Masterclass by Cleaver Editor Lise Funderburg, October 11 to November 1, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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THE SHARPEST TOOLS IN THE DRAWER:
Honing Critical Distance in First-Person Narratives
A Masterclass by Cleaver Nonfiction Editor Lise Funderburg

Four Sundays, 12:00pm – 3:00 pm:  Oct 11, Oct 18, Oct 25, Nov 1, 2020
$175 Early Bird / $200 regular
Class limit: 10
Questions: [email protected]

SOLD OUT

Writing from personal experience is always a double-edged sword in Creative Nonfiction: on the one side, we have almost limitless access to material. On the other, familiarity often breeds blind spots, cheating the work of dimension, resonance, and narrative drive. Through close readings of exemplary work, craft essays, writing exercises, discussion, and peer review, we will build strategies and practices that elevate your personal essays and memoir projects. Expect to become a stronger writer, a better reader, and an enthusiastic reviser.

Lise Funderburg HeadshotLise Funderburg’s latest book is Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents, a collection of all-new work by twenty-five writers, which Publishers Weekly deemed a “sparkling anthology” in its starred review. Previous books include the memoir, Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home, and the recently reissued collection of oral histories, Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity. Her work has been published in the New York Times, TIME, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Nation, MORE, Chattahoochee Review, Oprah Magazine, and Prevention. Lise has been awarded residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, MacDowell, Thurber House, and Blue Mountain, among others, and she won a Nonfiction Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and teaches at the Paris Writers’ Workshop.

SYLLABUS:

Session 1: Filling the toolbox

Session 2: Experimenting with Form

Session 3: The Art of Revision

Session 4: Deep Dives: Close Looks at Student Work Samples (up to 5000 words)

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY II: A Workshop to Jumpstart Your Creativity, Taught by Tricia Park | Nov 7 to Dec 12, 2020

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EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY Part 2 of 2
A Workshop to Jumpstart Your Writing
open to all levels and genres
Parts 1 and 2 may be repeated or taken out of order
taught by Cleaver Editor Tricia Park

5 weeks
Nov 7, 14, 21, Dec 5, 12 (Note: No class Thanksgiving weekend, Nov 28)
5 Zoom classes, Saturdays 2-4 pm Eastern Time
$200
Class limit: 12
This class can be taken on its own or as a continuation of Part I
Questions: [email protected]

Register Now

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY is a five-week online generative writing course for writers of all levels and genres. In these days of uncertainty and rapid change, it’s difficult to know what to hang onto. And social distancing leaves us struggling to maintain our mental wellness during this undetermined period of isolation.

But what if we can use this time to develop a skill; start a new project; follow a passion?

What if this sudden surplus of time is an opportunity for experimentation?

What if we embrace our vulnerability and take a deep dive into the unknown?

What might we discover about ourselves?

For many of us, the challenge is not getting to the writing desk but knowing what to do with ourselves once we’re there.

What does it mean to develop a writing practice? How do we create momentum from where we are right now? What if destabilizing ourselves as writers could move us forward in our work if experimentation and play catapulted us into our best writing?

As a classically trained violinist, I spent years looking for the “correct” way, endlessly seeking the most efficient path, setting myself upright if I began to wobble. The truth of the matter is that all of us—writers, artists, musicians—enter into the creative process from a place of instability. Our objective should not be to straighten up and fly right, but to embrace that physics and allow our work into it.

What you’ll get from the classes:

  • Once a week, real-time meetings with your instructor and cohort.
  • Gently intriguing prompts to jumpstart your creativity.
  • Reading and discussion of texts by inspiring writers.
  • A safe and supportive environment to cultivate your writing.
  • Small, clearly defined weekly assignments to keep you motivated.
  • New writing that you can continue to nurture and grow at home.

 

Tricia Park Author PhotoTricia Park is a concert violinist and writer. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has appeared in concert on five continents. Tricia is the producer/host of a podcast called “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Tricia is a graduate of The Juilliard School and received an M.F.A. from the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Alyss, and F Newsmagazine. She has also been a finalist for contests in C&R Press and The Rumpus. Currently, she is a Lecturer and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago. Tricia has taught creative writing online and at the University of Iowa.

In this class, we won’t try to fix what isn’t broken. We’ll hold our vulnerability and begin creating from where we are. We’ll give ourselves permission to commence, no matter how fragile the surface under our feet feels. Together, we will enter and engage with the work as it begins to speak to us, and we’ll allow ourselves to follow that uncertainty and see where it takes us.

THE ART OF FLASH, Workshop in Fiction and Nonfiction, taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa | October 3-November 7, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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Neon Lightning Bolt

THE ART OF FLASH

A Workshop in Fiction and Nonfiction

Taught by Cleaver Flash Editor Kathryn Kulpa

5 weeks
October 3–November 7
$175 Early Bird before September 3, 2020
$200 Regular
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected] 

[Sold Out]

Flash is a genre defined by brevity: vivid emotions and images compressed into a compact form. We most often see flash fiction, but flash can also encompass prose poetry, micro memoir, lyric essays, and hybrid works.

In this class, we will take a close look at different styles and forms of flash fiction, as well as flash nonfiction, hybrid, and experimental works. Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example-works and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback, then will choose one story to revise for the final class.

This workshop has weekly deadlines and assignments to help motivate you to write, but the work can be done at your own pace and on your own time—there are no required meetings (although we may have an optional Zoom pop-up or two and bonus prompts for those who are interested). We welcome both new and experienced writers looking for motivation, structure, and constructive criticism.

Kathryn Kulpa was a winner of the Vella Chapbook Contest for her flash chapbook Girls on Film (Paper Nautilus) and has had work selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction 2020 (Pelekinesis Press).  Her flash fiction is published or forthcoming in Jellyfish Review, Monkeybicycle, Smokelong Quarterly, and Wigleaf, and she serves as flash editor for Cleaver Magazine. Kathryn has been a visiting writer at Wheaton College, and has led writing workshops at the University of Rhode Island, Stonecoast Writers Conference at the University of Southern Maine, Writefest in Houston, Texas, and at public libraries throughout Rhode Island.

SYLLABUS

Topic One: Time and Place

Time constraints in flash fiction—handling transitions—telling a larger story through a selected moment—zoom lens or wide angle?—creating a vivid setting in few words

Topic Two: Voice, Character, and Point of View

Choosing a lens—whose story?—first, second, and third-person—single or multiple points of view—speed dating: shorthand character reveals

Topic Three: Where Prose Meets Poetry

Borrowing poetic techniques to create brilliant flash—image is everything—white space and stories in stanzas—the right sound—the power of repetition

Topic Four: Flash Frontier: Experimental and Hybrid Forms

Prose poetry—lists, recipes, and want ads: hermit crab stories—lyric essays—ekphrastic flash—using found objects to tell a story

 

THE PROPULSIVE PICTURE, Image as an Engine in Poetry, a Workshop taught by Cleaver Poetry Editor Claire Oleson | September 19 to October 24, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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THE PROPULSIVE PICTURE
Image as an Engine in Poetry
Taught by Cleaver Poetry Editor Claire Oleson

5 weeks
September 19 to October 24, 2020
$ 150 Earlybird (before August 15)|$175 Regular
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]

 

In this course, we will explore how images can serve as the engine in a poem: driving the language as a plot might in a story or novel. We will work primarily on generating new work, encouraging participants to push their boundaries and hone their voice to create memorable and authentic pieces. The workshop model will facilitate constructive responses from both peers and the instructor. Particular attention will be placed on the visual life of the poetry we read and write.

We will read a few selections of poetry weekly that demonstrate the potential of images as communicative engines. The readings will be brief but rich, with the intent of inviting multiple re-readings, close readings, note-taking and flexibility for everyone’s lives and work. Supplemental reading will be available for those hungry for more plums from the proverbial icebox. Prompts will be provided inspired by the week’s reading, but will be designed more as springboards for beginning rather than hard-and-fast regulations. Participant work will be submitted weekly for peer and instructor review. One piece will be chosen by the student for revision for the final class. Optional Zoom conferences will be held to discuss the reading for those interested. We welcome both new and experienced writers looking for motivation, structure, and constructive criticism.

A final optional Zoom meeting will be held as a reading of our work.

[sold out]

SYLLABUS

1: Introductions: What is an image?

We will open with an investigation of how language can create images and what these images offer to poetic work. In this first week, we will focus on writing from the image out: beginning with a picture, and allowing it to jumpstart a poem.

2: Imagism and its Departures

We will discuss the movement of Imagism that emerged in the early 20th century. From an understanding of how images came to hold meaning in and of themselves, we will navigate writing pieces that showcase images as more than what they literally seem.

3: Form and Function

This module will invite an exploration of some selected poetic forms, drawing specific attention to how the “frame” of the poem itself contributes to, enhances, and communicates the images it may hold. We will write with consideration to form, but with the specific bounds and restrictions set by each writer as they desire.

4: Color Theories

This module will be dedicated to examining the role of color in poetry. How do blues and reds suggest temperatures? Can you tell the “heat” of a poem? What do noticeable color swatches or departures from the expected colors change a landscape? How can a color speak, hold water, and mean anything at all when its perceived without it actually being there? For our assignment this week, we will work on writing pieces that speak to color as mood, scene, an environment rather than as a breed of light alone.

5: The After-Image

In this final module, we will inspect what images linger with us after each piece and how our work can create memorable and unshakable pictures in a reader’s mind. This will also be the week for revision, encouraging everyone to push their boundaries and consider how their final piece’s build and end on picture.

New Modules posted on Mondays,
Pieces due by Friday, 11:59,
Feedback from All Due by Sunday, 11:59

Cleaver Poetry Reviews Editor Claire Oleson is a Brooklyn-based writer hailing from Grand Rapids Michigan. She’s a grad of Kenyon College, where she studied English and Creative Writing. Her work has been published by the University of Kentucky’s graduate literary journal Limestone, Siblíní Art and Literature journal, Newfound Journal, NEAT Magazine, Werkloos Magazine, and Bridge Eight Magazine, among others. She is also the 2019 winner of the Newfound Prose Prize and author of the chapbook Things From the Creek We Could Have Been. 

 

URBAN WILDLIFE: WRITING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, Co-taught by Lucy Spelman and Susan Tacent | September 12 to October 3, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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URBAN WILDLIFE: WRITING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
Co-taught by Lucy Spelman and Susan Tacent

4 Saturdays, taught online on Zoom
September 12, 19, 26, and October 3, 2020
1pm-3pm Eastern Time
Sold out
$250
Open to writers of all genres and all levels of experience
Class limit: 10

Writing about the environment, from a literary and scientific perspective.  Scientist Lucy Spelman and writer Susan Tacent designed this intensive workshop to provide writers with tools and strategies for taking environmental action. In our four weeks together we’ll unpack articles written by scientists and field experts in conjunction with literary works by Alomar, Bishop, Eggars, Erdrich, Kingsolver, LeGuin, Limón, Saunders, Szymborska, Van Doren, and others. Together we will examine how craft issues like voice, point of view, tone, pacing, and character development change as we bring the knowledge of scientists and field experts to bear on our writing. This hybrid workshop will meet on Zoom for discussions and use the text-only platform Canvas for constructive feedback on uploaded drafts. Writers interested in a particular creature will be encouraged to tailor their writing accordingly and will be assisted with locating the best scientific materials for that writing.

SYLLABUS

Week 1: Homo Sapiens Sapiens, Alpha Species

Approach, terms, and strategies in the scientific literature. Approach, terms, and strategies in literary texts. Writing from the personal. Revising with science in hand. Readings will include: Eggars, Limón, Van Doren, Szymborska.

Week 2: Heartbreak Hotel

Extinction. Small and large tragedies. The art of incorporating difficult truths in fiction and nonfiction. The art of choosing reliable scientific source material. Readings: Kingsolver, Macdonald, Saunders, LeGuin, McLarney.

Week 3:Building Walls

Planetary resources. The tactics of exclusion. Walls, roads, fences. Delectable trash, compost bins, vegetable gardens. Readings will include: Bishop, Charara, Szymborska, Jaeger, Kingsolver.

Week 4: Affordable Housing

Diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular—no matter the habits and rhythms, everything alive lives  somewhere. Detailing the requirements of habitat. Accessing science, scientists, and field experts beyond this workshop. Empowering informed action. Readings will include: al-Daas, Osama Alamar, LeGuin, Saunders.

Lucy Spelman bio picLucy Spelman is a board-certified zoo and wildlife veterinarian with degrees from Brown University and the University of California at Davis. During her tenure as the first woman and youngest person to head the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, she brought two giant pandas to the US from China and launched a major renovation plan. She worked as a consultant for Animal Planet before moving to central Africa to run the field program for the Gorilla Doctors. Inspired by the many connections between the arts and sciences, she began teaching biology to students at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010, and founded the non-profit, Creature Conserve in 2015. She is the author of over 40 scientific articles, the National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia, and The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes.

Susan tacent author photo

Susan Tacent’s work has been published in a variety of academic and literary journals including Dostoevsky Studies, Tin House Friday Fiction Online, Michigan Quarterly Review, DIAGRAM, and Cleaver. She’s taught literature and creative writing in classrooms from kindergarten to college. She facilitates an assisted living book club, six years strong now, where the participants’ collective age exceeds 900 years. She has worked on a variety of projects with Dr. Spelman for almost thirty years, since their friendship began.   Visit her website.

TELLING TRUE STORIES A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine | October 19–November 20, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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cover image telling true stories a lightbulb on a dark backgroundTELLING TRUE STORIES
A Workshop in Creative Nonfiction
Taught by Cleaver Editor Sydney Tammarine

5 weeks
October 19–November 20
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]

Writer Dinty W. Moore says that creative nonfiction equals curiosity plus truth. CNF comes in a variety of forms: from expansive memoir to intimate personal essay to the lightbulb “eureka!” of flash. But in any form, the CNF writer is a guiding voice in the dark: a storyteller seeking truth, thinking alongside the reader toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.

In this class, we’ll practice the essay in its most dynamic form: a verb that means “to test; to practice; to taste; to try to do, accomplish, or make (anything difficult).” Each week, we will read and discuss one or more example essays and generate new work from prompts. Students will share their work for peer and instructor feedback.

This workshop has weekly readings and writing assignments to inspire you—and deadlines to motivate you—but the work can be done at your own pace and on your own time. There are no required meetings, although we’ll hold optional Zoom write-ins and discussions for those who are interested. We welcome both new and experienced writers looking for motivation, structure, and enthusiastic feedback on their work.

Sydney Tammarine’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, LIT, Pithead Chapel, The Missing Slate, and other journals. She is the co-translator of a book of poems, The Most Beautiful Cemetery in Chile. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and teaches writing at Virginia Military Institute. She has led workshops at The Ohio State University, Hollins University, Otterbein University, and at high schools, including as Writer-in-Residence at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School. She serves as flash and creative nonfiction editor for Cleaver.

SYLLABUS

Topic One: Writing the Tough Stuff

In our first week together, we’ll explore: Why does the most powerful writing often come from loss, grief, or trauma? What value do the “tough stories” of our lives have to others? Why is nonfiction uniquely posed to connect us to others, and what value do the “tough stories” of our lives have to them? We’ll also practice strategies for writing our toughest material in an environment that’s safe and encouraging.

Topic Two: Finding Your Truth

Novelist Tim O’Brien often talks about the role of truth in his fiction: “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why a story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” In CNF, we have an obligation to truth that is greater than just getting the facts right. How do we write the story-truth, the happening-truth, as best we know it? Can any piece of writing be objectively true? We’ll talk about strategies for writing in the face of these questions, and also for finding what we think we can’t remember.

Topic Three: Hell is (Writing About) Other People

Writer Anne Lamott said, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” But that doesn’t always feel so easy, does it? This week, we’ll practice making characters in nonfiction—including yourself—feel real on the page, and discuss the ethics of writing about other people.

Topic Four: Finding Poetry in Prose

The Seneca Review describes the lyric essay as “[l]oyal to that original sense of essay as a test or a quest, an attempt at making sense,” but with prose that “might move by association, leaping from one path of thought to another by way of imagery or connotation, advancing by juxtaposition or sidewinding poetic logic.” This week, we’ll try out such poetic logic, experimenting with moves that can bring the music of poetry to our prose.

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, a Workshop to Jumpstart Your Writing, taught by Tricia Park | September 19 to October 17, 2020 [SOLD OUT]

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A road

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY, Part 1 of Two
A Workshop to Jumpstart Your Writing
open to all levels and genres
Parts 1 and 2 may be repeated or taken out of order
taught by Cleaver Editor Tricia Park

5 weeks
Sept 19, 26, Oct 3, 10, 17.
5 Zoom classes, Saturdays 2-4 pm Eastern Time
$200
Class limit: 12
Questions: [email protected]

[This session is sold out. Consider Session II, starting Nov 7. Sessions can be repeated and can be taken out of sequence.]

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY is a five-week online generative writing course for writers of all levels and genres. In these days of uncertainty and rapid change, it’s difficult to know what to hang onto. And social distancing leaves us struggling to maintain our mental wellness during this undetermined period of isolation.

But what if we can use this time to develop a skill; start a new project; follow a passion?

What if this sudden surplus of time is an opportunity for experimentation?

What if we embrace our vulnerability and take a deep dive into the unknown?

What might we discover about ourselves?

For many of us, the challenge is not getting to the writing desk but knowing what to do with ourselves once we’re there.

What does it mean to develop a writing practice? How do we create momentum from where we are right now? What if destabilizing ourselves as writers could move us forward in our work, if experimentation and play catapulted us into our best writing?

As a classically trained violinist, I spent years looking for the “correct” way, endlessly seeking the most efficient path, setting myself upright if I began to wobble. The truth of the matter is that all of us—writers, artists, musicians—enter into the creative process from a place of instability. Our objective should not be to straighten up and fly right, but to embrace that physics and allow our work into it.

Syllabus:

Week One: Freewriting and Playfulness

Elizabeth Gilbert writes, “I made a decision long ago that if I want creativity in my life—and I do—then I will have to make space for fear, too.” We’ll find ways to move through resistance as we approach our writing with playfulness and curiosity. We’ll dive into freewriting and whimsical exercises/prompts.

Week Two: Using our Senses 

Maya Angelou reminds us that “once you appreciate…one of your senses, your sense of hearing, then you begin to respect the sense of seeing and touching and tasting, you learn to respect all the senses.” Sensory details infuse our writing with richness and dimension. We’ll respond to prompts that encourage us to take in our surroundings and connect with our senses.

Week Three: Walking Down Memory Lane

Lois Lowry says, “I’ve always been fascinated by memory and dreams because they are both completely our own. No one else has the same memories. No one has the same dreams.” We’ll delve into our unique memory banks to mine our past and present, generating writing that is bound to surprise us.

Week Four: Following our Obsessions

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “a man is what he thinks about all day long.” In this week’s class, we’ll discover ways to follow our obsessions and redirect our mind’s tendencies to fuel our writing.

Week Five : “Gaming” our Writing 

In the last class we will explore ways we can “game” our writing, approaching it obliquely with a light-hearted touch. We’ll see how prioritizing “play” through constraints and rules can, paradoxically, free up our writing.

What you’ll get from the classes:

  • Once a week, real-time meetings with your instructor and cohort.
  • Gently intriguing prompts to jump start your creativity.
  • Reading and discussion of texts by inspiring writers.
  • A safe and supportive environment to cultivate your writing.
  • Small, clearly defined weekly assignments to keep you motivated.
  • New writing that you can continue to nurture and grow at home.

 

Tricia Park Author PhotoTricia Park is a concert violinist and writer. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has appeared in concert on five continents. Tricia is the producer/host of a podcast called “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Tricia is a graduate of The Juilliard School and received an M.F.A. from the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Alyss, and F Newsmagazine. She has also been a finalist for contests in C&R Press and The Rumpus. Currently, she is a Lecturer and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago. Tricia has taught creative writing online and at the University of Iowa.

In this class, we won’t try to fix what isn’t broken. We’ll hold our vulnerability and begin creating from where we are. We’ll give ourselves permission to commence, no matter how fragile the surface under our feet feels. Together, we will enter and engage with the work as it begins to speak to us, and we’ll allow ourselves to follow that uncertainty and see where it takes us.