A 1-Day Multigenre Writing Workshop
Thursday, May 21, 6-9 PM
“Change, personal and political, does not come about in a day, nor a year. But it is our day-to-day decisions, the way in which we testify with our lives to those things in which we say we believe, that empower us. Your power is relative, but it is real. And if you do not learn to use it, it will be used, against you, and me, and our children. Change did not begin with you, and it will not end with you, but what you do with your life is an absolutely vital piece of that chain.”
– Audre Lorde, from a 1989 speech at Oberlin College
What can we do in our day-to-day to hone and wield our voices, to roll out the changes we believe our communities need? Writing can be applied to many things – protest signs, letters to senators and representatives, op-eds, poems, resistance song lyrics, flyers and t-shirts, podcasts and speeches, and testimonials at town and city halls. Join a legacy of resistance taking cues from the brilliant voices ahead of us: Bayard Rustin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Pablo Neruda, Angela Davis, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Paul Robeson, MLK Jr., Liu Xiaobo, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and more.
Each week, an accomplished writing instructor will bring their own expertise, resources, generative prompts, and guidance. This week features author and teacher Leila Nadir:
Lyric essays break from traditional form by experimenting with musicality, nonlinearity, poetry, myth, speculation, fragmentation, association––because the essay content demands an innovative structure, especially when our stories are haunted by absences caused by injustice, erasures, silences, overwhelm, loss, violence, frustration, and anger. This seminar will study and practice one lyric essay form in particular: the Ready-Made Resistance Essay (more popularly known as the "hermit crab" essay).
The Ready-Made Resistance Essay adopts a found or ready-made structure from our every lives––grocery lists, prescription forms, media articles, professional documents (the possibilities are infinite)––and inhabits, disrupts, and occupies them with our own lived experiences. The Ready-Made form creates an automatic structure that performs liminality, belonging and unbelonging, truth and propaganda, unsettling power, narrative, and history. We will look at essays by Gwendolyn Wallace's "Math 1619," Nadia Owusu's "Refugee Resettlement Form," Rowan McCandless's "Blood Tithes: A Primer," and more, and through generative exercises, students will leave with a draft of their own ready-made resistance essay that will act as a personal-political document of the hypocrisies and horrors, and the possibilities for critique, creativity, and liberation, of our times.
$60 Members/$85 Nonmembers
Leila Christine Nadir Leila Christine Nadir is an award-winning nonfiction writer and community-engaged artist. As a educator, editor, and writing coach, she works with writers seeking to develop their voices and learn research and craft strategies to unearth personal and cultural stories that will resonate off the page across culture. A 2023 MWPA Ashley Bryan Fellow and 2024 Maine Lit Fest Fellow, she is the recipient of additional awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Periplus, de Groot Foundation, Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, Tin House, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and more. Her essays have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), among other places. Leila is represented by Ayesha Pande of Ayesha Pande Literary and lives with her partner and dog in Maine. Connect with her online at www.leilanadir.com, Instagram @leila.c.nadir, or Substack @leilanadir.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
All MWPA workshops require advanced registration. We accept registration by phone, mail, and online via our website. We cannot guarantee registration in the final 24-hours before a workshop, and can rarely accommodate day-of registration.
PAYMENT & CANCELLATION POLICIES
If you need to withdraw from a class after registering for any reason, please email or call the MWPA immediately. You may be eligible for a partial refund or credit, depending on how far in advance you cancel. → MORE INFORMATION
QUESTIONS
For any questions regarding this workshop, please contact programs@mainewriters.org.
REGISTER BY PHONE
Call 207-200-7180 and register with your VISA or MasterCard.
REGISTER BY MAIL
If you prefer to pay by mail, please print this registration form (downloadable PDF) and mail it to the MWPA with a check or credit card information.
SCHOLARSHIP
The MWPA is proud to offer one partial scholarship to this workshop for members-only. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of need and merit. Application Due two weeks prior to the workshop start date, at 9:00 a.m.
→ MORE INFORMATION
MWPA WORKSHOP POLICIES
Registration in any MWPA workshop, program, or event constitutes your agreement to our terms and conditions. → MORE INFORMATION