Conversations and Connections Pittsburgh 2022

All writers have their habits and obsessions: those subjects, forms, and—especially—genres we circle back to again and again. Breaking out of those habits from time to time can be an opportunity to find new joy and energy in your writing practice. In this craft talk, I will share how teaching creative writing to (often reluctant) high school students pushed me to learn to write in genres outside my poetry background, rediscover play and low-stakes creativity, and hone the craft of my poems in unexpected ways. We will write—and draw—using specific prompts and exercises from my classes that I found fruitful in my own writing practice and discuss the ways that writing exercises that feel impossibly far from our wheelhouses can push us to see something new or find new modes of expression.  

Athletes have long understood the value of cross-training: lifting weights can make you a faster runner; practicing yoga can improve your cycling form. Writers can benefit from the same kind of exercise, strengthening our creative muscles and finding new approaches to our work by exploring other mediums, whether painting or playing music or quilting. This generative workshop will offer ideas to build a creative cross-training practice. We'll work through several prompts inspired by other creative mediums and you'll leave with a handful of essay sparks, plus an entirely new way of thinking about where to look for ideas and inspiration.  

Western myths--Greek, Roman, Biblical, etc.---are so ubiquitous in literature that a poet may reasonably assume the audience's foreknowledge and thus take liberties in their symbolism without the burden of context. This generative workshop will tackle weaving myths into poetry that may be lesser known to an English-speaking audience: how to widen and flip a narrative until it becomes your own creation, and whether context is necessary or simply an ethnocentric expectation.