Finding Shape in the Dark (on writing difficult narratives) - Two Online, Generative Writing Workshops, July 5 & 19

Hi, friends!

I have been thinking about offering this workshop for sometime, after spending the last decade writing through different forms of historical & family trauma, violence, and healing. I am not a therapist, and the framing of this workshop comes from being a writer and approaching difficult narratives from a writer’s perspective: how do we give shape to trauma narratives, to unwieldy family stories, to personal accounts? How do we deal with memory gaps, empty spaces, lack of documents, family silences, linguistic disruption and failure? Conversely, how do we approach an abundance of material, an overwhelm of information? A box of letters we can barely stand to look at? Confederate roll calls? Court documents? I’ll be walking us through some practical, formal approaches to writing these narratives that have aided me, and also drawing from the community of books I’ve read in my own healing and processing journey (always ongoing), such as What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo, Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jen Soriano, but also documentary poetic work such as Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip, Defacing the Monument by Susan Briante, Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead, and Denise Levertov’s The Poet in the World. Touchstone poetic texts will include Jenny George’s The Dream of Reason, in case you are someone who wants to read ahead of time.

Participants will receive an inclusive reading packet as well as several writing prompts, and feedback from me on a selection of poems up to 15 pages.

I’m offering these workshops in part to raise funds for my press, River River Books, and in part because I’ve wanted to offer this workshop for some time. I’m asking for a $100 donation, which you can make here, but also: I want you to be there if you want to be there, don’t worry about the money.

Email [email protected] and let me know what date you’d like a spot saved.

• When: Two dates, both Saturdays in July: 5 & 19, choose your day.

• How long: Two hours, 9-11am ET

• Where: On Zoom!

• How much: $100 suggested donation.

I can’t wait to talk and write with you!

Respond to me with any questions you have.

Hope your summers are beginning to flower.

Han