FREE Members-only discussion!
Participate in one or both:
Mon., Feb. 5: 1:00–2:00 PM (Eastern) / 10:00–11:00 AM (Pacific)
Thurs., Feb. 15: 7:30–8:30 PM (Eastern) / 4:30–5:30 PM (Pacific)
Check your time-zone HERE.
Read John Edgar Wideman's "Writing Teacher" here. The session's format: 1. Lisa will welcome everyone and guide us through a minute or two of “landing” (i.e., being silent and noticing our breath). 2. Then we will each talk about what we noticed as we read “Writing Teacher.” What choices did Wideman make? For example: (a) He tells this story in the present tense. (b) His first-person narrator has some of the same life experiences as Wideman, the author. What else did you notice? How does Wideman structure his story? What does he do in terms of syntax? point of view? particular word choices? 3. After we ground ourselves in a close read of parts of “Writing Teacher,” we can open things up and talk about Wideman’s themes and points, what we liked and disliked about the story, what it made us think about or feel, how it might apply to our own writings. 4. Lisa will close the circle with a minute of quiet and gratitude. Lisa Freedman divides her time between writing, teaching, and coaching. She weaves meditation into these practices because it connects us to our deep wisdom and the clarity and confidence to express it. Her prose and poetry appear in Resist Much / Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance; Satya Magazine: The Long View; Grabbing the Apple: An Anthology of New York Women Poets; Art & Understanding: 20th Anniversary Anthology; and POZ Magazine. Lisa has received residencies and awards from Blue Mountain Center, Soul Mountain, and the National Arts Club. She is a proud co-founder of Poets against Xenophobia. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, where she now teaches courses such as Writing and Activism and Intro to Creative Nonfiction, among others. After the 2016 presidential election, Lisa started Breathe/Read/Write, a free-writing circle for people who want to face the news with less reactivity and more creativity. http://lfwritingcoach.com