Creative writing is a tool for knowing yourself, understanding the world, and connecting with other people. Led by author Seema Reza and accomplished guest writers—including poets, memoirists, novelists, and storytellers—these generative community workshops follow the model developed by Community Building Art Works (CBAW) over the course of a decade of bringing people together in military and hospital settings. Each workshop is designed to help participants put their personal stories on paper in a supportive environment.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been writing for years, you are welcome; no experience is required. Bring a pen, a notebook, and an open mind!

Memory as Lyric, as Inheritance with Nathan Xavier Osorio

About This Workshop
In this generative workshop we will write deeply to consider how poetry transforms personal and public memory to enact alternate histories, exercise identity, and embody ways of thinking and being. Using our writing practices as creative and critical tools, we will examine how, why, and to what effect memory in poetry can be experienced. We will ask questions like, “What histories can multiple languages reveal in a poem?” “Can we reanimate a (cyber, spiritual, or othered) place in a prose poem?” or “Can the poem be a manual for remembering?”

Nathan Xavier Osorio’s debut collection of poetry, Querida, was selected by Shara McCallum as the winner of the 2024 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. He is the author of The Last Town Before the Mojave, selected by Oliver De la Paz as a recipient of the Poetry Society of America’s 2021 Chapbook Fellowship. He received his PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His writing has also appeared in Notre Dame Review, The Offing, Boston Review, Public Books, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. His writing and teaching have been supported by fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, The Kenyon Review, and Poetry Foundation. He is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Irvine. Find Nathan on Instagram.

This workshop will be recorded and a link to the recorded version is available for registered participants only, upon request. The recorded version is edited for participant privacy and focuses on the instructor’s lessons. Our partners at Strathmore want these workshops to be as accessible as possible, so they are priced as “pay what you can.” You will be prompted to enter an amount of your choice when you register. (If you are registering for free, please enter $0.) If you are able to pay for these workshops, every dollar goes to support Strathmore’s education programs.

REGISTER HERE