Oracular writing is an inquiry-based practice that aims to keep the mind in a fresh state of observance through designed “thinking missions,” readings, and questioning exercises. Join us for a lunch-hour infusion of influential writing and inspiring conversation.

Using texts of writers who rigorously consider physical or dreamscape geography in the structuring of the book, we will learn how to “divine” assignments for our own writing and generate new work following their leads. We will look at writings by Gaston Bachelard, W.S. Sebald, Alice Notley, Nathalie Stephens, Rebecca Solnit, Mark Nowak, Jesse Ball, and more.

We will spend time together in class thinking about the thinking that we do as readers and as participants in our encounters, in an attempt to restore and/or invigorate our thoughts about writing and about process. We will not analyze writings/results as separate pieces but will gather to create generative questions, questions designed to open up the piece or the thinking that each participant presents.

With our eyes on the process rather than the product, we will generate a lot of new work in many forms (photos, drawings, notes, poems, collages, dialogues, etc.), and categories such as “not writing” will hopefully be entirely dissolved.

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