A 1-Day Poetry & Memoir Workshop
Saturday, August 2nd, 10 AM - 1 PM
Oftentimes, the stories that make up our personal and collective history come in the form of prose, yet how can poetry weave itself into nonfiction? How can we utilize poetic techniques to create complexity and emotion when telling our narratives? We will explore poetic memoirs and how lyricism can create emotional depth, sensory tenderness, and imaginative leaps. We will consider poetic memoir passages from Carvell Wallace, Safiya Sinclair, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Jami Nakamura Lin. Along with discussion, we will write together via generative prompts and also have time for sharing.
$90 Members/$135 Nonmembers
Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House (2023). She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016).
She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Want: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult).
She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, Ucross, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others.
The recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists, her first solo art show “After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly” was exhibited at the Frye Art Museum in 2019. Her performance and installation work has also been exhibited at the Richmond Art Gallery and the Asian Art Museum. A scholar of Asian American poetry and poetics as well, you can explore "The Poetics of Haunting" project here. She grew up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore and lives in Seattle.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
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If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Email programs@mainewriters.org to see if the scholarship is still available. Application Due by March 10 at 9:00 a.m.
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