~an all levels craft-based generative workshop~

instructor: Allison Field Bell

For me, writing has always been based in my experience. I often joke that I exploit myself for my work. This is funny and also true. And my dirty little secret: writing my trauma actually helps me heal my trauma. Thus, this generative workshop is about healing as much as it is about writing flash creative nonfiction (CNF). Why flash? I’ve found flash to be liberating. The brevity of the form (under 1000 words), the necessary sharpness of language, the potential for fragmentation, and the ability to experiment with different forms. I can write a draft in one sitting. If I hate it, I can toss it. It’s low stakes to write. But also packed full of the highest stakes to read. A good flash CNF is a gut punch. It makes us feel. It makes us laugh, cry, rage, revel. It makes us remember. And this workshop is also about remembering. It’s about working through old wounds, finding beauty and pain and catharsis and letting all of that onto the page. But it's not at all therapy: it’s art.

This course is designed to be an all levels workshop but fair warning: it is an in-depth look at form. I can get in the weeds with language and thoughts about language. And I do believe feeling intellectually challenged is part of the learning process.