Chris Abani is the author of, most recently, “Song for Night,” a novella about a child soldier in Africa. The Los Angeles Times called Abani’s novel “Graceland,” the story of a Nigerian Elvis impersonator, one of the best books of 2002. Other books include “The Virgin of Flames,” “Becoming Abigail,” and “Hands Washing Water.”
Chris Abani’s Class Description
This workshop will explore layering in fiction to see where thematic issues connect with narrative and where the linear narrative can be interrupted to apply the notion of the lyric dip. We will explore the line where epic concerns intersect with the personal narrative, discuss questions of morality, fight over the idea of the compassionate imagination, and question deep song. These discussions are meant to help each writer uncover the heart of their own aesthetic, to get a handle on it. Register
Denise Chávez is widely regarded as one of the leading playwrights and novelists of the southwestern United States. She is also the Artistic Director of the Crossing Borders Festival in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her novels include “The Last of the Menu Girls,” “Face of an Angel,” and “Loving Pedro Infante.”
Denise Chávez’s Class Description
Chávez will lead participants in an exploration of the meaning of family. Who is your tribe? What contracts do we have with them? And how do these contracts—implicit, unspoken, spoken—impact our lives? In a word, this workshop is about truth. Who is your least favorite relative? What are your family mythologies? What are the major events in your family’s life? Who gave you birth? And where have you gone from there? As Novalis, the French writer and philospher said, “Where are we going…always home…” Bring: a dictionary, a thesaurus, a piece of writing to share, a natural object that has significance to you, a family memento, an unlined artists’ sketch pad or notebook, and your journal. Register
Martín Espada is the author of sixteen books, including two recent collections of poems: “Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas,” and “La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig.” He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two NEA Fellowships. Poems have appeared in many periodicals, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Nation.
Martín Espada's Class Description:
This is a generative workshop, rather than a workshop for the critique of poems. Participants generate new work based on the distribution and discussion of poems by Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Claribel Alegría, William Carlos Williams, Edgar Lee Masters, Wilfred Owen and Grace Paley, among others. We will write poems of unheeded prophecy, argue in the voices of the dead, wander in the company of our ancestors through the territory of our own names, curse our enemies (real or imagined), and apologize for things we’re secretly glad we did. Workshop participants write on the spot—or beneath a favorite tree--then share their work, reading aloud to the group (for thunderous applause only). The objective is the creation of a new poem every day, channeling the “barbaric yawp” within. Register
Dana Levin’s first book, “In the Surgical Theatre,” was published by American Poetry Review in 1999; Copper Canyon Press brought out her second book, “Wedding Day,” in 2005. Work has appeared in many anthologies, including “The Poet’s Child,” “This Art,” and “American Poetry,” The Next Generation, and in many literary journals. Register
Dana Levin's Class Description: Poetry and the Unconscious
“Life’s nonsense pierces us with strange relation,” writes poet Wallace Stevens. In this workshop, for intermediate and advanced writers, we will explore how to “make sense” of poetry’s relationship to the unconscious and the use we can make of this relationship for poetic composition and revision. We will discuss the notion of associative logic, look at poems by poets such as Charles Simic, Tomaz Salamun, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein, and embark on a two-part poetry exercise that engages the unconscious, source of our strangest visions. Each participant, before the conference begins, will submit two poems (no more than five pages total) for group critique: you are encouraged to submit, for at least one of them, a messy, half-baked poem! The workshop will end with a round of Japanese Renga, collaborative poetry play of the ancient haiku masters.
Micheline Aharonian Marcom is the author of four novels: “Three Apples Fell from Heaven,” “The Daydreaming Boy,” “The Mirror in the Well,” and “Draining the Sea.” She received her MFA degree from Mills College, where she currently teaches. Register
Micheline Aharonian Marcom's Class Description: In this workshop will read a number of short pieces by authors from all over the world and explore in short creative responses to those pieces how a writer’s “voice” emerges over time through reading, experimentation, practice, and by the allowing of influence by other writers. We will have lively discussions about the stories we read, share written work with the group, and discuss the various elements which make for good writing. Some of the writers we will read include Clarice Lispector, Bruno Schulz, Taduesz Borowski, Marguerite Duras, and Ernest Hemingway. All you’ll need for the class is a certain wildness of mind and a desire to experiment with your work.
Ana Menéndez was born to Cuban exile parents who fled to Los Angeles, California in 1964. She worked as a journalist in the nineteen-nineties, before turning to fiction with the collection of short stories “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd.” Menéndez published her first novel, “Loving Che,” in 2003. Her second, “The Last War,” appeared in 2009.
Ana Menéndez's Class Description: “Van Gogh Story Marathon”
Have you ever seen Van Gogh’s early drawings? They were terrible. How did he become one of the most celebrated artists of the modern era? Practice. Study. Practice. And then more practice. In this course, we will take heed, writing a story a day. The opening line will be given to you the day before. The following day, you must come to class with a fully-formed story with a beginning, middle and end. No experimental stuff. Straight, traditional story. Though these will be shorties: just six hundred words. No more, no less. To prove she can take her own medicine, the instructor will work along with you. In class, we will discuss the stories and do reading and exercises designed to help you imagine and produce excellent shorties. What to bring to class: a pen, a notebook, a number two pencil, an eraser and an 8 x 11 drawing pad – doesn’t have to be fancy, just something you can draw on. Register
Tom Miller’s ten books include “The Panama Hat Trail,” and “Revenge of the Saguaro.” He has written articles for such magazines as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Life, and many others. Life on the southern U.S. border inspired his first travel book: “On the Border: Portraits of America’s Southwestern Frontier.”
Tom Miller's Class Description, “Creative Nonfiction and Travel Writing.”
We’ll discuss: * The false notion that there are no unwritten-about places. * How to write an essay without once using Google. * That elegant travel writing can be about economics, sports, music, or botany, as long as it’s grounded in a sense of place. * That subtext is more important than text. Further topics: Breaking through the fear of offending. * How to be a carnivorous writer. * The first-person silent. Finally: * Our favorite travel writers and why they are. * Locales that lend themselves to being written about. * Words to avoid (quaint, nestled, colorful). * Words to use (absolute, curious, ice-cream). And we’ll consider our own writing. Register
Bich Minh Nguyen published her first novel, “Short Girls,” in 2009. Her memoir-in-essays, “Stealing Buddha's Dinner,” was published by Viking Penguin in 2007 and received the PEN/Jerard Award. Her work has also appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. She currently teaches at Purdue University. Register
Bich Minh Nguyen's Class Description: What stories need to be told—should be told—in the “truth genre” of creative nonfiction? In pursuit of this question, this workshop will explore the many possibilities that memoirs and personal essays can offer. As we discuss how to use elements of meditation, reflection, and observation in our work, we will examine aspects of creative nonfiction writing such as narrative technique, voice, language, and structure. We will also discuss core issues of creative nonfiction, including the role of the “I,” observation and witness, and ideas on truth, memory, and subjectivity. Please submit in advance a work of memoir or personal essay of up to 4,500 words for workshop.
