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 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!
Registration closes at 4pm before each session so we can prepare. Please make sure you're subscribed to Strathmore emails.
Thu, June 15 | 7pm ET
A New Pair of Eyes
with Brendan Constantine
Poet Brendan Constantine presents a generative workshop for writers at all levels. Perhaps the most valuable tool to any poet is a habit of seeing the world as if for the first time and to expect everything from it." Participants will create new poems while learning daily practices to cultivate 'creative astonishment,' the key to writing poems that connect. No previous skill is necessary. Sufferers of 'Writer's Block' strongly encouraged.
Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in many standards including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Prairie Schooner, and Poem-a-Day. His most recent collections are ‘Dementia, My Darling’ (2016) from Red Hen Press and ‘Bouncy Bounce’ (2018) a chapbook from Blue Horse Press. He has received support and commissions from the Getty Museum, LACMA, MOCA, the James Irvine Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR's All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. He currently teaches creative writing at the Windward School and, since 2017, has been developing poetry workshops for people with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injuries.
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Thu, July 20 | 7pm ET
Telling Your Truth: Introduction to Memoir Writing
with Kayla M. Williams
Everyone has a story to tell - but are you ready to tell your own? Kayla Williams, who has published personal narratives as well as academic and opinion pieces, will lead a writing workshop for those interested in autobiographical writing. In addition to participating in generative exercises, participants will explore considerations for choosing between genres and publication options. No previous experience is required; beginners are welcome.
Kayla M. Williams was enlisted for five years as an Arabic linguist, serving in a Military Intelligence company of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). She authored the memoirs Love My Rifle More Than You and Plenty of Time When We Get Home, both published by W. W. Norton. Ms. Williams has also published numerous essays and op-eds, as well as fiction, poetry, and research reports. Kayla has a BA in English Literature from Bowling Green State University and an MA in International Affairs from American University.
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Thu, August 17 | 7pm ET
Borrowing a Form to Break into Your Story
with Carla Rachel Sameth and Shuly Xóchitl Cawood
Is there a particular story that’s been bouncing around in your head and you can’t find the way in? In this workshop, we’ll look at different frames and containers that other writers have used to tell their story. You’ll then spend time writing your own piece, matching form and theme.
Carla Rachel Sameth is the Co-Poet Laureate for Altadena, CA 2022-2024. Her chapbook, What Is Left was published December 2021 with dancing girl press and her memoir, One Day on the Gold Line was reissued by Golden Foothills Press in 2022. Her full-length poetry collection is forthcoming November 2023 from Nymeria Publishing. Her writing on blended/unblended, queer, multiracial, and single parent families appears in a variety of publications. Her story “Graduation Day at Addiction High,” which originally appeared in Narratively, was also selected for Longread’s “Five Stories on Addiction.” Carla’s work has been selected three times as Notable Essays of the Year in Best American Essays. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. a Pasadena Rose Poet, a West Hollywood Pride Poet, and a former PEN Teaching Artist, Carla teaches creative writing to high school and university students and has taught incarcerated youth.
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is the author of several books, including the flash essay collection What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said, winner of the 2022 Iron Horse Literary Review Chapbook Competition, and Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. Her latest poetry collection, Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough, is forthcoming with Press 53. Shuly has an MFA in creative writing, and her work has been published in The New York Times, The Sun, and Brevity.
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Thu, September 21 | 7pm ET
Elegy as Epiphany: How Grief Leads to Illumination
with Rosebud Ben-Oni
In this workshop, we will examine how loss, sorrow and rituals of mourning can lead to revelations that we otherwise could not reach. We will examine work by Penelope Cray and Natasha Trethewey, and then through a series of exercises, write work that draws upon your own revelations that leads to deeper truths, as you delve deep into the disquiet.
Rosebud Ben-Oni is the author of several collections of poetry, including If This Is the Age We End Discovery (March 2021), which won the Alice James Award and was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She has received fellowships and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, City Artists Corps, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, CantoMundo and Queens Council on the Arts. Her work appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Society of America (PSA), The Poetry Review (UK), Poetry Wales, Tin House, Guernica, Electric Literature, among others. Her poem "Poet Wrestling with Angels in the Dark" was commissioned by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in NYC, and her poem “Dancing with Kiko on the Moon” was featured in Tracy K. Smith’s The Slowdown. In May 2022, Paramount commissioned her video essay “My Judaism is a Wild Unplace" for a campaign for Jewish Heritage Month, which appeared on Paramount Network, MTV Networks, The Smithsonian Channel, VH1 and many others. In January 2023, she performed at Carnegie Hall on International Holocaust Memorial Day, as part “We Are Here: Songs From The Holocaust.”
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Thu, October 19 | 7pm ET
How to Takeoff—Borrowing from Flight to Write Flash
with Laura Joyce-Hubbard
The blank page is like a long stretch of runway before us. But how do we get going? And after liftoff, where do we go from there? Borrowing from the process and mindset of a pilot approaching a flight, we will look at a variety of flash pieces to chart our own writing-flight-plans for a single essay or story. We’ll engage our writerly brains with tools from aviation—approaching this generative writing session with the three critical phases of flight in mind: takeoff, cruise, and landing. After reading and discussing several flash pieces, we’ll borrow tools from flight to generate our own flash “takeoffs.” Whether new to writing or experienced in the craft, you’ll leave this workshop with a pilot “kitbag” of literary craft tools –– and a new way to think about your writing plans and goals.
Laura Joyce-Hubbard flew C-130s in the U. S. Air Force and Boeing 757-767s as a commercial pilot. She’s the winner of The Iowa Review’s 2022 veteran writing award. Her essays and poetry have been featured in Boulevard, Creative Nonfiction, Ninth Letter, The Sewanee Review, Southeast Review, and elsewhere, and she received a “notable” mention in Best American Essays 2022. Laura has received fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation and VCCA via the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a fiction editor for TriQuarterly and lives in Highland Park, IL, with her family. Twitter: @laurajoyhub
REGISTERRegistration closes at 4pm before each session so we can prepare. Please make sure you're subscribed to Strathmore emails.
Check back soon for more information on instructors for the remaining dates.
Seema Reza is the author of the poetry collection A Constellation of Half-Lives and the memoir When the World Breaks Open. Reza has led writing workshops within correctional facilities, military and civilian hospitals, and schools. She is the Executive Director of Community Building Art Works, a unique arts organization that encourages the use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care, and socialization among a military population struggling with emotional and physical injuries.