Writers on Writing with Chen Chen (via Zoom)

To take as your subject writers, writing, “the writing world”—is this just annoying? Pretentious? Are there ways to do it well? Perhaps with a healthy dose of humor? In this generative session we’ll discuss and write after an array of examples across genres, including work by Sigrid Nunez, Brenda Shaughnessy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Carl Phillips, and others. We’ll think together about writer as personal vs. cultural identity, the role of the writer today vs. in the past, and the aspirations vs. limitations re: what writing can do politically. I’ll offer some prompts and we’ll experiment, digress, while trying our best not to annoy ourselves. Writers of all genres are welcome.

Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), both published by BOA Editions. His latest chapbook is Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include the National Book Award long list, the Thom Gunn Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. He lives in Rochester, NY and teaches for the low-residency MFA program at New England College