6-week online class via Zoom
Thursdays, May 23 – June 27, 2024
7 pm ET
$175 Patreon Members / $190 General Admission

What is a ghost if not spirit energy yearning for form and expression? In our time together, we’ll create new writing in response to a mix of prompts and constraints that help us peer beyond the veil. Each week, we’ll explore a range of structures capable of hosting ghosts, from epistolary to erasure, concrete shapes, the haunted dialogues of contrapuntals, and the glorious twisting and (re)turning form of obsession: the sestina. What’s following us? What can we not bear to let go of? What can we finally put to rest? Let’s find out.

In this class we will:

• Create new writing inspired by narrative prompts and constraint-based forms

• Explore the multifaceted experience of living, death, loss, grief, obsession, and haunting with vulnerability, humor, and grace

• Strengthen powers of perception, reflection, curiosity, and inquiry through writing

• Expand awareness of and connection to other beings, living and dead

• Discover the work of new writers and support and inspire each other as peers

Weekly Themes:

Week 1: What is a ghost? - In our first gathering, we’ll create a space where spirits can rise. We’ll explore the techniques of ekphrasis and S+7, a literary constraint devised by the Oulipo workshop.

Week 2: Haunts - We’ll attempt new ways of looking at the modern world, a realm the poet Joyelle McSweeney describes as “the Necropastoral.” Literary approaches of mirrors, doubling, and twinning will help us release the spirits within.

Week 3: Ghosting - When things fall apart, what remains? What ghosts are born when relationships end? We’ll apply several erasure-based constraints to explore what remains to grasp.

Week 4: Souls Departed - Many cultures commemorate the departed through annual ceremony and ritual. We’ll celebrate those who have passed by crafting concrete shapes to hold their essences; the medium of contrapuntals will allow us to speak with them once more.

Week 5: Obsession - This week, we’ll revel in what we can’t let go of via the tautogram form, then we’ll summit the mountain of obsessions by pouring our spirits into sestinas.

Week 6: Release - In our final gathering, we’ll stitch torn edges with centos, bury what needs rest in acrostics and abecedarians, and explore the release afforded by clinamen, the intentional breaking of form.

No prerequisite knowledge or skills needed, except for a curious mind and a willingness to experiment with writing.

Attendees will receive a weekly recap, ideas for continuing our in-class work, and related enrichments from the literary world and beyond. In an effort to nurture real-time engagement and community-building amongst attendees, this class will not be recorded.

Image: Toyen, New Year's Eve Greetings (detail), 1945