TWFest: WRITER’S CRAFT—STACEY BALKUN

REFLECTIONS AND OMISSIONS: WRITING WITH THE UNSAID—STACEY BALKUN
“In a field, I am the absence of field,” writes Mark Strand, reminding us that not all absence is nothingness. As an instrument must have a resonating chamber in order to sing, texts too depend on empty space. This craft session will focus on what can be found in the white space of a text: how can omissions render a new narrative? How can reflection and recursion pronounce and echo? What can best be represented through absence? Turning to poets who have mastered the unsaid, this craft session will explore strategies to suspend logic, narrative, and even syntax in favor of lyric and gesture.