2025 Summer Workshop Program

Paul Lisicky Shadows and Light: Writing Creative Nonfiction July 20 to July 25, 2025 Time 9 am - 12 pm Discipline: Nonfiction/Memoir Open To All On-site Housing NOT Available - Off-site Housing Options

How do we write when we’re questioning the old assumptions and grappling toward the new? How can our work signal both absurdity and grace, shadows and light, emotional and intellectual energy? In this workshop we’ll talk about strategies that feel true to these times. This is a generative workshop, especially for those who have been away from their writing and want to come back. We’ll read some creative nonfiction excerpts and try out some prompts. Along the way we’ll learn to be more perceptive readers, take good care of each other, and make sure gravity and play share the same space.

Biography

Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, and The Narrow Door. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Conjunctions, Fence, The New York Times, The Offing, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Rose Dorothea Award from the Provincetown Library. He is currently a Professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Louisiana.