October 2007
October 18 - November 26, 2007
Eating our Words with Thy Tran
an 8-week creative nonfiction writing workshop
Mondays, 7 - 9pm
KSW's space180, 180 capp street @ 17th street, san francisco
Class size: minimum of 6, maximum of 14.
Cost: $215 non-members, $195 for KSW members.
To register, please click on one of the buttons below or send a check for the full amount to: Kearny Street Workshop, 180 Capp Street, #5, San Francisco, CA 94110. Please include your name, contact information (phone number and email address if possible), and which class you are registering for. For questions, please contact 415.503.0520 or info @kearnystreet.org.
KSW members click here to register with credit card:
Non-members click here to register with credit card:
For information on becoming a KSW member, please click here
Class Description:
Using food as inspiration, this intensive workshop will develop your ability to project sensory experiences onto the page. We will explore how to weave place and memory into your writing without submitting to clichés. Reading, free-writing, peer critique, and extensive revisions will all strengthen your own voice while instilling good writing habits.
Depending on class interest, we can also address the more pragmatic aspects of writing about food—how to instruct a reader to prepare a dish, how to pitch a magazine, how to find a book agent, how to adapt to a house style with integrity. Or the political—how to treat family stories, how to negotiate authenticity, how to weave together different languages, how to create personal meaning amidst mass consumerism and exotic marketing. Be prepared to clarify your specific focus at the first meeting.
Regardless of the topics, I will push workshop participants in their writing. You'll learn to pay rigorous attention to refining points of view, creating new ways of describing familiar experiences, and describing change through space and time. Beginners in writing and cooking are welcomed, but everyone must finish a 1200-word narrative essay or 3 shorter prose pieces by the last class. Ambitious or experienced writers may also conduct outside research or develop original recipes.
Two to three hours of homework (reading, interviews, observation or historical research) will be assigned during the first few classes; the second half of the course will involve extensive writing and revision. You will have an additional month beyond the last class to polish your submission to the chapbook, Eating Our Words: Volume 2, under the KSW imprint. We will schedule a book launch and public reading for early 2008.
About the Instructor:
THY TRAN is a San Francisco-based writer specializing in the history and culture of food. Trained as a professional chef, Thy has cooked in the kitchens of restaurants, food magazines, newspapers, culinary schools as well as in the homes of hungry friends and family. She has received an international writing award from the Salon du Livre Gourmand for her culinary nonfiction and a grant from the International Association of Culinary Professionals for four months of travel and research in South and Southeast Asia. Most recently, the San Francisco Arts Commission awarded her an individual artist grant to complete a collection of essays exploring how food changes within families across time and place. Thy's stories have appeared in Saveur Magazine, Fine Cooking, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Read more about her work, travels, and food at www.wanderingspoon.com.
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Go: musings on migrations and other journeys
featuring Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Thy Tran, Oscar Bermeo, Vanessa Merina, Kunal Mukherjee, & Rebecca Foust
presented as part of the Litquake Festival
Join KSW and Litquake for a reading about movement & tangents, featuring the voices of six local writers.
Date: Saturday, October 13, 2007
Time: 7 - 7.45PM
Location: New College Creamery, 780 Valencia Street, SF
Cost: Free.
Info: For full Litquake and Litcrawl information, please visit http://www.litquake.org/the-festival/
about the artists
Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, OSCAR BERMEO is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award-winning poet. Oscar lives in Oakland, is the poetry editor for Tea Party magazine, and is married to poet Barbara Jane Reyes. For more information, visit www.oscarbermeo.com.
REBECCA FOUST's work appears in Twelve Ways (Kearny Street Press 2007) and is forthcoming in Margie, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, North American Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, and Taproot. A finalist in the Pablo Neruda, James Hearst and Ruth Stone Poetry Awards, she also won a first place in Writer's Digest's Competition.
Poet and novelist LINDA WATANABE MCFERRIN contributes regularly to both
literary and commercial publications. A popular teacher and speaker, she's authored
two poetry collections, an award-winning novel and a short story collection
and has edited four literary anthologies. She is the founder of Left Coast
Writers®.
VANESSA MERINA was born in California and schooled in Vermont. She writes short fiction and essays. Her work has appeared in Silo, Upstairs at Duroc, and the anthology Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women.
KUNAL MUKHERJEE is a San Francisco poet and writer. Originally from West Bengal, he was raised in Hyderabad, India. Kunal holds a masters degree in Physics and has done post-graduate work in Energy Studies. He has worked as a masseur, a restaurateur and a manager of information technology. His passions include acting, music, travel, the environment and all animals. Kunal's work has appeared in India Currents Magazine and in Hot Flashes: sexy little stories & poems. His poetry has been published in the Hot Flashes 2 this year. He also appeared in the Tonight Show. My Magical Palace is his first novel. www.kunalmukherjee.com
THY TRAN is a freelance writer specializing in the history and culture of food. She recently received a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to complete a collection of essays exploring how food changes in families across time and place. Read more about her work at www.wanderingspoon.com.
Litquake is a San Francisco literary festival with heart, guts and a taste for the wilder side of the literary world. For more information please visit www.litquake.org.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The Cats of Mirikitani
A Film Screening and Discussion with
Director Linda Hattendorf, moderated by Chi-hui Yang
5:30 pm Registration
6:00 pm Program
7:30 pm Sushi/Wine Reception
$5 Members/Students
$10 Non-Members
Location:
500 Washington St., 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA
Recommended Parking:
Portsmouth Square Garage
Co-sponsors
Center for Asian American Media,
Japan Society of Northern California,
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, and
Kearny Street Workshop
About the film
"Make art not war" is Jimmy
Mirikitani's motto. This 85-year-old Japanese-American artist was born in Sacramento, imprisoned in the Tule Lake internment camp, and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he was living on the streets
of New York with the twin towers
of the World Trade Center still ominously framing the horizon behind him. What begins as a simple verité portrait
of one homeless man becomes a rare chronicle
of daily life in New York in the months leading up to and following 9/11.
An intimate exploration
of the lingering wounds
of war and the healing powers
of friendship and art, The
Cats of Mirikitani won the Audience Award at its premiere in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. A discussion with the filmmaker Linda Hattendorf moderated by Chi-hui Yang will follow.
Register online:
https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=1fc724
Or call: Asia Society Northern California at(415)421-8707
For more information about The Asia Society, please
visit their website.
October 19, 2007
Bruce or Bust: Finishing the Game opening night party
Bruce or Bust.
Hyphen's Opening Night Party for Justin Lin's new film "Finishing the Game"
Meet Director Justin Lin and Actors Sung Kang and Roger Fan!
Co-sponsored by APA | FIVE, Kearny Street Workshop, AATC, Angry Asian Man, CAAM, ABL, AsianWeek, (H)api Hour, KIN & Manja.org
Friday, Oct. 19
9:30pm - 2am
Club Six
60 Sixth St.,
San Francisco
$8 Admission or FREE with film ticket stub
more info @ www.youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com
tix available soon @ https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Landmark.aspx?TheatreID=224
