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My Own Small Self: writing childhood from multiple sources
a writing workshop w/ Kristen Stone

Friday-Sunday
February 20-22, 2015
Friday 6-9pm
Saturday 10-5pm
Sunday
10-12pm

Cost: $100
$25 scholarships available

To register:

cost of workshop

To inquire about scholarships or for other questions please email casakeepers@casalibre.org

How do children see and feel differently from adults?
What do we remember and why?
Why are textures and smells so important to children?
Are children, basically, small animals?

In this workshop, we will examine the idea of writing childhood and children from various perspectives, using the texts of Bhanu Kapil, Eileen Myles, Justin Torres, Dorothy Allison, Edwidge Danticat, Megan Milks, Lynda Barry, and others. We will map our brains and childhood homes, we will make eco-maps and sense maps. We will use writing prompts, guided meditations, sensory play and semiotic techniques to elicit feelings, memories, and sensations from which to write.

Sampling the language of social work and psychology, mommyblogs, Fun with Dick and Jane, and other cultural artifacts, we will investigate the voices, memories, and experiences of children and childhood. We will borrow the idea of the assessment from social work-- the biopsychosocial information on the child and what is left out when we "assess." What does it mean to be a bad boy or girl? In what way is the child trouble/d? How did your parents make you? How did they fail you?

I primarily write experimental prose and creative non-fiction, but all genres and levels of experience are welcome; hybridity, erasures, and mixed-media work are all encouraged. This workshop will be useful for fiction writers interested in developing and exploring characters, as well as memoirists/non-fiction writers interested in looking at their own childhoods from various perspectives. We will primarily be writing (versus revising)-- generating a lot of early drafts, ideas, and documents to start a new project or take home and incorporate into a manuscript in progress.

Please take note that writing about childhood often brings up discussions of abuse and trauma. This workshop is intended to be creative and craft-based, not therapeutic. I work in trauma but am not a licensed clinician, and I am teaching this workshop as a fellow writer, not as a counselor. We cannot wholly prepare for what will come up when we write and create together, but please plan to care for yourself as needed during and after the workshop. I will provide a blanket trigger warning for the readings and ask that students disclose prior to sharing work whether it is graphically violent or references trauma.

Teacher Bio:


Kristen Stone is a writer, educator, and social work student in living in Gainesville, Florida. She is the author of Domestication Handbook (Rogue Factorial, 2012) and self/help/work/book//The Story of Ruth and Eliza (Birds of Lace, 2014). Her work has appeared in Mutha Magazine, finery, Women's Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. Kristen works as a domestic violence advocate and uses arts-based interventions to teach about violence and help students heal. http://kristenstone.com

 

 

 


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