summer ‘24 writing workshops (& more)
Where have I been the past two years? Primarily at business school, but I’m proud to say that I’ve completed a mini-MFA alongside my MBA, comprised of actual MFA courses taken at Columbia as well as two workshops from this summer. I’m pleased that these experiences have really transformed my craft ability along with providing new footholds into the literary world - there are so many talented creatives who are also great people out there, and I am privileged to be living in one of the best cities to meet them. I’ll now list my travails in chronological order and then expand on the impact of each:
Anelise Chen’s Scandal of Particularity seminar, Fall 2023
Leslie Jamison’s The Self lecture, Spring 2024
Kenyon Review Writers Workshop with Matthew Neill Null, June 2024
New York State Summer Writers Institute with Madeline Miller, July 2024
My first foray into the Columbia MFA department was aided by Anelise Chen, and I am very thankful to her for guiding my path through the morass of interdepartmental enrollment admin. I enrolled in The Scandal of Particularity after a year of emailing other MFA professors to help me and a couple of failed attempts due to the schools not communicating with each other. The seminar focused on Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and was accompanied by weekly writing exercises and experiential field trips. We did not receive actual feedback on our exercises throughout the course, which would have been valuable, and the schedule was a bit wonky on the whole, but I enjoyed this initial look into a different type of graduate student lifestyle.
——————--
I wish I could say that enrolling in Leslie’s course was easier, but it was as frustrating and last-minute as my previous experience. Anyway, more than worth the repeated emails and back and forth with the writing department’s admin (who I thought would have been familiar with this given that we had just gone through the same thing in the fall). We explored the many iterations of writing the self, from the shameful to the mundane to the joyful. Leslie’s teaching is like therapy (Alice and katie who ‘audited’ a significant portion of the course as well would certainly attest to this), her writing is equally soothing but often poetically heart-wrenching. She is a deeply gifted writer and human that abounds in empathy and I am so lucky to have interfaced with her. Read Splinters y’all.
——————--
Kenyon was by far the most transformative experience I’ve ever had with my writing - of course, grain of salt is that I was not an English major and had never had my work truly workshopped before. I felt very intimidated showing up to the Gambier, OH campus after reading the bio book of the other ~120 participants who all seemed to have accolades upon accolades, attended the most prestigious MFA programs and workshops in existence, on top of multiple publications. My imposter syndrome heightened before the first day of workshop wherein all of our previously submitted work was read aloud and critiqued by said individuals. Once I crossed that initial hump with some relief, the real punishment began: every day began at 8:30 AM sharp, meaning breakfast and writing had to be completed before then, then an afternoon free for writing for the next day, followed by dinner and evening public readings. The ‘free time’ was quickly swallowed by other admin, receptions and social events that popped up, and of course meals and chatter with other participants in the decidedly collegiate dining hall (swarmed by swim camp teens). I thought I’d have ample time to work out, but only managed two runs across the week and unfortunately sprained my ankle on the second one, making it slow and painful to traverse the campus to class.
While the schedule of events and adjusting to using my brain intensely was difficult (definitely not accustomed to this post bschool), there were many gratifying moments as well. My workshop was blessed to have Matthew Neill Null as our teaching faculty and Avigayl Sharp as our fellow, two incredible and giving instructors. The participants were also very inspiring to me, coming from all walks of life professionally and age range. We definitely formed close bonds over the week and everyone had their own distinct style of writing that became apparent after the first few days. I’m really looking forward to purchasing my classmates’ work in the near future - and I already have had the pleasure of doing so with other folks’ work I met at Kenyon. Personally, I grew in confidence after the many rounds of feedback and my first public reading of my work. Leaving was bittersweet as I felt both drained and motivated (perhaps short term vs long term brain). I would absolutely recommend Kenyon to anyone interested in idea generation, heartfeltly focusing on their craft, and meeting some of the brightest minds in writing.
———————
The NYS workshop was a weeklong virtual workshop focusing on a previously submitted work of mythological or historical fiction. Madeline Miller’s star power was the primary draw here, as I typically write speculative fiction on the longer form end. I was a bit disappointed that the week ended up being three 3-hour chunks where we workshopped one or two people’s writing each day, with about an hour of craft talk at the beginning. Madeline is an excellent lecturer and has obvious expertise on all things myth and history, and I did learn a thing or two around the genre. I wrote an adaptation of the Chinese creation myth of Pangu earlier in the summer, which was a good exercise in something new, and the feedback I received was valuable enough. I don’t know that I would necessarily pay for this experience again, but it was interesting enough this time.
——————-
So.. what now? I’ve had my fill of these organized experiences and likely won’t attend another workshop or conference until 2025. However, on a self-guided note, am currently on Week 3 of The Artist’s Way with my artists in crime (Alice & katie), and I’ve been pleased with the results so far. Full report to come mid-late October when we finish the program.
