Additional Workshops: June-Sept

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

How do you create a narrator that truly speaks to young readers? In this interactive workshop with Emily Sun Li and Tommy McAree, we’ll explore how to craft authentic voices across picture books, middle grade, and young adult fiction. We’ll begin with a guided discussion on narrative voice, analyzing syntax, diction, and tone through standout examples from children’s literature. Drawing from The Magic Words by Cheryl Klein and Writing Picture Books by Ann Whitford Paul, we’ll examine techniques that shape a narrator’s voice and deepen reader connection. In small groups, participants will analyze real texts to identify language choices that define audience. Next, we’ll introduce a “character mining” strategy to help develop distinctive voices. Participants will then draft a short piece using guided prompts or a fun challenge involving randomly assigned narrator traits. We’ll wrap up with a group share and feedback session. By the end, participants will leave with fresh writing, analytical tools, and a clear methodology for crafting authentic, engaging narrative voices.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: HERE

With Dan Rosenberg. Writing poetry isn’t always about finding the perfect word; sometimes it’s about having fun together and making each other laugh. For this workshop, we will try out some collaborative poetry games, creating strange and surprising poems in pairs and as a whole group. Everyone is welcome, from established poets looking to lean into their sense of play to teens looking for more creative ways to entertain themselves during a boring Chemistry lecture. The only requirement is that you don’t take yourself too seriously. Who will be selfless enough to just contribute a “the” to our poem? Who will turn our sweet poem raunchy? It might be you, if you join us!

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

Join us for an art-inspired creative writing workshop at the Johnson Museum of Art! Staff from the Museum’s education department will facilitate close-looking activities with artworks from the permanent collection and special exhibitions.
Following these warm ups to hone our observation and descriptive skills, Yessica Martinez will lead the group in a writing process, with time for read-alouds, group discussion as well as individual exploration of the galleries. The fun, low-stakes writing exercises will introduce you to the joys of poetry and result in a piece that feels intimately yours.
With a global collection of art spanning diverse cultures and time, as well as two special exhibitions exploring themes of the home in addition to work by local artists, there will be something to inspire everyone! No experience is needed, all are welcome.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

Many writers have an inner critic who loves to point out everything they’re doing wrong, making it hard to write. This workshop, co-led by creative coach Emily Mure and novelist Nancy Holzner, features exercises to keep your inner critic from blocking your writing. We’ll start by interrogating the critic to find out where that voice originates. Then, we’ll invite another voice to come forward—someone who believed in or encouraged you in some area of your life. We’ll develop this champion’s voice to make it as strong as the critic’s. Finally, we’ll write a scene that puts the critic and the champion in dialogue. These voices in our heads are characters we create. And as writers, we know how to work with characters! By understanding our inner critic and listening to our champion, we can learn how to enlist their aid to help our writing, rather than block it.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

Poet and screenwriter Lee Cotman will guide participants in creating their own “blackout” love poems from a variety of un-romantic source texts (e.g., junk mail and meeting minutes). In a blackout poem, the writer chooses an existing document and obscures all but a few selected words; the remaining words create the poem. This process puts the writer in direct conversation, not only with the words on the page, but with the historical context, power structures, and biases underlying their chosen text.

This workshop will begin with a brief discussion of the form and what makes a blackout poem effective, with examples by celebrated Black and Indigenous writers. We will then transition into a three-step, generative writing exercise, and close with an opportunity to share your draft. Open to writers of all ages and experience levels!

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

How can queer poets use their work to define and redefine themselves? In this 1 hour workshop with Amir McClam, participants will explore poetry as a queer (non-normative) method of self-creation. Together we will study the work of June Jordan and KB Brookins, consider what we have to learn from them, and produce original writing.
Through communal discussion, self-reflection, and guided prompts, participants will practice writing their own poems asserting who they are or wish to be. Because the concept of queerness isn’t limited to sexual/romantic orientation or gender identity, participants do not have to personally identify as LGBTQ+ to find value in this workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to share their work back to the group at the end, if they so choose.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

With Aishvarya Arora. What can contemporary poets teach us about surviving the multiple social and political crises of our current moment? As importantly, what can they teach us about creating and nurturing the new worlds that will emerge from these moments? Taking guidance from writers like Naomi Shihab Nye, Hala Alyan, Franny Choi, Ross Gay, Danez Smith, and others, in this generative workshop we’ll read, discuss, and write together to consider how elements of poetic craft can urge us towards interrogation and action. Together, we’ll reach for Jericho Brown’s definition of a successful poem: one that “begins a new way of living” in its reader.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED HERE

With nicole v. basta. ECODEVIANCE is a term borrowed from the poet CA Conrad. Here, we will use the idea (“subversive syllabus for a queer ecopoetics”) to practice presence with our words and with the earth outside the typical constraints of our society and our minds. Through extensive multi-step prompts, you will be asked to burrow forward without turning back (i.e. keep your pen moving in a way that allows your mind to slip out of its linear grip). This is a generative creative writing class where we will use the cycles of nature and the vastness of time (starting back in pre-human times) to explore unconventional ways to approach a page and emerge more potent writers. We will reject time and question what it means to be in touch with “nature” in a world constantly distancing itself/ exploiting nature. We will also borrow inspiration from queer revolutionaries and resistors. This class is meant for all types of creatives, all people.