Writing is hard, no matter who you are. But for LGBTQ+ writers, the work is often made harder by having to do it in writing communities that find their difference threatening, exotic, or unwelcome.
In this 7-week workshop, all are welcome to sharpen their prose in an inclusive setting geared toward nurturing and challenging writers to turn their hard work into powerful stories. Under the guidance of Ty Baniewicz, a queer transgender journalist and essayist, writers in the workshop will move forward with a piece of writing—memoir, nonfiction and fiction welcome—as well as generate new work.
This is an engaged workshop. You’ll get weekly feedback on your work from Ty and your peers; learn lessons from LGBTQ+ literary masters past and present; and practice writing complex characters, compelling narrators, thrilling scenes, and God help us, maybe even humor. The workshop will expand your toolkit for writing and revising prose in an inclusive environment, with the goal of publication.
Maximum six students.
Ty’s essays, journalism, and other writings have been published at Mic, The Rumpus, TruthOut, Counterpunch, and Southerly. A former fellow at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, Ty currently works as a community reporter for The Current Lafayette, a nonprofit newsroom in their Louisiana hometown. They hold a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from the University of New Orleans, where their book-in-progress, A Gulf Between, won the Carol Gelderman thesis award and, more recently, was a semi-finalist for Tulane’s Studio in the Woods Climate in Crisis Residency. They are a current member of the Solutions Journalism Network Mentorship Cohort Program, and live in South Louisiana with their spouse and ginger cats, Panko and Ribs.