Changing Places
Often when writers focus on “place,” our work expresses a kind of settledness. But places change, and we change places. America is changing right now in myriad unprecedented ways. How can writers capture and engage with these changes on the page? This cross-genre workshop will focus on change, in the broadest sense, as subject-matter, approach, aspiration, and mindset. Students can expect to read and discuss fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work as well as to generate new material during our time together.
Ana Maria Spagna is the author, most recently, of PUSHED: Miners, a Merchant and (Maybe) a Massacre. Her previous books include Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going, Reclaimers, stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus, winner of the River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, 100 Skills You’ll Need for the End of the World (as We Know It) a humor-infused exploration of how to live more lightly on the planet, as well as a middle-grade novel, The Luckiest Scar on Earth, and a poetry chapbook, Mile Marker Six. Ana Maria’s work has also been recognized by the Society for Environmental Journalists, and as a four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. After fifteen years on backcountry trail crews, she turned to teaching creative writing at Antioch University, Whitman College, St. Lawrence University, as the William Kittredge Distinguished Writer in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, and currently in the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University and Wenatchee Valley College. She lives in Stehekin, Washington with her wife, Laurie, and Maybelle the cat.
