Somatic Spiraling: The Body as a Creative Resource – An AWP Offsite Event [In-Person Only]
$0–25 Sliding scale donation (no one turned away)
⚠️ Public safety notice ⚠️
NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. We are not currently checking vaccination cards. Recent variants of COVID-19 readily infect and spread between individuals regardless of vaccination status.
NWFF is adapting to evolving recommendations to protect the public from COVID-19. Read more about their policies regarding cleaning, masks, and capacity limitations here.
Northwest Film Forum presents an AWP offsite workshop with Emily Mundy and Amy Hirayama.
The body is a spiraling source of information—of memory, intuition, and instinct, of shifting energetic avenues. Often, writing is considered a disembodied act (even by writers themselves). But the physicality of writing exists on a much deeper level than simply excavating the mind for language, then allowing it to flow through fingers on a keyboard or from the wrist to the pen on a page. How might different areas of the body be conduits to the subconscious? How might exploring these spaces allow us to tap into uncharted areas of creativity we don’t normally access?
In this workshop, Amy and Emily will combine movement, guided meditation, and sensory exploration with generative writing prompts to steer writers through the energetic channels of their own bodies, in hopes of accessing surprising information for their creative work.
How to prepare:
- Participants are invited to bring a cushion or mat to sit on the floor. Chairs will be provided for those who need it.
- Wear comfortable clothes and socks for movement.
- Writing utensils and paper will be provided, you are welcome to bring your own notebook.
Bios:
Amy Hirayama
Amy Hirayama is a Hapa writer and educator from Seattle, Washington. She is currently a writer-in-residence with the Seattle Arts and Lectures Writers in the Schools program. She also works as the residential workshop administrator for Clarion West. Food, family, humor and nature are her favorite things, so she writes about them a lot, sometimes all at once.
Emily J. Mundy
Emily J. Mundy is a Seattle-based poet who believes in writing as a force that can heal, transform, and illuminate. Her work reveres the mystical nature of language and often explores spirituality. She is proud to have made her home in the Pacific Northwest, and hints of this landscape reverberate throughout her poems. Emily is the creator of The Poetry Séance—a quarterly reading and workshop series curated to enliven poetry shows and embolden local writers, each season at a time. She holds an MFA in Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell, and shares a realm with her two cats and one beloved typewriter.
About AWP
2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair
March 8–11, 2023
Seattle Convention Center (705 Pike St.)
The AWP Conference & Bookfair is the annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers of contemporary creative writing. It includes thousands of attendees, hundreds of events and bookfair exhibitors, and four days of essential literary conversation and celebration. The AWP Conference & Bookfair has always been a place of connection, reunion, and joy, and we are excited to see the writing community come together again in Seattle, Washington in 2023.