Class Description
Home is where we’re from, what and who we’re from. Home can shape us beyond perception into who we are and who we become. Toni Morrison once likened writers to the Mississippi River, which was redirected and often floods in its search for its original path. “Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our ‘flooding’.
In this generative writing class, we will interrogate the power of place, and how we remember the places we’ve been and called home. We will think about “home” as location, emotion, people, things, but most importantly, home as narrative. Using readings and class discussion, we will examine a variety of approaches to writing about home, and we will explore specific craft techniques that will form home on the page. Readings will include work by Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Kiese Laymon and Jaquira Diaz. Students will leave the class having learned of craft techniques and various approaches on writing about home, and generative writing on place.
Writers of all genres and forms are welcome.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.