Writing Weekend with Nick Jaina

Saturday July 15
writing workshop 10am - 2pm
potluck dinner at 6pm
reading and performance at 8pm

and

Sunday July 16
writing workshop 10am - 2pm

$50 per person per day or
$85 per person for both days

Class size is capped at 10 people
Performance is free to workshop students, $10 for others

Healthy snacks, tea, coffee, and water provided.

Let’s talk about writing.

I am looking for people who have stories inside them, who describe these stories like they are speaking of a virus that has taken hold of them. "Why am I burdened with this? What do I do with it?"

I want to help you get these stories on paper and into the world. With this workshop we will transfer the inspiration, the story fragments, and the fever dreams into a project with a plan and a structure. Whether it is a novel, a memoir, or a collection of essays, we need to create inevitability. We want the project to have its own gravity, so it collects other beautiful parts to it.

Writing is meditation. It is a personal practice. Meditation is about being intentional about your breath. We find inspiration in the body and organize it with our intellectual brain. We then take this personal practice and make it into something the public can access. It is important to acknowledge and honor all the disparate parts of you to make a project happen: you have to be a writer, an editor, a poet, a journalist, and so many other things.

Nick Jaina is a writer and musician from Portland, Oregon. His work has been published in McSweeney's Quarterly, Atlantic, Oregon Humanities, Portland Mercury. His 2015 memoir Get It While You Can was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. He has also co-founded a ballet company in New York City and toured the world playing music.