2024 Summer Workshops
Writers of all genres often contend with writing about experiences that take us out of our bodies or, alternately, deeper into our bodies. We’ll read and discuss selected poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that successfully captures the following bodily encounters: sex, dissociation, substances, and physical activity that pushes a body to its limits. Then we’ll experiment with writing in these “sub-genres.”
Each day will be three hours of discussion, writing exercises, mini-lectures and one hour of workshop of the experiments written in-class and for homework. This workshop will be generative and collaborative with an emphasis on experiments. Writers of all genres are encouraged, especially those with an openness to cross-pollination. Please bring to the workshop your preferred writing materials and an openness to homework and suggested further reading.
Biography
Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of Excavation: A Memoir, the prose poem memoir Hollywood Notebook, and the dreamoir Bruja. In 2016 Bustle named her one of “9 Women Writers Who Are Breaking New Nonfiction Territory.” Her writing has appeared or been profiled in a number of places including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, Joyland, FENCE, and McSweeney’s. Wendy is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles.