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Using Lyrical Language 6-Week Open Genre Writing Class (Zoom), Starts Monday, April 3rd, 2023
$495.00

Using Lyrical Language 6-Week Open Genre Writing Class (Zoom), Starts Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Starts Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Mondays, 6PM - 8PM CST / 7PM - 9PM EST

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Taught by Leslie Contreras Schwartz, a multi-genre writer, 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, and 2019-2021 Houston Poet Laureate. She is the winner of the 2022 C&R Press Nonfiction Prize for the lyrical memoir, From the Womb of Sky and Earth. Leslie is a poetry and nonfiction faculty member at Alma College’s MFA low-residency program in creative writing.

Storytelling comes alive for readers when they are immersed in the world you create. But prose is not confined to a single style in a piece of writing—it can range from plain-spoken and matter-of-fact to wildly lyrical and imagistic, all for different effects and to elicit a range of emotions from the reader.

In this class, you will learn how to use the tools of poetry to create lyrical moments in your writing that allow you to engage with the most intuitive parts of your creative mind.

This multi-genre workshop is open to writers with all levels of experience; we’ll discuss the concept and practice of the lyric and lyrical language, a mode of writing defined by its emotionally-charged, image-focused and melodic qualities.

We’ll read contemporary poetry and prose by writers such as Jesmyn Ward, Louise Erdrich, Matthew Gavin Frank, and Ross Gay that make use of lyrical language, and we’ll discuss how the writers employ this craft element intentionally to create compelling pieces. In addition to readings, this class will focus on generative writing exercises allowing for practice writing in prose, poetry and hybrid forms.

Our discussions and generative exercises will help students complete one new piece of writing that incorporates lyrical elements. Workshop of these pieces will be held the last two sessions of the class, offering each student feedback that will help make their pieces stronger.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
  • Students will understand the difference between lyrical and other qualities of language and be able to define lyricism.
  • Students will gain an awareness of how writers use lyrical language as a craft device to create compelling poetry or prose.
  • Students will engage with writing lyrically through generative writing exercises, as well as contribute to discussions that develop a deeper understanding of this mode of writing.
TESTIMONIALS:
"I highly recommend working with Leslie Contreras Schwartz if you are looking to be inspired and challenged to do your best writing work. Her constructive and insightful feedback helped me to address major issues in language & style, structure and character development. She encouraged me to write bravely by delving more fully into my protagonist’s struggle with details and description which has resulted in a much more compelling novel. Leslie Contreras Schwartz is a brilliant and talented editor. I am so glad that I asked her to edit my full manuscript."--former student

"I really loved this course (taught by Leslie Contreras Schwartz). I loved the poetry collections that we read in class, I loved the discussions that were generated, and I loved the writing assignments that accompanied our reading. Even though the class was three hours long, it went by really fast."--former student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

  • Class Starts Monday, April 3rd, 2023

  • Classes will meet weekly via Zoom on Mondays, 6PM - 8PM CST / 7PM - 9PM EST

  • This class will skip April 10th for Passover and conclude on May 15th, 2023

If you have questions, please use the Chat Button or contact us via email HERE.

Instructor Leslie Contreras Schwartz is a multi-genre writer, a 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, and the 2019-2021 Houston Poet Laureate. She is the winner of the 2022 C&R Press Nonfiction Prize for the lyrical memoir, From the Womb of Sky and Earth.

She is the author of five collections of poetry, including The Body Cosmos (Mouthfeel Press, 2023); Black Dove / Paloma Negra (FlowerSong Press, 2020), a finalist for 2020 Best Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters; Fuego (St. Julian Press, 2016); and Nightbloom & Cenote (SJP, 2018), a semi-finalist for the 2017 Tupelo Press Dorset Prize, judged by Ilya Kaminsky.

Her work has appeared in AGNI, Missouri Review, Iowa Review, [PANK], Verse Daily, Pleiades, Zocalo Public Square, Gulf Coast, and the anthologies Houston Noir (Akashic Books, 2019), and 2019 Best Small Fiction. Recent work has been featured with the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day.

She has collaborated or been commissioned for poetic projects with the City of Houston, the Houston Grand Opera, and The Moody Center of the Arts at Rice University. Contreras Schwartz is currently a poetry and nonfiction faculty member at Alma College’s MFA low-residency program in creative writing, and a lecturer in creative writing at Rice University. Contreras Schwartz was born in Houston, Texas, with Mexican American and Mexican roots going back several generations in Houston and Texas. She is a graduate of The Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and earned a bachelor’s at Rice University.