Cullman Center Institute for Teachers: Stories from Poems: A Creative Writing Workshop with Alejandro Zambra

Stories from Poems: A Creative Writing Workshop with Alejandro Zambra

What separates fiction and  poetry? Might a poem contain a short story? One answer to these questions is surely “I don’t know,” but discussing them will lead to a fruitful discussion about creative writing. We will start by exploring poems by Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound, Nicanor Parra, and others. Each participant will draft in class a short story based on one of those poems. When the group discusses these drafts, we will ask whether anything has been lost in translation.

The Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra has published fiction in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and McSweeney's, among other publications. He is the author of the novels Bonsai, The Private Lives of Trees, Ways of Going Home, and My Documents. At the Cullman Center he is working on a book about personal libraries.

This seminar is not open to the public. It is only for teachers who have applied and been accepted into the class.