Coming Home: Writing Nostalgia, Childhood and Cultural Identity

Where and under what conditions you grow up make “home” both a physical and emotional space fraught with complexities and confusion about how you understand our cultural identities in relation to ourselves, our families, our peers, and society at large. Our racial and ethnic identities carry histories and cultures that you should be proud to have been born with, but the harmful reality of racism, xenophobia, and intergenerational trauma are inseparable from how individuals are shaped, from formative childhood years and onwards. How can you use the tools of creative writing to express and make sense of these experiences and their affects on us, and if they are too close to share, why try writing about them in the first place?

In this workshop, you will read excerpts from writers of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry who write from their lived experiences to form perspectives and characters that look back on their youth, and how race, ethnicity, culture and family history are essential to these narratives. You’ll identify literary techniques across these genres and their varied effects, and learn strategies for writing personal stories that prioritize your well-being over the work.

Students will leave with a draft or the start to a description, scene, or poem and a framework for understanding and writing creatively about their lived experiences grappling with cultural identity.

For writers age 13 – 18 ONLY. Register here!