Feminist Writing Camp

Service Description

Join instructors Jenny Colville and Becca Klaver for four themed weeks: Week 1: Form as Feminist Adventure Week 2: The Body & Performance Week 3: Mother (Tongue) Week 4: Anger & Activism Each two-hour class will include a discussion of assigned readings, generative writing exercises, and peer workshops of poetry or short prose. We’ll share at least one writing prompt for poetry and one for prose each week. For workshop, you can choose to use the course content to kickstart new pieces, to inform projects you’re already working on, or some mix of both. You’ll be encouraged to experiment—to write outside your “home” genre and/or to write at the edge of genres, modes, and media (e.g., autofiction, autohistoria-teoría, or politically motivated hybridity). We’ll emphasize process and form as much as content, and you’ll be asked to keep a notebook that dares to collect all the writing you do in a month—for and beyond the workshop, including grocery and to-do lists—testing out Diane di Prima’s theory that “The Requirements of Our Life is the Form of our Art.” We’ll keep the readings light and breezy for summertime, pulling tantalizing tastes of longer literary and theoretical works that you might choose to dive into more deeply on your own. Authors will include Vidhu Aggarwal, Gloria Anzaldúa, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Hélène Cixous, Wanda Coleman, Diane di Prima, Jamaica Kincaid, Audre Lorde, Clarice Lispector, Khadijah Queen, Sarah Ruhl, Jennif(f)er Tamayo, Helena María Viramontes, and more. If you’d like instructor feedback on your writing, you can reach out to Becca or Jenny individually to add a 30-minute one-on-one conference for $50. The workshop will be capped at 12 participants, and will be held mostly in person at PorchLight, with a few virtual seats available. (PorchLight is equipped with an OWL, so virtual participants will be able to view the whole room via Zoom.) A limited number of partial scholarships are available; reach out to PorchLight if interested. Details at a glance: Co-taught by Jenny Colville and Becca Klaver Writers of all genres welcome Mostly in person, with a few virtual seats available Mondays, June 8, 15, 22, 29, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Central Time $240 with optional $50 one-on-one conference