A New Woman Warrior: Writing Poems on Power, Grief, and Identity (with Joan Kwon Glass) - ONLINE
In her essential feminist book The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston expertly incorporates persona, Chinese folklore imagery & Chinese American experiences to build new notions of a “woman warrior.” How do we write our own journeys of empowerment and loss? In this generative workshop, we will study poems written by other women about our bodies and identities, motherhood and womanhood, grief and silence. Using prompts inspired by The Woman Warrior and readings of work by Anne Sexton, Lucille Clifton, Allison Blevins, Warsan Shire, Sylvia Plath, Rita Mookjerie & Emily Jungmin Yoon, we will write ourselves into the future and into ourselves. Students will come away with drafts of new poems as well as prompts to use when class is over. For writers of all levels. Limited to 12 writers.
WHEN: 2 Hours: Sunday, June 11, 2023 (1 - 3pm EST)
WHERE: Online, via Zoom video conference
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
JOAN KWON GLASS is the author of NIGHT SWIM (Diode Editions, 2022) & three chapbooks including IF RUST CAN GROW ON THE MOON (Milk & Cake Press, 2022). She serves as poet laureate for Milford, CT, as Editor in Chief for Harbor Review & as a Brooklyn Poets mentor. Joan teaches on the faculty of Hudson Valley Writers Center, Brooklyn Poets, Maine Writers Alliance & the International Women’s Writing Guild. Joan’s poems have been published in or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Asian American Writer’s Workshop (The Margins), Rattle, RHINO, Dialogist & elsewhere.
WORKSHOP GOALS
- Understand the ways in which the anchor text “The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston can inspire poems
- Generate new work based on poems and prompts related to the realization of a “new woman warrior.”
- Experiment with form and application of feminist ideas in writing
- Gain insight into how identity, history and imagination can intersect
- Receive verbal feedback on poem drafts during class
- Grow a repertoire of writing habits and a written body of work
RECEIVING THE ZOOM LINK: For one-day workshops, we send out the link to attend the Zoom session 1 - 2 days before the event, via email. For multi-week workshops, you should receive info and the link about a week before the first meeting. Please mark your calendars and look for our emails. If you don't see the email in your inbox on the day before the event (or a few days before, in the case of multi-week workshops), please check your spam and junk mail folders (and search all folders) for an email from joy@pioneervalleywriters.org. We have found that very often our emails end up in those folders. This is based on your own email settings, and you can prevent this by adding our email as a contact.
ONLINE SESSIONS happen remotely, via Zoom video conference. All you need is a laptop, computer, or phone with functioning audio and a webcam. Those who RSVP receive directions and a link to "join" the session via email (please see above note about receiving the Zoom link). All online instructors will log on to the video conference 10 minutes before the start of the session, to help anyone with technical issues, so please plan to log on early if you'd like assistance! We'll do everything in our power to help you get comfortable with this new format, though when the session begins, we will not be able to assist with technical difficulties.
REFUND & CREDIT POLICIES AT PVWW
If you withdraw from a workshop ten days or more before the start of the class: You'll receive full credit toward another workshop OR a full refund. If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive a refund minus 20%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We are not able to offer you credit toward another class or any refund, unless in the case of a medical emergency, or if we are able to fill your spot. If you are absent on the day of your workshop or miss it for any reason, we are unable to offer any kind of refund. If we have to cancel a class for any reason, you will receive a full refund, or if you choose, credit in the amount of your payment, to be used for any future PVWW class. Anyone who does not specify whether they would like a refund or a credit for a cancelled class will automatically be refunded. Please contact Joy (joy@pioneervalleywriters.org) for all matters concerning credit and refunds.