Darcey Steinke & Writing the Body

August 21, 2020
In these days of cloistering and virtual reality, it’s harder than ever to remember that we inhabit bodies in space and time, and that our physical experiences are worth writing about. As someone who loves reading and writing about both sports and dance (including this fascinating new essay by British author Clair Wills, “Stepping Out,”), I was especially excited to learn that our KyWomenWriters2020 presenter Darcey Steinke would be teaching a workshop for us on “Writing the Body.” Darcey describes this workshop as follows:
 
We will focus on our body as a nexus to write from. Examples from memoirs and essays that use the body will be read. Some examples may be Maggie Nelson, Vivian Gornick, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Douglas A Martin. We will do exercises in class that deal with the knowledge that comes from the physical. Which is of course ALL Knowledge. Working with the senses we will try to locate meaning and story. Once the body is explicated, we can then, and only then, think about the greater world. We will discuss how all living things, plant, animal, and human, have movement and change at their base and how key that movement and change is to storytelling.
 
Darcey’s recent memoir, Flash Count Diary, delves into her experiences with that under-examined phase of life known as menopause, and she is best known as the author of five novels, including Sister Golden Hair. She has written a previous memoir, Easter Everywhere, on her relationship to faith as a preacher’s daughter. She was also, we learn in this New York Times column, a stutterer, an issue so movingly showcased in last night’s Democratic Convention.  Finally, I interviewed Darcey in our Kentucky Women Writers Radio Hour on WUKY, and you can listen to that recording here (Darcey's segment begins around 52:30).

 
Slots are still available in Darcey’s workshop as well as in Jami Attenberg’s, but all other workshops are sold out. General admission plus workshop is $175, or $220 if you’d like to include a 15-minute one-on-one meeting with literary agent Erin Hosier.
 
Closer to the conference weekend, I will delve into the details of using Zoom for KyWomenWriters2020. In a nutshell, to those who are registered, we will email a schedule grid like this populated with Zoom links for each session, so you can jump into any that interest you. Workshops will be password protected.
 
With general admission costing only $25, this is the most affordable and accessible conference in our history, yet we are still offering a robust series of signature free events. If you plan to attend only these free events, you can register for each at the links below, and read more about them in yesterday's press release:

• An Evening with Evie Shockley: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PmLKJ1o-RfOxGCKou3RJjA
• The Sonia Sanchez Series: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Jxj3KjAvT86jSbjSRVxkVg
• The Wild Women of Poetry Showcase: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LSKKmWzOSbGlwlRffV3smQ
• Stars of the Commonwealth: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sjCMhhMWTKKWOWysFqQ7qw

If you have already registered for the ticketed portion of the conference, you do not need to register again at the links above: they will be included in your aforementioned schedule grid emailed to you in early September. Pro tip: to keep track of Zoom invitations from us as well as from other organizations, create a “Zoom invitations” subdirectory in your email.
 
            Thank you for your literary citizenship, and be well in these trying times.