Reading and Writing Grief and Surrender

In this three-part seminar, led by novelist and poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher, we will focus on both reading and writing poetry and fiction that deal with themes of grief and surrender. Each class will begin with a grounding check-in, and a discussion of what roles reading and writing poetry and fiction, in particular, can play in grieving, and what roles grief can play in our art-making. In other words, we will examine the two-directional street of transforming “my pain” into a part of “the pain,” and “my suffering” into a part of “the suffering.”

Each week, in class, we will read a number of short texts together, including work by Naomi Shihab Nye, Jalalludin Rumi, Mark Nepo, John O'Donohue, Edward Hirsch, and Kathleen Collins. We will also do a number of generative writing exercises, focused around the themes of grief and surrender.

There will be opportunities (but no expectation) to share newly created drafts and reflections on these exercises in class, and participants will leave with the beginnings of drafts that they can continue working with outside of class, as well as with connections to other writers working on related themes.