A Nest of Words: What Kind of Writer Bird Are You?

Mini Workshop
Instructor: Alison Meyers

This workshop riffs off Gayle Brandeis’s discussion of how different birds’ approaches to nest building in the wild can jumpstart the creative process. Reading excerpts from such writers as Margaret Atwood (Ruby Throated Hummingbird), Orhan Pamuk (Common Tailorbird), and Patricia Smith (Satin Bowerbird), we will consider which avian habits coincide with our own writing style, interests, and goals. Participants will respond to visual prompts and lines from published works to choose construction material (subject matter) and approach (genre, form, or strategy), and begin building their own unique nests of words.

Alison Meyers is the executive director of Writers & Books, the former executive director of Cave Canem Foundation (2006-2016), and a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and fiction writer. Her work may be found in journals, in the anthology Gathered Light: The Poetry of Joni Mitchell’s Songs, and at www.alisonmeyers.com