During the pandemic, personal writing has taken on new meaning. How do we write our experiences? Our writing can teach us how to reflect and find strength to move into our own personal power.
In this two-part workshop series, we will explore autobiographical writing. This can take the form of poetry, memoir, autobiographical fiction, personal essays, song, plays, and genre-bending material. Each workshop will include a series of short readings and generative writing prompts as well as time to share. Students do not have to share if they are not comfortable. Simply writing together and listening to each other’s writing is writing practice.
Each writing workshop will last two hours. Students can attend one or both workshops. We encourage attendance at both!
When: Applications are due on October 15. This class is capped at 25. Registrants will receive an email confirmation of their spot in the workshop by October 30.
Who: Applications are open to all. You do not have to identify as a writer to take this class. Muslim, BIPOC, immigrant and 2nd generation women and non-binary folks are encouraged to apply. CUNY community college students are encouraged to apply.
Where: Via Zoom. Links will be shared with registrants.
For more information contact Soniya Munshi at smunshi@bmcc.cuny.edu or Linta Varghese at lvarghese@bmcc.cuny.edu.
About the Instructor
Bushra Rehman is a writer, teaching artist and cultural activist. Her poetry collection Marianna’s Beauty Salon was described as “a love poem for Muslim girls, Queens, and immigrants making sense of their foreign home–and surviving.” Her novel Corona, a dark comedy about being South Asian American, was noted by Poets & Writers among the year’s Best Debut Fiction and her co-edited anthology Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism was chosen as one of Ms. Magazine’s “100 Best Non-fiction Books of All Time.” Rehman’s first YA novel Corona: Stories of a Queens Girlhood is forthcoming She is creator of the community-based writing workshop Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction.