HAVING AND KEEPING A BEAUTIFUL MIND

This class, in the words of Nikki Finney, is about having and keeping a beautiful mind — which is essential to building an art practice that can change or deepen how we see the world and who we are inside of it.

We’ll begin by cataloguing our obsessions, and open into various texts and writing prompts designed to exercise our creative impulses and integrate the strange and beautiful practices of deep observation and connection into the fabric of our daily lives. The obsessions that we name in the first week of class will serve as guardrails for how to engage prompts going forward. The readings for this course will be derived from books where the authors are, in some way, keeping a notebook, for example,  Fasting for Ramadan, by Kazim Ali; Nox, by Anne Carson; What It Is by Lynda Barry.

In-class discussion and creative response will be supplemented by weekly generative writing homework designed to deepen our observation practices and empower us to interpret the world around us as lyric.

Together we will work towards bolstering our sense of wonder, our reverence for the writing process, and our eye for the bewilderment of the every-day. By the end of the class, you will have created a pillow-book as a keepsake of your process that you can return to over time.

Access Program

We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class and Delve tuitions at a reduced rate. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available.

Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.