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Spring 2020 ONLINE: The Lyric Essay: Braiding the World

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class will take place online. Instructions for how to access the class online through Zoom will be sent to participants. The lyric essay is a form which allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry; it celebrates mixing genres. In this workshop, we will write a series of fragments, and then stitch them together into short essays. Call it a collage, a mosaic or a quilt; you will leave the workshop with a sense of how small pieces of writing can grow into essays. Perrin Kerns served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University for 15 years. She currently teaches literature and creative nonfiction for Prescott College and…

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$135

Fall 2020: Fragmentation and Joy: Writing for Resilience in Hard Times

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Following in the tradition of Ross Gay, we will focus on writing about joy in the midst of pandemic, protest, and looming election. We will explore the lyric essay as a celebration of the fragment and the collage. This is a generative writing class, where most of our time will be spent writing to prompts; at the end of our time together, we will offer feedback to each other on our work. September 23 - October 14, 2020 Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. (4 class meetings) online via Zoom Perrin Kerns Perrin Kerns served as the Director of Writing at Marylhurst University for 15 years. She currently teaches literature and creative nonfiction for Prescott College and Portland State. This summer she will also be teaching at PNCA’s…

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$185

Writing with Constraints: Discover the Unexpected Working with Limits

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Sometimes freedom is found within the boundaries of constraints. In this workshop, we are going to write to prompts, but with a twist. Each prompt will also come with some form of constraint or a series of constraints (i.e. write in the present tense, write only in second person, write the experience from end to beginning, etc.) We will be working towards a series of prose poems, or a lyric essay, or a personal essay, but all the while using some confinements that push us as writers to find new adventures in our writing. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access…

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$190

Essay Intensive: Lyric and Personal

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this eight-week intensive workshop, we will generate writing to prompts, finding our way into some lyric or personal essays. Participants will share drafts for focused feedback on specific craft issues and overall essay structure. The first four weeks will focus on one project, the second four weeks on another. Join this class to produce and workshop two essays and deepen your understanding of the essay form.   I’m a strong believer in writing together and the kind of alchemy that arises when a circle of writers gather to put the pen to paper. In any class with me, you will be doing generative writing in class, and sharing these fresh starts, then wandering off to revise. We will sprinkle seeds and see what grows.…

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$385

For the Love of Roaming: Walking into the Lyric Essay

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

From Hemingway’s Moveable Feast to Thoreau’s meditation on “Walking” to Virginia Woolf’s “Street Haunting” to Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust, writers have connected the act of writing with the art of roaming. During this weekend together, we will spend some time reading poems and personal meditations on walking, and use them as prompts for our own writing. By the end of the weekend you will have a draft that includes memories of roaming, accounts of current saunters, quotes from other wanderers, and even some research perhaps — all braided into a lyric essay. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing…

Continue readingFor the Love of Roaming: Walking into the Lyric Essay
$290

The Lyric Essay Intensive: Braiding the World

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The lyric essay is a form which allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry; it celebrates mixing genres. In this workshop, we will write a series of fragments, and then braid them together into essays. You will leave the workshop with a sense of how small pieces of writing can grow into essays. By the end of the 8 weeks, you will have at least one lyric essay to share. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced…

Continue readingThe Lyric Essay Intensive: Braiding the World
$385

Noticing: Writing as an Act of Attention

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this class, we will drop all worry about being “writers”. Instead, we will simply use writing as a means of grounding our own attention. We will be prompted by writers who have turned their attention to the smallest noticings of life — observations of what is. Through writing together to prompts during our sessions, we will turn our own attention to the details around us – the way our skin feels against the chair, the light outside the window, a bird flying by. I will also suggest you establish a daily practice of noticing and hope that by the end of the four weeks, we each will share a rough “lyric essay” built from the fragments of our attention. Access Program We want our…

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$190
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