The Poet's Workshop
10 Thursdays
with Georgia Pearle
September 6 thru November 8
6:00 to 9:00
$360
Together we will cultivate an attunement to the sensory world, find
the spaces where language can propel itself through silence, and
sharpen our incisors on the formal elements that make poetry ring
clearly and beautifully.
We will be reading to see what we can glean from other poet’s
successes, with a particular eye to their use of image, sound, and
prosody, rhythm, voice and tone, breaks in lines and stanzas, and
other elements of form. As a community of writers coming to poetry, we
will practice being good first readers for each other’s fledgling
drafts. We’ll also approach revision together, finding ways to
scratch closer and closer to our poems’ best final forms, and each
workshop participant will receive written editorial critiques on their
poems with suggestions for how to move forward.
We’ll write with the presumption that somewhere and somehow, we’ll
have readers and listeners for our work. To that end, we’ll also
approach how to get poems into print, how to decide where to aim when
trying to publish, and how to read and perform our own poems so that
they’re as live for our audiences as they are in our own minds.
Born and raised in the Gulf South, Georgia Pearle is an alumna
of Smith College
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=36688b5f5d&e=27ac8a4365] and
holds an MFA in Poetry from Lesley University
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=677649adce&e=27ac8a4365].
She has been a coordinator of the VIDA Count, the digital editor
for _Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts_
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=f499dceddf&e=27ac8a4365],
and the recipient of the Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative
Writing. Her poems have appeared in _Kenyon Review Online
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=186079cc91&e=27ac8a4365]_, _Terrain.org_, _WSQ
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=f8947b18c0&e=27ac8a4365]_,
and others, and are forthcoming with _Ninth Letter _and _Crab
Orchard Review_. She is in her final year as a Doctoral Fellow in
Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Houston
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=09aa08ef30&e=27ac8a4365],
where she holds a CLASS Dissertation Completion Fellowship. She is at
work on a collection of poems as well as a memoir. www.gpearle.com
OTHER EVENTS AT GRACKLE AND GRACKLE:
VARIATIONS IN PROSE:
CHAPBOOK ANTHOLOGY
10 Wednesdays
with Miah Arnold
9/12-11/14 from 10-1
$360
In this round of Variations in Prose, we will produce a small chapbook
anthology of our work. Before that, this energetic, engaging fiction
and nonfiction writing workshop will name and examine the unique
strengths of your prose. It will offer guidance to further texturize
your work into full, developed stories by exploring the murky and
extensive waters of prose – of fiction and non-fiction, and all the
place in-between. We write prompts, read each other’s work, as well
as the work of outside readers. Some students may be working on
smaller length projects, some work on longer memoirs and
novels. This class usually boasts a small core of writers who have
taken it for a couple of years. Thus, in this group you receive not
only expert instruction from the instructor, but from exceedingly
engaged and thoughtful fellow writers.
MIAH ARNOLD, PhD, has taught creative writing for the past twenty
years through Houston non-profits including Inprint, Writers in the
Schools, and Aurora Picture Show as well as University of Houston,
University of Houston-Downtown, Houston Community College, and Georgia
College. Her essay “You Owe Me” about working for M.D. Anderson
via Writers in the Schools was selected by Best American Essays in
2012. Her first novel, Sweet Land of Bigamy, was published in 2012.
8 WEEK COURSE
STARTING AND FINISHING
with Claire Anderson
8 Mondays
9/10 to 10-29
$300
This eight-week course will give prose writers the oomph needed to
finish one piece of writing and start another. In pursuit of
perfection, we can find ourselves workshopping the same story, essay,
or chapter over and over without ever getting to that “final”
publication stage. This class gives writers a chance to pull one of
those almost-finished projects out of the proverbial drawer, get it as
close to done as possible, and send it out into the world once and for
all. We will use concrete revision strategies to achieve that final
polish, create plans for submission, and overcome fears of
imperfection by cutting ties with our darlings. The life cycle of our
writing doesn’t end there—we will also generate fresh ideas,
voices, and energy for a new piece of prose. Bring a piece of fiction
or nonfiction that is almost done and an idea for a new writing
project to our first class meeting.
_Claire Fuqua Anderson
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=6a268fb90b&e=27ac8a4365]_ is
an English Lecturer at the University of Houston, where she has taught
for six years. She received her MFA from the University of Houston
Creative Writing Program and has taught creative writing workshops for
Inprint, Boldface Conference, and Grackle & Grackle Writing
Enterprises. In 2017, she was a recipient of an Individual Artist
Grant Award, funded by the City the Houston through Houston Arts
Alliance. She is working on a novel set during the Dust Bowl.
3-4 WEEK COURSES
BETWEEN US AND OURSELVES: THE ART OF PERSONAL ESSAY
with Jessica Wilbanks
3 Tuesdays 6-9
9/18, 9/25, 10/2
$140
In the words of Michel de Montaigne, “We are all patchwork . . and
there is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and
others.” More than any other genre, personal essays are committed to
exploration. The most powerful essays pivot upon a subject that
mystifies and confounds the writer, about which they cannot quite make
up their mind.
In this workshop, we'll mine our lives for material and work through a
series of prompts designed to turn rich, messy fragments into
surprising and powerful essays. We’ll steal liberally from the
sensory world of poetry, the narrative world of fiction, and the
fact-driven world of journalism, even as we plumb the depths of
interior life. Along the way, we’ll read and discuss essayistic
pieces by writers who can teach us how to build a strong narrative
arc, write vivid scenes, and prioritize the rich details that make
prose come alive.
All levels of experience are welcome. Please bring your favorite
writing tools, such as a laptop or a notebook and pen.
Jessica Willbanks
[https://grackleandgrackle.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b5f1575bd0333ad3be007b5be&id=e38a32ac38&e=27ac8a4365] is
the author of _When I Spoke in Tongues_, a memoir forthcoming from
Beacon Press in 2018. An accomplished nonfiction writer and essayist,
Jessica has received a Pushcart Prize as well as awards from national
literary journals such as _Ninth Letter_, _Sycamore
Review_, _Redivider_, and _Ruminate_. Her essay “On the Far Side
of the Fire,” which drew from a reporting trip to the Niger Delta,
received a Notable Mention in _The Best American
Essays 2014_ and _The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014_, was
selected as a Longreads Member Pick, and was a finalist for the PEN
Center USA’s prestigious Literary Award in Journalism.
LITERARY JOURNALISM
with Allyn West
4 Tuesdays 6-9
10/9-10/30
$170
Literary Journalism is much more than who, what, when, where and why.
We might call it a lot of things, but literary journalism is rooted in
the writer’s ability to home in on a timely question and conduct
interviews, do research and immerse herself in a community, if only
for a moment. This four-week workshop will explore what literary
journalism looks like and will lead to production of new work about a
community that matters to you.
ALLYN WEST is an editor and writer at the Houston Chronicle for
Gray Matters. Previously, he worked as a writer for the Rice Design
Alliance and Swamplot. He graduated from the University of Houston in
2015 with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing.
SONGWRITING
September 30 to Nov 4
Sundays
10:30-12:30
$185
If you've ever dreamed of writing a song, recording it, and having a
copy of it, this is the class for you. The class creates music from
the ground up -- focusing on the music, the lyrics, and the ways they
come together in a thorough and supportive environment. The goal of
this workshop is that you come up with a new song (and of course learn
how to make many more). We’ll go through the theory of the song and
its different examples, and we’ll plant the seed, nourish and
finally harvest your creation, class after class. A bit of musical
knowledge is needed, but just a bit. Six 2-hour sessions held on a
weekly basis.
LUCAS MASLLORENS Is a journalist and musician. As a journalist he
has produced and hosted a radio show devoted to jazz and created music
collections for magazines, among other projects. As a musician he’s
a multi-instrumentalist that played in and composed for several bands.
He was also the founder of Oven Music, a production company for
advertising and film scores. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, he moved
to HOUSTON in 2016.
HOUSTON FLANEUR
NEW Memorial Location
with Allyn West
Sat 9/21, Sun 9/22
1-5
$160
HOUSTON is a city of driving, but it becomes more pleasurable – and
more interesting – when you’re walking. This two-day writing
WORKSHOP UPDATES THE FIGURE OF THE FLANEUR – defined by Charles
Baudelaire as a “passionate spectator” in the late 1800s – for
our contemporary age and encourages a literature of observation. As
described by Bijan Steven in the _Paris Review_:
In this unusual and exciting two day essay WORKSHOP IN WHICH ALLYN
WEST -- former Cite magazine writer and current Gray Matters editor
for the HOUSTON Chronicle -- will lead a WORKSHOP FOR ESSAYS YOU MIGHT
FIND IN A PLACE LIKE GRAY MATTERS. It will concentrate on placemaking,
in the spirit of the literary flâneur_. _
_Fair warning: In the spirit of the flaneur, this workshop will
involve significant time spent walking around a neighborhood. The
Memorial location is in a beautiful sun room in a home newly restored
after Hurricane Harvey._
ALLYN WEST is an editor and writer at the Houston Chronicle for
Gray Matters. Previously, he worked as a writer for the Rice Design
Alliance and Swamplot. He graduated from the University of Houston in
2015 with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing.
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09/11/2018 Last update