Open to all writing levels and backgrounds, Reading and Writing through Anne Carson is a six week workshop on Thursdays (10/19-11-30), 6:30-9PM at Ada Books. To view complete course information, and to register, click here.

In conversation with instructor Mary-Kim Arnold, we’ve inquired about what to expect in class:

Mary-Kim Arnold is the author of “Litany for the Long Moment,” coming from Essay Press in 2018. A multidisciplinary artist and writer, her work has appeared in a number of literary and art journals, including Tin House, The Georgia Review, Day One, and Hyperallergic. Arnold recently received the Fellowship in Fiction award from The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She lives in Pawtucket.

Who is this class for?
This class is for anyone and who wants some space and time to experiment and play! No experience necessary! And no familiarity with Anne Carson necessary. Just an openness to writing and a willingness to talk about reading, writing, and creative practice.

What types of writing exercises can students look forward to?
I’m designing this class to feel generative, playful, experimental. I am hoping that, as a group, we’ll all feel comfortable enough to follow new pathways where they might lead. We’ll create writing experiments and rituals for each other. We’ll work in pairs and in small groups. We’ll write to music. We’ll write without being able to see what we’re writing. We’ll read out loud to each other.
Students will always be able to choose what they want to write. Some may be inspired to respond directly to ideas, themes, or formal techniques that Carson’s work introduces. But that is not required!

What inspires you about Anne Carson’s work?
I’m really drawn to women writers who push the boundaries of form, plus are expansive and inclusive in their approach to creative work. I find more and more that the stories I want to tell and the questions I want to explore are less easily contained in traditional forms or parameters.

The complexity of our experiences — as being so connected while often feeling so alienated, as arriving here from other places and feeling the pull of what we’ve left behind, as contemplating the future of our individual selves and our communities — to me seem increasingly to require a more expansive view of creative inquiry.

I admire Carson’s willingness to take risks — a book as a stack of pamphlets that can be read in any order? A novel written in a single narrow column of verse? I love the moment of confusion and curiosity Carson’s work can invite.