I am honored to be facilitating a writing workshop and reading my poetry at the ACC Litfest! The Arapahoe Community College Writers’ Studio full-day conference, open to students and community members, will take place on Saturday, February 21, from 9 am to 4 pm in Littleton, Colorado. At $30 for CCCS students and a bit more for the public, it’s absolutely “the most affordable, quality-laden literary festival you will find, for writers of all levels and ages.” That $30 includes lunch, as well as author readings and signings from luminaries like Teague Bohlen, Erika T. Wurth, and Steven Dunn.
My workshop, “Going Cold (or Hot on Nonsense),” is based on a lesson for my poetry and creative writing classes that has helped students birth amazing poetry, short fiction, and humor pieces. I love to share it because it’s easy, applies to every genre, and I know it works! Here’s the official description:
Pulling back on emotional language is a simple technique that gives readers space to feel your writing more powerfully. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll utilize awareness of emotional language as a tool to enhance reader engagement in emotionally charged scenes and, conversely, in humor writing. We’ll play with this method in the context of flash fiction, microfiction, and prose poetry, one of the hottest new forms of modern poetry.
Participants will experiment with the technique of going cold or hot on nonsense and write their own pieces in the workshop. Other workshops offered include ¨Structuring Your Novel: Concrete Tactics to Finish that Novel” and ¨World-building and Setting Through Rap Lyrics.” Author readings will be during lunch, and book signings of Only Flying, my collection of poetry and short stories, will follow the afternoon workshop. Learn more and register here: Arapahoe Community College Spring Literary Festival
Brook Bhagat 