(Winter21) Online Poetry Workshop: Nothing for Granted with Shira Erlichman

*ONLINE COURSE*
Poetry Workshop with Shira Erlichman
Nothing for Granted
Dates: Monday February 15 - Friday February 19
Time: 4:30-6:00PM EST
Location: online via Zoom
Fee: $250
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In his brief poem “Watermelons” Charles Simic writes, “Green Buddhas / On the fruit stand. / We eat the smile / And spit out the teeth.” And just like that, an ordinary watermelon is transformed into a Buddha; a slice into a smile; the seeds, fittingly, into teeth we’ll spit. In this workshop, we’ll follow Simic’s example by inviting the familiar to arrive with unprecedented freshness. Through ostranenie, or defamiliarization, we’ll take nothing for granted. Whether a watermelon, a partner, illness, grief, or the (seemingly) mundane details of our lives, we’ll train our perspective toward openness and possibility, asking of the ordinary objects and people in our lives: who is this alien before me? Guided by the work of Aracelis Girmay, Angel Nafis, Sharon Olds and Kaveh Akbar (among others), we’ll use tools such as ode, surrealism, haiku, and landscape to become fiercely intimate with the ordinary. After all, it’s our job as poets to electrify the dulled, honor the overlooked, and destabilize assumption. Together, we’ll enter worlds of epiphanic confrontation, where a simple green fruit has the presence of a Buddha, and to eat a slice is to eat a smile. 
 
Shira Erlichman is an author, visual artist, and musician. She recently released her debut poetry book Odes to Lithium and children's book Be/Hold. She's received fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Millay Residency, and AIR Serenbe. Her work has been featured in The Rumpus, PBS NewsHour's Poetry Series, The Huffington Post, The Seattle Times, and The New York Times, among others. Learn more at www.shiraerlichman.com.

“Through her nonlinear narrative of hospitalization, treatment and everyday life, Erlichman turns a confessional self-portrait of crisis into a chemical, chimerical joyride toward self-acceptance" - The New York Times
More reviews: www.officialshira.com/books