Series concept: Writer's Toolbox

A

Alice Mead

Member
Would anyone else be interested in a seminar series on smaller pieces (songs, short poems and perhaps ocassional excerpts from longer ones) from a writer's perspective (i.e. with a view to the use of techniques and the creative process as well as ways other writers might repurpose said methods for their own work?) As a poet and short story writer who is acadmeically trained to analyze literature I can't help doing this sort of analysis in my head already whenever I find a song or poem I particularly like and I would love to be able to share that experience with like minded people. Plus, it could serve as an avenue for discussing pieces which are too small to be worth a Mythgard Academy nomination, and, therefore, might also be interesting to the broader Signum audience, even if it's aimed initially at other writers.

I recognize that I'm fairly unknown here, given that I don't regularly attend classes and just make the ocassional comment after the fact, and that I lack formal teaching experience (although I've always had a pedagogical urge, so I've often made note of how good teachers operate when I was lucky enough to observe them). I don't want to turn this into a job application by including my CV or anything, but, if there's enough interest, and I'm not just crazy, I would love to lead something like this if only to get it out of my system.

What do the rest of you think?

Thanks,
Alice
P. S. I'm not sure if Sparrow is still doing her writers' workshops, but, if so, I think a program like this could complement them well and would be happy to work with her to facilitate that.

Edit: Fixed typo in P.S.
 
Alice, let's talk!

So, do I have this right? You're reading along in a novel, la, la, la, and suddenly there's a story-wthin-the-story.... or Kris Swank has a Chance Encounter with a Poem... or I'm spelunking through a cave in France and I literally stumble across an inscribed set of riddles... and each of us has fun hunkering down and close-reading them from a writer's perspective, perhaps with collaboration with a colleague.

Then each of us would do a one-shot presentation about the flash or song or poem or mini-novelette (novellinnimus?) speaking as a writer.

Why, yes.
This would be freakin' brilliant!
And these might happen once a term or once a month...

Have I caught your vision, Alice?
Could I, as a writer, do a spot on one of your - Alice's - short pieces? Is that in the mode of your idea?

And YES WriterSpace is happening still - and here's the schedule!
 
Yes that is about it. And you're welcome to present on other Mythgard people's work if that's what's inspired you. The idea came in part from my experience delving into the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics audio archive, which is all online (though listed under "Naropa Institute Poetics Archive"Not totally clear on the institutional relationship there) Most of the basic writer tips are either things I've heard elsewhere or things that get repeated between different recordings, so the main benefit of it has been exposure to diffferent works or fragments of works that I had not previously encountered, but that the poets who inspired me clarly thought worth presenting to a class. Generally the analysis is less academically rigorous than it would be in a s Signum classs, but occassionally I'll get a new perspective on something, or a nice tidbit about the presenter's own work (for example, where Allen Ginsberg got the structure for Part 2 of "Howl," which I believe was from Charles Reznikov if memory serves.)
 
Alice, you're going to love this:

Just as I brought this idea into the Staff Room, Maggie Parke started muttering about "that idea about fan-generated podcast content" that she's been working on. Boom!

If you would write to me at [email protected], I will introduce you to Maggie, who is very excited about this idea and has the oomph and infrastructure to do it!
 
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