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Writing The Hard Stuff: Telling Your Story Without Wholly Losing Your Mind, Thursday, June 29th, 2023
Regular price
$75.00

Writing The Hard Stuff: Telling Your Story Without Wholly Losing Your Mind, Thursday, June 29th, 2023


Unit price per

Thursday, June 29th, 2023

The class will meet on 6/29 via Zoom, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST

Open to All writers!

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

Taught by Blaise Allysen Kearsley, a Black-biracial writer and teacher based in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, Longreads, the Boston Globe, Electric Literature's The Nervous Breakdown, Elle, Midnight Breakfast, The Weeklings, and in the anthologies Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic, Nonwhite and Woman, and Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, And Abandoned Rock Operas. Blaise is a contributing editor at Vestal Review, the oldest flash fiction journal on the planet.

How do you make your difficult or traumatic experiences interesting to somebody else? How do you avoid victim overload in your narrative? Does humor have a place in the darkness? How do you write about people who didn't ask to be written about? How do you put the hard stuff on the page without torturing yourself? What level of safety do you need? How do you even know if you're ready?

The process of putting our truth on the page can easily become overwhelming in myriad ways. It gets complicated. Sometimes we get triggered. We cringe. We freeze. We procrastinate. We resist. In this intensive, we'll try to unpack all of these issues using in-class writing and turning to writers like Vanessa Martír, Lee Martin, Kiese Laymon, Camonghne Felix, Peter Balakian, and more.

What stories have you tucked away? What needs to come out? What are the risks worth taking?

TAKE THIS CLASS IF:

  • You're wrestling with memory gaps and you don't know how to get unblocked or where to begin.    
  • You're finding yourself emotionally resistant to the work.    
  • You wonder if these are the stories you should be telling.    
  • You want to be exposed to different tools and a range of approaches for your writing practice.    
  • You want an expanded sense of what is possible in your work in 2023 and beyond.

TESTIMONIALS:

"I love the readings we do, and especially that they so often feature writers of color. The written feedback from you is always so helpful and in-depth. The prompts helped me to develop a lot of content. I always look forward to workshop nights -- it's a safe space to share."

"I felt so often in college, that I was writing against these very confident men who were forthcoming about the problems within my work and style. Working in your group has been restorative and has allowed me to trust myself without fear of being torn apart."

"Working with Blaise has made me a more confident writer. She's helped me to see my writing as a larger work, and creates a safe, inclusive, encouraging space to share and connect with other writers."

"Blaise is such a skilled reader and editor, and her notes are always valuable. She offers wonderful perspectives, and assembles groups of writers with keen perspectives of their own."

"I really loved the class. You treat every question with such a genuine desire to give the best possible answer and it made me happy every time. I admire that you focus on building people up. For someone like me, that means the world."

"During quarantine I had to show up for myself and others who counted on me, even when I felt like all I wanted to do was hide under my couch. Being part of this creative group of writers saved me."

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class meets via Zoom. Come prepared for an engaging class with live interaction on Zoom!

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.
  • Instructor: Blaise Allysen Kearsley
  • Thursday, June 29th, 2023
  • The class will meet on 6/29 via Zoom, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST
  • Course is fully ONLINE.

Instructor Blaise Allysen Kearsley is a Black-biracial writer and teacher based in Brooklyn. She comes from a long line of teachers, builders, visual artists, and writers. Her writing has appeared in Longreads, the Boston Globe, Electric Literature's The Nervous Breakdown, Elle, Midnight Breakfast, The Weeklings, and in the anthologies Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. (Simon Spotlight Entertainment) and Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, And Abandoned Rock Operas (Crown Archetype). She has essays forthcoming in Catapult and the anthology Nonwhite and Woman in February 2022. She is the creator/producer/host of the How I Learned storytelling series and has performed at The Moth, Literary Death Match, Risk, and The Liar Show. Blaise is a contributing editor at Vestal Review, the oldest flash fiction journal on the planet. Learn more about Blaise here.