Scribente Maternum Writing Retreats

Kimberly King Parsons is the author of the debut collection Black Light (Vintage, Atlantic Books UK), which was longlisted for both the National Book Award and the Story Prize. Black Light was also a finalist for the 2020 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, the 2020 Texas Institute of Letters Best Work of First Fiction Award, and the 2020 Oregon Book Award. Parsons’s story “Foxes” (published in The Paris Review) won the 2020 National Magazine Award for Fiction.

Parsons is the recipient of fellowships from Columbia University, Yaddo, Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Oregon Arts Commission, Regional Arts and Culture Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation; her fiction has been published in The Paris Review, New York Tyrant, Black Warrior Review, No Tokens, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Her latest bookWe Were the Universe a novel about Texas, motherhood, and LSD comes out May 2024 by Knopf.She lives with her partner and sons in Portland, Oregon.

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Session Details:

Let the Given World Recede: Games for Breaking Blocks

“When I sit down and start writing, I feel the given world recede, and I can just play.”
—Sam Lipsyte

Remember when you were a little kid, playing on the floor for hours and hours? Our best writing days are often imbued with that same sense of timelessness, freedom, wonder, and escape—in other words, our work often works best when it feels like play.

In this learning session and generative writing time, we will tap into a playful mindset by using silly rules, games, and obstructions to unlock problematic works and/or generate new material. Bring a laptop or a notebook and pen!

Emily Van Kley is a queer poet and circus artist currently based in Olympia, Washington. Her poetry collections are The Cold and the Rust, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, and Arrhythmia, both from Persea Books. Emily has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center, and her work appears in numerous publications, including editions of Best New Poets and Best American Poetry. When not writing, she can often be found teaching or performing aerial acrobatics. 

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https://emilyvankley.com

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Session Details:​

The Art of Omission: Trusting Ourselves to Say Less and Mean More

In this session, we will explore some of the poet’s most powerful tools—whitespace and omission—for their ability to expand the stories we tell in any genre. From erasure poetry to our own revision processes, we will learn techniques of radical subtraction, creating space for generative strangeness and encouraging a multiplicity of meanings to emerge. 

Shalanda is a happily married wife and proud mother who is also a multi-disciplinary artist and
native Oregonian. She is the founder and executive director of World Stage Theatre and
professional actress. Favorite credits include The Pirates of Penzance with the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival at Portland Opera, Color Purple at Portland Center Stage at The Armory,
and Gospel Christmas at Oregon Symphony. Shalanda studied theater at the University of
Portland, and English at Portland State University, is the author of Night Rhythms; The Hooded
Quilt Series, and Full-Time Woman Blog. She is a Dramatist Guild, American Guild of Musical
Artists, Actors Equity Association member and has written several plays including Church Girls,
Vanport, Who I Am Celebrating Me and Redefining Alberta. Some of her film and television
credits include The Hunted (Paramount), Secrets of Successful Dating (Otter Creek),
and Faith (Camp Productions). Shalanda stays involved in her community and currently sits on
the Portland Public School Master Arts Education Plan. She is an advocate for real change and
above all, enjoys spending time with her family.

www.shalandasims.com

Kristen Millares Young is a journalist, essayist, and author of the novel Subduction, named a staff pick by the Paris Review and called “whip-smart” by the Washington Post, “a brilliant debut” by the Seattle Times, and “utterly unique and important” by Ms. Magazine. Winner of Nautilus and IPPY awards, Subduction was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and named a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards and Foreword Indies Book of the Year in 2020. Her essays, book reviews, and investigations appear in the Washington Post, the Guardian, Literary Hub, and the anthologies Advanced Creative Nonfiction, Latina Outsiders, and Alone Together, winner of a 2021 Washington State Book Award. A former Prose Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House, she is the editor of Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature, a finalist for a 2021 Washington State Book Award. Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. She is the 2023 Distinguished Visiting Writer for Seattle University and the University of Washington Bothell Master of Fine Arts program.

www.kristenmyoung.com
@kristenmillares

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Session Details:​

Generative Writing in Homage to Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power"

"There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling."   

In this session, we will tap into the erotic by way of Audre Lorde's essay "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." Through a series of prompts, attendees will channel that power which Lorde describes.