In this generative workshop, we will examine what it means to be a parent and a writer by excavating our personal experiences and by studying works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that explore parenting and parenthood. The goal of this class is to find ways to lean into our daily life experiences, both the joyful and trying ones, to source material that might enhance, texturize and strengthen our creative work.
We will write micro-essays (inspired by Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights) to chronicle our daily experiences and generate other work through in-class and take-home writing exercises. We will consider work in different forms and genres that address the role of parents and the experience of parenting. Each week, we will look at work that focuses on different stages of parenting: pregnancy and infancy, early childhood, the teenage years, and adulthood. We will discuss the work of writers like Toni Morrison, Alice Munro and Anita Desai, along with non-fiction pieces by essayists and journalists like Rachel Cusk, Maya Angelou and Susan Sontag.
The micro-essays and writing exercises will lead students to crafting one essay or short story (approximately 1500-3000 words), which will be discussed in class and receive formal feedback in the form of a letter from and virtual one-on-one with either Sindya or Lara.
This class is suitable for all writers, but might be especially appealing to parents, future parents, and others who work with children.
Class meetings will be held over video chat, using Zoom accessed from your private class page. While you can use Zoom from your browser, we recommend downloading the desktop client so you have access to all platform features.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Establish a writing practice during challenging times
- Tips for parents on making time to write
- Tools and methods to record parenting experiences and personal histories
- Advice on how to pitch and publish work relating to parenting and parent-child relationships
- 10% discount on all future Catapult classes
COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
In-class exercises, weekly preparatory readings (10-25 pages), bite-size weekly assignments culminating in one longer writing project (an essay or story between 1500-3000 words). At the end of the course, each student will meet virtually with one of the instructors for feedback on their piece.
COURSE SKELETON:
Week 1: Infancy
Week 2: Early Childhood
Week 3: Youth & Teenage Years
Week 4: Adulthood
Week 5: Eldercare: When the roles reverse
Week 6 What Next: Workshop, Revision, Pitching and Publishing
Sindya Bhanoo’s first collection of fiction is forthcoming from Catapult in 2022. She has worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post and is currently a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan. Her fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming in Glimmer Train, Granta, the New England Review and elsewhere. She was the winner of the DISQUIET Literary Prize and her work has received support from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Michener Center for Writers.
Lara Prescott is the author of The Secrets We Kept, a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. The Secrets We Kept will be translated into over 30 languages and adapted for television.
Lara received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers. Prior to writing fiction, Lara worked as a political campaign consultant.
Lara's writing has appeared in The Southern Review, The Hudson Review, Crazyhorse, and more. She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.
