Instrument of Illumination – Dani Shapiro

Joan Didion once remarked that if she’d had the remotest access to her own mind, she never would have become a writer. That she writes in order to discover what she thinks, what she fears, what she knows. The writer poised to begin a piece of work is in a state of suspension. We have a glimmer of a thought, an image, a character, a feeling-sense, but little more. That piece of work – the blank page – becomes our teacher. The act of creative writing is our instrument of illumination. By its light — sometimes faint, sometimes blinding – we begin to see what lies in wait beneath that which we can consciously access. The unthought known starts reveals itself. In this day-long workshop, through discussion of craft and process, brief meditations designed to quiet and open the mind, and a series of writing prompts, we will cultivate and explore this tender place from which the work springs.

Dani Shapiro is the bestselling author of four memoirs: Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, Devotion, and Slow Motion; and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Shapiro’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on “This American Life.” Her recent essays on the lures and dangers of the internet and social media have stirred up controversy and gone viral, and are now being taught in many universities. She is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.