"Memory of Everything at Once is Fiction": a Workshop on Innovative Prose

SUNDAYS 4/23/17 - 5/28/17 11:30am-1:30pm

Taking as a starting point the novels of two poets—Fish in Exile (Vi Khi Nao) and Dahlia's Iris (Leslie Scalapino)—this workshop led by poet Geoffrey Olsen will investigate the possibilities of innovative prose and the lyric novel, moving towards questions of how these forms articulate inner experience in the social world. We will approach questions these authors bring up within these works regarding the US as “occupied by ‘itself’” (Scalapino). How do these books use form to encounter and trouble borders of nationhood and citizenship? Where does language meet solitude, pain and mourning? How do these books challenge conventions of “the novel” to critique social relations and histories of violence? Spurred on by these discussion, we will work towards our own writing into the overlaps of poetry and novel.

The workshop will start on Sunday, April 23 from 11:30am - 1:30pm at Berl's Poetry Shop in Brooklyn, and continue for the next five Sundays. There’s no fee, but participant need to purchase the books, which will be available from Berl’s.

If you are interested in participating, email olsen.geoffrey@gmail.com.