Virtual Workshop in Creative Nonfiction for Teens

 


What’s Creative Nonfiction and Why Teen Writers Should Definitely Try It!

Creative nonfiction is a whole different species than the five-paragraph school essay or argument paper. It’s nonfiction—so it always stays on the side of truth—but it uses the devices of fiction (dialog, setting, sensory detail, backstory, imagery, foreshadowing) to tell a story. In this workshop, we read inspiring examples. Participants begin a piece of flash nonfiction. All teen participants are encouraged to submit their creative nonfiction to Under the Madness.
About Workshop Presenter: Alexandria Peary's creative nonfiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Southern Humanities Review, New England Review, Brick, Green Mountains Review, and the Cimarron Review. Her creative nonfiction has received Pushcart Prize and several Best of the Net nominations, as well as appearing as Notable Essay in Best American Essay 2021. Alex teaches creative nonfiction at Salem State University.

WHEN: Feb 21, 2022 6:00 PM, EST, on Zoom

Why Writing in College Goes Better If You're Mindful: Presentation for Landmark College

 




Why Writing in College Goes Better If You're Mindful


I'll be presenting in-person for the Academic Speaker Series at Landmark College on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, 4-5 PM. Location: Brooks M. O'Brien Auditorium/Lewis Academic Building

More info here.

DESCRIPTION: In this interactive session, Peary will cover the basics of mindful writing and provide hands-on opportunity to work with the technique. You'll learn about mindful writing tools, including impermanence, self-talk, and awareness of the writing body, to reduce stress around writing assignments. You’ll practice ways to manage monkey mind, that pesky inner voice that hands us preconceptions about our writing abilities, and reader ghosts, those inner critics who make us doubt ourselves. With increased attention on the present moment, every writing moment can be a calmer, more prolific moment.



2022 North Country Writers' Day: Register Now

 

 

2022 North Country Writers’ Day 

May 6, 2022

White Mountains Community College

All events are free and open to the public, ages 13 and older. Registration required. Space is limited for Master Class. These events are made possible due to the generous support of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

 

EVENT #1:
Master Class on Mindful Writing: How to Reduce Writing Problems through the Present Moment

2-4 PM

May 6, 2022

White Mountains Community College

In-Person and Virtual

Room Location T.B.A.

Writing can become much more fulfilling and joyful if we think of it as happening right Now. Whenever we overlook the present moment, we give up rewarding writing experiences in exchange for stress, procrastination, boredom, and shortchanged creativity. It’s a poor bargain. This interactive session focuses on how to use mindful writing techniques to write with more peace and productivity. We cover the basics of mindful writing, including impermanence, audience ghosts, monkey mind, and preconceptions about our writing ability. Participants gain hands-on practice with several mindful writing techniques. Geared for participants ages 13 and older, this master class is designed for people who occasionally or often struggle with writing, who teach writing, as well as for participants who don’t struggle with a writing block but are interested in picking up skills. The strategies apply to creative, academic, professional, and personal kinds of writing.

About the Presenter:

Alexandria Peary (MFA, MFA, PhD) specializes in mindful writing. She is the author of Prolific Moment: Theory and Practice of Mindfulness for Writing as well as the architect and host of the mindful writing webinar for the National Council of Teachers of English. Alex is a frequent presenter on mindful writing for New Hampshire Humanities and has also presented on mindful writing for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), NH Children’s Trust, and as the 2021 keynote address for the Secondary School Writing Centers Association Conference. Her 2019 TEDx talk “How Mindfulness Can Transform the Way You Write”  can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yxnFac7CNA  Alex is a professor in the English Department at Salem State University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on creative writing and mindful writing.

To register by Apri 10:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/master-class-on-mindful-writing-tickets-262683081167

 

EVENT #2:
Book Signing and Reading with NH State Poet Laureate

4-5 PM

May 6, 2022

White Mountains Community College

In-Person and Virtual

Room Location T.B.A.

Alexandria Peary will read from her new book of poems, Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak (Spuyten Duyvil 2022). Reading, Book signing, and Q & A. Appetizers will be served.

 RVP by April 10

Nina McLaughlin says Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak “captures the chaotic energy of online life, the relentless stream of appeals for your money, attention, desire, raising questions of what it means to ‘open this.’ Her approaches to plague times borrow from The Decameron, in an imaginative the-more-things-change mode. The pure sound of her lines is a pleasure, too.” –Boston Globe

 Alexandria Peary is “one of those writers who know how to stay, as de Kooning put it, ‘on the edge of something.’”—Laura Mullen, Poetry Foundation

 

EVENT #3:

Release Party for Under the Madness Magazine

5-6 PM

May 6, 2022

White Mountains Community College

In-Person and Virtual

Room Location T.B.A.

Meet the staff and contributing writers of Under the Madness Magazine, the new literary magazine publishing teens across the globe, run by teen editors from New Hampshire and the North Country under the auspices of the New Hampshire Poet Laureate. The editors discuss their experience publishing two issues of the magazine, followed by a reading from poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers in the first two issues. Reading and Q & A. Appetizers will be served. Event will be hybrid: in-person and also Zoom.

RSVP by April 10.



"Wood Typewriter Photo" by Dustin Lee is licensed under CC0 1.0

 

 

The Mindful Storyteller in You: Fall 2023 Programming

  The Mindful Storyteller in You     Presented by Alexandria Peary  What stories connect you to the Granite State?  In this workshop led by ...