Writing with Feeling: Affect and the Body in Prose with Lee Mandelo

Tuesday, October 26, 7 – 9 p.m. EST
Online via Zoom | Register to receive link | Registration: $60

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How do we translate bodily experiences, with all of their messy feelings and emotions attached, into words on the page? What makes you describe a piece of writing as powerful, visceral—and how does an evocative description reach out to grab you while you’re reading? In this workshop we’ll look at how writers construct “feeling bodies” in their prose, engaging with touch, taste, smell, texture, contact, emotion, and other aspects of sensational experience to craft meaningful—even visceral!—art. Using short examples from published work ranging from poetry to novels to critical nonfiction, as a group we’ll consider techniques and tools for drawing the physical onto the page. From there, guided prompts and exercises allow participants to practice these techniques within their own form or genre. Group discussion will offer generative feedback on these efforts to get you going on new writing or help you to get a handle on work in progress. The 2-hour workshop will balance these elements of lecture, short readings, writing exercises, and group discussion.

LEE MANDELO is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Mandelo has spent their life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Lexington and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.

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Scholarships Available for MDC Students

Miami Book Fair is offering two (2) full-tuition scholarships for MDC students interested in attending the above-listed creative writing workshop. Applicants must be currently-enrolled, (full time or part time) degree-seeking Miami Dade College students with a demonstrated financial need.

To Apply for a Scholarship:
Please send an email to Marci Cancio-Bello, Miami Book Fair programs coordinator at mcanciob@mdc.edu by Wednesday, October 20 at 11:59 p.m. EST. The message must include your contact information, the title of the workshop you’d like to take, a short statement of financial need, your MDC class schedule, and a writing sample. First-time writers who lack a writing sample should submit a statement explaining their interest in the workshop.