The Southern writing tradition has always been the fertile ground for fire. Dry weeds exist, yet the soil is rich. Southern writing is a living, breathing thing: a ghost, a bay window, a river’s edge, a magnolia tree, a stained-glass hymn.

What do we need to make your writing sound, look, and feel like a revival? To stir the spirit, shake the soul, and awaken something that had been dormant? The recipe: sound, setting, and syntax that reads like scripture. This craft talk will cover Southern sounds, the importance of setting, and language/jargon/syntax will look at the Southern writers Paul Lawrence Dunbar, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and other writers. Register here.

Khalisa Rae is an award-winning poet, educator, and journalist based in Durham, NC, and is a lover of community. She is the author of the debut collection- Ghost in a Black Girl's Throat from Red Hen Press 2021. She is a 4-time Best of the Net nominee and Pushcart nominee. Her articles appear in Washington Post, LA Times, Blavity, Parents.com, Autostraddle, Catapult, LitHub, Bitch Media, NBC-BLK, and others. Her poetry can be seen in Southern Humanities Review, Electric Lit, Pinch, Tishman Review, Frontier Poetry, Rust & Moth, PANK, HOBART, among countless others. As a decorated writer, she is a Watering Hole and Frost Place Fellow. Currently, she serves as Asst. Editor of Glass Poetry, co-founder of Think in Ink and the Women of Color Speak reading series. Find her current classes at Catapult Stories. Her next collection, Unlearning Eden is forthcoming.

Please note: This is a live workshop and will not be recorded.