An inspirational piece of visual art is like a window into another world. Art pulls us in, creating an intimate and unique emotional experience for each viewer. We'll be building on the ancient literary tradition of ekphrasis (writing in response to art) to create new pieces. Beginning with a series of writing prompts and observations, this is a generative class where the bulk of our two-hour sessions will be spent writing. From medieval iconography to Toy Pieta (a painting of modern motherhood,) we'll explore the art and create literary work in response to the art that speaks to you. This can be anything from Rodin's The Cathedral to Nick Cave's Soundsuit. This class is open to all literary genres: poetry, short or long fiction, literary essays, and hybrid forms. Here the process is more important than the product. Find art that evokes emotion: love, hate, distress, confusion, rhapsody - and create narratives in response. The class will culminate in a reading. Between sessions, we'll read ekphrastic literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Instructor: Diana Fenves

Dates: Begins Friday, January 17, 2025 and runs every Friday for six weeks total

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Level: Beginner and above

8 seats max

Location: TBA (Please note: until the venue has been finalized and this page has been updated, the course description may change based upon final venue location. If you are a gallery owner in Raleigh and would like to host this class, please reach out to Arshia Simkin at asimkin [at] redbudwriting [dot] org)

$615: true price

$349: base price

$374, $399, $449: donate an extra $25, $50, or $100 to our scholarship fund

(Returning students receive 10 percent off).

A note on pricing:  the “true price” reflects the true cost of the class, which includes paying a fair wage to our staff and instructors, rental fees for the Redbud headquarters and for the community spaces where we host our classes, website and administrative/commerce fees, outreach and advertising to spread the word about our offerings, and the coordination and administration for our community classes, which serve people who could not otherwise access creative writing. We’re not a university or a large corporation and that means we don’t have an operating budget we can rely on; we’re proud to be a small, local, women- and minority-run business that is passionate about bringing the transformative power of the arts to our community. Your tuition helps Redbud with the critical work of keeping the arts accessible to the public. 

We also offer students a chance to donate to our scholarship fund. At check-out, you will be given the option of choosing a donor price. If you choose one of these prices, the extra $25, $50, or $100 will go towards scholarships for students who would not be able to afford our classes otherwise.  Thank you in advance for considering making a contribution to inclusivity and access!

Read the fine print, including our refund policy, here.