Collage, Cento, Compost: A Writing Workshop (in-person seminar)

Instructor: Annie Kim
$60 Members | $65 Nonmembers
Sunday, 4/23/23 | 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET

Before signing up for this in-person class, please read the following statement about requirements to enroll:

By registering for an in-person offering, you attest that you have been vaccinated for Covid-19. WriterHouse strongly recommends any student at greater risk for contracting Covid-19 wear a mask. In the event of significant Covid-19 upticks, students must be prepared for the mask policy to change and to transition to a virtual platform if necessary. No refunds will be issued if in-person classes/seminars need to transition online.

Journals, freewrites, abandoned poem drafts, half-baked prose bits. If your notebook is full of these, this class is for you. If you’re stuck and not sure how to move forward with a larger body of work, this class is for you. In this three-hour seminar we’ll experiment with techniques central to collage and cento using our own jumble of words. First, we’ll draw inspiration from some writers who work in fragmentary, cento, collage, and diaristic forms. In the second half of class, we’ll get physical with our own words. Each student will bring 5-10 pages of their own “compostable” writing—any kind of unfinished poetry or prose—to rework. We’ll search these pages for themes and patterns, memorable phrases and sticky images. We’ll cut and re-order, tape and scribble. By the end of this seminar you’ll leave with a clearer idea of how you might repurpose elements of your unpolished writing for finished work. You’ll also have produced a draft poem or two to revise after this class is over.

Requirements: Please bring two copies of 5-10 pages of your own, rough, unpolished writing. For best results, leave space (at least 2-3 lines) between individual sections/stanzas/paragraphs within your work sample. Your sample can include prose (journal entries, text messages, emails, freewrites, essay drafts) and/or poetry, as long as the work overall is unfinished. Be adventurous and eclectic. Feel free to mash together individual lines and paragraphs from completely unrelated pieces.

Annie Kim is the author of Eros, Unbroken (2020), winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award in Poetry and the Washington Poetry Prize, and Into the Cyclorama (2016), winner of the Michael Waters Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Poetry Book of the Year. Kim’s poems have appeared in journals such as Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Review, Kenyon Review, Pleiades, Plume, and Narrative. She is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, consults on local government legal issues, and writes essays for DMQ Review.

Register By Mail: Print the Spring 2023 Registration Form and mail it with your payment to the address on the form.

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