Writer’s Craft – SASFest—JACOB BUDENZ

Although ekphrasis is most commonly posited as a poetic tool—poetry responding to visual art—the practice of ekphrasis at its heart is a merging of worlds in which an artist of any medium interprets a work in a different medium. Likewise, a Tarot reader interprets imagery and symbolism through the medium of speech, applying old archetypes and images to unique, new problems or questions. In this generative workshop, author and multi-disciplinary performer Jacob Budenz will give a primer on Tarot and discuss its uses as an ekphrastic writing tool. Participants will pull a Tarot card and do their own freewrites, and then Jacob will read a work from their mythopoetic debut short story collection, Tea Leaves.

Jacob is a queer writer, multi-disciplinary performer, and witch with an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.