Sarah Freligh – Beyond What the “I” Can See: An Exploration of Point of View: Sept 16-18, 2022

“I am large, I contain multitudes,” wrote Walt Whitman, who famously celebrated the “I” throughout “Song of Myself” as a way to connect the self to the universe and the natural world within it. Unlike Walt, most of us don’t contain multitudes. We often default to writing in first person because it feels as natural as speaking only to find ourselves anchored in the cement boots of “what really happened,” preventing us from allowing inspiration to give way to imagination. In this weekend class, we’ll look at examples of how writers have gotten beyond the “I,” try our hand at prompts designed to allow us to try on a variety of vantage points and explore how a fresh point of view can jumpstart a poem or a piece of prose as well as give new life to a soggy draft.