Genre: Poetry

Writeaways

Writeaways offered a weeklong retreat from February 24 to March 3 to poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers (including creative nonfiction writers) at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, a 26-acre estate in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Residents were provided with time and space to write, writing workshops, and private writing consultations. The faculty included poet and fiction writer Mimi Herman and fiction and nonfiction writer John Yewell.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
no
Event Date: 
February 24, 2025
Rolling Admissions: 
no
Application Deadline: 
February 1, 2025
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
May 29, 2025
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Writeaways, P.O. Box 62012, Durham, NC 27715. Mimi Herman and John Yewell, Codirectors.

Mimi Herman and John Yewell
Codirectors
Contact City: 
Southern Pines
Contact State: 
NC
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
28388
Country: 
US

On a Winter’s Night

12.3.24

“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade,” wrote Italo Calvino on the first page of his 1979 novel, translated from the Italian by William Weaver. Calvino’s postmodern structure comprises twenty-two sections, with each odd-numbered passage narrated by a second-person “you” (you, the reader; you, a character). Each even-numbered passage, in turn, is the start of a new work, a fictional book that the “you” character discovers and reads, only to find that it ends abruptly and picks up in the next even-numbered passage as an entirely different work. Taking a cue from this puzzle of an approach, compose a poem that alternates between two narratives united by a winter’s night. How might a second-person “you” character be utilized in your poem? Is there an emotional progression connected to the accumulation of images and themes?

After: Poetry Destroys Silence

Caption: 

Watch the trailer for After: Poetry Destroys Silence, a cinematic performance film directed by Richard Kroehling and starring Cornelius Eady, Edward Hirsh, Melissa Leo, Géza Röhrig, and a cast of celebrated award-winning poets who respond to the Holocaust and talk about the importance and necessity for poetry in a world that still grapples with genocide.

Genre: 

In the Life

11.26.24

Anne Sexton’s 1962 ekphrastic poem “The Starry Night,” inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 painting of the same name, begins with a snippet from a letter written by the painter to his brother: “That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.” Choose a favorite work of visual art by an artist for whom you can find a bit of personal information, whether it’s something they’ve written or details about their daily life, philosophies, thematic interests, or relationships with close ones. How can you connect what you learn about the artist with the artwork itself? Write an ekphrastic poem exploring the emotions and thoughts that come to the surface when you look at the artwork, allowing yourself to incorporate a creative synthesis of their biographical details.

Day of Translation Keynote: Don Mee Choi

Caption: 

“When I began translating, I found myself crying again. I knew then that I had finally found my way back to the womb.” In this event for the Center for the Art of Translation’s annual Day of Translation, cohosted at the Center for Fiction, Don Mee Choi delivers her keynote speech about writing from the “translation womb,” her attempts to comprehend and translate the Korean War, and her definition of what it means to write in the language of translation.

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s National Book Award Speech

Caption: 

In this video, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha accepts the 2024 National Book Award in poetry for her collection Something About Living (University of Akron Press, 2024). “I’m proud to stand here today, and to accept this honor as a Palestinian American on behalf of all the deeply beautiful Palestinians that this world has lost and in honor of those miraculous ones who endure.”

Genre: 

Book Bans and the Global Battle of Freedom of Expression

Caption: 

In this event from the 2024 Atlantic Festival on the topic of books bans in the United States and the world, Atlantic staff writer Gal Beckerman moderates a discussion with Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association, and Victoria Scott-Miller, owner of Liberation Station Bookstore, as well as a discussion with Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad and author and activist Rania Mamoun.

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