Effigy Fall is the autumn workshop series for 2024 taking place late in the season this year. Via Zoom, we will gather to write for six Saturdays in a row, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. MST. The series begins on November 2nd and culminates December 7th (with the Salon/Celebration/Closing Ceremony on Sunday, December 8th from 11:00-12:30 MST). This thematic workshop explores physical figurines made in the likeness of humans as a mode for exploring the human condition and experience. We will focus on the ways dolls, puppets, mannequins, statues, robots, and effigies serve as our mirrors and as our shadows. What power do we give to these objects simply because they might resemble us in appearance? They bring up questions regarding the soul, regarding possession, regarding ghosts and haunting; meanwhile, they simultaneously serve as tools through we can role-play or find companionship. What metaphors do they make on the page? We will consider the cultural relativism of certain likenesses, asking such questions as, "Is a poppet a doll or an effigy or both?" These figurines we will experiment and play with this fall readily lend themselves to the uncanny, and to the realm of speculative fiction, especially sub-genres like magical realism, horror, and science fiction, but there will be room, as always, for more figurative interpretations, and for psychological examination. Each week will be dedicated to a different kind of likeness before we close with the sacrificial entity of the effigy (to burn it all down). 

 

This series is for poets and prose writers alike. Genre writers welcome. (W)rites of Passage falls under the School of Divinatory Poetics, and we will engage in oracular strategies to enter the space that is your/our story. In addition to divination, other prompts and approaches might include Dada & Surrealist games, Jungian writing journeys, mapping, daydreaming, and ritual/(w)ritual. Writers enrolled in the series will be encouraged to build an ongoing altar to their work, to the themes they are investigating as well as the process they are experimenting with. (W)rites of Passage has been described by past participants as a church for writers, a safe place designed to help you liberate yourself from the gatekeepers and the critics, especially the ones that exist within ourselves. Sarah Elizabeth Schantz serves as a writing midwife for the individuals who comprise the collective and for the collective as a whole.

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The six-week series is $400.00 and includes a 15-page critique from the instructor as well as feedback each week from peers and the teacher. You will be expected to generate up to 1,000 words to workshop every Saturday based on the sub-theme that week and the prompts/constraints provided. You will also be assigned literary samples to study and the occasional craft essay and you will be expected to give feedback to others with the understanding that sometimes this is the best way to learn the craft of writing. Writers will be inspired to push themselves and to support each other as a cohort. If you would like to register, please email at writesofpassage13@gmail.com.

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We are currently giving priority to those writers who can do all six weeks of this seasonal series and to those who were enrolled in the prior series, Bejeweled Summer. We occasionally offer a rogue version of the series to a select few participants who would like to take the workshop asynchronously or don't mind doing so because there wasn't room in the Zoom room. The live remote version is limited to 8 writers only because we aim to provide the intimacy all artists need to feel seen and to grow. 

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