Instructor: Douglas A. Martin
Where does the impulse to write start? How can you continue to expand and build on your initial inspiration? Whether you are writing poetry, notebooks, fiction or essays in short or long form, or any combination of these, we’ll explore developing pieces to find the stories you really want to tell. In a nurturing, creative atmosphere that engages multiple senses we’ll work together to create a safe feeling place to share, shape, and set your projects in words. Ongoing exercises will arise from class conversations to determine your goals, inspirations, and excitements. In this workshop we’ll journey toward you fully conceptualizing where your writing may really want to go.
Douglas A. Martin is the author of ten books spanning both poetry and prose. Their first novel, Outline of My Lover, was named an International Book of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement and adapted in part by the Forsythe Company for the multimedia ballet and live film, “Kammer/Kammer.” Other publications include: Once You Go Back, finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Gay Memoir/Biography; Branwell, finalist for the Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award; a triptych of novellas detailing aspects of the lives of painters Balthus and Francis Bacon and poet Hart Crane, Your Body Figured; a collection of stories, They Change the Subject; and a book-length essay and lyric study, Acker, praised in The New York Times as “comprehensive and complex…nothing short of a kind of strange magic.” Their most recent title is Wolf, an anti true crime novel. They have been translated into Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese with Spanish forthcoming. They are a co-author of The Haiku Year and co-editor of Kathy Acker: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. They teach classes in all genres at Wesleyan University and serve there as Assistant Director of the Creative Writing program. They work as well with MFA students at Goddard College.
