"I am trying to check my habits of seeing, to counter them for the sake of greater freshness. I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I'm doing." - John Cage


Monday, January 23, 2017

And tonight I wanted to read a sonnet that fights

“First fight. Then fiddle”
I love the sonnet form, how it can be used to ponder an argument, using the turn and the 14 line constraint to strengthen the paradox or conflict. This wonderful sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks was chosen by Robert Pinsky in response to the 2016 election for a piece in Slate.com.    

 (Gwendolyn Brooks, from The Womanhood, 1949)
                       4

First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note
With hurting love; the music that they wrote
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing
For the dear instrument to bear. Devote
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering.
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate
In front of you and harmony behind.
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.
Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late
For having first to civilize a space
Wherein to play your violin with grace.
According to Robert Pinsky, "Gwendolyn Brooks’ sonnet from her sequence The Womanhood uses that form to present the relation between art and battle, with their related priorities and demands: a practical, urgent struggle for a black woman poet of Brooks’ lifetime. “To arms, to armor,” she writes, with her fluent mastery of the sonnet form enacting a victory."
Read the four poems from the past that Robert Pinsky collected for readers at Slate.com in response to the 2016 election.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Four Thursday nights in February: The Business of Writing: How to Be a Writer Who Publishes

This 4 week class at Sierra College Truckee Campus features guest speakers from our community and surrounding areas who are successful journalists, editors, published authors, marketing and ad copy writers, novelists, researchers, and free-lancers. In intimate discussion you'll be able to hear the details of how they developed the business side of their writing career, ask questions about your own projects and get resources for how to follow through from idea to book.

Through info-packed presentations and discussion, handouts with resources and talks with visiting authors, you’ll learn the ins and outs of writing and publishing. Discover tips for working with an editor, freelancing, managing your author platform including blogging and social media, writing query letters and navigating the many details of the publishing world, and maybe a few secrets of the trade. We’ll also cover opportunities at conferences, workshops and retreats, how to be a good reader at events, the painless way to handle submissions and rejections and how to get involved and promoting yourself in the literary community.

Friday, January 13, 2017

New generative creative writing workshop starts January 16th

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect." - Audre Lorde

Because of our beautiful winter storm this past week or two, you didn't miss our first meeting. The new 1/16 - 2/20 Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop starts this Monday 1/16! A fun and generative workshop.  Do you wish you wrote more? Want to feel a sense of community when you write? Want to start a book or finish a book? Want to become a craftier writer?

With a different focus on technique and creativity each week, we discuss, read, and write from a series of progressive prompts.  You will write new surprising material each week.

Craft, technique, and prompts for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A kick in the butt for your writing life! Connect with a community and improve your writing practice. Tea and chocolate provided. Mondays from 6:00 to 8 pm. $150. Downtown Truckee.