Saturday, October 11th, 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Meeting will take place in the Poetry Center's Alumni Room, Room 205; limit 12 students. General registration will open on Tuesday, August 19th at 10:00AM.
When I try to write about grief, I end up writing about horses galloping in never-ending circles, or rowing a glass-bottom boat across the surface of a sleeping monster, things that veer away from the reality of daily life. This workshop leans into this urge toward the surreal while writing under the influence of grief. It will explore some relationships between grief’s ruptures of a lived or shared reality & surrealism's non-logical & distorted experiences. We will discuss our own subjectively surreal phenomena of grief, & how the surreal might give voice to these griefs. We will explore writerly connections between grief & the surreal & do some writing together, guided by works by Bob Kaufman, Etel Adnan, Larry Levis, & Joyce Mansour, among others. By the end, I hope we'll have made new connections, come to some productive ideas, & written a few new things. This is a discussion-based, generative workshop with no advanced preparation needed; participants need bring only themselves & their openness & readiness to write. To be clear: I’m no sort of a grief counselor. I don’t presume to offer any answers or advice, or even solace. This workshop will forefront writing, & together we’ll see what happens through that.