This class will be available via livestream. To register for the livestream, click here. To register for in-person, sign up below.
In this craft class, we’ll be talking about the generative potential of becoming strangers to ourselves. How can you treat the “I” on the page as a stranger, somehow tricking or coaxing yourself into regarding that “I” as a stranger, by way of form, or tone, or vantage point, and through that self-estrangement, seeing yourself in new ways? We’ll discuss how playing around with form, perspective, and structure can open up doorways into regarding the self as a stranger: how Dodie Bellamy invents a grieving alter ego (Bee Reaved) to write about mourning her husband; how Vauhini Vara uses AI to write about her sister’s death; and how Anelise Chen writes personal essays from the perspective of a clam (“She hadn’t meant to become a bivalve mollusk, but it happened.”) We’ll discuss some inspiration, do some generative exercises together, and talk widely and freely about getting strange on the page.
