24PearlStreet Workshops
ASYNCHRONOUS
In this workshop, we will discuss how prose narratives can benefit from poetic techniques, how expanding the use of poetic principles—from metaphor to repetition, space, juxtaposition, accrual, lists, and rhyme—can deepen the experience of writing and reading creative nonfiction. What is the lyric essay? How can we use a “volta” to surprise ourselves and our readers? This generative class will be a discussion of craft at the line level. We will do writing exercises and create several “after” drafts for you to share with the class and develop when our time together is done.
Biography
Deborah Jackson Taffa is the director of the MFA CW program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. Winner of the PEN Jean Stein Grant, her memoir WHISKEY TENDER is forthcoming from HarperCollins Harper in 2023. A recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Tin House, Public Space, Rona Jaffe, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City where she earned her MFA degree in Creative Writing, she is a citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo. Her work can be found in the Boston Review, LARB, A Public Space, Salon, and elsewhere.
