We go to wild places to hone our city-dulled senses and to reconnect with the animal in ourselves. At the same time, our thoughts, feelings, and insights—our humanness--come into clearer focus in the wild. Through a close consideration of some well-made nature-inspired poems, we will gain an appreciation for how our animal and human selves come together to create memorable poems. Participants will each receive a copy of a recent issue of the literary journal Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry.

When we write about our roots and culture, we can be pulled in multiple directions by different genres: should my family migration story be a poem sequence? Should I be writing a memoir touching diáspora? What if I wrote a fictional account of my city’s haunted legacy? In this generative workshop, we'll delve into the works that intersect their diverse and complex identities with multiple genres. We will consider how flash memoir, short stories, prose poetry, and other hybrid forms can inspire us to write freely about where we come from, where we’re going, and to do so with power.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Proulx, author of "Open Range-Wyoming Stories", and the Shipping News" is quoted to have said " Show me the land and I'll show you the people who walk out of it." Where do characters come from? Are they based on people you have known? An alter ego, perhaps? Someone you always wished you were? Or are they born of the history and challenges of the place you found them in? Then again, how does your inner view judge or understand them? Can you get out of your own way? Learn to find ways to create and understand your characters and their responses to the story line. You may be surprised as they come to life... Writing exercise; Imagine a scenario you are not familiar with-- a-place, scene, and a conflict- Then, who do we meet? (At least one page.)

Preserving a family's history is a goal for many in order to pass on what came before. It's important to acknowledge our past and its legacy but it can seem overwhelming. How can you break it down? Often, by dividing a life into anecdotes, people, events, and the various places the family called home. What endures? How can you turn facts into story? Writing practice-- three short exercises (a paragraph each) based on a character trait of a special person, a treasured sentiment, object or recipe, and a memorable family event.

In the Southwest, Corn Mother represents Mother Earth, and the cycle of life. Inspired, by the symbolism of this revered icon, Fajardo, along Todd Pierson, Ed Winograd and Toinette Brown have spent 15 years creating the Return of the Corn Mothers project. Through stories and photographs, this multi-cultural, multi-generational endeavor has honored 70 Southwest women. Their narratives speak to us about the ability to overcome despair, to stand strong, to build community, and to believe in tomorrow. The workshop will inspire and encourage audience members to rethink, recount and record the stories of their own “Corn Mothers.” Learn how to preserve family heritage stories that honor significant women in one’s own family.

For almost 30 years, the Tummy Tales series has been a journey of love to preserve and record the rich cultural heritage of food tales from Colorado. Fajardo along with long-time editor Ed Winograd and retired Jeff-co librarian Carl Ruby have tirelessly collected and preserved over 80 stories from some of the state’s most famous storytellers. The stories of families and the recipes they cook to celebrate are vital keeping our regional heritage alive. We as a team have been collecting family food tales to preserve the history and legacy of our region. In this workshop the audience will explore the influence of place and heritage regarding their own family food stories. In addition they will be given insight into the numerous techniques to record and preserve their own Tummy Tales.

For centuries, and into our own time, composers and singer-songwriters have turned poems into songs. Think of all those German lieder from the 19th Century that used Schiller’s and Goethe’s poems as inspirations for art songs. Think of the lovely versions of “The Highwayman” that first Phil Ochs and several years later Lorena McKennitt turned into a wildly plaintive songs. Well, we’re going to try something a bit different: we’ll listen to some fairly recent songs by artists like The Band, the Grateful Dead, Townes Van Zandt, and Joan Baez, and see if we can make poems out of them by shifting the focus, the narrator, and by bringing minor characters mentioned in those songs into the foreground. We’ll discover there are lots of different ways to approach the action that takes place in these pieces, none correct, all of them possible.

I once made a bet with another poet that I could find at least one poem (especially in obituaries) in any newspaper published in the country, especially newspapers that serve and exclusively cater to smaller communities. Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to do: look for articles about quirky events and lives and turn them into poems. I’ll supply the articles and we’ll all find something in them that will be the bones for a poem. Or you can bring in your own articles and work from them to turn a story or a life into poetry.