by | June 19, 2024 · 5:00 pm
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Brockton Writers Series 10.07.24: Alex Cafarelli

Photo credit Mée Rose

Alex Cafarelli is a genderqueer femme Jewish Witch writer, teacher, and gardener. They are published in multiple chapbooks, Room Magazine, and the Lambda award-winning anthology, Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy. Alex is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. https://www.alexcafarelli.com

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I am excited to announce that I just finished the second draft of my first novel this week!!! This novel is also my thesis for the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA program, which has been an incredible, and challenging, experience over the last (almost) two years. I will be defending my thesis at the end of July. Wish me luck!

In other news, “Unicorn Medicine: Creative Writing Workshops for Queer and Trans Folks” will return online this summer (2024) after a four-year hiatus! Sign up for my newsletter here, to stay posted about upcoming writing workshops, publications, and readings.

Now, here are some tips and resources for facilitating your own creative writing workshop.

How to Facilitate a Creative Writing Workshop with the Amherst Writers and Artists Method

  • Prepare ahead of time.
    • It’s best to keep groups or workshops to a limit of 8 to 12 people for a two- to three-hour workshop.
    • Plan an outline. Choose more prompts than you think you will need. Choose writing exercises that address some element of craft, voice, and/or creative expression. Be mindful of the time it takes for participants to share without feeling rushed. On average, sharing in a group of 10 takes twice the amount of time as it does to write. For example, if 10 people write to a prompt for seven minutes, it will take approximately 14 minutes total to share, so that would be a total of 21 minutes for one prompt, plus whatever time it takes to share or set up the prompt.
    • Choose a poem to share with participants. Prioritize poems by Black and Indigenous poets, poets of colour, sick and disabled poets, queer and trans poets, sex worker poets, and poets by immigrants and writers from around the world. If there is a theme to your workshop like heartache or borders or trauma or sex (for instance), or if the workshop is for a specific population of writers, share a poem that relates to the theme and/or to the writers in the room. Create a document with the poem, along with information on the poet’s internet presence and where to buy their book(s). Print enough copies of the poem for everyone if it is an in-person workshop. The poem should be read aloud together at the end of the workshop.
    • Create a document with guidelines to share with participants. See “Explain the structure of the workshop” for ideas. Print the guidelines if the workshop is in-person.
    • Pack tissues, extra pens, and extra paper just in case.
  • When you arrive, leave the poem and list of guidelines on chairs or share them on Zoom.
  • Introductions (name, pronouns, access needs, icebreaker).
    • Take notes of participants’ names and pronouns and ensure that you adhere to them throughout the workshop. Be mindful of participants’ access needs throughout the workshop and be honest about your own. I often have trouble hearing when there is background noise, so I usually ask that people project their voices when they read during the access needs check-in.
  • Go over the guidelines, ask if anyone wants to contribute to them.
  • Explain the structure of the workshop.
    • Everyone (including you) will write to a timed prompt, sharing is optional, everyone has the opportunity to respond to participants’ writing with feedback on what is strong and what stays, and all of the writing is treated as fiction unless the writer requests that it be treated as autobiography. Encourage everyone to free-write during the writing times. It’s more important to free-write than it is to follow the prompts.
  • Provide a writing exercise or prompt.
    • Do not share the prompt with participants ahead of time. You can try using the prompt from my presentation: “Write to a body part, yours or someone else’s, from memory or imagination.” Then “Write from the perspective of a body part, yours or someone else’s, from memory or imagination.” These particular prompts can generate craft writing on character, POV, sensory details, and more. Remind everyone that it is ok to write whatever comes—they do not need to follow the prompt if they are not called to do so.
  • Set a timer or watch the clock while you are writing alongside the participants.
  • When the time is up, give the writers a minute or two to come to a stopping place. Ask if anyone wants to share their writing with the group.
    • Remind listeners of the guidelines re: feedback. Make sure there is time for everyone to read, including you. As a facilitator, it is important that you always offer feedback to readers, but it is not mandatory for the other listeners to do so.
  • If there is time, offer another prompt and repeat the process.
  • I like to end workshops by reading the poem aloud with all of the voices in the room. Each person reads one line, and this continues around the room until the poem is finished. I learned this from Jen Cross. It is a beautiful way to ground the workshop.
  • It can be helpful to share anonymous evaluations with participants afterwards to get a sense of what worked and what didn’t work.

Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) Five Essential Affirmations:

  1. Everyone has a strong, unique voice.
  2. Everyone is born with creative genius.
  3. Writing as an art form belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or educational level.
  4. The teaching of craft can be done without damage to a writer’s original voice or artistic self-esteem.
  5. A writer is someone who writes.

    Resources

    More Places to Find Prompts

    See “Part 1: The Amherst Writers Method—Generate Creativity and Cultivate Community”

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