Retreat: August 2018
Excuse me, while I kiss the sky
--Jimi Hendrix
One Day Escape: A Fall Writing Retreat
August is a funny time of year. At its end, the school year begins, throwing everyone into a frenzy. But the weather belies this activity; it's still the humid and hot iced-tea-on-the-porch and dreamy afternoon-nap weather we've had for months.
Soon the fall will be full-on. To offer some respite from that busyness, I am offering a one-day writing retreat on Saturday, November 17, 2018. What's a writing retreat, you ask? Writing retreats come in various lengths and settings, but the underlying idea is to step out of the routine and flow of daily obligations and enter a focused space with time to write and think about writing.
The schedule and details of this retreat can be found here. These gatherings work best when they are small and currently there are only 3 spots left, so if a one day escape from the hectic lives we all live into a quiet space devoted to your writing and creativity energy sounds appealing, you should register now! (And if you can't get the registration to work, send me an email!)
I'm finally reading Lit, a memoir by Mary Karr about alcoholism, poetry, and motherhood. The sentences here are explosive, a marriage of poetic musicality and rhythm and Texas vernacular. And the choices she makes regarding chronology, splicing past with present seamlessly, writing long scenes and interspersing them with quick, sharp memories--there's a lot to admire here. Highly recommend!
Future Writing offerings
I'm working on my schedule of writing classes for the year. Much remains to be seen, but I plan to offer Creative Writing 101 at the Durham Arts Council in the wintertime, and a few one-off workshops this fall. Stay tuned!
In addition to binge reading, the summer is for movies, and we got some great ones this year. Don't miss Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley's brilliant takedown of capitalism, or Eighth Grade, an agonizingly honest look at how brutal being thirteen is. I also quite enjoyed Won't You Be My Neighbor? and RBG.
To Go Poems
The Round by Stanley Kunitz
Fun fact: This was one of my first favorite poems.
Loony Bin Basketball by Mary Karr
Fun fact: There is so much humanity in Karr's writing I can hardly stand it.