From the moment we learn to read and write, we know that the alphabet is fundamental. Then these standard characters representing particular sounds in spoken language tend to disappear into the background as we go on to deal with bigger writerly concerns. But the alphabet is also fun and can be an illuminating and playful way to organize any literary project be it short or long. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how the abecedarian format can be applied across all genres to bring new ideas, themes, characters, and settings to light. By looking at—and experimenting with—the application of the alphabet in poems, memoirs, essays, and even fiction, we’ll discover how sometimes using a strict and familiar constraint can create freedom and take your work in a direction you wouldn't expect.
Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, and a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She is the author of the novels Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, and her latest poetry collection Where Are the Snows, winner of the XJ Kennedy Prize, was released in Fall of 2022 by Texas Review Press. Her latest novel, From Dust to Stardust, came out in September 2023, and her first children's book, Leaf Town Forever, co-written with her sister Beth Rooney, is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press. She lives in Chicago and teaches at DePaul.
Kathleen will judge a Three Paragraph Writing Contest. Please see the Manuscript and Contest Page on our website.
