Mything the Self: Using Myth and Fairy Tales to Tell Our Stories with Shanta Lee (via Zoom)

In what ways is “The Little Mermaid”, “The Shadow”, or “The Fisherman and His Soul” also about one choosing one’s own fate regardless of brutal consequence? How can we see the metaphor of Snow White and her sleep as a way of thinking about the hard bumps in the road we need to encounter before we awake to another kind of reality? Was Alice in Wonderland more about an inward journey toward a sturdier self more than anything else?

When we look into the heart of fairy tales or myths  that have shaped our lives, we can see many kernels of truth and lessons that relate to the very real world. We also see more hints of this based on the many re-tellings that seek to endear us to and humanize the so-called wrong doer.  Within this workshop, we will be pulling from some of our most beloved myths and fairy tales and connect what lies beneath to our own very real lives.

Within this introduction, we will explore:

• Some of the insights of tales and myths as shared by experts to set context in terms of how we consider them for our writing.

• Techniques for taking the vehicle of fairy tale or myth and applying it to our own lives

• Writing some of our own stories (or at least an excerpt) using some tools that we have discussed in the workshop.

NB: This class will be taught on Zoom (Saturday, October 19, 12:3-2:30 PM ET) and will be capped at 15 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email misty@writerscenter.org with any questions.

All HVWC scholarship applications will be available on May 1 and will be due on May 15 for all summer/fall 2024 classes.

Shanta Lee is an award winning artist who works in different mediums as a photographer, writer across genres, and a public intellectual. Her work has been widely featured in a number of anthologies and in places such as Harper’s Magazine, the Poetry Foundation, The Massachusetts Review, ITERANT Literary Magazine, Palette Poetry, BLAVITY, and DAME Magazine. Shanta Lee is the author of the poetry collection, GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak Woman in Woke Tongues, winner of the 2020 Diode Editions full-length book prize and the 2021 Vermont Book Award. Her latest poetry collection illustrated by Alan Blackwell interrogates, interprets and converses with Ovid, Black Metamorphoses (Etruscan Press, 2023), has been named a finalist in the 2021 Hudson prize, shortlisted for the 2021 Cowles Poetry Book Prize and longlisted for the 2021 Idaho poetry prize. Dark Goddess: An Exploration of the Sacred Feminine, her latest exhibition – which includes her short film, interviews, photography, and other curated items – has been featured at the Southern Vermont Arts Center and the Fleming Museum of Art. The work will be debuting in its third installment Dark Goddess: Sacroprofanity (Volume III of the Dark Goddess series), at the Bennington Museum. Shanta Lee’s forthcoming work, This is How They Teach You How to Want It…The Slaughter (Small Harbor Publishing) is out this spring. To learn more about her work, visit: Shantalee.com.