THE LYRIC ESSAY: WORD AND IMAGE Anthology Available
Ages 16-29
Summer 2022, Online
This workshop will be devoted to the art of the lyric essay, an experimental hybrid combining poetry, memoir, personal essay, and, in this instance, photography. Student fellows will emphasize close observation, reexamining their own worlds; their families, friends, environments, and day to day experiences; locating the extraordinary in the ordinary. They’ll respond to shared prompts through both writing and photographs, and gradually develop an approach to their discoveries, making sense of their perceptions through their art, charting the relationship between external and internal realms, between facts, ideas, and emotions, and creating literary and visual works reflecting their unique perspectives. For inspiration and guidance, they’ll study the work of writers Claudia Rankine, Ociele Hawkins, and Maggie Nelson. Each fellow will create a polished lyric essay built on both writing and photographs, and their work will also be combined into an anthology in book form. Their projects will be shared through a virtual exhibition and on the program website. Limited to 8 student fellows.
Jalynn Harris is a poet, educator, press founder, and editor from Woodlawn, the greatest suburb in Baltimore. She earned her M.F.A. from the University of Baltimore. Her first chapbook, Exit Thru the Afro, is a future museum of Black queer artifacts.
Zoraida Díaz, a Colombian-born photojournalist, covered some of the most impactful Latin American stories of the 80s and 90s for Reuters. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Libération, O Globo, The Guardian, Dagens Nyheter, Clarín, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore.
Evelyn Tang is currently a student at Johns Hopkins University, majoring in film and media studies and economics. She believes in the power of media to communicate with the world.
