“Writing as Play” Writing can be serious business—hard work of the mind and the heart—and many writers feel a sense of urgency to get their words out of their heads and onto the page. Sometimes, though, all that serious effort can keep us from accessing our most creative, bright, and original ideas. Whatever genre you work in, whatever role writing has in your life, the writing games in this workshop will activate your imagination, inspire new approaches to process, and highlight the joy of creating and sharing work in community.
Claire Boyles (she/her) is a writer, mom, and former farmer who lives and writes in Colorado. A 2022 Whiting Award winner in fiction, she is the author of Site Fidelity, which was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award and the Best of the West Award and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Her writing has appeared in VQR, Kenyon Review, Boulevard, and Masters Review, among others. She is a Peter Taylor Fellow for the Kenyon Review Writing Workshops and has received support from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation, the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Workshop, and the Community of Writers. She teaches in Eastern Oregon University’s low-residency MFA program in Creative and Environmental Writing.