"Writing the Unthinkable." Participation in a writing workshop with Lynda Barry
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$1,675.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
Every year Lynda Barry, or as she calls herself Lynda Barry!!, an award-winning cartoonist, writer, University of Wisconsin associate professor and creative storytelling guru holds an intensive four-day workshop called "Writing the Unthinkable" in Rhinebeck, NY. Participants are engaged in rigorous in-class writing exercises while Barry guides them with a host of innovative techniques for tapping into what she considers our natural capacity for creativity. Less interested in the formal craft of writing, Barry is fascinated with discovering and helping others discover the place where new ideas come from. She encourages students to experience the fun of allowing ideas and memories to flow freely because for her "writing should take you for a ride." In these dynamic seminars, participants write and share personal and fictional narratives while exploring new ways to think creatively. While Barry's workshops may not be exclusive to writers or teachers of writing, I see great potential in her approach to teaching creative storytelling in my courses and believe that upon completing her workshop I could return to campus with a cornucopia of appealing, productive techniques that would benefit all of my students. Every class that I teach in the department from German 101 to German 386 has a creative writing or storytelling component, and Barry's ideas would be extremely valuable to me, my students and colleagues.