The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “Fairies and Monsters and Talking Bears, Oh My!: Writing Inspired by Fairy Tales,” a workshop led by Erika Walsh on August 9, 2023, from 6-7:30 PM. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).
Fairy tales employ an intuitive dream logic in their telling; the magic explored in these worlds is normalized, rather than questioned. The retelling of fairy tales and use of fairy tale motifs is a way to reclaim and transform difficult experiences, and trauma. In this class, we will read and discuss excerpts of fairytale-inspired stories by contemporary writers such as Carmen Maria Machado and Lily Hoang. Students will begin writing their own original fairy tales or retellings. The goal of this course is to enable students to write about difficult subjects, incomplete memories, and topics that do not easily adhere to chronological, rational logic from the side, in order to get at the truth behind the truth; the one that can only emerge when it is shrouded and eventually revealed, at its own pace, by magic.
While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Erika Walsh via Venmo @erikamw or Paypal through erikamkwalsh@gmail.com / paypal.me/ErikaMWalsh
Erika Walsh is an MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Alabama and co-founding editor of A Velvet Giant, an online genreless literary journal. Erika’s creative writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Booth, Hotel Amerika, Poetry Online, Hobart, Pigeon Pages, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Peach Mag, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies from Sundress Academy of the Arts and Art Farm Nebraska, as well as a fellowship from Brooklyn Poets.
This workshop is brought to you in part by a grant provided by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry. Find out about the important work they do here.
