Breakout Session 2 for the "To Taste Life Twice" Seminar. Pre-registration is required.

Untangling the Difficult Narrative: Using Form, Language, and Self-Care to Access Our Wounds

Instructor: Rebecca Evans

Trauma writing (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) – whether personal, cultural, or collective – can be more than catharsis. It can offer craft and writing skills, create awareness and conversation. Writers at all levels can develop writing skills in order to approach narrative through all genres that sometimes feels too overwhelming, personal, or shameful to pen. In this workshop, writers will learn: Self-Care for the Writer— methods to enter writing and to dismount from writing; The Art of Placement—use of line breaks, spacing, and craft to access challenging scenes and dialogue; Considering the Reader; Breath-work and Pacing—as a resource on the page and within the writer’s life; Beautiful Language—use of language to offset trauma, violence, harshness; Hybrid and Hermit Crabbing—pushing form and structure to access overwhelming story; and Remembering Writing as Craft – the art of writing is not always to exorcise one’s demons.

Rebecca Evans is a memoirist, poet, and essayist. She mentors high school teens in the juvenile system and co-hosts a radio program, Writer to Writer. She earned two MFAs, one in CNF, the other in Poetry.  Her memoir-in-verse, Tangled by Blood, will be available in Spring, 2023 (Moon Tide Press).

Learn more about the three-day "To Taste Life Twice" Seminar here.