WORKSHOPS
A HYBRID WORKSHOP
Louise Bourgeois, Femme Maison
‘“Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, ‘I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.’”
—Lewis Carroll (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
A chimera is a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve. In this workshop we will consider writing that has the head of one and the body of another. We will experiment with how writing can swell and go frail, grow wooly and then grow smooth. We will attempt writings who forget themselves midway, who speak multiple languages, and who possess kaleidoscopic vision. Open to all levels. Open to anyone who wishes to make the impossible possible.
Wednesdays / 9:45-12:30 / October 23, 30, November 6, 13, 20
Weekly reading and writing assignments will guide you. All levels welcome.
The workshop is $350, FULL payment is required to hold your spot.
Suggested reading list. All books will be available at AVID BOOKSHOP:
Ocean Vuong: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Tina Chang: Hybrida
Marguerite Duras: Me & Other Writing
Rachel Zucker: SoundMachine
Adrienne Kennedy: People Who Led to My Plays
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
Sabrina has created a physical/mental/emotional space in that luminous realm between enCouragement and flight. Enter and you will write your way into the dark wood. Stay and she will show you the flowers that mark the way back.
- Michelle Castleberry is the author of Dissecting the Angel and Other Poems.
CAN'T TAKE A WORKSHOP?
No problem. Inquire about my 6-week WRITING PROMPT PACKAGE. $150 (with no feedback) and $350 (with feedback). Prompts are sent out every Monday. You can choose any 6 Mondays that best fit your schedule. All prompt packages are individually designed with the writer in mind.
THE SPACE
Private Lessons & Manuscript Consultation
Available Upon Request. Inquire here.
RECENT (PAST) WORKSHOPS
WRITING & FAILURE: ON DISAPPOINTMENTS, SHAME, MAKING MISTAKES, and BEING LOST.
In this workshop we will ruin everything. We will fall down the well, eat the poisonous berries, and take unforgivable risks. We will say things we never meant to say, destroy the livingroom, write the worst thing, break all the glass, hurt everybody’s feelings, get very lost, and then find ourselves disheveled in a crowd of strangers.
This workshop is a multi-genre workshop. All forms are welcome (poetry, prose, hybrid, memoir, essay, flash, and fragment).
Wednesdays / January 23, 30 / February 6, 13, 20 / 9:45-12:45
Weekly reading and writing assignments will guide you. All levels welcome.
Reading Assignments TBA
The workshop is $315, FULL payment is required to hold your spot. Register HERE and reserve your space right away.
A Journaling WoRKSHOP
In this 5 week workshop we will keep (and share) a daily journal. We will study the composition of the entry and its worth, the strangeness and beauty of raw material, and the relationship between confession and invention. To keep us company we will read Carmen Gimenez Smith's BRING DOWN THE LITTLE BIRDS, Lynda Barry's SYLLABUS, Robert Wasler's A SCHOOLBOY'S DIARY, Wayne Koestenbaum's THE PINK TRANCE NOTEBOOKS, and Roland Barthes' MOURNING DIARY.
All books are available at AVID BOOKSHOP.
Each week participants will bring in 5-7 entries to share.
Note: entries can be dreams, grocery lists, notes towards a novel, letters to nobody, a list of current events, sobbings, pieces of poems, fictions or chicken scratch. Which is to say, this workshop is (as always) a multi-genre workshop. All forms are welcome (poetry, prose, hybrid, memoir, essay, flash, fragment, and everything in between).
Wednesdays/ August 15, 22, 29 / September 5, 12 / 9:45-12:45
Weekly reading and writing assignments will guide you. All levels welcome.
The workshop is $315, FULL payment is required to hold your spot. Register HERE and reserve your space right away.
workshop is limited to 8 participants
Five ForMs In Five Weeks
In this five week workshop participants will explore forms ranging from the sonnet to the miniature, the letter to the villanelle, the sestina to the "frail" essay. We will study how contemporary writers crack traditional forms open and use these forms' insides to thicken their own voices (and present day concerns) with echoes of the past. Each week participants will write in a new form.
Wednesdays / April 11, 18, 25 / May 2, 9 /9:45-12:45
Weekly reading and writing assignments will guide you. All levels welcome.
This workshop is $315. FULL payment is required to hold your spot. Register HERE and reserve your space right away.
Recommended readings:
A FORMAL FEELING COMES: POEMS IN FORM BY CONTEMPORARY WOMEN (Edited by Annie Finch).
Lucie Brock-Broido's THE MASTER LETTERS
Maurice Manning's LAWRENCE BOOTH'S BOOK OF VISIONS
All books are available at AVID BOOKSHOP