As part of her project,”A Legacy of Voices,” 2022–24 Poet Laureate of Allegheny County, Doralee Brooks, leads this two-part writing workshop. Doralee is accompanied by Christine Aikens Wolfe, who will help encourage participants to try this writing practice and learn how to critique and improve their writing. The workshop focuses on the practice of ekphrasis, a literary device accomplished through detailed descriptions of visual art. This second part of the workshop takes place at City of Asylum. Attendance at the first workshop is not required, and we encourage both returning and new participants to join us, both for the workshop and for Indie Bookstore Day festivities following the program. Participants in this workshop will also receive an exclusive discount at City of Asylum Bookstore. 

This workshop is presented in partnership with Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Participants should bring their own writing materials.

Agenda:

9:30–10:00 

• Participants meet at City of Asylum, where tea, coffee, and pastries will be provided. 

10:00–10:30 

• A recap of the first session will take place, where returning participants can review and share their work, and new participants can familiarize themselves with the project. 

10:30–12:00 

• Participants can write new poems, collaborate, and receive feedback.

About the Instructors:

Doralee Brooks (she/her) is a professor emerita at the Community College of Allegheny County in Developmental Studies and a Madwoman in the Attic workshop instructor at Carlow University. She is a fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (‘95) and Cave Canem (‘97 and ‘99). She holds an MEd from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from Carlow University. Her poems have appeared in Voices from the Attic, Paterson Literary Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and Dos Passos Review, among others. Doralee’s chapbook, When I Hold You Up to the Light, won the 2019 Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest published by Main Street Rag. She is City of Asylum’s Poet Laureate of Allegheny County 2022–2024.

Christine Aiken Wolfe’s full-length book of poetry, Garlanding Green, was published by Dos Madres Press in 2018. She had a poem published in Rune magazine last year, then (due to simultaneous submissions) the same poem won second place in the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival Contest. Her poetry appears in Gargoyle, Nerve Cowboy, Paterson Literary Review, Sonnetto Poesia, Rune magazine, and more. Her short story, “Owl & Stag,” is published in The Wild Hunt (Air & Nothingness Press, 2021), and two of her short stories appear in Carlow University’s Voices from the Attic. She co-directed the Western PA Writing Project at Pitt, 1999–2001, and taught Young Writers there from 2002–2013. She is president of Pittsburgh Poetry Society. 

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant 40 North will be closed. 

City of Asylum Bookstore will be open after the workshop, with special activities and discounts to celebrate Indie Bookstore Day.