The Magical Realist
Saturday, May 24, 2025. 4-6pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Karl Michael Iglesias
In this generative writing workshop, we’ll explore the world of magical realism, embracing a spirit of poetic play and the bending of reality. We’ll read poems by Aracelis Girmay and Jon Sands, whose work, while grounded in realism, boldly engages with the unreal, the impossible, and the supernatural. Our focus will be on cultivating a “magical consciousness”—the awareness that, as writers, we have the power to actively shape the impossible within our narratives. We will explore themes like transformation, resurrection, and the supernatural, all in the pursuit of deeper truths. Through play, we’ll examine how they can create tension, ignite surprise, and even spark humor. How can this imaginative play bring us closer to the truths in our work?
Karl Michael Iglesias is a Puerto Rican actor, director and writer from Milwaukee, WI, who now resides in Brooklyn, NY. His poetry can be read in the Florida Review, RHINO, the Brooklyn Review, the Madison Review, the Hong Kong Review, the Chicago Reader and the Academy of American Poets - POEM-A-Day, to name a few. Karl is the author of the poetry chapbooks CATCH A GLOW and THE BOUNCE—both available on Finishing Line Press. Dreaming toward Transformation: A Generative Workshop on the Power of Dreams and the Subconscious
Dreaming Toward Transformation
Sunday, September 8, 2024. 4:00-5:30 pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Stephanie Niu
What can a dream do? In a space unbounded by the logic of the waking world, how might dreams push us to imagine reality differently and even transform it? In this 90-minute generative workshop, we will dive into the imagery and language of dreams, prompted by selected work from Dana Levin and Brendan Constantine, and discuss the role of dreams in transforming and reimagining the world with all its beauty and violences. Participants will collectively brainstorm a list of transformative techniques to use in their own writing, respond to generative prompts, and emerge with a deeper consideration of the dream’s sister question: what can a poem do?
Stephanie Niu is a poet and writer from Marietta, Georgia. Her poem "Exploding Whale Day" appeared in No, Dear Issue 28 (Water). Her first full-length poetry collection, I Would Define the Sun, won the inaugural Vanderbilt University Literary Prize and is forthcoming in February 2025. She is the author of the chapbooks Survived By (Host Publications, 2024), and She Has Dreamt Again of Water (Diode Editions, 2022). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, Literary Hub, Copper Nickel, Ecotone, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for research on Christmas Island’s labor history, through which she led youth poetry workshops and published the zine Our Island, Our Future. She lives in Brooklyn.