So We Can Know: A Generative Writing Workshop with Seema Reza

This generative writing workshop, inspired by the forthcoming anthology So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth, and presented by the ISGRJ-Camden Occasions for Gathering Series, brings together women and birthing people to share their reproductive health stories in a supportive environment.

In this generative workshop, writers at all levels will be invited to consider their own experiences of their particular bodies in new ways. We will explore boundary, birth, nourishment, and pleasure. What does the body want? Where has the body been? If you have been living in a body, you know everything you need to know to participate in this workshop. Bring a pen, paper, and an open mind. You will leave with at least three lines of writing that surprise you. 

The workshop is in-person at Rutgers-Camden and will be led by award-winning author Seema Reza.

Seema Reza is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives & When the World Breaks Open. Based in Maryland, she is CEO of Community Building Art Works, an award-winning organization that brings workshops led by professional artists to veterans, service members, and healthcare providers. Reza’s work with veterans is featured in the 2018 HBO documentary We Are Not Done Yet. She was awarded the Col John Gioia Patriot Award by the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore for her work with service members. Her writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The LA Review, and LitHub among others.  An alumnus of Goddard College and VONA, she has taught poetry in classrooms, jails, hospitals, and universities, and has performed across the country at universities, theaters, festivals, bookstores, conferences, and one fine mattress shop. 

What is a generative workshop? 

A generative workshop gives you a prompt or exercise, an opportunity to generate the beginning of new writing. Much like a map that suggests a route, a generative workshop offers you a way to write about a memory or subject that interests you. Occasionally, a generative workshop gives you a great story or poem, but more often you might write a line or paragraph that excites you, a clue to follow toward something larger. Above all, a workshop gives you a chance to be with people who have a similar interest in writing.