Personal Landscapes: The Braided Essay
$230
When we write about our own personal experiences, our griefs and losses and joys, it can be difficult to find a foothold into the topic. As with any climb, it’s best to place your foot, one in front of the other, look for a groove, maybe the impression of where you’ve walked before. In this workshop we will read braided essays by contemporaries such as Terese Marie Mailhot, Kyo Maclear, Rebecca Solnit and Melissa Matthewson who show that the landscapes we traverse are the exact right starting point to explore our own stories and when we braid our important places with our own experience, the result can be an extraordinary juxtaposition, leaving behind an unimaginable deer trail for others to follow. We will spend time discussing the writing of others, exploring our own personal landscapes, and working toward a complete braided personal essay by the end.
Access Program
We want our writing classes 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 seminar 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.
Shilo Niziolek
Shilo Niziolek is the author of Fever, atrophy (Querencia Press), and Pigeon House, forthcoming from Querencia Press, A Thousand Winters In Me (Gasher Press), I Am Not An Erosion: Poems Against Decay (Ghost City Press), and Dirt Eaters (Bottlecap Press). Her work has appeared in Pork Belly Press, Juked, Entropy, Oregon Humanities, HerStry,and Phoebe Journal, among others. Shilo is a writing instructor at Clackamas Community College and is the editor and co-founder of the literary magazine, Scavengers. Find her on Instagram @shiloniziolek.
