Led by Dr. Erica Anzalone, author of the award-winning collection, Samsara. Erica holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a doctorate in English from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where she was awarded a Schaeffer fellowship. With over eighteen years of teaching experience at the college level, Erica's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Autofocus Literary Magazine, The Colorado Review, Hotel Amerika, Cream City Review, Juked, Pangyrus, Denver Quarterly, The Literary Review, The Offending Adam, Pleiades, Sentence, UCity Review, and elsewhere.

In this series of lyric explorations, we will dive deep into the interplay between dream life, literary theory, and the occult, seeking to inspire new modes of poetic creation.

Through close readings of poetry, essays, and creative non-fiction, we will explore Federico García Lorca’s theory of the duende, alongside the mystical worlds of dreams and magical tools like Tarot. As we engage with our own creative daemons, we will investigate how this force shapes our lyric essays, poetry, and writing practice.

Building on the tradition of writers who have explored the interplay of personal experience and magic—writers like Keats, Yeats, Sylvia Plath, and Diane Seuss—this course will encourage participants to tap into the liminal space where dreams and waking life converge.

From Romanticism to Modernism to Confessionalism, we’ll trace an occult thread that binds these writers together, using their work as a springboard for our own lyrical explorations.

As Lorca asserts, the duende is a struggle that takes place within the body: “it rises from the blood.” This struggle encapsulates the paradox of life in death, and is deeply connected to the earth. Likewise, we will practice embodied writing and paradox to create nuanced and complex works.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Write at least 4 new drafts from generative writing prompts inspired by the duende
• Utilize Tarot cards and a dream journal as tools for tapping into the collective unconscious, generating rich, vivid imagery that engages embodied experience and paradox
• Receive encouraging feedback from Dr. Erica Anzalone and your peers to help fuel your writing practice

*All course readings can be found online and listed in the course outline/syllabus.

COURSE OUTLINE & READINGS:

WEEK 1: Duende and Dreamwalking

WEEK 2: Apocalyptic Magic and Duende

WEEK 3: Finding Inspiration in Tarot and Other Enchanting Tools

WEEK 4: New Moon Report

TESTIMONIALS:

“Thank you, Erica, for a fabulous class! I've learned so much about the writing process and relished the texts. Each class has helped awaken long-slumbering skills of analysis and muscles of creativity that I haven't exercised in some time. I'm especially grateful for the workshop portion, both for my own piece and for others. I've always been insecure about my writing style, but these classes have really boosted my confidence and filled my well of creativity. The workshop notes I received validated my process and helped magnify the paths to take next. I'm so grateful to Erica and the writing coven that is forming through these classes.” — Kristilyn Ink

“With Erica’s mentorship, I am now attending the MFA program of my choice and have published several of my poems. She saw potential where I did not, and she pushed me out of my comfort zone by encouraging me to write creative non-fiction. She taught me to trust in my own writing and the fact that my stories are valuable on their own. I fell in love with creative non-fiction because of her. Not only did Erica spend an ample amount of time with me (more than she had to!), she provided me with pages of written feedback that helped me revise and assist in the publication process. I am a much stronger, more confident writer since working with Erica, and am successfully pursuing a career in the field of creative writing.” — Kerri Vasilakos (Kerri’s poetry has appeared in Black Moon Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, The Penman Review, and Crow and Cross Keys)

“Erica helped me with my applications to MFA programs in Creative Writing. With her assistance, I was accepted or waitlisted to every place I applied, and I'm now a student in my top-choice program. Throughout our work together, Erica was empathetic, challenging, and generous. She helped me to present myself with confidence and clarity. Her feedback was always specific and extensive, and I know the advice she gave me was critical to the success of my applications. I'm sure these skills transfer over to her classes together. I can't recommend working with Erica enough! — Lizzie Fox, Writer/Translator

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: