Alessandra Naccarato is a writer, performer and arts educator based in Vancouver, B.C. Winner of the 2015 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, the Reader’s Choice Award for the 2014 CBC Poetry Prize, and Event Magazine’s 2014 Creative Non-Fiction Award, her writing has appeared across Canada and the United States. She has toured nationally and internationally as a spoken word artist, worked with thousands of youth across the country, and is currently completing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
Workshop Description:
Writing Resilience
Spoken word can break open the bone of trauma; individual, collective. Our personal narratives, and those of the world around us. We write into the heart of violence: physical, psychological, environmental. What is the impact of this on us as writers and performers? How does this shape our relationship to audiences? Beyond trigger warnings, how can we foster resilience through storytelling?
This workshop will open up space to discuss creative process, the challenges and potential of writing our most difficult struggles. Why do we need to share these stories? What literary approaches can best support this process? From magic realism to persona poems, how have others navigated writing trauma?
Mostly, we will write. Through a series of creative writing exercises, we will map our own stories of healing. The healing we see in the world around us and the transformations we have lived. Drawing techniques from creative non-fiction, poetry, and performance, the workshop will aim to create work that has an impact on the page and the stage.