Writing Pleasure

INSTRUCTOR: Kartika Budhwar

TIME: Four Tuesdays, May 9, 16, 23, 30, 6:00–9: 00 p.m. CST/CDT

PRICE: Early bird price: $150 for members, $180 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Wednesday, May 3. After Wednesday, May 3: $180 for members, $210 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.

LOCATION: Online via Zoom

LEVEL: All Levels

CAP: 15

We live in a world of division, fear and pain. But we also live in a world and in bodies that offer us incredible pleasure. Everything is first experienced through the body; this world comes to us through the vehicle of our senses.

Sensory pleasure isn’t mere frivolity. It is necessary for our survival. In the depths of our suffering, alienation, and isolation, the unexpected pleasure of grass under our feet, a stranger’s ringing laughter, or the bright smell of a freshly-peeled orange can bring us back into our bodies and back into communion with the world.

Pleasure winds through the rituals and rites that cohere into culture and tradition. We build community by offering, receiving and sharing nourishment through food, art, music–all of which falls under the purveyance of pleasure. In pleasure lie our notions of the sacred and the profane.

In this four-week exploration of all pleasure has to teach us, we will examine poems, prose and hybrid pieces celebrating the pleasure and wisdom found in the senses. We will experiment and play with immersive sensory writing of our own while discussing and sharing our work as we learn together.