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Alternative Forms for Essay & Memoir
a writing workshop w/ Erin Zwiener & Will Slattery

Tuesday, November 11 & 18, 2014
6-9 p.m.
Cost: $30-50 (sliding scale)
To register please email casakeepers[at]casalibre.org

Class Description

[This workshop is recommended for intermediate or advanced writers.]

Poets are no strangers to strict form. Whether through traditional forms like sonnets or newer ones like the Fibonacci or simple syllabics, poets frequently use artificial constraints to help guide their writing. An established structure can be freeing to the writer and unleash surprising moments of creativity. This workshop will look at ways that essayists and memoirists can use the same tools of restraint to explore innovative forms and unlock their own muses. Students should expect to have their traditional notions of structure challenged and their idea of what can be an essay expanded.

The workshop will be divided into two three hour sessions, one week apart. The first session will include a lecture about form in nonfiction, a brainstorming session about potential forms, and in-class exercises. During the ensuing week, students will write a short nonfiction piece in a received or invented form. During the second session, we will discuss the pieces the students created in the interim, focusing on description and how the form is interacting with the material. The class will conclude with a group discussion about how what types of constraints worked well for them and what ideas students would like to use as they move forward with their writing.

Teacher Bios:

Erin Zwiener is an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona. She likes to write essays in the form of logic puzzles and United Nations resolutions, and her work is forthcoming at Better: Culture and Lit and The Toast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Slattery is an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the national literary jounral Sonora Review.