“The Language We Inherit” We will discuss techniques to explore the language we inherit and ways we use it to navigate writing and our understanding of the world. Participants will explore their own stories, identities, experiences, ideas, and self-language through reading, writing, and discussion. We will engage in a wide range of texts and other media to evaluate approaches to create mental imagery, suggest mood, develop tension and movement, and set tone. How do we stretch and create movement within a poem? How do we establish the emotional color and landscape? How do we know when to turn? We will navigate texts from across genres to identify tools and approaches to invite and engage readers. Participants will write from prompts and then, depending on time, share some of their writing.
Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, organizer, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. She has created, curated, coached, and taught in Denver for over 20 years, managing the largest poetry festivals that Denver has seen to date. The author of poetry collections Poems for the End of the World, A Gospel of Bones, and Thirteen Descansos, Suzi is also a singer-songwriter, playwright, and multi-disciplinary creative. Currently, she is Affiliate Faculty with Regis University’s Mile High MFA, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and DU’s Prison Arts Initiative, and she serves as the [margins.] Conference Director for The Word.
Website: https://www.suziqsmith.com
Twitter: @suziqpoet