Writing workshops aim to draw art from fires

By COLBY FRAZIER — June 13, 2009

Anyone who’s thought about dusting off the Royal manual typewriter and sifting through the terror, fatigue, disappointment, anguish and for some, relief, that accompanied Santa Barbara County’s recent string of wild fires but doesn’t know where to start, will have a helping hand over the next three weeks.

Starting today at 1 p.m., playwright and longtime writing teacher Ellen K. Anderson is hosting the first of three writing workshops dubbed: “AFTER WORDS: Writing Following the Fire.”

Anderson, director of Isla Vista Arts, which is part of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UC Santa Barbara, said she plans to touch on a number of tips and techniques during the workshops, but anyone hoping for therapy will be disappointed.

What one should expect, she said, is art.

“The goal of the workshop is not to heal trauma,” Anderson said. “I’m not a therapist.” That being said, Anderson, who primarily teaches play writing, has never taught a workshop with such a clear focus, and acknowledged she isn’t sure what to expect. She said the workshop could highlight a number of genres, including poetry, fiction and play writing — or none of them.

Anderson said she plans to help workshop participants spot the roadblocks that prevent one from writing, and to show people how to keep writing once they’ve started.

“People might come out of it with some mementos or some new skills or some art,” she said, adding that some of her favorite plays were written after times of personal tragedy or triumph. “I don’t think that this workshop is necessarily about [healing], it’s about starting to write to pursue art rather than catharsis.”

The idea for the workshops came in the aftermath of last November’s wind-whipped Tea Fire, which tore through the Santa Barbara and Montecito foothills, consuming more than 200 homes. Shortly after this blaze, Anderson said campus officials gathered to discuss what they could do for the community and she suggested a writing workshop.

Since then, the Jesusita Fire, in May, destroyed 80 homes and forced the evacuation tens of thousands of residents.

Clearly, there’s plenty to write about, and Anderson said she’s more than happy to help people jump into the process.

“I’ll do all [those] magic things I know how to do to get people writing and keep people writing,” she said.

The workshop runs from 1-3 p.m. in the Faulkner Gallery inside the main branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library. It is free and open to the public and runs each Saturday through June 27.

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no advance notice : 6/13/2009

Sounds great --- wish there had been some advance notice!!!! Does one have to have been there today (now!) for next Saturday?

would be writer

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Sober Facing Fire : 6/15/2009

http://www.independent.com/blogs/sober-spitbath/2009/may/16/fire/

Blog I wrote just after the J fire

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