Writing the Where: Storying the Places that Shape Us
Colorado Geological by Ed Fairburn
About the Course: In this six-week nonfiction writing workshop, we will delve into writing about place. Together, we will read and discuss examples of how other writers build place as character, how they orient readers to an unknown, unfamiliar landscape. We will think about the aspects that make up a place: locale, landscape, people, culture, history, and values. We will consider our own positionality: how to use our unique connections to a place as fodder for our stories and how to write responsibility and ethically about places we cannot fully claim as our own. We will write into the questions we have about the places that have shaped us, the places we love and loathe in equal measure, the places that perplex us, the places we desire to know better, the places at the margins, the places that have changed over time, the places that have changed us at our core, the places that now exist only in our imaginations. Our class will be a homestead for curiosity, discourse, and experimentation. Inside and outside of class, we will write about place and develop a portfolio of ideas to plumb in future writing. We will end our class by engaging in a supportive, thoughtful workshop of pieces generated by participants during our class.
The Details
When: January 9, January 16, January 23, January 30; February 6, February 20 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Kore Press, 325 W 2nd St, Room 201
Cost*: $265, $250 if you register before December 20
Note: This class will be capped at 12 participants so register soon to reserve your spot.
CLASS FULL!
About Lisa: Lisa M. O’Neill is a writer, writing teacher, and creativity usher. A native New Orleanian and current desert dweller, Lisa received her MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Arizona, where she taught writing in the English Department for a decade. She writes essays, journalism articles, and think pieces, and she teaches online and in-person writing workshops and works individually with writers, helping them discover and usher their stories onto the page. She also teaches writing with students at juvenile detention and at the Arizona State Prison. She was a regular contributor to Edible Baja Arizona and received first place in Community Food and Beverage Reporting from the Arizona Press Club for 2015. Her July 2017 piece for B*tch Media was featured in the New York Times “What We’re Reading” list. More writing has been published in Diagram, defunct, drunken boat, GOOD, Good Housekeeping, Bustle, Salon, The Feminist Wire, Talk Poverty, The Washington Post, and Terrain.org, among others.
*payment plans available if necessary.
Words from Students: