Whether or not you believe in divination, it’s easy to see the appeal of the Tarot’s symbolism. The Tarot has been used as a common source of imagery and inspiration in poetry as far back as the 1500s! In this course, we’ll use the Tarot to encounter and apply universal themes to our writing. Each week we’ll explore a different aspect of the tarot (history, suits, major arcana, ritual, layouts, relationships, and more), and read 1-2 source texts by authors who explore these themes, including Marge Piercy, Timothy Liu, Tabitha Dial, and Rachel McGibbons. The readings will be paired with a brief experiment to guide you into the prompt, and help you “draw out” images unique to the deck you choose. Every week will also include optional viewing/listening assignments to provide multiple entry points into new work. You’ll be encouraged to post your fresh drafts if you like for light criticism and positive peer feedback in the weekly forums. By the end of class, you’ll have 7-8 fresh drafts and a number of fun ways you can use the Tarot in your writing even after the course has ended. Please have a deck you can use in the experiments and pre-writes each week before our class begins.
NO SET MEETING TIME: This workshop will take place over Wet Ink, which is an asynchronous creative writing platform. The instructor will post a lesson and assignment at the beginning of each week, and participants can log in and read the lessons/post assignments/comment on other classmates’ work at their convenience. Shortly before the start date, participants will receive an invite from Wet Ink to create their login info and access the class. Please check your spam if you don’t see it.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@{{{{homeurl_non_www}}}}. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
