Write On

How do you beat writer’s block? Do you thrash your head against a wall? Down a fifth of Jack and mutter atonal Bob Dylan songs? Give up and sell insurance? Next time a blank page triggers a panic attack, try doodling. That’s the advice of famed writer/cartoonist Lynda Barry, who...

By Amanda McCorquodale

April 21, 2011

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How do you beat writer’s block? Do you thrash your head against a wall? Down a fifth of Jack and mutter atonal Bob Dylan songs? Give up and sell insurance? Next time a blank page triggers a panic attack, try doodling. That’s the advice of famed writer/cartoonist Lynda Barry, who will host her acclaimed workshop, Writing the Unthinkable, at Miami Dade College’s Writers Institute. Barry teaches aspiring Faulkners how to think in images and transform sense memories into detailed film strips. Winner of both an Eisner and an R.R. Donnelly Award, Barry will head the four-day workshop, which begins Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Florida Center of Literary Arts on MDC’s Wolfson Campus. This year’s Writers Institute, which runs through May 7, will also host The Novel: From Chaos to Coherence with John Dufresne, Writing Poetry with Elizabeth Alexander, Writing in the First Person with Jonathan Raban, and a Spanish workshop, Un Taller Sobre la Novela, with Martín Solares. There are also three-day workshops: the Short Story with Madison Smartt Bell and Stories From Life with Greg Bottoms. Rounding out the schedule are lunchtime readings by the authors, manuscript consultations, and publishing Q&As with industry experts.
May 4-7, 9 a.m., 2011

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