If you can't find the time to write your novel, your memoir, or your collection of poems, chances are you're a human being living in a society. This weekend-long workshop (itself a time crunch, and that's the point) will teach writers then to "make time," not only to carve out free moments in their day, but to write literary works in response to, and about, the subject of "time." All genres and all levels welcome.

In this generative writing workshop students will learn about writers from several disciplines who write not only about time (the events of James Joyce's monumental "Ulysses" spans 24 hours) but also according to it (Bernadette Mayer's monumental "Midwinter Day" was written in the span of 24 hours). Students will be exposed to works of poetry and prose written under playful time constraints that make time work for them, and students will write in-class and at-home exercises that are time-based and durational. Ultimately, students will, on the practical side, learn strategies to make daily writing an exciting opportunity rather than a chore, and also will plan out and conceive of a project to be completed sometime after the class, whether in a period of years or a period of seconds.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments; provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend.

In this generative poetry-writing workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of the fundamental element of poetry, the line. In what ways does the line stabilize, organize, and make meaning in the poem; in what ways does the line subvert, surprise, and re-make meaning? Can you write a sonnet without lines? How do you write a poem that goes really really fast? How do you slow a line down to a snail’s pace? Is this poem a foreign place, or is it a home // away from home? In 5 days with 5 respective units we will cover:

Unit 1: Starting line (the end of the sentence)

Unit 2: Lineage of the line (whose line is it anyway?)

Unit 3: Alignments (meaningful line arrangements)

Unit 4: Timelines (the line break’s time and space discontinuum)

Unit 5: Lines of flight (is it possible to write outside the lines?)

In each class we will discuss and close-read daily readings for form and technique, we will write in-class generative poetry exercises, and we will share each other’s work. Students will also bring in past work and re-line it in order to re-envision it. Students ultimately will learn not only to reframe their previous works, but to view the creation of poems from a higher, artful, and even more playful level. That said, all levels are welcome.