Winston-Salem Writers “Spring Into Spring” Workshops

Winston-Salem Writers plans two “Spring Into Spring” workshops for April. 

 In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, WSW will offer “Poetry of Witness” by North Carolina poet laureate Jaki Shelton Green on Saturday, April 15, from 10 a.m. to noon by Zoom. Poetry of witness is a form of documentary poetry that attempts to reveal humanity through the art of words.

The first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate, Green teaches documentary poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and was appointed as the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at UNC Chapel Hill. She is a 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, and 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature.

On Saturday, April 29, “Memoir: Bringing Past Worlds to Life” will be presented by Julia Ridley Smith from 10 a.m. to noon by Zoom.

The workshop will address how to give readers a rich sense of places that have played important roles in their lives. It will include writing exercises to help participants see those places with fresh eyes and describe them in vivid language.

Smith teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of a memoir, The Sum of Trifles, and her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

Registration for both workshops can be made at https://www.wswriters.org/workshops-and-seminars. The cost for each workshop is $20 for WSW members and $35 for non-members. The workshops are limited to 40 participants.