Dear ones!
Do you feel disassociated or out of touch with your body but still want to write? This class will help you ground back into the healing wisdom of your body through somatic exercises and mindfulness meditations led by Beth Brewer (LCSW). I’ll offer generative creative writing prompts with positive feedback only. There is no “workshop” component of this class.
I’ll be teaching mostly creative non-fiction and poetry with a dash of fiction as you can see from the tentative syllabus below. We’ll be using “Writing as a Way of Healing” by Louise DeSalvo as our textbook, but I left those chapters out for now so you could see the creative writing selections clearly.
WEEK ONE:
INTROS
“Sacred Carnality” by Mary Karr
“I Go Back to May 1937” by Sharon Olds
“Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
WEEK TWO:
SIGHT
“The Spine” by Sarah Rose Etter
“Autopsy Report” by Lia Purpura
WEEK THREE:
SMELL
“My Brick Be Foul” by Patricia Smith
“Mint” by Christine Hyung Oak-Lee
WEEK FOUR:
SOUND
“I Saw God/Or Tangerine Dream” by Lester Bangs
“The Fine Art of Sighing” by Bernard Cooper
“My Life with Cheetahs” by Brendan Sheehan
“The Quiet Machine” by Ada Limon
“Arrythmia” by Hailey Leithouser
WEEK FIVE:
TOUCH
“The Weight of Water” by Roxane Gay
“Gravity, Reduced” by Kara Oakleaf
WEEK SIX:
TASTE
“Eating Flamin Hot Cheetohs at Mom’s Grave” by Jessica Tanck
“Some Nights” by Charles Simic
Other readings TBA