From early 2020 to present, the world continues to be in an unprecedented moment of shared loss. Whether the death of a loved one, the loss of a job/career, evolution of thinking and being in communion with others, or a sense of self, lives were irrevocably changed.

While loss and change potentially initiate painful grieving, allowing ourselves to write, remember, and contextualize can bring forward the goodness that preceded and/or is to come. Western culture has historically encouraged a forgetting or rewriting of the past in an attempt to create a distorted and narrow future, but as ancestral and community-focused wisdom shares, looking at the past (even recent past) provides us the opportunity to celebrate life and grow in more balanced relationship with the surrounding environment.

With these concepts in mind, together in this writing workshop we’ll take the heart of the elegy—a traditional literary form expressing emotions around loss—and combine it with more contemporary play on obituaries and eulogies. In mirroring the variety of losses the world has experienced, our writing can range from an obituary for the loss of sense of smell, a formal-toned eulogy for the death of the concept of handshaking, or a traditional elegy mourning the loss of a loved one. Through this writing, we will frame, reframe, and place ourselves in the current context of loss we find ourselves, while hopefully building greater capacity for healing and joy.

This is an IN PERSON workshop taking place at Worksphere, 1120 Pacific Ave Suite 100, Tacoma. This is a secure gathering space & entry instructions will be given day before the event.

This event is free to attend but space is limited and registration is required. REGISTER HERE.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Sarah A. Chavez, a mestiza born and raised in the California Central Valley, is the author of the poetry collections, Hands That Break & Scar (Sundress Publications) and All Day, Talking (dancing girl press). Her new project, Halfbreed Helene Navigates the Whole received a 2019-2020 Tacoma Artists Initiative Award, as well as 2021 residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony & the Macondo Writers Workshop. Chavez teaches creative writing and Latinx/Chicanx-focused courses at the University of Washington Tacoma and serves as the poetry coordinator for Best of the Net Anthology. Recent work can be found in Thimble Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, Diode, & Hotel Amerika. Her micro chap, like everything else we loved, is forthcoming from Porkbelly Press in October 2022.