Workshop: Laughing Matters In-Person
A writing workshop as part of the 2026 To Taste Life Twice Seminar - three days of author talks and writing workshop. Registration is limited to 15 participants.
Instructor: Tiffany Midge
Søren Kierkegaard said, "the only intelligent tactical response to life's horror is to laugh defiantly at it." Humor becomes a courageous and intelligent act of resistance in the face of despair. In this writing workshop, we will read passages from creative nonfiction, memoirs, articles and op-eds that employ these concepts from writers David Sedaris (“Happy-Go-Lucky”), Amanda Uhle (“Destroy This House”), Alexandra Petri (“US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up”), and Danielle Henderson (“The Ugly Cry: A Memoir”).
We will discuss the particular elements of craft that make the passages work to their fullest effect, such as juxtaposition, irony, subverting expectations, the use of language, word play, hyperbole, and characterization. I will provide writing exercises for practicing these elements of humor and allow time for us to share and discuss. I will offer book recommendations and a list of my top ten favorite essays and articles. If you don’t come out of this workshop with starter material for 3 new humorous essays, I will eat my hat.
- Date:
- Saturday, May 9, 2026
- Time:
- 1:00pm - 4:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Idaho Room
- Campus:
- The Community Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Classes & Discussions Seminars & Conferences
Tiffany Midge was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest and aspires to be the Distinguished Writer in Residence for Seattle’s Space Needle. She is a former humor columnist for Indian Country Today and currently contributes Heard Around the West for High Country News. Her books of essays include “Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s” and “The Dreamcatcher in the Wry,” both from Bison Books. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Real Simple, The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Rail and more. Her poetry collections include “Horns,” winner of a Wilder Prize with Two Sylvias Press, and “The Woman Who Married a Bear” winner of the Kenyon Review Earthworks Indigenous Poetry Prize and a Western Heritage Award. Midge enjoys frisky romps through dewy meadows and considers her contribution to humanity to be her sparkly personality.