The Writer’s Center presents an informative and inspiring symposium addressing the subject of American identity in literature and popular culture, offering free creative writing workshops followed by a panel discussion. Featured writers include Patricia Coral, Steve Majors, Eman Quotah, and Melissa Scholes Young. The symposium concludes with a reception for all attendees.

All events are FREE and open to the public. Limited space, registration required. The workshops are simultaneous, so please only sign up for ONE. Scroll down to register!

The Workshops | 1:30-3:00pm

Please register for ONE workshop using the form below. Workshop registration includes admission to the panel discussion and reception.

• The Spaces We Inhabit: A Poetic Exploration | Workshop Leader: Patricia Coral
  Whether physical or metaphorical, external or internal, our surroundings and circumstances influence not only our lived experience but also our writing. In this workshop we’ll explore how the spaces we inhabit shape our identity, memory, and creative work. The facilitator will lead you through a variety of experimental and generative exercises to engage with poetry in different ways. All poets and writers are welcome. Please, bring a notebook and writing instrument that are easy to carry with you, and 1-2 pictures (or a small keepsake) that spark memories connected to your identity. Sharing your work is always optional. Facilitation will be in English, but you should feel free to write in the language of your preference.

• American Identity & Memoir | Workshop Leader: Steve Majors
  In a country where race, class, geography, and even political ideology have increasingly become points of division, how do we reconcile our multifaceted identities as Americans in our writing? In this session, we’ll use thought exercises, short writing prompts, and discussion to explore how personal narrative can help us reflect on those things that divide and unite us and foster understanding and connection.

• Mapping Stories for Structure & Revision (Fiction) | Workshop Leader: Melissa Scholes Young
  In this workshop, we’ll consider craft approaches to structure in stories and the role of revision. From beat sheets to heroine journey models to world building, we’ll discuss creating our own maps for the stories we most want to tell.

• American(s) Abroad & Other(s) in America (Mixed Genre) | Workshop Leader: Eman Quotah
  What happens when we and/or our characters/personas/narrators take our American identities abroad? What happens when we bring our “foreign” identities to “American soil”? Through stimulating discussion and writing exercises, we’ll muddle the difference between narratives/poetics of travel and narratives/poetics of (im)migration. (It’s all movement.) We’ll explore how to write ethically, thoughtfully, and truthfully about strangeness and acceptance in strange and familiar places. Participants will leave with inspiration for a poem, story, or essay that takes readers on a journey.

Please register for ONE workshop using the form below. Workshop registration includes admission to the panel discussion and reception.

The Panel | 3:15-4:15pm

To attend the panel and reception, please register for one of the workshops, or you can choose the panel-only option below.

• Our workshop leaders will be leading a conversation on American Identity. Reception to follow.

The Participants

Patricia Coral is a bilingual Puerto Rican writer. She holds an MFA in creative writing from American University, where she received the Myra Sklarew Award and where she was Editor-in Chief of FOLIO. She writes creative nonfiction and poetry, but frequently her words find their home in between. The former events director for Politics and Prose, she has contributed to numerous literary magazines and is the author of the forthcoming memoir Women Surrounded by Water.

Steve Majors is the author of High Yella: A Modern Family Memoir and the forthcoming graphic novel, Light Bright. Steve’s writing explores issues of race, class, culture and identity and his personal essays have been published in national outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, CNN.com and NBC Think. Steve’s writing skills were honed as a journalist. For many decades he worked as a TV producer, first in major TV markets across the country, and then in New York where he held successive leadership positions at CNBC, MSNBC and NBC’s Weekend TODAY show. Most recently, he’s led marketing and communications for national nonprofits. He is currently chief of external affairs at Teach For America. He’s a vocal advocate on behalf of youth issues and in that capacity has been interviewed by the Washington Post and appeared on NPR, MSNBC and NBC/Current.

Eman Quotah‘s debut novel, Bride of the Sea (Tin House), won the 2022 Arab American Book Award for fiction. Her essays, short stories, and book reviews have appeared in Literary Hub, The Rumpus, The Markaz Review, and other publications.

Melissa Scholes Young is the author of the award-winning novels Flood and The Hive. She received the Shelf Unbound Best Book Award in 2021 and the Next Generation Indie Book Award in 2023. She’s published two chapbooks, Scrap Metal Baby and Guinea Pig. She serves as Editor of Grace in Darkness, Furious Gravity, and Grace in Love, anthologies by women writers and directs the From the Attic online series. Her nonfiction has appeared in the Atlantic, Ms., Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, and Believer Magazine. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo Foundation, the Center for Mark Twain Studies, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Humanities Truck. Born and raised in Hannibal, Missouri and a first-generation student, she is Professor in the Literature Department of American University where she directs the undergraduate creative writing program.

If you need an accommodation for this event, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.

Please register for ONE workshop using the form below. Workshop registration includes admission to the panel discussion and reception.

If a workshop is full, you can join the waitlist by sending an email to amy.freeman@writer.org specifying the workshop you’re interested in attending.

Source:: https://writer.org/event/american-identity-through-a-literary-lens/