Family: An Asynchronous Class

Asynchronous, on the Wet.Ink platform

July 5-26

This class will provide four weekly prompts & feedback on the topic of "family." Participants may submit poems or short creative nonfiction pieces (memoir, personal essays, lyric essays, etc.). Feedback will discuss what's working in a piece and why as well as asking questions and offering suggestions. Why family? Because family shapes us, supports us, sometimes wounds us. Sometimes we discover we're more at home with chosen family. Sometimes we research a great-grandmother and uncover something essential about ourselves. In poems & essays we can grieve, rage, offer atonement.

Katie’s teaching philosophy/style: I believe that our real job as human beings is to try to understand ourselves and the world. For writers, we do that job with words. And the elements of craft are tools that we can use as we reach towards understanding, as are the thoughtful responses of other writers. Do we take workshops in order to improve individual pieces and our writing in general so we might publish? Sure. But more importantly, we take them to ride the momentum of community towards writing more, revealing our vulnerabilities more, and trying more new approaches. To that end, I focus on discussion of what’s working well in a piece of writing and why, letting the writer know how their writerly choices affected us as readers. We also discuss interpretation and make suggestions, and the writer has an opportunity to ask their own questions. Allowing others to read and respond to your writing is an act of courage and faith; I try my best, therefore, to treat you and your work with respect.