With Johanna Skibsrud
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Weโre often told, โwrite what you know!โ but we donโt often pause to reflect on what that really meansโor what kind of challenge that phrase extends to us as writers. Everything we know of the worldโwhatever we encounter of it through direct or mediated experience, as well as everything weโve ever dreamed about, feared, or imaginedโcan become the material for writing. Whether weโre working on a science fiction novel or an autobiography, thinking of knowledge and experience in these broad terms may enrich our writing and expand our ways of knowing both ourselves and the world around us. This workshop will propose numerous creative exercises with an emphasis on embodiment and play. The overall aim will be to build a concrete skill-set for increased attention to what we may not yet even realize we know.
Johanna Skibsrud is an award-winning Canadian writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her numerous titles include the Giller-prize winning novel, The Sentimentalists (Gaspereau 2010; Penguin Random House 2016), a book of essays, โThe nothing that isโ: Essays on Art, Literature and Being (Book*hug 2019), a scholarly monograph, Fool (Routledge 2023) andโmost recentlyโa collection of poetry, Medium (Book*hug 2024). Born in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1980, Johanna received her PhD in English Literature at the Universitรฉ de Montrรฉal. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Arizona and divides her time between Tucson, Arizona, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.