Online Writing About Childhood (Ivory) - Summer 2023/ Starts July 22
Meets 6 Saturdays 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. PT
Taught by Philip Ivory
NEW EXERCISES for those who have taken this class before!
NOTE: This class is open to all writers of poetry and prose, including new and returning Writers Studio students. Those who have taken Philip Ivory’s first course of Online Writing About Childhood are welcome and will be exposed to five new exercises created exclusively for this class. Since both classes are comparable in difficulty, new students can choose to start with either Level 1 or 2.
Childhood from the perspective of an adult writer can seem like "another country," a strange land where our powers, responsibilities and perceptions were vastly different. And yet it is the place we all come from. And while the lens through which we viewed the world as children may have seemed innocent and magical, our sensibilities were always vulnerable to the hard truths of encroaching adulthood.
In this class, we will examine techniques and voices crafted by celebrated writers of poetry and prose such as V.S. Naipaul, J.D. Salinger, and Toni Morrison. How did they use imagination and memory to regain a foothold in childhood’s not-so-distant realm, conjuring its wonder, joy, and pain? Whether working in poetry, prose, or creative nonfiction, can we apply similar voices and techniques to our own unique material? Let’s bring the world and experience of childhood to vibrant life again through our creative work.
Each week, students write a two-page exercise based on the week's model. Then, during a two-hour, live Google Meet session, students present their work and receive feedback from their fellow classmates and from the teacher. The last fifteen minutes of the class are spent reading and discussing the following week’s model, using the Writers Studio method of analyzing persona and narrative technique. The Google Meet sessions are not recorded.
Philip Ivory