NOTE: This is a hybrid event. The in-person location is at Cooper St. in Camden, NJ from 1 - 4 PM EST; the online event time is listed here in Mountain Time, 11 AM - 2 PM. REGISTER ONLINE

Instructors: Nancy Reddy and Emily Perez

Both writing and raising children require time, energy, and attention. The work of caregiving has often produced what writer Melissa Stephenson calls “confetti time”–fractured moments, rather than the long stretches we sometimes think are necessary for deep creative work. Do writing and caregiving have to be competition, or are there ways that the two can inspire and feed one another? In this generative open genre workshop featuring the essays and poems of contributors to the forthcoming anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, participants will be introduced to several strategies that can help sustain a writing practice while also parenting or doing other caregiving work. We’ll read a selection of poems and essays that engage different aspects of the relationship between writing and parenting, and we’ll have to discuss how these challenges surface in our own writing lives. Participants will be offered a prompt and time to write. The workshop will include time for participants to share their drafts, compare experiences, and brainstorm directions for future writing. This workshop is open to mothers and caregivers of all genders; participants need not identify as parents.