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Rewilding the Work with Chris La Tray
Saturday, January 31, 10am-4pm
In lives too often devoted to safety and convenience, too many of our spirits are withering. Too much of our writing is dying too, friends, the same death and debilitation of convenience and attention-theft that our bodies are. Glossy and clean and neat around the edges – and don’t even get me started on the dehumanizing influence of AI! – when it should be muddy and a little smelly and bleeding from being dragged through the brambles. Just like our bodies after a vigorous trip out and back! It is never too late to pull ourselves back from the brink, then, and that is what this workshop will attempt to do. In the same way we think of rewilding as a change in lifestyle, we will attempt that evolution – or return – on the page.
The workshop will be structured around short readings for discussion, prompts, and a concerted effort to, if not generate new writing, at least perhaps tweak a muscle or two that might influence the direction future writing might take. The following quote sums things up nicely, particularly if you replace "poetry" for whatever writing it is you prefer to engage with.
"I was talking recently to a very nice young woman who seemed to be coming from the current literary orthodoxy. She used two phrases of her students - one was about 'giving them permission to write' and the other was about 'creating a warm space for them to write.' Now, poetry written with permission in warm spaces, there's far too much of that - and that is the voice of community. What interests me is forbidden poetry written by solitaires in the cold, written by solitaires in the open, which is where the human soul really is. That for me is where poetry really is.” — Derek Mahon
Participants in this class will receive a PDF a week before the workshop with a short reading or two and a prompt or two to consider in the days leading up to our time together. Perusing the document in advance isn't mandatory but will be helpful.
Cost: $60/80/100, please pay what you can. Limited to 12 participants.
Saturday, January 31, 10am-4pm
In lives too often devoted to safety and convenience, too many of our spirits are withering. Too much of our writing is dying too, friends, the same death and debilitation of convenience and attention-theft that our bodies are. Glossy and clean and neat around the edges – and don’t even get me started on the dehumanizing influence of AI! – when it should be muddy and a little smelly and bleeding from being dragged through the brambles. Just like our bodies after a vigorous trip out and back! It is never too late to pull ourselves back from the brink, then, and that is what this workshop will attempt to do. In the same way we think of rewilding as a change in lifestyle, we will attempt that evolution – or return – on the page.
The workshop will be structured around short readings for discussion, prompts, and a concerted effort to, if not generate new writing, at least perhaps tweak a muscle or two that might influence the direction future writing might take. The following quote sums things up nicely, particularly if you replace "poetry" for whatever writing it is you prefer to engage with.
"I was talking recently to a very nice young woman who seemed to be coming from the current literary orthodoxy. She used two phrases of her students - one was about 'giving them permission to write' and the other was about 'creating a warm space for them to write.' Now, poetry written with permission in warm spaces, there's far too much of that - and that is the voice of community. What interests me is forbidden poetry written by solitaires in the cold, written by solitaires in the open, which is where the human soul really is. That for me is where poetry really is.” — Derek Mahon
Participants in this class will receive a PDF a week before the workshop with a short reading or two and a prompt or two to consider in the days leading up to our time together. Perusing the document in advance isn't mandatory but will be helpful.
Cost: $60/80/100, please pay what you can. Limited to 12 participants.