Week One Assignments

After reading pages 3-38 (Getting Started, Short Assignments, Shitty First Drafts, Perfectionism, School Lunches) in Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and pages 19-29 (Writing and Knowing) in Poet's Companion spend a little time considering what you know. Do exercise number 1 on page 28 in Poet's Companion in your journal, making a list of memorable events and moments of your life. They need not be big; in fact, better that they're specific and precise. What are the moments you can remember in vivid detail through all five senses? That's the gold of writing, that's how you as a writer can put a reader in the place you want them to be. We'll keep talking about this throughout the quarter as we witness each other create writing that does exactly that--or when it falls short of that we can help each other figure out what it needs to make us enter that moment, feel that feeling. But don't worry too much about that. Feel free to write "shitty first drafts" as Lamott offers. In fact, spend a little time writing about something in the reading from Bird by Bird that felt like it spoke to you. No one, and I mean no one, gets to K College without some level of perfectionism driving them, for example. And we're here to combat the destructiveness of perfectionism, especially in the beautifully messy creative process. But I digress.

For your more formal assignment due to your workshop group by second week Tuesday at noon, read the poem "Where I'm From," by George Ella Lyon that I emailed to you. Then, consider the following:

Where are you from? What are the places, objects, experiences, utterances, moments that birthed the person you have become? Using Lyon’s poem as inspiration, write your own origin poem, relying on specific, concrete images and language to make your reader feel and sense where you’re from. Due 2nd week Tuesday at noon, emailed to your workshop group.

Speaking of, here are the three workshop groups:

Group 1
MariaEmilia
Matthew
Benjamin F.
Mary
Jamir
Harrison

Group 2
Cameron
Hannah
Nebiyat
Ben K.
Jasmin
Hunter

Group 3
Wyatt
Bradley
Juan
Charlie
Kyle
Anna