CityLit Studio VII: Writers on Craft, Creativity & Community is an intense writer-to-writer exchange to help writers and poets envision their art. This year, to address the highly-overlooked challenges during the pandemic of mothers who write, we offer a special Studio edition. This year’s signature event will be the free part of our intimate mothers-who-write retreat with national partners Scribente Maternum. It will be held in partnership with and at The Clifton House in Baltimore, where renowned poet Lucille Clifton raised her children and penned a few poems. The Clifton House will support five Black mothers who write and who also live in Maryland.
The Studio was created as part of Free Fall Baltimore as far back as 2016 as an opportunity to present premier instruction to support the intellectual growth of local and regional poets and writers who are engaged in the informal and formal practice of writing. The space is meant to be intimate and packed with relevant information for a multi-cultural audience of both accomplished and emerging writers. Presenting authors will provide handouts on craft, lecture for 45 minutes each, and allow a lively audience Q&A. The authors we select usually walk away from this experience buoyed by the energy, the level of engagement of participants, and the overall superlative questions and conversations that ensue after both talks. National Book Award winner Carmen Giminez Smith, who is now the executive director of Graywolf Press, was so taken by her experience with us, that she waived her honorarium.
CityLit will engage independent bookseller Greedy Reads to sell books and help promote the event to a larger audience.
In addition to offering significant craft instruction on a topic of the presenter’s choice, the Studio gives support and insight into preparing writers for the business of publishing. Presenters provide an intense lecture/conversation with engaged, experienced authors who are looking to up the ante on their work. These sessions are a way of building a literary community.
The Studio is an information and discussion session on key aspects of craft to improve writing and learn the importance of finding artistic communities. Emerging and serious writers, along with the interested general public, get a unique look behind the writing process of two of the region’s esteemed literary stars. A writer-to-writer craft series to help writers and poets envision their art.
In addition to offering significant craft instruction, the Studio gives support and insight into preparing writers for the business of publishing.
https://www.scribentematernum.com/