Biology as Creative Nonphysics: Writing Personal, Creative Nonfiction

Last Thursday, one of those gray, fall days when the starlings gather up and string between the elms around here, my first wife, my children’s mother – dead ten years – walked into a pastry shop where I was buttering a croissant. She ignored me, which she always does, ordered a plain bagel and an almond latte, picked up her food, and without a glance at me, walked out. The starlings chittered, the day frowned, and I went back to buttering my croissant

Thus begins a tale of human memories – how we gather them, where we keep them, and how they change our stories, and the worlds we live in. This is a mostly true story, as are many of the stories we tell ourselves -- personal, creative nonfiction. We need these stories. They make us whole. And in the creation of these tales we create ourselves.

This workshop will explore that process. We will examine the ways we write the most essential of all human stories, where we find the tales, and how we tell them to ourselves and to others. We will consider the unique powers of poetry and fiction and how we can use the techniques of both genres to weave intimate essays, rediscover our stories and recreate ourselves.

Email: gnc@lamar.colostate.edu
Enrollment Limit: 20