Reading and Writing with Yanyi
Yanyi is a poet and critic.
He is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World Random House, forthcoming 2022) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry, and named one of 2019’s Best Poetry Books by New York Public Library.
His work has been featured in NPR’s All Things Considered, Tin House, Granta, and A Public Space, and he is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Poets House. He has taught creative writing at New York University and Dartmouth College. Currently, he is poetry editor at Foundry.
In this zoom call, Yanyi will share the structures that have aided his prose and creative practice of his newsletter The Reading.
Agenda
Yanyi, Charlene, and Nanya will do a deep dive into:
Creative practice: How does Yanyi harness creativity in writing The Reading? What kind of exercises does he rely on to deeply understand the readers’ needs and desires? How does the advice column inform his own creative process?
Poetry writing: How does Yanyi’s poetry shape his writing? How can writers of all stripes use poetry writing techniques to punch up their writing?
Editing writing: How does Yanyi consistently use editing skills to level up his craft?
Audience Building: How does Yanyi cultivate his presence through books, letters, and poetry? What kind of techniques does he use to show up with authenticity and a unique style?
As always, bring some coffee and a notebook ;)