The Mindful Storyteller in You
What stories connect you to the Granite State? In this workshop led by New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary, we'll focus on jumpstarting your most important place-based stories. You'll practice mindful writing techniques that offer a fresh way to start a story you may have contemplated telling for a while, and in the process, could discover unexpected stories that have been waiting to be told. Developing an openness to the present moment, you'll free yourself from thinking there are stories you "should" write. Learn how to practice "moment tracking" to develop a path your story may take. The session will close with strategies to continue the creative momentum at home and give you more tools to finish your story. We'll also talk about how to remain receptive to changes in the draft, keeping an open mind about its final form through genres like flash nonfiction, the personal essay, and prose poetry.
About the facilitator: Alexandria Peary (MFA, MFA, PhD) serves as New Hampshire Poet Laureate. Her nine books include Prolific Moment: Theory and Practice of Mindfulness for Writing and Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak. The recipient of a 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, she received the Iowa Poetry Prize and Best of NH (for inspiring artist). She specializes in mindful writing, a topic described in her TEDx talk, “How Mindfulness Can Transform the Way You Write.” She founded Under the Madness Magazine, a magazine run by New Hampshire teens, and is a professor in the English Department at Salem State University.
As part of our multi-year initiative, Becoming New Hampshire, this workshop will culminate in a heartfelt and lively on-stage conversation between New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult and New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary as they discuss Picoult's long career as a virtuoso of the human story in "Jodi Picoult and the Writing Life: More Than a Good Story" during the New Hampshire Humanities' Annual Celebration on Wednesday, November 8 at 5 pm at The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover Street, Manchester). More information is available here: https://www.nhhumanities.org/celebrate/
