This workshop series is designed for those who have been quietly doing the piecework of gathering remains of the past: a scribbled letter, an illegible document, a blurred photograph, a tale repeatedly told, a fragment of a memory of a conversation, words on a page in a language you do not recognize, a recurring dream, a mysterious object, a secret uncovered. Some sources may speak to you with authority, yet seem to be hiding something. Others you may dismiss as untrustworthy, yet sense their import for the work of truth-telling.

During our time together, we will work with conventional archival sources such as documents, photographs, and interviews in unconventional ways, and draw on source materials often dismissed as unreliable—secrets, lies, propaganda, dreams, hallucinations, hauntings—in order to get closer to truth. We will experiment with creative, hybrid forms of writing that offer novel ways of entering, imagining, and reckoning with the silences and erasures of the past.

Writers, including:

• Intermediate Writers: Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full-time or part-time career with serious, professional intent but are not yet published with a mainstream or recognized independent publisher.
• Advanced Writers: Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognized independent publisher, and/or have been published in at least one literary journal or anthology.

Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the ACWP. A waiting list will be maintained.