SEMINAR | Give Sorrow Words: Grief Writing as Sanctuary
June 6 @ 1:00 pm – June 7 @ 3:00 pm EDT
Learn to write compelling pieces that go beyond self-healing to provide paths through grief and sanctuary for your readers.
Live on Zoom | Saturday & Sunday, June 6-7 | 1:00-3:00 pm EDT
For All Writers
Art serves a vital role as witness to events and emotions we have trouble naming. We know which poem arrived at just the right time in our lives, which song helped us imagine a path through deep feelings, and which book helped us navigate our grief.
But what makes those pieces resonate in readers’ hearts? How does writing foster empathy? How can language, with its strengths and inadequacies, help us build sanctuaries within ourselves and where others can go to be witnessed and held?
Taught by one of our most knowledgeable and empathetic presenters, this deeply experiential seminar is a hybrid of generative writing and craft conversation.
We’ll begin with a gentle writing practice to help you gather the glimmers of your own grief; then move into craft conversation and generative writing portals. grief,
We’ll discuss key craft elements in published poetry, how they can elevate emotional subjects from sentimentality to specificity, and connect readers to an emotional experience.
We’ll examine a variety of grieving experiences through the lenses of reckoning, regret, remembrance, ritual, revitalization, and restoring (re-story-ing). This framework will offer six possible portals into exploring and writing about your own grief, creating a sanctuary for your soul and the souls of others.
We will have space for optional sharing at the end. In the seminar’s confirmation email, you’ll receive a packet of recommended prep work, containing additional optional readings and links to (very) short films on grief. After the class, you’ll receive the seminar recording, slide deck, and all poems used for our conversation.
Please be prepared to write.
In this interactive 2-Day live seminar, you will:
- LEARN key craft elements that help dramatize emotion
- UNDERSTAND the difference between sentimentality and sentiment
- ANALYZE poems addressing different aspects of grief
- ENGAGE with your own grief to create six new portals to longer work
- PRACTICE writing through different lenses on grief
- IMAGINE how writing can serve as sanctuary to self and others
This course is ideal for writers in all genres who are interested in using language to help meet personal and collective grief.
Closed captioning is available. ✔
Think you might miss class? No worries, replays will be available 3 business days after the event. ✔
ABOUT YOUR Instructor
Funny, kind, and direct, Laraine Herring is a popular CRAFT TALKS presenter and one of our strongest voices on deeply personal writing that powerfully connects with readers.
Laraine’s memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens, was released in 2021 from Regal House. She’s the editor of the anthology Becoming Real: Women Reclaim the Power of the Imagined through Speculative Nonfiction (Pact Press, 2024), and a trilogy of writing books from Shambhala, including Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice. A retired professor of creative writing and psychology, Lariane has worked with writers for thirty years. She’s also an illustrator and a grief counselor, and creator of The Grief Forest: a book about what we don’t talk about. She founded the online ‘zine Hags on Fire, a place for women to share stories about menopause, and co-designed The Imaginal Memoir Cave immersion program with Gayle Brandeis. Laraine’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Tiferet, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, and many more. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Counseling Psychology and lives in the mountains of northern Arizona with many cats.
Student Testimonials
“Laraine helped my book tell me what it wants to be and challenged me to do the work to get it there. I am grateful for her intuitive, empathic, supportive approach, and for her enthusiasm when I arrived at the realizations she was hoping I’d get to as I did that work. Laraine’s skills are many, and she is fantastic to work with. She is dedicated, direct, detailed, dependable, and delightful.”
— Meg Weber, author of A Year of Mr. Lucky (Sincyr Publishing)
“Through Laraine’s authentic nature and ability to listen, I learned that writing is as much an act of bravery and strength as it is about being gentle and flexible. I can’t wait to be one of her students again!”
— Naomi Kaplan
“Without a doubt, Laraine is the most generous, inspirational and challenging writing instructor I have ever met. Using provocative writing exercises, she guided me through creative discovery, helping reveal ideas and truths I had previously locked away. She challenged me to delve deeper into my story, even if it meant going into the dark hidden corners.”
— Janine Weyers
“Laraine opened doors inside my mind and created space for me to come into relationship with my writing in a refreshing way that was all my own. I had more than one breakthrough working with her. With ease and honesty, she created an authentic, interesting and inviting space to grow.”
— Grace Welker
“Laraine encourages students to dig deep. She provides original, interesting exercises designed to pull past the first obvious idea and find the more compelling material underneath. She is as invested in students’ work as the students themselves.”
— Janet Burrue
THE FINE PRINT
We understand that life can get in the way of your plans. We want you to be able to get the most out of your course, and our refund policy is designed to balance your need for flexibility with our deadlines and obligations to our teachers.
Before the class, you may request a refund less a $10.00 processing fee.
Please keep in mind that no refunds or credits will be issued after class begins.
Questions? Please email Info@writingcraft.com
